and Pasturage are the two breasts the State. Sully. P. D. BERNARD, Proprietor.

Transcription

1 renovatng t crops. prved upon 1 Tllage 1 of THE SOUTHERN -PLANTER, Stroteo to.sltnculture, hortculture, nno tlxt ^ouseltoltr grts. Agrculture s the nursng mother of the Arts. Xenoplwn. and Pasturage are the two breasts the State. Sully. FRANK: G. RUFFN, Edtor. P. D. BERNARD, Propretor. Vol. X. RCHMOND, MARCH, No. 3. For the Southern Planter. frst nqury. Extended and superfcal culture, wth heavy and frequent croppng wth WORN-OUT LANDS N VRGNA. tobacco, corn and wheat, dependng wholly the natve resources of the sol, n lme Mr. Edtor, Much has been sad of late n effected an almost total exhauston of ts vegeour agrcultural perodcals, on the mprove- table and mneral substances, or at least, such ment f worn-out lands. nourold common- a specal exhaustonof some of thendspensawealth, no subect can compare wth ths n ble ngredents of the surface sol, as to render mportance, and yet, few have been treated n ncapable : of longer producng remuneratng a manner so lttle calculated to lead to valu- The surface sol havng been thus deable practcal results. ndeed, n most n- of ts fertlty, the ready suggeston of stances, the modes prescrbed tend rather to common sense would seem to be, to look to uscourage, from the fact that those sources thesnbsol to supply the defcences of the of fertlty, so frequently recommended, are surface. Accordngly we shall fnd here, n wholly naccessble to the maorty of farmers, all clay sols at leasr, much that s valuable, or f accessble, nvolve an amoumt of labor requrng only to be brought to the surface to and cost ncompatble wth ther present neces- become avalable. Deep ploughng then, may stes. Such prescrptons are suted only to be regarded as the frst step : n the process of the frrmer who resdes n the vcnty of a cty, old lands n certan sectonsof our or to those of large means and ndependent of; country, and ndspensable to ther permanent the mmedate productons of ther farms. and progressve mprovement. n such cases, Lme, guano, bone-dust, ashes, poudretle and t may be presurned that, n addton to the the varous chemcal compounds now n vogue, natural supply of organc and norganc materals n the subsol, much of that of the are, perhaps, all valuable, some of them cer- sur- tanly are, and shonld be resorted to whenever practcable; bat how many of our farmers are ;ble to purchase those materals, and ncur the heavy cost of transportaton, wth a far prospect of remuneraton, under the exstng uncertanty of our staple crop -? What then s to be done by those ownng exhausted farms, wth lmted means, and remote from those artfcal sources of mprovement? Are they to reman statonary and wthout hope n the future, whle the demands of ther famles and the tax-gatherer are yearly ncreasng upon them? What then s "the remedy? Smplya cheap, economcal mode by whch ther lands may be speedly brought to a degree of pro" tveness that wll enable, and, at the s tme, encourage them to resort to hgher gr, of farmng. On ths subect, propose mnng a few practcal reflectons the resuk of my ndvdual experence. The frst nqury that presents tself, s, by what means have our lands, once so productve n all the staples of the country, been deprved of ther fertlty? And next, what practcable mode s there, wthn the reach of all, of restorng, n some degree, that fertlty at the least cost and n the shortest tme? The exhaustng system to whch our lands were /or a long tme subected, and are now to a great extent, affords a ready soluton of the Vol. X. 3. " face has been washed down nto t by rans, and needs to be brought to the surface that, by the acton of the atmosphere and other causes, they may be rendered soluble, and n a condton to be taken up as food, by the roots of cultvated plants. As an evdence of the fertlty of our subsol, wll here menton a fact whch has more than once come under my observaton. n a feld much nfested by groundhogs, near the den of one, upon a heap of clay several nches deep, whch, from ts appearance, had evdently been drawn by the anmal from a consderable depth beneath the surface, the wheat had branched more, was more luxurant, wth greatly superor heads, and partcularly strkng from the brghtness of the straw compared wth that around t. Ths dfference was evdently owng to the exstence n the subsol of some vrtue of whch the surface was defcent. Next n mportance to deep ploughng, must be ranked clover and plaster They are nseparable, and the farmer who uses one wthout the other, s nsensble to hs own nterests. ts acton s two-fold: by ts roots t penetrates and loosens the subsol, brngng up, and as t were cookng the food of other plants by ts luxurant top, t shades and screens the surface from the nurous effects of the sun. On unmproved estates, where the number of anmals * &

2 65 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER kept should not exceed the absolute requrements of the farm, and where, of course, putrescent manures, to any extent, are, lor a tme at least, out of the queston, the farmer must look to clover and plaster as the pllars of hs support. Wthout them, n the absence of means to procure concentrated manures, he can do nothng. Hence, the queston, as to the best mode of ensurng a stand of clover, becomes one of grave mportance to the farmers of poor lands. apprehend a costly error s frequently commtted by many farmers, who rely for success on the quantty of seed sown, wthout reference to other materal consderatons, beng unmndful of the fact that a qwan of seed and half a bushel of plaster per acre, s more to be reled on, than a gallon of seed wthout the plaster, n an unfavorable season. As a general rule, a bushel of seed to twenty acres sowed the last of February, or frst of March, well scattered n breadths of about eght feet to the hand, and after a few frosts rolled ether wth a peg roller or a smooth one, wll be found to gve a suffcent thckness, provded half a bushel or three pecks of plaster s appled to the wheat land n the fall. The fall sowng of the plaster s preferred, that t may be dssolved by the wnter rans, and thus made avalable to sustan the young clover, durng drought n sprng and summer. f the applcaton of the plaster s postponed tll sprng, t may often fal n ts effects, from the want of ran, to dssolve t n tme to gve the young plant a vgorous start. Havng accomplshed a good stand of clover, the task of mprovement s but half performed. nstead of yeldng to the temptaton (and t s a strong one, ) of grazng or mowng, except be produced from the resources of the farm. Decded as are the benefts of guano on our red lands, though less than on other sols, can confdently assert, that have seen on my own larmeven more strkng and permanent results from the frst applcaton of clover and plaster, n the gran as well as subsequent grass crops. Now there are means of mprovement wthn the reach of every farmer, and after hs felds have been each subected a few tmes to the process above descrbed, he wll be enabled to draw more heavly on the fertlty of hs sol n the form of gran, beef, butter, &c. and to repar the waste thereby occasoned, by recoup to concentrated and costly manures. t s a subect of surprse and much regret, that so few of our farmers n eastern Vrgna rase ther own clover seed. Two cradlers n four days, apprehend, can easly save from sx to ten bushels of an average crop, The subsequent labor of housng and threshng o from the haum s nsgnfcant, and separatng the seed from the chaff s unnecessary when to be used on the farm. Now ths seed s wonh from thrty dollars to forty dollars, a sum suffcent to purchase the necessary supply of plaster. t s estmated, that from three to fve thousand dollars are annually pad for ths artcle by the farmers of Orange, when they could save t for themselves at one-twenteth, of the cost. The low prce of gran and the hgh prce of guano, t seems to me, should naturally lead to nqury on ths subect, by culvators of poor lands. For such, these suggestons are ntended but should you, Mr. Edtor, nclne to the belef that am behnd the age and that my remarks are more approprate to a perod twenty years past, can only regret that my observatons lead to a less happy concluson, and that they are as applcable now, n very many nstances, as then. n my next shall offer you some reflectons on dranng a department lttle understood and much neglected. James Newman. Orange county, January, We knew no farmer n the whole range of our acquantance of sounder udgment and more practcal vews than our frend V! r. Newman, who has the good sense to put hs name n fertle spots, the luxurant crop of the frst to hs essay. We commend hs essay to the., year, t should be permtted to reman and depost ts seed on the land. The second years attenton of all farmers wthn hs range of country. Though several of hs suggestons crop, when n full bloom, should be well turned under, f the land s ntended for wheat, and are applcable to the whole State. care should be taken n the preparaton not to We trust that we shall hear from hm frequently. Ed. turn back the furrow slce. f for corn, partal fall grazng may be allowed, and early ploughng becomes necessary to destroy nsect^. n the gradual development of ths system, under a udcous rotaton, the profts of the farm are For the Southern Planter. constantly ncreasng, and also the means of addng to the fertlty of the sol, by the ncreased quantty of manure, whch can EXPERMENTS N THE APPLCATON now ^ OF PLASTER TO MANURE. *Mr. Edtor, The great mportance of guano as a manure, and the lablty of ts ammona, tae most mportant of ts fertlzng consttuents, to escape nto the atmosphere, wll, trust, be a suffcent apology for my offerng a few remarks to your readers, n regard to the manner n whch ths dffculty may be obvated. All the analyses of guano that have been publshed, show that most of the ammona exsts n the form of urateof ammona, a fxed and nsoluble salt, and that the amount of carbonate of ammona, the only volatle salt, s very small. Ths s true n guano that has s

3 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 67 lost most of ts ammona by decomposton, as well as n that of the best qualty. The explanaton of the constant absence of the carbonate may be found n the fact, that so soon as guano becomes most n a warm or t temperate atmosphere, decomposton commences; ths decomposton conssts n the formaton of the carbonate from the urate of ammona, and there beng nothng n the guano to prevent, the carbonate mmedately escapes nto the atmosphere. When guano s appled to land, ths decomposton must take place rapdly. Underordnary crcumstances, a part of the carbonate wll be carred to the plants by water, n whch t s very soluble, whle more or less wll escape, unless we have present some substance whch wll decompose the carbonate as t s formed, agan formng a fxed salt. The well known power of the carbonate of ammona to decompose plaster, the sulphate at lme formng the sulphate of ammona, a fxed and soluble salt, has led many chemsts to recommend the use of the latter wth guano, and the experence of many practcal farmers s n favor of such a mxture. But, as some persons are dsposed to doubt the utlty of plaster n fxng ammona, partcularly n dry seasons, was nduced to make the followng experments, wth a vew to ascertan whether defnte conclusons mght not be artved at: Experment Frst. About equal quanttes of carbonate of ammona and plaser were well mxed, and suffcent water added to make the mxture nto a paste. When frst mxed,! theodorof ammona was very powerful; after standng a few mnutes the odor was sensbly less, and n the course of half an hour t was f- scarcely perceptble. Afterstandngtwodays, an analyss showed the presence of sulphate of ammona n quantty, together wth a cor t appears to me, that f a manure heap were well sheltered, plentfully suppled wth most plaster, and left untl decomposton had far advanced, ths manure would be more effcacous, n a great many cases, than f t were appled fresh. The plaster would retan the ammona, the norganc constuents could not escape, the decomposton would have pro- so far as to enable the crop to appro- respondng amount of carbonate of lme. Experment, Second. The same mxture as : gressed n the frst experment, slghtly mostened. n ths the decomposton took place as before, but not wth such rapdty. Experment Thrd. The same mxture as n the precedng eases, but left perfectly dry, the plaster havng been prevously dred at a temperature of aboutonehundred degrees. For tlefrst twenty-four hours no perceptbledmnuton of odor took place; at the end of fortyeght hours, however, there was a marked dmnuton, and an analyss proved that, even here, a certan amount of ammona had been "fxed," by ts unon wth the sulphurc acd of the plaster. As plaster, when dry, stll contans a certan per centase of water n chemcal unon wh the sulphate of lme, ths Water should be lberated when the plaster s decomposed. Such was the case n the present nstance, lor the mxture, although kept n a close vessel, was most at the end of two days. Experment Fourth. Most plaster was suspended over a soluton of carbonate of ammona; result the same as above. Experment Ffth. Dry plaster, suspended 3c over dry carbonate of ammona, placed n a close vessel, so that the plaster may be sad to have been placed n an atmosphere of the carbonate. Result the same as n all the other cases; but the decomposton was slow, and less n quantty than when the two were mxed. These experments were repeated, some of them several tmes, and always wth the same results. They prove conclusvely that the mxng of plaster wth guano, must, n all cases, prove benefcal; for, when we remember that the decomposton of guano leads, n all cases, to the formaton of carbonate of ammona, and that the carbonate, as showed n the above experments, wll decompose plaster, when n contact wth t, whether wet or dry, there can be no room for doubt. As guano s lable to absorb mosture, commence decomposon, and thus lose a part of ts ammona, t would be well for farmers to mx t wth plaster as soon after ts purchase as possble; or f t s not convenent to mx then, the plaster thrown upon the guano and mostened, wll retan the ammona untl the farmer s ready to spread the manure on hs land. Agan, the use of plaster n the farm-yard, the stable, and on the manure heap, cannot be too strongly urged. f, however, the manure heap s left to be drenched by every hard ran, not an uncommon practce, the use of plaster wll be of lttle servce, as the sulphate of ammona, although not volatle, s very soluble. prate ts consttuents as food, more readly than f t were fresh, and ts bulk would be greatly less, an mportant consderaton on a large farm. But ths s a matter for experment, and should be very much pleased f some of our practcal farmers would take the matter n hand and favor us wth ther results. V. M.. January 15, For the Southern Planter. GUANO. Mr. Edtor, Wantng more nformaton than have been able to obtan, n reference to guano as a manure for tobacco, and wshng to draw from others of more experence wth t ther success, am nduced to gve you an account of an experment made by myself last sprng, f you thnk t worth publcaton. After thoroughly preparng a pece of thn

4 68 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. land fur tobacco, dvded t nto three nearly equal parts. On the frst pece we appled twenty-lve bads of well lttered stable manure, about seventy bu>hels to the load; on the second, lour hundred pounds of Peruvan guano; and on the thrd pece, three hundred pounds to the acre, and harrowed t n wth a heavy harrow on the same day. The land was then lad off (wtha shovel plough) three feet apart ether way, and hlled endeavorng to draw the guano to the hll as much as possble. The crop was planted from the tenth to the thrteenth of June, and stood well, but was slow to grow, owng to severe drought, untl early n July, when we had a tolerable season, and re-set the few mssng plants. The weather contnung dry afterwards caused another serous check to t, untl the more seasonable rans n August, when t made a rapd growth, and wth the late autumn rpened well.! The frst pece, or the stable manured land, The above artcle of Dr. Red s ust what made a fne crop of heavy tobacco, averagng we want an accurate statement of experments made wth guano. a pound to every three plants. The second pece, wth four hundred pounds There s much dversty of guano, made a pound to four and a half plants. And n the accounts of ts operaton on the thrd a pound to sx plants. tobacco, and we can decde nothng untl we The land would probably have made wthout manure sx hundred pounds to the acre. get the facts. Let us have more of them, and let them be accurately stated. Ed. The crop on the guanoed land was about one week later n rpenng, but rpened frst where the guano was heavest, and cured of a darker color, whch thnk was owng to later cutlng, and the weather beng colder. The ex- CURNG BACON HAMS. pertnent was made on clover land of two The followng communcaton on ths subect was sent to years standng, ploughed early n the wnter to the depth of seven nches, and re-ploughed n us by the gentleman to whom the sprng. The sol has some admxture of t s addressed, for publcaton n the Southern sand wth a stff red clay subsol. have not Planter: been able to account for the great dfference n yelds from the two guanoed peces, the land Mr. Vaden: Dear Sr, have been requested beng nearly of the same fertly, except that by you to gve my plan of curng bacon hams. the thrd pece was the last planted, and wth have only one obecton n dong so, beng smaller plants, and possbly not so good as the a wdower, lke to stand far wth the lades. beds had been closely drawn. The guanoed Some of them, ealous creatures, dslke to see land nearly double the work to keep requred man a a good domestc manager, dslke to under the summer gra.-s. have ther rghts nfrnged upon to thsextent. am a new tobacco grower, the crop now n ths knd of management they lke to stand on hand beng my frst; hut wth the knd nstructons of experenced frends and negh- fear, to look upon a man who has a pretty good alone n ther glory, and are much nclned, from agrcultural ournals, have succeeded n recollect, however, that bors, and wth what have been able to glean knowledge of ther affars wth some suspcon. They must my know- growng and curng a good crop of brght, exeel lent tobacco, and thnk, by accdent, have learned somethng worth knowng. After cottng, the tobacco was se up n the feld n the! usual way, to protect t from the sun, carryng ; as much as was convenent to a place and coverng t wth top fodder. n haulng t n, a ple of several hunded plants was overlooked, and when found more than a week afterward, was of the most beautful yellow, and seemed to have much thckened, and supposed as much nured. t was kept to tself, and so far from beng at all damaged, t s the very best tobacco we have. t may not be new to tobacco growers, but was so to me; and thnk shall be profted bvt n curng another crop. f lam not fatgung your patence too much, t may not be out of place here to menton an expedtous and recent way to save the broken off leaves. Wth a large needle and cotton thread they are strung together, eght, ten or more, to prevent slppng, and they are ready to hang, by separatng two leaves at each end and layng them across the stck, then stretch the strng along the stck, to separate tht leaves as much as s desred. n ths way they can be saved n half the tme usually taken, are much easer to handle afterwards, and attended wth less loss. 1 am havng: a tobacco press made, dfferent from anythng have seen, and when fnshed, f t comes up to my expectatons, you shall hear from t. Very respectfully yours, James A. Red. ledge of the knd s the result of dre necessty, and would, most wllngly, at -any tme, let off ths knd of management, to any extent, nto the hands of some fne, far lady as mght sut her. But ths curng of hams s rather out of ther lne. They should, therefore, acquesce, and be wllng to be releved, to ths extent. at least, and prde themselves alone n stng behnd a fne old, ucy, Vrgna cured ham, and sharng t out, takng to herself all the credt and pleasure of havng t extolled by her admrng frends, whle the good man spreads hs mouth n slence, and s much pleased to see wth how much grace she takes all the credt to herself. My hanks have been commended to such an ^

5 ! of t! be, A dle THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 69 extent, by good udges some of them fne managng: lades, who dc not always yeld the yalm of vctory wthout a struggle shall make no furher effort to mprove on my plan lor the present. n the frst place have my hogs well fatted before kll them. 1 most commonly kll one day and cut out the next, saltng up and packns: away on a platform on thf nonhern sde of my smoke house. n saltng my hams last salt. They lad n pack about sx weeks. then rolled them n drv hckory ashes and hung them up. My plan of dryng s to kndle up a fre every mornng of small round hckory wood. On the 17th March, ( ntended to take them down the 1st of March,) the hams were taken down, and the flesh sde covered wth dry hckory ashes, at least half an nch thck, and placed sngly on shelves n the smoke house, wth flesh sde up, puttng a few dry p-hes on the shelves before puttng on the hams; or. nstead of the ashes, a couple of small stcks mght be used under each ham. Here they woul<l keep sate, sound, sweet and ucyfn my opnon, lor twenty years, the house of course always beng rat and mouse proof. My hams were soft and spongy whle n pack, and supposed they were runed, and determned hereafter to use no more ashes n the saltng, but cuttng a few n two, dscovered that whle they were soft, they were perfectly sound. They proved to be so very fne, shall pursue the same planasran. The applcaton Very respectfully yours. &c. W. W. Hancock. Chesterfeld, November 25, For the Southern Planter. A SUBSCRBERS APPEAL N BEHALF OF THE PLANTER. Mr. Edtor, fear your correspondents Yadkn and the one from North Carolna (from whose letter you gave an ex tract n the January number of the Planter) begn to thnk do not ntend to comply wth my promse, endorsed bv you, "that when recovered from my ndsposton would try to answer more of the queres of "Yadkn." t s due to you and myself should nform them am now ust ame 10 st up and walk a few steps, beng confned to my bed nearly thrteen weeks, and when can comply t s not n my power now to say. cant read much, but look a peep nto your January number, and ventured to read your "New-Years Salutaton, and Somethng More," whch have done wth nterest; and wsh t could be read, and ts conlenls duly consdered by every honest farmer n Vrgna. am glad you brng to our notce subects of such vtal mportance lo the nterest and prosperty ol our beloved Vrgna, n that ndependent way that becomes you, as the edtor of such a work, and n language that cannot be msunderstood. Go-a-head, sr agtaton, agtaton, has accomplshed much, and may do t agan. But you mnslhave more year, took n my fngers some pulverzed saltpetre and sprnkled on the flesh sde of each you to gve us drawngs or wood cuts, so m- subscrbers to accomplsh much and to enable ham. and then appled a plentful mxture of portant to make the Planter what t must be. one-thrd dry hckory ashes and two-thrds of propose a very easy plan whch, f adopted of the ashes on the several occasons, causes, perhaps, the uces of the ham to be retaned, as well as to absorb any undue mosture, and unwse n to keep off the fly, bug. worm, &c. wll, wth small effors, nsure your lst to be doubled n one month. t can be done. Let every man of us resolve to obtan one new subscrber to the Planter wthn one month as a return for your "New-Years Salutaton, and Somethng More." Every subscrber can do t, f he has any nfluence or any frends at all. Though am now confned to my room, / wll do t, or lake another myself. What s the lttle trouble, or what s a dollar, when compared to the end n vew"? Your subscrbers may not respond to my proposton, but f.you wll make t they cant refuse so small a request. Wll you try ll Ah! f such an effort would only nsure the electon of some Democrat or Whg frend to some offce, wll venture to say your number of subscrbers would be doubled n one week commttees vglance would be apponted all over the Stale. But to advance the great nterest and almost nsure the. prosperty of our State, and, fnally, the happness of our famles and ther posterty, s (t would seem) of much less mportance. s t not strange, that whle we all desre prosperty and happness, }et we are so the choce of means, often so completely n our power to obtan that end"? Yet s so. f your lst s enlarged, as t ought to you could devote more tme to mportant work lo advance the nterest of the Planter. few years ago the Old Domnon stood stll, and proud, wth her arms akmbow, laughng at Yankeesm, untl the Yankees had well ngh sucked all the lfe-blood from her vens, and robbed her of her glory and strength. She now needs your strong toncs to restore her agan lo her wonted strength, "and then she may move on n her maesty and power n the broad and plan road to prosperty and happness. 1 have sad much more than ntended when began am tred and must stop. Success attend your efforts. Respectfully, W. Tmber-lake. Belle Ar, Jan. 22, We nsert the above at the request of our frend, the wrter. f one-tenth part of the seventy-seven thousand farmers of Vrgna were anmated by the same sprt, Vrgna agrculture would be the prde of her sons and the envy of her neghbors. Ed. So. Pl.

6 70 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. COLC N HORSES, AND THE USE OP THE TROCHAR. Mr. Edtor, One word n reply to your comments upon my communcaton of the 3d of December, whch appeared n ths months number. My horses must have been "of the rght sort, whlst yours, one "half-bred," one "old," and the other probably less desrable than ether, remnd me of a lot of anmals that a facetous dealer who once frequented ths county, declned purchasng, beng as much averse to carryng them to Rchmond as Falstaff was hs men through Coventry. But serously, you astonshed me very much ndeed, for you know ths was emphatcally the land of blood-horses, and mv long, constant, and ntmate assocaton wth many of the worthes who fgured so largely n elevatng the character of that noble anmal n ths regon, added to my own expeence, led me to the confdent assurance of the correctness of my poston. t s true that 1 have heard of the death by colc of blood-horses, but the cases were solated, "few and far between," and t yet remans to me to wtness the frst one. Now there may be, and doubtless s, a dfference, probably an mportant one, n the consttuton of your horses and ours, caused by the clmate, sol and pasturage. But the man obect of my artcle was to promulgate, through the Planter, the means by whch, as a last resort, horses mght be saved when n he condton of the one of whch spoke. The process of ths operaton you wll greatly oblge me by publshng, and 1 respectfully ask f the capton to ths aforesad paper s correct"? James Govan. February 5, We thnk the term used, "Heaves," was wrong. But we dd not use t. Whether put there by the publsher or by our frend, we cannot tell. We stll thnk, wth deference to the better udgment of Mr. Govan, that colc s not pecular to the consttuton of the coldblooded more than the thorough-bred horse, but that ts frequency n one case rather than another s due to dfference n treatment, resultng from the dfferent uses to whch the two classes of anmals are appled. Stewart, Stable Economy, p. 2-25, says: "Heavy draught horses are almost the only subects of colc, and among the owners of them t s dffcult to meet wth an old farmer who has not lost more than one. Lght, fast workng horses are rarely troubled wth t, and fewdeoft. Thedfference s easly explaned. Heavy, slow workng horses are long n the yoke; they fast tll ther appette s lke a ravens; when they come home they get a large quantty of gran at once, and they devour t n such haste that t s not properly mastcated, and the stomach s suddenly overloaded. Possbly the quantty may not be very great, yet t s eaten too fast. The uce by whch the food should be dgested cannot be made n such a hurry, at least not enough of t; and add to ths the rapd dstenson of the stomach; more delberate mastca.on and deglutton would enable ths organ to furnsh the requste quantty of gastrc uce, and to dlate suffcently to contan the food wth ease. n fast feedng the stomach s taken too much by surprse. & " Lght horses are usually fpd oftener, and wth more regularty;. They receve gran so often that they are not so fond of t, not dsposed to eat too much; and the natue of ther work often destroys the appette, even when abstnence has been unusually prolonged. " The bulk of the food, however, has a great deal to do wth the dsease. An overloaded stomach wll prudv.ee t n any knd of horse, but those who have the bowels and stomach habtually loaded are always n greatest danger. "Ths seems to me the prncpal reason why slow work horses are so much more lable to the dsease than fast workers." Thus wrtes a good udge, and we agree wth hm. But we may he wrong. We dd not understand that we were expected to descrbe the operaton of the trochar, or we would have done t wth pleasure n our last. The trochar s an nstrument used for punchng holes n the ntestne of the horse or cow to let off" the wnd whch causes colc and whch cannot escape n the natural way. Havng never seen one, we can only say that t s a tube and knfe combned, whch s held n place alter the puncture s made untl the gas escapes through the tube, and that t can be so regulated by a guard as to penetrate only to the depth requred. Nor have we ever used, or seen others use on ether horse or cow, the knfe, whch s a clumsy and dangerous substtute. All the knowledge we have on the subect s derved from Youalt on the Horse* At page 234, Sknners Ed. he says: "Where these two medcnes are not at hand, * Bythe-by, "Youatt on the Horse" s the only complete veternary treatse we have ever seen. There s no foolshness nor quacke^ n t, but sound sense, and honest scence, and that too of a hgh order. Therefore, we advse every subscrber We have to send to J. W. Randolph of Rchmond, and get t. The prce, we thnk, s two dollars and ffty cents, and drt cheap at that. Sknners Edton s not equal to the Englsh, but s cheaper, and wll do very well.

7 also a teacher of agrculture. The result of all ths long experence, of observaton and of extensve communcaton wth numerous ntellgent agrcultursts, n regard to the ques- ton of the relatve cheapness of free and slave may be nferred to fee ntmated, and labor,, who lme, says: and they THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 71 t \ \ and the danger s mmnent, the trochar may mpostor. tell you t s best to bury manure te used, n order to open a way lor the escape because my land s close, stff and mpervous; ot the gas. The trochar should be small, but another tells you t s best appled to the surface, longer than that whch s used for the cow, because hs s gravelly and porous, and and the puncture should be made n the mddle the manure soon snks to the roots of hs crop. of the rght flank, for there the large ntestnes One tells you there s nothng lke fall and are most easly reached. n such a dsease, wnter ploughng for the ensung summers t cannot be expected that the ntestnes shall crop; he lves on land pulverzable by the always be found precsely n ther natural wnters frosts; another tells you that fall and stuatons, but usually the orgn of the ascendng \ynter ploughng s labor thrown away; hs porton of the colon or the base of he land runs together from the wnters rans; carecum. wll be perced. The author of ths and you wll fnd as many contradctory opnons work, however, deems t hs duty to add, that relatve to the dfferent knds of ma- t s only when the practtoner despars of nures; all owng to a want of the knowledge otherwse savng the lfe of the anmal that of the ngredents of our sols. f we wsh ths operaton should be atempted. Much of! to nsure the permanent mprovement of our the danger would be avoded by u.--ng a very lands, we must know what ngredents small trochar, and by wthdrawng t as soon present and what wantng n them." are as the gas has escaped. The wound n the ntestnes wll then probably close, from the nnate elastcty of the parts." For the Southern Planter. -APPLCATON OF TOBACCO STALES TO TOBACCO. BEDS, &c. Mr. Edtor The artcle n the January number on the "Applcaton of Guano to Tobacco Beds," suppose s very good, but be you assured that no system s superor to that of underlayng wth tobacco stalks. speak advsedly, and from an experence of some ten or twelve vears: and every planter who has adopted ths course, wll bear me out n ths asserton. By the way, a frend of mne n Prnce Edward county the last year, tested the merts of guano and tobacco stalks on two beds, but could realze no dfference; t was neck and neck. subect s dscussed n the most conclusve and laconc manner n the ffth volume of the Southern Planter, page 231. wll gve an extract: "What would you thnk of one who professed to be a surgeon wthout the knwledge of anatomy, or a physcan, wthout knowng one medcne from another? How many of us know any thng of the ngredents of our lands, and how can we expect to mprove them wthout such knowledge"? Our gnorance on ths subect has gven rse to the slurs whch are so often cast on scentfc bookfarmng, and has caused many an honest man to be set down as an mpostor, and the author of a humbug. For nstance,, lvng on land rch n mneral substances, tell you n the Planfer, that make fne crops from coarse unrotted manures, appled to the land; another of your subscrbers, ownng land, lght and porous, and desttute pf such substances, tres t, and fnds hs crop worthless and all burnt up; he tells you am ether a fool or an Attrbute ths lengthy communcaton, Mr. Plnner, to the nterest feel for the cause of agrculture. So wshng the Planter a happy and prosperous new-year, 1 reman, Yours, most respectfully, W, R. Hatchett. Danvlle, Jan. 23, For the Southern Planter. ESTMATED COSTS OF FREE AND SLAVE LABOR, CtUOTED FROM HGH AUTHORTES. Tn Vol. V. of the Southern Planler, at page 265, there appeared a communcaton sgned J. S. S. whch, even wthout, the sgnature, offers most ample nternal evdence of beng the wrtng of the late John S. Sknner, Esq. was so long and extensvely known as the oldest agrcultural edtor of ths country, and a copous wrter on agrcultural subects. The obect of the communcaton referred to Relatve to the communcaton on the "Applcaton of Manures," wll remark that ths was to ntroduce another, from Dr. Wllam Darlngton of Pennsylvana, on "mprovng Poor Lands by Lmng," and to comment on such operatons for Vrgna and Maryland. The veteran wrter then (n 1844) had nearly thrty years of experence as a student and wth enough clearness, by Mr. Sknner, though not expressly or affrmatvely stated, n ths communcaton. n reference to the use of n parts of Vrgna and Maryland he "The queston then s, h,ow far the farmer can haul t nto the country before t begns, lke the ndans gun, to cost more than t comes tol and that depends, to be sure, on the nature of the road and the knd of team vehcles employed, and at what expense are mantaned. Whether hs drver s

8 there are thousands of other and worse far- who do not make the half of thrty of corn, (and ths ther man crop,) and who yet have lved n comfort upon such s net gan." Cultvator of 1834 Rc-publshed products, and have certanly grown n Farmers Regster, Vol,. p G5. Further there are other thousands Judge Buel was a practcal farmer, of experence, accurate observaton and sound udg- of corn on an average and who, though not do not make more than ten bushels ment and havng every faclty for obtanng to be cted as ether good farmers or economsts, or as proftable laborers or captalsts, correct nformaton of the agrculture of the stll make out to lve, rear and support fam- mers, [ bushels scanty rcher. ] who secured : was 72 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. bond or free 1 and ths last branch of the queston branches out agan nto the queston of scarcely be dsputed) as to the absolute cost of Hence, f Judge Buel was rght (whch can dfference of expense between slave labor and corn culture by lce labor, and f Mr. Sknner free labor, for t by no means follows that because the man belongs to you, that, therefore, as to the relatve costs of free and slave labor, correct (whch certanly do not admt) hs labor comes cheaper than f you hred then corn culture by the latter must be a losng ether a slave or a free laborer at eght or ten busness even when producng thrty bushels dollars a month because, for every slave laborer of your own, you may be ncumbered extent, at the much lower usual rates of pro- to the acre and losng to a speedly runous wth a woman whose labor s not worth her ducton n lower Vrgna. expenses, and wth several chldren consumers of muck and producers of nothng moreover, the nterest on the value of the slave s to be consdered what t would cost to nsure hs lfe and to nsure hm aganst runnng awayl whle the captal s at best wearng and tearng onwards towards total loss" Afterwards the wrter returns to ths queston, n the last words of hs communcaton, and by the followng emphatc queston, talczed as here coped, he would appear to decde aganst the economy of slave labor, n yet stronger language though, as before, but nterrogatvely and by mplcaton, n askng, "Can gran be made proflabl wth slave labor? So much as to the opnon of the oldest agrcultural edtor and nstructor as to the greater cost (and, ndeed, as he seems to ntmate the totally unproftable use) of slave labor for cultvatng gran crops. wll now refer to another of the same professon, and of hgh authorty, for the cost of cultvaton bv free labor. Judge Buel, Edtor of the New York Cultvator, wrote and publshed n that paper, an elaborate and nterestng artcle on corn culture, n whch he estmates the cost n the followng passage: " put the average expense of cultvatng and securng an acre, at ffteen dollars, ncludng a far rent, though t ordnarly exceeds ths sum. The farmer, therf-fore, who obtans thrty bushels from the acre, estmatng the gran at ffty cents per bushel, gets a far compensaton for hs labor and the use of hs land. Whatever the ptoduct falls short of ths s an absolute loss; and whatever t may exceed t Northern States generally, and especally of the easly tlled lands of the country surroundng hs resdence n Albany. No man could fe better authorty for agrcultural facts and deductons, wthn hs sphere of observaton. Yet he estmates the actual cost of cultvatng corn at ffteen dollars (and usually more) the acre requrng, to barely remburse labor and rent, a crop of thrty bushels, at the farly stated prce of ffty cents! Ths, then, may be reled upon as the cost of culture by fee labor. Mr. Sknner supposed (as nfer from hs questons) that slave labor s more costly than free labor and not servng to get back he actual cost, f employed n gran culture. shall not here oppose the proposton of the greater expense of slave labor by offerng drect evdence n estmates of cost. Such estmates are necessarly conectural, and are, therefore, uncertan, and usually of but lttle exactness. t s sullcent to meet Mr. Sknners supposed proposton by reducng t to an absurd concluson. f t requred more than thrty bushels of corn, or ffteen dollars, to return the costs of culture, then nearly all the land of the eastern half of Vrgna has been cultvated at loss, for the last century, or more and full half of the land has returned not more than half the costs of ts tllage. Sud enormous losses, f conned for even ten years, would brng to run any ndvdual farmer, and the whole communtv that could be so stupd as lo persevere n such a course. Yet, nstead of ths runous result, the agrcultural communty of lower Vrgna has certanlvmadesomegeneraland average proft, although very far less than mght have been by a better and more mprovng syslem of culture. Stll, very few of the best farms n the tde-water dstrct, and after great and very proftable mprovements made, have vet exceeded the average producton of thrty bushels of corn. Hundreds of farmers, who have reaped belter profts from ther captal than any n all the Northern Stales, have not reached that average product and many such stll fall short of twenty fve bushels. And les, and leave ncreased farmng captal when they de. These general facts are notorously true, and requre no proof.- My deductons, from Judge Buels estmate of the cost of culture by free labor, and also from all the facts under my own observaton as to slave labor, have been drectly the reverse of Mr. Sknners. Yet we loth had (n. Vrgna and Maryland respectve!}) very much the same knd of facts before us upon whch to found estmates and make deductons. am far from defendng or excusng the course, or hghly ratng the profts of the farmers who are content wth such poor average products

9 1 ; 1 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. K /3 as ten or ffteen bushels of corn to the acre. Such returns ndcate a wretched state of agrculture. only say that even these low products are not necessarly and always obtaned at loss, from slave labor. But do mantan that even f a fanner n lower Vrgna begns wth the lowest of these products, and uses the ordnarly avalable means for ncreasng them by fertlzaton, he may speedly reach good profts by slave labor and n most cases wll derve much more clear proft from the mproved rate of producton of twenty-fve bushels of corn, than thrtv-fve would return, t would be waste of words to say more n! support of the opnon above expressed as to the general results of farmng by slave labor. But t may Dot be superfluous to add that n the last few years there have been spread extensvely before the agrcultural publc, careful! estmates, from dfferent sources, of partcular cases of the costs and returns of farmng n lower Vrgna, (and of exclusve gran culture for market.) whch have shown very large and regular profts for farmng captal; and whch would compare well wth, and perhaps surpass the profts of any other pursut of re gular ndustry or nvestment of eapal n regnlar busness, here or elsewhere. Hundreds of other mprovng farmers, n the same regon, have derved and contnue to derve pro- fts whch surpass any purely agrcultural profts that can be made n the Northern States, from free labor. There s, truly, n lower Vrgna, and n all the old States of the South, among the agrcultural class, a great! add lamentable amount of ndolence, apathy, heedlessness, mprovdence and wastefulness, all of whch serve to detract very largely from the great avalable benefts of our poston and the ndulgence n whch errors would speedly brng to want and run any people whose advantages were not very great or f no greater than those of the Northern farmers.! Ther greater (and very commendable) ndus try, and economy of means; ther frugalty,! and perhaps even parsmony n expendtures, are ndspensable to success n ther stuaton, whle our opposte (and very blamafle)defects, and errors are permtted to act, wthout beng entrely and generally runous, only because of our greater resources. mprovng and udcous farmng n lower Vrgna, (and n smlar crcumstances elsewhere,) wth even but a moderate share of good management [ and economv,s certanly more proftable than on any lands of the old States north of Masons and Dxons lne. And among the several elements whch consttute ths capacty for hgher profts for our farmng, one of the three most mportant s the employment of slave labor. The other two elements, of great mposts nee, are the present low prce of land, (a great evl to agrcultural progress, t s true, but not less a beneft to a purcha-er and new possessor,) and the faclty and cheapness of enrchng the land by mneral manures and other auxlary means. Calx. FALL OF RAN FOR THE YEARS 1850 AND We are much oblged to our correspondent for the followng contrbuton. We thnk a seres of such observatons would be of very decded value, and shall always nsert them accordng to Judge Buels opnon, from tree wth pleasure. Ed. So. Pl. labor. For the Southern Planter. t s nterestng to the farmer, as well as to the meteorologst, to know how much ran falls durng the year. Annexed s a statement of such for the years 1850 and 1851: RANS January, 3 24 nches February, 1.49 " March, 1.99 (t Aprl, 3.29 " May, cc June, 0.98 cc July, " August, 4.73 " September, t October, 1.61 " November, tt December, 290 cc Total, nches. SNOWS January to 10 nches deep. March 28, 6 to 8 " " Decembe 31, 3 3" " c Total, 17 lo 21 nches heav? rans nches. -May 15, May 26," 1 50 " July 19, 4.21 " 36 hours August 25, " Sepr 7, 1.56 t October tl Nov. 30, 1. f Dec. 7, 1.90 U RANS. -January, - 43 r ches. February, cc March, u Aprl, u May, June, cc July, cc August, - 205!C September, cc October, cc November, cc December, cc Total, r ches. - * m ***, *

10 74 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER SNOWS. -May 5, 1 to 2 nches deep. December 22, 8 to 9 " " Total 9 to 11 nches HEAVY RANS Feb. 21, 1.72 nch. " March 8, 1.70 " 3 days. " Aprl 8, 1.47 " " May 5, 1.03 " (snow.) " June 22, 2.4L " (2 n. fell n half an hour, dong much damage.) " July 31, 1.50 " 24 hours, (a most refreshng, servceable ran.) " Nov. 15, 1.07 " My ran gauge s Grasleys Patent (Englsh.) The present wnter thus fur resembles strongly the wnter of 1845-G. On the 6th and loth of December, 1845, the thermometer was 19 degrees; on the 12th and 13th we cut ce four nches thck; on the 20th, thermometer 13 degrees; next mornng, 12 degrees, and the ce four to fve nches thck; the Rappahannock rver was closed by ce for ten days; snow fell on the 16th, and lasted two weeks. On the 24th of January mercury fell to 11 degrees; snow was sx nches deep, and ce made to he thckness of three nches; the navgaton of the rver slopped agan. 27th of February thermometer 12 degrees snowed on the 28th; 1st and 2d of March, when the average depth exceeded one foot, the roads were made mpassable by hgh drlls no mals arrved for a week; the snow dsappeared fnally on the 14th. On the 10th of December, 1851, the thermometer was 16 degrees; next mornng, 14 degrees; 18th and lllh, degrees, when we cut ce four and a half to fve nches thck; on the 22d snow fell to the depth of eght to nne nches; 21th, thermometer 6 degrees he rver s closed, and contnued untl the 30th he ce on t havng been about four nches thck. On the 6th ns. snow fell three to four nches deep; on the 8th thermometer 14 degrees; ths mornng 21 degrees. There s fne sleghng now, as also durng nearly all of Chrstmas week. E. T. T. Powhatan Hll, Kng George Co. Jan. 12. LME BURNNG AND TS APPLCATON TO LAND N PENNSYLVANA. We are happy to announce that Augusta has "resumed payment," as wll be seen by the two suboned excellent letters of Col. J. Marshall McCue, of that fne county. He has "broken the ce" n fne style, and now that "navgaton s opened," we hope for many cargoes of rch freght from old A ugusta. The subect of whch he treats n so clear and satsfactory a mode, the burnng of lme, s an mportant one to some of hs countymen, those especally on the lne of the Central Ral Road. The tme s not far dstant when that fertlzer wll be transported east through the tunnel. On many farms n ths secton now, perhaps on all except the red land proper that s, the land provncally known as the southwest mountan land lme s the one thng needful, or rather the thng most needful. We presume there s not a fool of gray land wthn the above lmts that would not repay a lberal dressng of lme by a double product. Certanly, f the slate formatons do not respond to t n that rato, they are an excepton to all the lands of ther class that we ever heard of. And many a gravelly knoll now barren and verdureless can be made, by the ad of ths bengnant mneral, to blossom as the rose. Lancaster, Pa. January 20, Dear Planter, Some months ago receved a note requestng me to employ a lesure moment n wrtng somethng for thy columns, and common polteness made t requsle that would ere ths have acknowledged ts recepton, yet from varous causes t has been delayed. Candor, however, compels me to say, that a wantof experence n wrtng any thng for publcaton, and partcularly for at) agr- «cultural paper, has had much to do wth my slence. As 1 have strayed off here, for a few days from Baltmore, where busness carred tne, and as the msn obect 1 had n comng nto ths, the best, fanned regon of Pennsylvana, was to get some nformaton about agrculture, wll employ a moment n gvng you some of my observatons. 1 spent a day or two n the countes of Cumberland and Dauphn, and n the former, examned the mode of constructon of the lme klns, and made many enqures about the mode of ts applcaton to the land. Through the kndness of ; frend, vsted the farm of Mr. Robert Bryson, a gentleman well known to the agrcultural publc, from a most nterestng, and, thnk, a truthful report, made by he commttee of. the Cumberland County Agrcultural Socety, a few years ago, of hs farm termed by them the "model farm" of ths part of the State. He has been very extensvely engaged n burnng lme for some tme, and has at least half a dozen large permanent klns, capable of burnng from fve hundred to fourteen hundred bushels of lme each. They are suaed on the edge of hs farm, by the sde of a publc road, and where the ground falls off n such way as to enable hm to bury the klns n the bank, the top beng level wth the surface of

11 go venence lme; turbng [ now lme ferred, wth ] t f THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 75 l he ground above, thus makng t easy to haul on at the same tme. Ths s found a conthe stone and coal to the sde, whence they are sometmes, when he s hurred for way, he prefers the plan burnng a kln wthout dswheeled over the mouth ped nto the kln antl hy harrows and drop- the eye or mouth from yet of fllng n a general up and whch the lme s taken, or t burned wth t. Another plan that s much used wood, where t s deposted and s thus convenent n ths and other countes here, where to be used, s Level wth and hyhe road- s burned, s to select a spot n the feld sde, whence the lme s easly loaded ether where the stone s quarred, a frm sod s prento sleds or wagons. There beng snow on and to dg out as many small trenches the grou.d, there were several farmers who as you thnk necessary for the sze of the kln, had come wth ther sleds a dstance uf ten and and over these turn arches wth the stone you twelve mles, for lme to apply to ther lands. are gong to burn, and then buld up a kln The prce at the klns, n the rock or unslaked alternate layers of stone and coal, drawng state, s from seven to ten cents per bushel. n gradually towards the top, makng t of a Mr. B. uses boh coal and wood n burnng, sze proportoned to the quantty you desre to and the tne or nteror coal, the cheapest, s burn. They then plough up some earth around well adapted to he purpose. A ton of coal, t, pour some water upon t and tramp t awhle n a properly constructed ktln, s consdered wth horses, and wth the mud plaster carefully suffcent to make from one hundred and twenty the outsde of the kln to retan the heat. The to one hundred and ffty bushels of lme. The trenches or arches are flled wth dry wood, permanent kln s made wth an openng (old rals are fne) whch gntes the coal, and slghtly smaller at the bottom than above, and the weather s sutable, dry and calm, the s then bult up straght. The outsde of the stone burns out perfectly, leavng but lttle kln may be bult of lmestone, (or any other "core," as they term that part of the kln not knd ofstone,) and the nsde lnng s of brck, thoroughly burned. Ths s becomng a popular or of any stone that wll resst fre. Brcks method of burnng lme, from ts smplcty, that are made purely of clay, that s free fom economy and convenence. Almost anyone sand, Mr. B. ntorms me, are preferred, as those can construct a kln of ths knd t can be made n the common way wll, under the ntense done n the feld where you desre to use t, heat, melt and run, and n a short tme thus servng the double purpose of removng need replacng. He lnes some of hs klns, ugly breaks from your feld that obstruct the as well as bulds the eves and the portons most plough, and savng labor n haulng the stone exposed to the fre, wth a sandsone often found to a permanent kln, and havng the lme near n our mountans n Vrgna, and used by the place where you desre to spread t. Much ron-men n makng hearths for ther furnaces. depends on the weather at the tme you wsh ought to have mcnnoned that the general to burn, as to he productveness of the kln. shape of the kln s slghtly removed fom he f there s much wnd, t chlls the sde of the round s somewhat oblong. Mr. B. prefers kln aganst whch t blows, thus preventng to have a small arch bult up n the bottom ts burnng out, and f damp and cloudy, t has wth brck, wth hol<=s left n t for the fre to the same effect on all parts of the kln. For get up and kndle the coal. Under ths arch the reason of uncertanty, Mr. Bryson thnks s plared a quantty of dry wood suffcent to gne the coal, whch s placed n alternate layers, wth stone fom the bottom to the top of the kln. Lme s made much more rapdly n ts way than wth wood: Mr. B havng flled up hs kln, fred t and empted t all n one week. He does ths frequently and wthout any extraordnary exerton. The stone s not broken, as had supposed necessary, very fne, but may be put n n blocks weghng from twerty fve to ffv pounds, and wll be thoroughly burned, and he thnks makes a belter lme than when t has been broken small, as the excessve heat has not burned the lme too much. Mr. B has also one or two //raw Mlvs, as they are termed. They are bult as the others, except that n the bcnm, nstead of the arch descrbed, he uses a few cross bars of ron, and then three or four longtudnal bars that can be drawn out. After the kln has bee:, fred and the lower part suffcently burned, these bar-;, turned up at the end, can be drawn out. and the lme drawn down wth a hook, and. at the same tme, fresh coal and stone can be put n the kln above, so that the process of takng out lme and fllng up the kln may there s much more economy n the permanent kln. As to ke Applcaton. As soon as the kln s suffcently cool, the lme s carred out n wagons or sleds to the feld where t s to bespread, and f put on land ntended for corn, or small gran, the ground has frst to be marked off wth the plough or stakes, ntosquares and the lme placed n neat ples n the mddle of those squares, the ground beng made smooth under the ples, lest f rough toomuch remans n that rpol, to the nury of the ground. f the weather s dry and the farmer s anxous to spread the lme drectly, he wl not awp.t the tedous process of slakng bythe atmosphere, but wth a few barrels or hogsheads, on a wagon or slde, wll carry out water and sprnkle the ples. Ths s often done here, as they much prefer to spread t n the flour, as they term t, the slate t s n mmedately after slakng, before any ran has fallen on t. As to the qnannty per acre, that wll vary wth crcumstances. The maxmum quantty n Cumberland and ths county, (Lancaster,) thnk s about one hundred bushels per acre. The lme and mode of ts applcaton s varous.

12 76 TEE SOUTHERN PLANTER. Some prefer puttng t on n the sprng, on land desgned for corn, after the ground s ploughed, and harrowt so as to mx t properly wth the sol. Others put t on n the fall on ground ntended for wheat, and others agan spread t on grass land. An nellgent farmer, met wth, mu-h prefers ths latter mode of applyng t, and on ground desgned for corn a year or two after ts applcaton. Some compost t, when they want ts mmedate acton. On. thn land the quantty must be proportoned to qualty. Too much s nurous. On the thn hll land skrtng ths and Cumberland countes, the fertlty has been ncreased beyond the belef of any but an eye-wtness. have exhausted my paper and doubtless the patence of your readers, and wll fnsh wth the promse to wrte, t may be to annoy you, agan. J. Marshall McCue. Phladelpha, February 4, Edlorof the Southern Planter, As ntroductory to what follows, suffer me to congratulate you on the most approprate.new Years Address you sent forth wth the January number of the Planter. Would that the advce theren gven maybe followed! As german to agrcultural mprovement, wll nvte your readers to scan carefully the last report of the Board of Publc Works to the Legslature, whch sets forth n a clear and condensed manner the stuaton of the nternal mprovements of the State. t s a very able State paper, and n the man meets my vews. Let the Legslature act n the premses promptly, and as becomes statesmen, havng the best nterests of the Old Commonwealh at heart, dscard all local and sectonal ealouses, and approprate lberally to the great lnes of mprovement. Then wll the agrcultural and mechancal nterests of the State receve the mpetus, so long wated for. /«<mgaton, nstead of emgraton, wll follow populaton ncrease, the worn-out lands wll be reclamed educaton wll be dffused, the plough and loom and anvl wll approach each other, and the consumer wll furnsh to the producer the best of all markets a home one. promsed to say somethng of the use of lme, as appled n the countes of Lancaster and Chester to the land Lancaster beng one of the largest "feedng" countes n the State, grows necessarly a great quantty of gran. All her best farmers use lme, when they can procure t wthn a reasonable dstance. Our farmers n the Valley of Vrgna, who have the lmestone soabund ant, would not agree wth those of Lancaster, as to what consttuted a reasonable dstance, vz: ten and ffteen mles. The mode of applcaton was slated n my frst letter. The use of salt fnds great favor wth those who have used t n slakng, as t fxes some of the propertes of the lme most benefcal to vegetaton. A small quantty of salt dssolved n the water wll answer. The farmer prefers to spread the lme mmedately after t s slaked and n the flour state, as t s termed. Care must be taken to have the spot on whch the ple s thrown at frst, smooth, lest too much reman n the uneven places, and do nury to the crop. t s then carefully mxed wth the sol by harrowng orshovellng n the wheat, f t s n the fall. One hundred bushels peracre s the maxmum quantty used on any land, and that s too much on land that s thn. On land of ths descrpton, the maorty concur n sayng that t s best to mx the lme wth the scrapngs of the barn-yard, of fence corners, or swamp muck, ether of whch s preferable to fresh stable manure and when thus mxed, the beneft to the crop seems mmedate, otherwse years wll elapse before ts good effects are vsble. Lands of aslatey character.orhavngmuehsand n them, wth a good clay subsol, show the benefcal effects of lme sooner than any other. The hll lands along the southern border of Lancaster and Chester, near the Blue Rdge, called here the South Mountan, whch some years snce were consdered almost worthless, and were bought at from fve to ten dollats per acre, bv the udcous use of lme, are rendered exceedngly productve and now readly command thrty and forty dollars. On meadow lands n both countes, and the grazng lands of Chester, lme s appled on the sod, n quanttes varyng from ffty to one hundred bushels per acre. The benefts are perceptble to the most casual observer; and t has been observed here that cattle fatten much better on lands that are well lmed than on those that have been neglected. t s entrely n accordance wth reason and common sense that t s so. Mr. Colrhan. n hs Agrcultural Tour, speaks of the repealed confrmatons of ths truth n England, by the experments and observatons of many of the most experenced agrcultursts. An ntellgent farmerof Loudoun county, who has been engaged n grazng for thrty years or more, n a conversaton wth me on ths subect, several weeks snce, confrmed ts truth bv hs experence. My own observaton n the grazng regon n the Vallev of Vrgna, has satsfed me that t s more dffcult evpry vear to fatten cattle upon ourold sod lands, whch have been n grass for many years. Certan s t that every year s decreasng the phosrhates and bphosphates n the sol, and artfcal means must be used to restore them. Would not a seres of experments made by some of our ntellgent practcal grazers be exceedngly nterestng, as tendng to lest the truth of ths theory n the Valley? As 1 remarked before, some farmers put the lme on lands ntended for corn, yet there are others, and probably the larger mncer, who prefer to let ther corn lands reman for oats, and apply the lme before puttng n oats. And here 1 could but contrast what h- ve always deprecated wh us as a most slovenly and rnfarmer-lke habt, of seedng our c.rn lands n wheal wth the cornstalks uttng vp&u over

13 Edtor, THE SOUTHERN PLANTER the feld, to the great annoyance of the cradler and reaper, and an eve-sore to one who has seen and compared such seedng wth the better plan n exstence here. Besdes, how seldom s t you ever see even an ordnary crop of r wheat followng a good crop of corn 1 You fnd the farmers of the Valley of Vrgna excusng themselves for neglectng to use lme by sayng, that "t s needless for us to apply lme to our lands, now so strongly mpregnated wth t, the stone beng every where so abundant/ Ths s a lame apology, and one that s dctated by preudce had almost sad by gnorance, and whch s every day refuted the experence of the ntellgent, thrfty and ndustrous farmers of Lancaster and Chester. The farmer here, who neglects to use lme, where s a all wthn hs reach, s regarded by hs neghbors as ut: thrfty and ndolent, and who wll nevtablv fall n the rear n every thng that s characterstc of a udcous man. Lme s estmated by the frmers here to hold the place among manures, whch s gven to calomel n the matera medca, by the allopathc physcan. t s the Samson among the fertlze s. had not desgned to spn ths letter out to such lengths, and wth the hope that even one among our fa rmprs may be encouraged to commence the use of lme. wll close, by wshng veu all the success n the good cause to whch you are devotng your tme that you can desre. Truly yours,- J. M. M. The wrter of the followng communcaton s not only one of the closest calculators, but one of the soundest practcal farmers of our acquantance. n the applcaton of guano, dd our land admt of ts use, we know no one to whrm we should prefer as a gude to Mr. Ffe, and therefore no one to whom we would more confdently recommend the gunoo st f we may con a word fur the occason. The casual remarks too, the ob>ler dcta, as the lawyers would say, are also worthy of eon deraton, especally the vews as to the proper mode of seedng wheat. For the Southern Planter. Ed. So. Pl. OX THE USE OF GUANO AND TS PERMANENCY. M. t s supposed, from the tme 1 have been u-ng guano, and the quantty have put n every year wth wheal, that by bd lm ought to be able to gve some nformaton a> lo 8 use, but especally ts permanency as a manure. n answer to a good many leuerwhch have receved whn a few month* past, 1 wll gve my own practce n the useo not doubtng but that many farmers understand t, ts use belter than do, although they may have used less of t than have done. MANNER OF PREPARNG T FOR SOWNG. Havng sfted the guano, we take what wll not pass through the seve, and spreadng t on the barn -floor, rub t down wth a log drawn by a horse the log s fve feet long, wth a pn drven nto each end, when a log chan s sretched from one pn to the other, to the centre of whch the swngletree s fastened, and thus a breadth of fve feel s rubbed down everytme he horse goes round soon makng t fne enough to be sown. ] have never, but once, used plaster wth t, supposng best to apply the paster to the surface alter he wheat s sown on the ground, that f were true that plaster prevented the escape of ammona, then t would be he best polcy to place the sentnel at the door, where, f Lebg tells the truth, he would wok boh ways, and the guano be undsturbed by hs operatons. The quantty used s about two hundred pounds per acre. THE LAND BEST ADAPTED FOR T. The fner land can be made, prevous to the sowng of guano wth wheat, the better. For ths purpose plough up as much land as can foroas. After sowng the oats n the sprng, cover over all the galled places wth straw, takng care not to leave t too thck, but spreadng t evenly on the ground, so tha he oats may grow up through the straw. Ths wll save he land from washng, supply a lttle organc matter to the land, and secure the wheat and clover. Land can always, n he drest weather, be ploughed after oats, and, next to tobacco, leaves the best tlth for wheat. Just before sowng, ether run he harrow over the land, or he above mentoned log. MANNER OF PUTTNG N WHEAT AND GUANO. For reasons whch shall gve, always plough n boh wheat and guano w ha one horse plough, and leave the land, as he plough leaves t, undsturbed by ether hanow or roller. begn layng off he land eghteen feet from he outsde, all round he feld, so that when sowed, the ploughs can go on wthout leavng any furrow fll they fnsh the feld n the centre, hus by gong twce n the egheen feet, the sower can manage to cast he guano nne feet at a throw; and, generally speakng, we can turn the land down the hll all the way, tll we fnsh the feld. Any person can on.-erve, after a ran, that a harrow has left a good deal of wheat uncovered: for the ;ame reason t wll leave he guano uncovered. l s too costly an artcle not to get all the beneft from t we can; and t s only v\hen covered over wth he earth, n our crnae, that we can expecf us sahs to he detaned for food to plants. On theotl er hand, lo turn t down wth a hree horse plough, or even a two horse plough,

14 deed, f there be any truth n the atmosphere actng and mpartng to t a supply of food for plants, then a roundng surface must be pre- ferable to a smooth one. The one beng frable, the other crusted over the one wth ts pores all open, the other glazed and repellng the gases as they approach for admsson. Thrd, Complants are often made that clover seed fals on wheat lands; and ths s ether ascrbed ; 1 some measure, to do. Second. No land runs together n the fall and wnter so soon as land made fne vfth a harrow. Let any one take two lots n a garden, n he fall, by way of experment; let hm dg them both, leavng one raked fne, the other left rough. n the sprng the advantages wll be vastly n favor of the last, whle the other must be dug agan, or t wll be n bad tlth all the summer. n 73 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. where there s so much clay as there s n our land, s to place t where t wll be detaned by the clay mmedately n contact wth t. And ths, perhaps, may account for ts falure on lands whch not beng equally balanced, do not ad ml of ts nfluence bengdffused through the sol. Frst, then, after coverng the wheat and guano wth a one horse plough, (and both ought to be covered,) t s! unreasonable to be uncoverng them, whch a harrow s sure, u to the late frosts kllng t n the sprng, or to the drought of summer, dryng t np, and consder t a serous loss to the farmer who hasused guanotofal n hsclovercrop. Now the advantage s altogether n favor of land left as the plough leaves t over that whch s harrowed, both as t regards d rought and frosts. The seed has not only a safe depost on a frable sol, but the crumblng edges protect t n a measure from cold and drought. 1 can safely say where have put plenty of cloverseed, though there be mould at all, have rarely faled n clover. Fourth. Rans do not nure a surface left by the plough as they do lands left by the harrow. Waer n fallng on the one surface percolates downward nto the subsol ; n the other t runs off lke water from a ducks back. t has always been the experence of our most observng farmers, asde from the use of guano, that wheat grows much better when put n wth the shovel plough than by harrowng. What then, t may be asked, makes the farmer put n wheat wth a narrow? Because t takes longer tme to put t n wth the plough n the frst place, and because t looks better n the wnter and fall, n the second. To the frst we have nothng to say, only let that on whch the guano s put be ploughed n and left to get the advantage, both to the wheat and clover. To the other, we reply, t s only the looks; the smooth surface shows yon every nch. t s as good on the ploughed land, but the surface hdes t from you tll sprng advances, when t wll tller and grow and yeld beyond harrowed wheat; and when the wheat s off the clover s sure to follow; whereas, n all lkelhood, the smooth surface shows only here and there a bunch, and that n a sckly condton. may here remark that f any person has succeeded n makng a perfect gall rch wth guano they have done more wth t than can. To see any permanent beneft there must be organc matter suffcent to form at least some mould. f the sol be there and be poor ts poverty has arsen from the fact of takng out and returnng nothng. n our poor sols the great defcency arses from the crops havng taken out what was never n them to any great extent, vz: ammona and the phosphate of lme. Now t appears that the fanner who has to purchase these two artcles cannot get them cheaper n any other form than that of guano: and as ammona sells at eght lmes more money than phosphate of lme, t follows that the guano that has the largest amount of ammona n t must be the best, and of course ought to sell the hghest. t would appear then that f these two thngs are put back nto the sol we are supplyng t wth the food of plants of whch t had been deprved by prevous croppng. Ths, then, beng admtted, t would necessarly follow that the crop of wheat could cot take up the amount of both these artcles. Say that the two hundred pounds of guano had only twenty-sx pounds of ammona and between seventy and eghty pounds of the phosphates, no one crop would requre all to mature t. Ths mght be a suffcent answer as t regards the permanency of guano. As have had a good deal of experence n buyng manures can sav that t the same amount of money s la out n buyng guano that would be requred n buyng stable manure to go over an acre, the growth after guano would be equal to the stable manure, whle n all probablty the wheat would be better on the guanoed acre. Now f they were only both equal n ther effects stll the labor s greatly n favor of the guano. t was wth dffculty, when lved at Rock Hll, that could haul from Charlottesvlle, though less than a mle dstant, enough manure to go over eght acres of land n one year. Now wth less lahor can go over ffty acres n one year, and ths year have gone over nnety or one hundred acres. But n buyng stable manure you very often get a worthless artcle. The ammona all drven off by fre-fangng, so that you mght as well put as much chaff on the land. That whch wll lead the farmer to suppose that guano s not a permanent manure wll, expect, al <ays exst. t may te necessary to explan ths. A farmer buys two torrs of guano whch he puts on twenty acres of land: the balance of the feld he sows n wheat wthout guano. On ths feld he sows cloverseed and as soon as the wheat s taken off, hogs, sheep and cows are turned n. To hs great surprse he sees next year as much growng where there was no guano as where he put hs one hundred pounds, and draws the concluson that the guano does not last over he frst crop. What can the matter be? Why, planly ths:

15 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 79 every thng from a pg to a steer knows where sweet rch gra*s grows, and there they contnue untl every thng s eaten off, and the poachng fnshes the sol by knockng the lle return, may pav hm n the crop of corn. n ths way he may go on mprovng hs land by degrees wth the use of guano, unless hs land be lke that n the neghborhood of Tarnaway Castle, bult by Thomas Randolph, the nephew of Bruce, altogether sand on whch nothng wll grow. t s the scene of a great part ol the tragedy of Macbeth where he and Banquo met the werd ssers that gave hm so manv fatal promses. But from my own experence no land s more certan of mprovng under the least attenton than our Albemarle lands. Should the land be clay t must be made fne before guano s appled, and both guano and wheat put n near the surface. f t be lght, loamy land have put both n wth a twohorse plough, and t does very well. My only fear wth regard to guano s that we shall get an artcle that wll be desttute of the amount ; of ammona whch s ts ch ef value. f t be sad to come from Peru t s marked No., regardless of the amount of ammona. When Dr. Ure frst analyzed t, he found seventeen per cent, of ammona n t. but now t s often sold as No. 1, when less than thrteen percent, s found n t. The quantty of stable manure whch have put on an acre of land and hauled from town at the cost of a dollar a load, (the bodv of the waggon holdng ffty bushels.) was twelve loads: ths would requre two hands and two horses for two davs. n short clays they could not do t. The expense was at least, by the tme t was spread, eghteen dollars an acre; and, takng one lot of manure wth another, three hundred pound* of guano was equal for the wheat crop, f not beter, and though clover aftc t mght not be altogethersogoorl, vet the dfference between seven dollars and ffty cents and eghteen dollars s mmense; and allowng nothng for the expense of haulng, yet the dfference between seven dollars and ffty cents and twelve dollars s no nconsderable tem n favor of guano. Besdes all ths, unless the roads were n fne condton two horses could not haul a full load, and consequently you have to pay for what s taken by the load, wheher the waggon be full or not, and t would sometmes requre fourteen loads to go over an acre at an ex ense of fourteen dollar*, wthout countng the wear and tear of teams and the tme lost n short, have never seen the tme that had not full employment for rnv team on the farm wthout gong after manure, nor a da} when could not get two dollars and ffty cents for a twohorse waggon and drver, f 1 should choose to hre them out. thnk have kept wthn bounds when have made the cost of manurng an acre of land atnount to eghteen dollars; out of t. The other part s luxurant n brers P add sassafras bushes whch nether steer, cow and even at that prce>unless the manure was nor sheep wll touch whle a spre remans very good, the land would not be enrched; that has been guanoed. Now how s he to and when t s consdered that stable manure proceed n the use of guano when the frst as soon as t s thrown out of the stalle throws crop barely pays hm, and wheat at eghty off, by the heat that s generated durng fermentaton, ts most valuable ngredent, t cents wll gve hm no proft at all. t can be- onlv be done by keepng stock off and gvng comes, of all manures, the most expensve at back to the feld the crop of clover, whch, n the present prces. Now as phosphorc acd s generally n less quantty n the sol than any other substance necessary to the nutrton of plants, and ths ngredent s n large abundance n Petuvan guano, t follows that even at the very hgh prce of guano t s by far the cheapest manure that can be bought. And t seems to me to be evdent that f the land possess the power to detan the ammona that no one crop of wheat can take out the amount of ammona that s contaned n two hundred pounds of guano, and consequently, the followng clover crop must be benefted. So have found t. Moreover, have found on poor land, by the use of three hundred pounds of guano, a large crop of wheat the frst year, and a heavy crop of tmothy the second; but then not a hoof was allowed to touch t. have also, where two hundted and ffty pounds were sown on poor land, got a large ctop of wheat, and the second year cut a fne crop of clover. James Ffe. For the Southern Planter. HOLLOW-HORN. Mr. Edtor, 1 have ust read the artcle of our frend, Dr. Mnor, on Hollow-Horn. f he had had the same experence n the dsease that have he would have told you tha n very acute cases free bleedng was the only effcent remedy, and that cloths dpped n sprts of turpentne and lad ust by or on the crest, and well burned wth a hot ron, (even to makng sores,) was a much more powerful adunct than a poultce of mullen and bran. The case mentoned by hm was by no means acute n the frst nstance, and would, probably, have yelded to an applcaton of sprts of turpentne. Had.t been an acute case the cow would have fallen down and temaned n the same place untl releved by bleedng or death;* for but lttle relance s to be placed n borng or sawng the horns, and thnk had best be let alone entrely, as maggots some- * When the cow s thought to be entrely cured one of these severe cases t should never he n penned agan at nght durng that summer, as for a lung tme t s unalle to stand the heat of the sun, and onlv feeds late n the evenng and at nght, retrng to the best shade t can fnd durng the day.

16 so THE SOUTHERN PLANTER tmes get n and do rreparable nury.* The boluss of meal, herrngs or frogs, may also be dspensed wh. The Doctor has, wthout knowng t, furnshed your readers wth the best prescrpton that have ever known tred for the treatment of the bloody murran, or dstemper, as t s sometmes called n the countes of Hanover, &c. For seven or eght years that lved n that regon of country 1 used the bleedng and Glauber salts wth great success n the treatment of that terrble dsease. have wrtten the above smply for the purpose of addng my experence to that of our frend, who lays down the prncple of treatng the dsease n such a manner as to leave no doubt of ts correctness. Thomas Garland. to transplant them, (say from ten to ffteen nches hgh,) compellng me lo rase my glass frame, as they should never touch the glass when there s frost. make a frame or box three eet square, well put together, of good plank, one and a half or one and a quarter nches thck, and ten or twelve nches wde, and as t s lkely to sprng by warpng, small bts of tn may be sprgged on the corners of ths frame. ft another on ths, made of three-quarter nch plank of same sze from out to out twelve nches deep on one sde and sx nches deep on the opposte sde, sloped off to receve a glass frame or sash. then nal strps upon the corners of the bottom frame, (two at each corner,) to extend hgh enough up to receve the top frame and sash, formng a rabbt to keep them n place. also nal strps around the top of bottom frame, ex tendng one and a half nches above t, to prevent ar from passng through the onts where. the two bottom frames meet. fll t wth long, rough, fresh stable manure, treadng or pressng t n all over alke, but not too hard; then two persons rase the box gradually, keepng t level, untl the bottom s nearly to the top of the manure, then fll t as befote, and soon untl get t as hgh as f wsh t, say three feet, and then rase t agan so as to leave a space of about seven nches. then (n order to prevent the box from slppng down) drve four sharp slcks, eghteen nches long, one on each sde about the mddle, and close under the frame, nto the manure, turnng the ponts consderably down, say a slant of twenty-fve or thrty degrees, so that as the manure settles all may settle together. next fll up the box fve nches more wth some rch vrgn earth from the woods, (whch s lght and has no grass seed n t,) makng January 19, ths very fne, and lay t off n drlls sx nches apart, and n these drlls carefully put three seed n a place, two nches apart; (four nches would be better, but should not have plants For the Southern Planter. TOMATO PLANTS. enough,) coverng them very shallow, or they wll be too long comng up; they should be up n fve or sx days. Now put on the next frame wth low sde to the south-east, and then put Mr. Edlf.nr, have been often asked for on your glass frame. Next mornng get from. my method of rasng tomato plants. n the my farm-pen a waterng pot of flud whch small way for twenty-fve years 1 have never has draned from the manure, and put that on faled to rase as many as have wanted, and my bed. t must be closely attended to, otherwse often too large to plant before could venture t may, after two or three days, become so hot that t may kll the germ when sproutng or the plants alter they are up. f too warm rase the glass frame n front a few nches, puttng somethng under t. As soon as the plants are fully up take out one at a lme, untl leave but one n a place, and f any place s defcent 1 supply wth one draw out. water my bed every nght, and n the * mornng, (after the plants are up,) f the day s far and tolerably pleasant, about eght or nne oclock take the glass frame enely off, puttng t on agan n the evenng; and as they grow up and begn to have four or sx leaves, n a mld day, f the sun s shnng, take off both of the top frames. When they get four or fve nches hgh dsregard the wnd, unless t be very cold, or unless t blows hard enough to prostrate the plants. At ths age of the plants dust fne plaster over them occasonally n the mornng, when they are most; and also loosen the drt between the drlls and wth my hands carefully hll up or put drt to My frames now beng read}, ( need not gve the plants, and then fll up the space have any descrpton of the sa/.h or glass frame to made between the drlls wth a mxture of go on top.) between the 1st and 10th of March equal parts of the same sort of earth the bed (not before, or plants wll be too forward,) s [ made of and leached ashes. Bv thus exposng the plants to sun and ar fnd myself select some spot n my garden, far to the sun, lay down my frst frame on a level spot and soon n possesson of one hundred and eght fne, healthy, strong, vgorous plants, lookng as hardy, and n every way as luxurant, as f * Frequent observaton has convnced me that n grown on a rch sol n a all rases of general fever or sckness the cow warm season very ceases to rumnate, not only because unlke some of the sckness, but have seen from hot-beds, sown also because t. ceases to gather the food on whch broadcast, n patches thck and thn, and so to rumnate. The observaton s perfectly correct, very feeble and slender, and, so tender that t that when the anmal s releved the cud wll be seems dffcult to get them to lve when transplanted; whereas, my plants seldom droop restored as a matter of course. at

17 all. asleep. dd! daunted they, hoped to upon an equal ndvdual eotr buton, ; or regard! t condtoned less! that any! latter THE SOUTHERN PLANTER Ft all, f care s taken n transplantng them. But, lke every thng else, they requre constant attenton to nsure success. 1 never leave my hot bed open at nght, no matter how warm; and never permt a hard shower of ran to fall o the plants. To nsure them from the cut-worm, as set them out wrap a small bt of paper around the stalk, loosely led w:h a yam strng, puttng drt a lttle above the lower edge of the paper. omtted to state always cover my glass frame wth thn plank to guard aganst cold, storms and other accdents. W. TlMEERLAKE. BcUe Ar, Feb. 13, " U ~"-:\ THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. * RCHMOND, MARCH, TERMS. 0.n t e Dollar and Twenty-fve Cents per annum, whch may be dscharged by the payment of One Dollar only, f pad n offce or sent free of postage wthn sx months from the date of subscrpton. Sx copes for Fve Dollars; thrteen copes fot TtN Dollars, to be pad nvarably n advance. g5f Subscrptons may begn wth any number. 0"No paper wll be dscontnued, untl all arrearages are pad, except at the opton of the Publsher. Hr-Offce on Twelfth, between Man and Gary Streets. POSTAGE ON THE PLANTER. The followng are the rates of postage on the Planer, per quarter, for the dstances annexed to be pad quarterly n advance: VRGNA STATE AGRCULTURAL CONVENTON. We devote all the space we can spare to the proceedngs of the Agrcultural Conventon whch assembled on Thursday, the 19th of February, and adourned on the followng Saturday. The Conventon was not large, and but few countes were represented. Albemarle had some thrty members no other county more than two or three, and the balance, beng by far the larger porton of the Slate, none at The farmers of Vrgna seem to be Of the many, we thnk a maorty of the body, wbo are n the Legslature a very small porton attended. But stll the men who come, came to work. They were nothng by the thnness of attendance, because knew that all the farmers of the State would sancton ther efforts, and because they that the Legslature would have ntell- gence enough to perceve and lberalty enough satsfy the wants of agrculture. Whether not they have udged rghtly n ths latter remans to be seen. A bll, drawn n accordance wth the wshes and nstructons of the Conventon, has been offered as a substtute for the bll now before the House, by Mr. Stuart of Farfax. t was not offered n tme for us to publsh t, nor s t necessary, as t wll, most probably, be amended, or rather alte r ed. We may say, however, that provdes for an appropraton by the Stale, provded, that the latter shall not be than fve hundred dollars; and, provded, the State subscrpton shall not ex-ceed n one year ffteen thousand dollars. Ths amount t s not hoped that we can obtan snce we cannot yet venture to predct an ndvdual subscrpton of that sum. But n a few years thngs wll work belter, and when our machnery s^ perfected we shall expect that many thousands wll contrbute to swell the ranks of the Socety. t s proposed to expend ths money n premums, based on prncples of real mert, on nqures nto the agrcultural condon of Vrgna, and col- Not ovr 50 mles, 1} cents. lecton of statstcal facts, and on matters of Over 50 and not over 3 mles, 2 cents. scence connecled wth agrcultural mprovement. We hope that ths subect wll be duly Over.1 nnd not over 10 mles, 3} cents. Ov»r l K)0 smd not over 20 mles, 5 cents. - Over ; and not over 40 mles, G cents. consdered by our readers, and f th y approve Over 10 mles, ~\ cet;ts. of such a bll that they wll at once wrte to

18 82 THE SOUTHERN PLATER, ther respectve delegates and urge them to vote for t, and gve them sold encouragement to do t. The taxes are to be rased ths wnter, and the Legslature s very tender-footed on the subect of appropratons. t s, perhaps, unfortunate that t was necessary to make our applcaton at ths lme, but not to do t now would be to defer t for two years ton to agrculture, and hs dstngushed servces, guarantee a fathful dscharge of hs dutes. The Socety already numbers ^24th of February) one hundred and twelve members, and we have no doubt that f proper exertons are made we can easly nduce some thousands to subscrbe. On Th ursd ay evenng Mr. Wllotghby Newton, hmself a dstngushed farmer, made a very handsome address to a large audence n the Hall of the House of Delegates. We regret that we have no room to nsert t. ts obect was to show to the farmers the unsurpassed natural advantages of Vrgna, and the sklful manner n whch a porton of her people had avaled themselves of them. On the frst branch of the subect we fully agreed wth Mr. Newton, on the last, wthout dsputng at all hs ndvdual achevements, whch we beleve to be remarkable, or those of hs secton of country, Tde Water Vrgna, whch are certanly very consderable and very credtable, we yet nclne to tb.k hs pcture too favorable, whether absolutely or relatvely consdered. But n ths candd crtcsm, we would not be thought to detract at all from the ablty or patotsm of our dstngushed frend. At the meetng of the Executve Commttee whch s to be held on the 19th of March, a Consttuton wll be reported, to be prepared n accordance wth the nstructons of the Socety. We shall endeavor to lay t before our readers. CLOVER DOES A07EXHAUST LAND. longer, and such s the condton of agrculture n Vrgna at ths tme, that not a moment We have been asked once or twce what should be lost n obtanng for t the ad t we meant by sayng that clover exhausted needs so much. To help the members out of land, and have heard that some of our frends ther extremty we propose to the farmers to have been asked the same queston. We reply pledge themselves that whenever n any county that we have not sad so, and must have expressed ourselves very n felctously to have the re-electon of ts delegate s obected to on ths ground that they wll vote for such canddate conveyed such an mpresson. We sad, or regardless of hs poltcs. f t s neces- meant to say, n the artcle n our Fehruary sary to rase a tax for our beneft, let t be number, on "Farmng n Tde Water Vrgna," done. t wll be our duty to see that no demagogue that /he cultvaton of clover, "partcularly gets nto publc lfe n opposton to our nterests. when attended wth the use of lme, n rapd successon and alternaton wth the usual cereals, f The Presdent of the Socety s Edmund unaded by the use of other manures, produced Ruffn of Hanover. Hs energy and devo- ultmate exhauston, because the clover afforded the food for the wheat, for nstance, whch food beng abstracted by the wheat, must, n tme, become defcent n the sol unless replaced by other means. So that lve wheat s the exhauster and not the clover. The lands n Albemarle have been cloveved some forty years, and clover s stll used among us. " n fact, as we ocosely but truthfully observed to a frend, some tme snce, there s no man n Albemarle, that goes nto good socety, who does not sow clover seed. We shall return to ths pont agan when we have more lesure. At present we are pretty well used up by the labors of the Conventon, and beg to be excused. For the Southern Planter. WHEAT-REAPERS-SAUNDErS WN- NOWER. Mr. Edtor, Some ten years ago obtaned possesson of an old tobacco plantaton whch had been subected pretty thoroughly to the common process by whch the best lands of the tobacco regon have been mpovershed. The last propretor, however, had practsed an m provng method and had reclamed a good porton of the exhausted land, chefly by means of farm-yard and stable manure. Adoptng hs practce contnued to strp the lttle forest land of ts annual depost of leaves, to make

19 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 83 as much manure as possble; and by compostng these n the pens and yards wth cornstalks, contrved not only to keep up the tobacco lots, but also to enlarge them. But the obvous effect of ths practce was the general, though gradual, deteroraton of forest land and cornfelds; and about fve years ago attempted to ncrease the crop of wheat, as an essental part of a system of more rapd and extensve mprovement. Snce that tme ths crop has been doubled, and the land s manfestly mproved, whle ts average ncome s certanly not dmnshed. Ths has been effected chefly by deeper ploughng, by manurng new surfaces for tobacco, and by a lmted use of guano on exhausted land. Clover and plaster have been used, but wth partal success; and 1 am dsposed to beleve that untl can afford to apply large quanttes of lme, these agents wll not prove very proftable. Guano has been used cautously. n the autumn of 1849 about half a on was ploughed n on some sx acres of the poorest land, and seven bushels of wheat sowed upon t. The crop was nured by rust, but yelded about sxty bushels of good gran. A strp of the same land, sowed wthout guano, hardly produced as much as the seed; and the lttle t dd produce was cf very nferor qualty. La>t fall about one and a half tons were put n, by two-horse ploughs, on a thn feld that had been fallowed wth three horses, and the to regret that he has appled t to ths extent n anv vear. would sow my tobacco lot and the regular porton of fallowed land, and then make out a full crop of wheat by pullng guano on the poorest parts of the plantaton. But, Mr. Edtor, whle the way seems plan enough for an ncrease of the wheat crop, there s a growng dffculty ahead. After the crop s made t s hard for a planter to secure t n good spason. Even f the weather be what we would have t, a heavy crop of wheal cannot be "saved" by the regular plantaton force wlhout consderable loss and f he weather be unfavorable for harvest a great loss ma^t be borne. Nor s t possble, at least hereabouts, always o get hrelngs for the harvest; he supply of these s less than he df-rn n. Now, f we could gt a good reapng machne ths dffculty would dsappear, or he very much dmnshed. have tred MKeevers reaper, put up n Rchmond, but t faled; and whle be 1 am confdent t may mproved and made very valuable, am equally confdent that as t s, we cannot afford to use t. t cuts beautfully, perfectly, whle t cms at all; but t s mpossble to make t cut regularly on wthout nterrupton. And whle t works at ts best rate t cuts no faster than fve cradlers, and requres at least ten good bnders besdes the drver and he raker! Recently you sad that MCormcks s the best reaper yet nvcned, but you refuse to commend t untl ts prce s reduced: dd you mean that the larmer cannot afford to pay that pr ce or smply that t pays more than a far proft to he patentee 1 Can you not gve us such a descrpton of the machne, wth ts prce, as wll enable us to udge wheher we may use t proftably! As not foregn to the subect matter, let me say a word of Saunders wnnower. t s ntended to clean wheat that has passed through a fan mll; and ts prncple s so famlar, ts constructon so smple, and ts operaton so successful, that one s made to wonder t was not nvened when men frst thought of a fan mll Every farmer who wshes to make hs seed wheat clean ought to have t. Mr. Haxall of Rchmond, esteems t. very valuable to mllers, and would not be wthout one n my mll for three tmes what t cost me. yell, though reduced by the ravages of the Respectfully, yours, fly, would not be dscredtable to far tobacco T. T. T. lots. n ths case one part of plaster was Prnce Edward County. mxed wth four parts guano and four bushels of the compost put on an acre. n both cases clover was sown n the sprng The author of the communcaton, sgned hut dd not succeed well n ether. The land "T. T. T." n a prvate note requests us to s manfestly mproved. gve a descrpton of MCormcks reaper. By these experments and by others experence, am satsfed that t s safe practce to We shall endeavor to do so n a short lme, apply guano for wheat, on as much poor land or as soon as we can procure a proper descrpton from some one more conversant wth me- as can be sowed n good tme, after havng seeded all the tobacco lots and all the fallowed land that belong to the year. No doubt, chancs than we are. Snce wrtng the short takng a term of years, t would be notce to safe to use whch our correspondent refers, we t further, hot beleve no one wll have cause have found that there s a very consderable dsagreement among experenced farmers as to the superorty of ths reaper over Husseys; and we have seen one gentleman, and heard of others, who, after havng tred both, or wtnessed ther operaton, have gven up MCormcks altogether n favor of ts rval. When we refused to commend t we dd so because we thought the prce too hgh for the work necessary o construct the machne, and too hgh for the labor t accomplshes. Such s also the opnon of a frend of ours who has used and stll uses t under the most favorable crcumstances, o wt: on smooth and level lowgrounds. Certanly an nventor should be remunerated as well for the expendture of

20 84 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. ngenuty as for the outlay of captal; form? no excuse for extorton. but that the New York State Agrcultural Socety for 1350, we fnd the followng: Lke all other reapers yet nvented, t s a complcated pece of mechansm, lable to get out of repar, and requres careful management; when out of repar, there are not many farmers who can fx t up; and f any of the castngs break t may be mpossble to replace them untl too late. On rough land, such as ours s, where t would be lkely n ts progress through the gran to meet wth man} obstructons, and wth as lttle skll n mechancs as we possess, we should consder t ndspensable to employ a competent workman to follow the machne through the harvest. And there are many farms lke ours; and many farmers who possess no more skll than we do. On some of the large estates upon our rvers, the James and Pamunkey, partcularly, ths reaper and Husseys are both used. The gentlemen who have used them speak well of ther performance. What precautons they take aganst accdents, not very lkely to occur on such farms, we know not; nor what remedes they have when they do occur. One of the most emnent farmers of that country reects them, from ther complcated structure. He prefers the old method to the uncertantes whch, n hs opnon, attend the new. We know of only three reapers havng been ntroduced n Albemarle. Of these two were abandoned after the frst crop: we are not aware dstrct, the Green Sprngs, though the land there s probably not more rollng than many a prare over whch they sweep. Here, as there, t s always a dffcult matter to hre good cradlers, who, n spte of ther boastng, generally shrk a heavy harvest, and are only lured to t by hgh prces. n the Green Sprngs t s probable that the sum pad for hrelngs on several estates exceeds the cost of the reaper. Where there s no such assstance to be had, then the reaper, whether desrable or not, must be resorted to. As a substtute for labor ths machne may explots have been tested t does not saw labor, n the sense n whch that phrase s commonly understood. n a very nterestng artcle on agrcultural dynamcs, n the Transactons of "Well constructed machnes for savng human labor by means of horse labor, when en-( cumbered wth lttle frcton, wll be (bund to do about fve tmes as much work for each Horse, as when the same work s performed by men. For example, an actve man wll saw twce each slck of a cord of wood n a day. Sx horses wth a crcular saw, drven by means of a good horse-power, wll saw fve tmes sx, or thrty, cords, workng the same length of tme. n ths case the loss by frcton s about equal to the addtonal force of attendance on the machne. "Agan. A man wll cut wth a cradle two and a half acres of wheat n a day. A twohorse reaper should therefore cut, at the same rate, ten tmes two and a half, or twenty-fve acres. Ths has not yet been accomplshed; we may therefore nfer that the machnery for reapng has been less perfected than for sav.- ng wood. t should however be remembered that great force s exerted, and for many hours n a day, n cuttng wheat wth a cradle; and therefore a lttle less than twentv-fve acres a day may be regarded as the maxmum attanment of good reapng machnes when they shall become perfected." But the reaper does not ordnarly cut more than ffteen acres a day, and requres a shftng team at that, as one par of horses cannot stand the pace necessary to a proper executon of the work. So that accordng to the above data, and not countng the drver and raker,* who my very farly be offset aganst the wheat lost by the cradle and saved by the reaper, t that the thrd s stll n use. We thnk they met does only one-fourth of the work t ought to wth no betterfate n thatheavy wheat growng do n order to rank t as a labor-savng machne. But admttng t to be so, ts cost s much greater than the cost of many machnes whch are emnently labor-savng, the wheat machne, for nstance. Under the old mode of flalng wheat, a hand could usually by had work gel out about twelve bushels a day, somewhat more or less, accordng to he condton of the gran and straw. But J. B. and J. E. Smth of the Green Sprngs, county of Lousa, manufactured a machne whch, wth eght horses and far attendance, easly threshes four hundred and ffty bushels of wheat n a day, and has threshed out wth full attendance n some cases be necessary, but so far as ts seven hunded and thrty measured bushels, and stopped work. an hour by sun; thus dong at ts average the work of hrty-seven hands, and at ts maxmum the work of sxty hands, equal for each horse to four and fve-eghths. - U~*~

21 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 85 and seven and a half hands respectvely. Ths machne s sold at two hundred dollars, whlst a reaper dong, bv the same data, less than one- Jourth the work, costs fve-eghhs of the money. S other words, oler thngs beng equal, t ought to co>t ffty dollars, but does cost one hundred the castngs n the wheat machne, and the greater amount of frst rate tmber requred for them, and to be offset further by the less lablty of the machne to get out of order, and the greater faclty for repars, and, lastly, by the varety of uses to -whch the horsepower may be appled, such as sawng wood, for nstance, (a very valuable use to whch we are now puttng ours,) cuttng up straw, stalks, &c. For these reasons we thnk the prce of the reaper, of all reapers, too hgh, as s the prce We of nearly every agrcultural mplement. have gven the prncples upon whch our opnon s founded, and ts correctness must stand or fall wth them. We nvte a candd examq of t. And f the agrcultural communty agree wth us, we respectfully submt that t would be hghly proper that the State should offer a premum of one thousand dollars or fve thousand dollars for the best reapng machne, to be fully tested by practcal farmers and mechanc*, and to be furnshed, by means of agences n dfferent parts of (he State, at a prce not exceedng seve ty-fve dollars. n our opnon the money would get us what we want, and would be well expended. Undoubtedly, reapers n ther present state are valuable nventons, and we would not be thought to underrate them or to dsparage the genus and mert of ther nventors. But the queston s as lo ther value at ke prce now pad for them. ndvdually we have decded aganst ther use for ths reason, and our subscrbers have a rght to our opnon when they ask for t, unless we gve them somethng better n ts place. The manufacture of reapers s now a Monopoly n a few hands, and the ealouses of Messrs. MTJormek and Hussey have not caused them to forget t. Perhaps n the end that may be better for the communty. There s a demand for reapers now; but for cheap ones. We beleve that nne-tenths of those who take an nterest n them are walng to buy untl the prce comes down, or untl cheaper, but equally effcent, machnes are nvented, and twenty-fve, or seventy-fve dollars more as they wll be cheaper and better for such than a far proporton would ndcate. We s always the course of nventon. Had the are not mechancs enough to say anythng of present patentees so lowered the prce as to the relatve cost of the materals, though the have ntroduced reapers unversally, t would smaller, and more complcated, and ncer work have been hard to supplant ther patents. As requred by the reaper may cost more, to be t s, they nvte rvals to the feld, and sooner offset, however, aganst the heaver weght of or later they must yeld to them. Thus monopoly always defeats tself. Already we have heard, but too vaguely for repetton, of superor machnes, and many mechancs are tryng ther hands at them. Whether T. T. T. and others shall choose, n. consequence of the dffculty of gettng hands a dffculty whch wll ncrease wth the heavy annual ncrease of our wheat crop to purchase a reaper, s a queston whch each wll decde for hmself. But we hope be wll allow us to suggest, what no doubt he s already aware of the proprety of dong, that he shall curtal hs crops to the capacty of hs labor, and not rsk the "consderable loss" whch t seems he now encounters n "savng" hs wheat. n fartnng, far more than n any other pursut, "a penny saved s two pence ganed." For the Southern Planter. DSEASE OF SHEEP. Mr. Edtor, After a severe orwetwnle r sheep are olten lost by a sease known n England as the tnrnsek or sturdy. t attacks the one or two year olds; alter that age they are sad to be exempt from that dsease. n France, where ther sheep are not well attended to, the loss from ths cause s estmated at a mllon a year. n Engl.nd.at an aver; ge cf two to three per cent. Such a per centage, wth our careless management, would scarcely be observed, f equalzed among our flocks, hut t often falls wth unequal severty on the best. Ths has occasonal} happened n past years to some of my neghbors. have myself ths vear lost ten out of sxt v ewes n one flock, mostly those n ther second year none more than three years old. The order was such w h those klled, before they had lngered too long, as to cause the tallow to be an obect worth preservng. When frst taken they are dull, and scarcely

22 86 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. graze at all rumnate ftfully and langudlyseparate themselves from the flock seek a stream or dtch and stand porng over the water untl they tumble n occasonally start as f frghtened and run off from the flock. The sheep commences a rotary moton, movng n concentrc crcles, hs head turned to one sde, and always turnng to the sde to whch hs head s bent, he /"alls and scrambles up to recommence h,s moton, untl he becomes exhausted and des, f hs death s not hastened by fallng nto some dtch or stream over whch he has preferred to stand. The dsease s sad by European wrters to be caused by an nsect, vz: "the Many-Headed Hydatd of the Bran." t forms ts ndus n a sack of flud between the membrane coverns the bran and the bran tself, or mbedded n ts substance. The sze of the sack s from a pgeons to a hens egg. At frst the flud s transparent, but becomes turbd as the eggs hatch. The nsect s about a lne n length,! and easly dscerned wth a mcroscope. ts effect s oppresson upon the bran, causng ; absorpton of ts substance, and often of the adonng porton of the skull, pro lurng docy ] of the anmal and blndness. Wth theeducated veternary surgeons of Europe they do not hope to save more than two n fve of those attacked. Ths s done by trephnng and extractng the sack. The gnorant shep herd swngs hs sheep round by the ears or drves hm over a precpce; f hs neck s not broken by the fall the sack may be burst; or thrusts a knttng needle or wre up the nostrls nto the bran, where, f perchance, t strkes the sack, the anmal may be releved. Hogg, the Ettrck Shepherd, when a boy, was n the habt of knttng whle tendng hs sheep. The sturded sheep of hs neghbors would annov hm by wanderng off" to hs own flock; to drve them off", he would catch them and thrust hs knttng needle up the nostrl nto the bran, when to hs surprse they would sprng up releved and run off". Ths practce, attended to f drected as above. however, upon subsequent tral, was found rarely successful, as the sack of the hydatd was not always n a poston to be reached by the needle. Upon my own examnatons have not dscovered the sack, the rude operaton of the tenon saw always burstng t; but found the bran hghly nflamed, wh extravasated The Publsher. THE JANUARY NUMBER. We were unfortunate enough to have nearly blood n clots between ts lobes. Yet the vacant the whole of the mal of ths number, on the countenance; the absence of furous del- route of the Central Ral Road Agent, lost. rum; ts noffensve deportment to ts companons are not symptoms of nflammaton uf As soon as t can be reprnted t wll be furnshed the bran; he s not lethargc, as n apoplexy, to such subscrbers as dd not receve and lngers for days and weeks. After three Although we struck off a large number of t. years old t s not subect to the dsease. extra copes, n consequence of the large ac A flock of maden ewes and wethers, kept cesson to our subscrpton lst, the edton has upon a hgh, dry rdge, havng access to a warm shelter and also the protecton of a large been entrely exhausted. Such/ewsubscrbers straw stack, escapedemrely ; but the flock n as do not receve the January number along whch the loss occurred ran n vale land, turfed wth the others, wll also be furnshed. We and not wet, wthout shelter, and preferred to sleep near the house on the north hllsde, exposed to north-east and north-west wnds: occasonally they would be drven nto the barnyard n very bad weather, then the yard was always muddy. The only preventve 1 can suggest s dry pastures and good shelter. On farms where there s much waste land, to whch sheep and cattle have access, art- v cularly rney old felds, they fnd warm and dry stuatons, protected by the trees; but upon those wthout waste land at all, the felds are exceedngly bleak n wnter, and anmals wthout shelter suffer very much. Wet pastures, wet and severe wnters and sprngs are consdered as the cause of ths dsease. As n the rot, a few hours grazng of a flock upon partcular spots, n dstrcts where t prevals, wll nfect t wth the fluke, an nsect three quarers of an nch long, whch breeds n the lver of the sheep, and destroys, bv dsorganzaton of ths organ, every ndvdual; so n ths case the ova of the ammalculae, lke mnute seeds, may reman an ndefnte perod n the earth and be taken up n the food, and f they escape the danger of rumnaton, be conveyed n the chyle threadng the mnutest blood-vessels and capllares untl they reach, as a favorable spot for the ndas, the bran of the young sheep, weakened by exposure on cold, wet pasturage, &c. &c. TO CORRESPONDENTS. Our contrbutng frends wll not only confer a favor, but save us a deal of postage, by sendng all communcatons, ntended, for the columns of the Planter, to the address of/ Frank: G. Ruffn, Shadwell, Albemarle Co. Va. When they are addressed to Rchmond, we have to pay postage on them to the Edtor, and back.agan. They wll be more promptly ask the ndulgence of all, for a short lme. The Publsher.

23 John : ng THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 87 STATE AGRCULTURAL CONVENTON. At a meetng of the State Agrcultural [ Conventon, held n the cty of Rchmond \% Thursday, the 19th of February. 1352, the Conventon was called to order by [Edmund Ruffn, Sr. Esq. and on hs molon Wlloughby Newton, Esq was unan- [mously elected Presdent pro tempore, and [Charles B. Wllams was apponted temporary Secretary. The names of seventy members then present, were enrolled. On moton, t was Resolved. That Messrs. E. Ruffn. Sr. Thomas J. Randolph, F. G. Ruffn, Robert Grattan. Bernard Peyton, Jas. M. Morson fnd E. G. Booth be a commttee to prepare busness for the Conventon. Resolved, That Messrs. Frankln Mnor, R. G. Morrs, G. W. Rchardson, Thomas Rtche. Jr. and Dr. T. B. Anderson be a commttee to nomnate permanent offcers of the Conventon. Resolved, That Messrs. Rchard rby, B. F. Dew and James A. Seddon be a commttee to confer wth the Executve Commttee of the exstng State Socety to ascertan the terms upon whch t s proposed that they shall cn-operate. Adourned to meet n the Hall of the House of Delegates ths afternoon at four oclock. ~~ fc< The Conventon re-assembled at four oclock agreeably to adournment. The names of thrty-seven addtonal members were added to the roll of the Conventon. Mr. Mnor. from the commttee apponted to nomnate permanent offcers of the Conventon, reported the followng nomnatons, whch were unanmously adopted: For Presdent, Edmund Ruffn, Sr. of Hanover. \ For Frst Vce Presdent, Wlloughby Newton of Westmoreland. For Second Vce Presdent, Bernard Peyton of the Cty of Rchmond. For Thrd Vne Presdent, Randolph of Albemarle. Thomas J. For Fourth Vce Presdent, Rchard G. Morr.3 of Amherst. For Ffth Vce Presdent, Robt. Grattan of Rockngham. For Sxth Vce Presdent, Booth of Nottoway. Edwn G. For Secretares. Frank: G. Ruffn of Albemarle, and Thomas Rtche, Jr. of Henrco. Mr. Ruffn took the Char and returned thanks for the honor conlerred upon hm. Mr. rby, from the commttee apponted to confer wth the Executve Commttee of the State Agrcultural Socety on the terms of co-operaton, &c. reported that the Executve Commttee manfested the most cordal dsposton to co-operate wth the Conventon, and authorzed them to say that they submtted the further organzaton and he further drecton of the State Socety to the dscreton and wsdom of the Conventon. The report was referred to the Commttee to Prepare Busness for the Conventon. On moton of F. Mnor, Esq. Resolved; That the commttee apponted to prepare busness be nstructed to nqure nto the proprety of selectng a sutable agent to vst the dfferent portons of the State, and make personal applcaton to the frends of agrcultural mprovement, to become members of the State Socety; or some other effectve means of enlargng he number of the members of the State Socety. On moton of Mr. Morrs of Amherst, the followng resoluton was adopted: Resolved, Thatacommttee beappontel o nqure nto the expedency of pettonng the Legslature to amend or repeal the laws regardng he dutes of the nspector of Guano and Plaster. The Presdent apponted the followng gentlemen the Commttee: Messrs. Morrs of Amherst, Newton of Westmoreland, Ganes of Hanover. Stuart of Farfax and Wood, Jr of Albemarle. On moton of Mr. John Wood, Jr. Resolved, That the nspector of Guano and Plaster for the Cty of Rchmond he requesed to lay before the commttee, havn charge the nspecton laws under consderaton, such facts touchng the same as to hm may seem expedent. On moton, the Conventon then adourned to meet agan on Frday mornng at eleven oclock. Frday Mornng, Feb. 20, 1S52. The Conventon assembled at 1 1 oclock. The names of hve addtonal members were added to the roll of the Conventon. The Presdent called Mr. Newton to the char. Mr. Ruffn, from he Commttee to Prepare Busness, made a report, recommendng that the Conventon establsh a Stale Agrcultural Socety, to be called the State

24 83 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. Agrcultural Socety of Vrg na; that the offcers shall consst of a Presdent, sx Vce Presdents, a Recordng and a Correspondng Secretary, Treasurer, and an Executve Commttee, to consst of the above offcees and fve other members to be elected annually, and commttng the detals of the organzaton of the Socety, such as the preparaton of a Consttuton, the otterng of premums, &c. to the sad Executve Commttee, who are requred to hold stated meetngs, to carry nto effect, by partcular regulaton, the general resolutons and nstructons of the Socety. t s made the duty of the Executve Commttee to apply to the Legslature for an act of ncorporaton, wth provsons n the charter to authorze (he sherffs of the Commonwealth to collect the annual dues of the Socety. The frst annual contrbuton of members of the Socety was fxed at two dollars, and annually thereafter at one dollar, and lfe membershp at twenty dollars. Moneys derved from lfe membershp and donatons to be nvested n State stock, and the nterest approprated annually to the use of the Socety. Mr. Morrs of Amherst, from the Commttee on the nspecton of Guano and Plaster, made the followng report, whch was ordered to be lad on the table: The Commttee apponted to nqure nto the expedency of amendng or abolshng the nspecton of Guano and Plaster, have had the subect under consderaton and advse that a memoral be presented to the Legslature, prayng that sad nspecton be abolshed. The Socety proceeded to the electon of Treasurer, that the members present wshng to unte wth the Socety mght enter ther names n the Treasurers book. Gen. B. Peyton was elected Treasurer. Mr. Edmund Ruffn offered the followng resolutons, whch were unanmously adopted: Resolved, as the sense of ths Conventon, That the State of Vrgna, and especally the cause of agrculture, has sustaned, n the lamented death of Gen. Corbn Braxton, a loss that cannot soon be repared. Resolved. That wth a full sense of hs emnent merts, and of the loss whch we deplore, these resolutons be entered on the mnutes of the Conventon, and a copy thereof be transmtted to hs famly as a ffehle though sncere trbute to the memory of one of the most useful and estmable men that Vrgna has produced. The followng resoluton, ottered by Gen; Rchardson, was unanmously adopted: Resolved, That ths Conventon mos earnestly recommend to the farmers, m^ chancs and other householders of Vrg na, that each one of them exert hmsel to extend the crculaton of the Southen Planter, the only agrcultural paper publshed n Vrgna, more than any othe adapted to our people, conducted wth sgnal ablty, and n every respect enttled tc our zealous support. Whle thousands o> dollars are annually pad n subscrptor to papers publshed n other States and ol far less value to our agrcultursts, our own modest and unpretendng ournal, edted and prnted by Vrgnans, laborng wth untrng ndustry and perseverance or our best nterests, has htherto been left by our bare subsst- own people to struggle for a ence. Let ths ndfference to those n* terests and lo the sterlng merts of the Southern Planter be nstantly shaken off; let every man do what he can, and the paper wll speedly be found where t ought to be, a fresde companon of every famly. The Conventon then proceeded to the electon of offcers of the Socety, when Edmund RnFFtN. Sr. of Hanover was unanmously elected Presdent. James M. Morson of Goochland, Frst Vce Presdent. Hll Carter of Charles Cty, Secow Vce Presdent. Wlloughby Newton of Westmoreland, Thrd Vce Presdent. Thomas Jefferson Randolph of Albemarle, Fourth Vce Presdent. Gen. P. H. Stenbergen of Mason. Ffth Vce Presdent. RobertGrattan of Rockngham, Sxth Vce Presdent. Messrs. L. E. Harve of Amela, Wm. Boulware of Kng & Queen, Edwn G. Booth of Nottoway, Wm. G. Overton of Hanover, and Wllam H. Rchardson of Rchmond, were elected the Executve Commttee. Charles -B. Wllams of Henrco, was elected Recordng Secretary, and Frank: G. Ruffn of Albemarle, Correspondng Secretary. The Conventon then adourned as a Conventon, but to meet agan to-morrow as a Socety. Ed; Ruffn, Presdent. Frank: G. Ruffn, > Secretares. Thos. Rtche, Jr. ^

25 ety Wm. J.! James : Rev., George Wm. THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 89 VRGNA STATE AGRCULTURAL SOCETY. The Socety met by appontment of the Conventon on Frday pvenng, the 20th of February, 1852, at half past seven oclock. The report ol" the Commttee on he npecton of Guano and Plaster, lad on the able n Conventon, was taken up, adopted, nd commtted to Rchard G. Morrs, E~q. wth nstructons to prepare a memoral to he Legslature expressve of the opnon ntertaned by the Socety that the nspecon of these artcles ought to te abolshed. On moton of T. J. Randolph, Esq. Resolved, That commttees be now ap- )onted for the ctes of Rchmond and Peershurg, and hereafter by the Executve Commttee, n ther dscreton, for the other es and countes of the State, to call on he ctzens and urge them to become nembers of the Socety. Commttee for Rchmond, Messrs. Huffh *V. Fry, Edwn Wortham and John H. Claborne. Commttee for Petersburg, Messrs. R. Bolng. Thomas Branch and Q,unn Jorton. En. Rcff??, Presdent. Cu. B. Wllams, Rec. Secy. PLOUGHNG. 7From a letter receved from a genllean connected wth the Hampshre Couny Socety, we gather the followng facts n relaton to the tral of stubble ploughs, : t the lale exhbton of that soc at Northampton. There were ploughs n use rom four dtlerent manufacturers, hut after lorm tral, Ru«gles, Nourse, Mason &.o.s No 37 was decded to be he best, on :ccount oft3 great ease of holdng, and ts mperor work. A feat never before performed n ploughnc, was accomplshed by one of the conestants, who used Stubble Plough No. 38 >f the same manufacturers. Startng hs lorses at one sde of the feld, he set the )loucrh. and then let t run by tself lo the ;nd of the lot, a dstance of 3-3 rods. Then t was ust touched suffcently to gude t ound to the next furrow, when t set tself, nd went through wthout a hand beng ouched to t. Ths s a qualty whch has ong been desred, and t s manfest that :he ploush whch can do ts work well wthout beng held has lttle need of any )ther recommendaton. N. E. Farmer. PAYMENTS TO THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, From January 2G/A to March \sl, All persons who have made payments early enough lo be entered, and whose names do not.appear n the followng rfcept lst, are requested to gve mmedate notce of the omsson, n order that the conecton may be made n the next ssue: Edwn N. Palmer, to January, 1853, Wm. ") T. Watts, to January, 1853, ft on Dr. Paul J. Carrngton, to Jan. *J 1853, f M C. M. Adksson, to January, 1853, J Dr. Robert R. Barton, lo Januay, 1853, 2 Dr. F. Carr, <o January, M>3, 1 CO Rchard O. Morrs, to January, 1853, Claudus Dcknson, to January, 1853, Rev. W. W. Kennedy, to Jan. 1853, Rchmond Ter/ll, to January, 1853, Henry S. Hathaway, to January, 1853, Mert P. Sledge, to January, 1853, Powhatan B. Sledge, to Jan. 1853, Henry S. Mason, lo January, 1853, J. J. Deal, to January, 1853, Carter Ball, lo January, 1853, Dr. N. M. Osborne, to January, 1853, E. Brown, to January, 1853, Henry Curts, to January, 1853, Wm. Englsh, to January, 1853, Rob. G. Montgomery, to Jan. 1853, Dr. James Motley, to January, 1853, Henry Mskel, to January, 1853, James L. Lamkn, to January, 1853, Andrew Jackson, to January, 1853, Thomas Okham, to January, 1853, James Yearhy, to January, 1853, James B. MCarty, to January, 1853, Jos. W. Shearman, to January, 1853, H. L. Layton, to January, 1853, Geo. B. A. MCarty, to January, 1853, John H. Stecer, to January, 1853, Julan Ruffn, to January, 1853, Edmund Ruffn, Jr. to January, 1853, Mrs. Martha Cocke, to January, 1*53, Jesse Whtehead, to January, 1853 ^ J 1 J 1 UO 1 (JO 5 CO r Charles B. Wllams, to January, 1853, James C. Denty, to January, 1852, 2 50 Rev. A. B. Davdson, to January, 1853, R. Hatched, to January, 1853, D. Massenhurg, to January, 1852, 3 J. Lews Brooke, to January, 1853, Alexander Smth, to January, 1853, Wrn. Fnch, to January, 1853, J Dr. Thos. J. Garden, to January, 1853, B. Ford, to January, 1853, John T. Anderson, to January, 1853, John T. Clark, to January, 1853, Wondfn, to January, 1853, Dr. C. W. Worrnley. to January, 1853, Peyton S. Coles, to July, 1852, ] F. K. Nelson, to January, 1853, John Fray, to July, 1852, Col. F. H. Smth, to January, 1853, George W. Nelson, to January, 1853, John A. Monlague, to January, 1853, K. Perrn, to January, 1853, l

26 ; S saac ; John J Thomas 1 Wm.! W! T.! John Wm. Wm. [ Dr D. : B. Dr.! H. ; James E. \ 90 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. Samuel Ball, to January, 1833, Wn, R. Taylor, to January, 1653, J. C. Bruce, to January, 1853, Col. Andrew Joner, to January, 1854, (). R. Funsten, lo January, 1853, A. A. Chapman, to January, 1849, S. T. Brown, to January, 1852, J. Warwck, to January, 1853, F. M. Cabell, lo January, 1853, John Thorn, to January. &53, H. Bear, to August, 1852, Dr. D. M. Curre, to January, 1853, Thomas L. Lea, to January, 1853, W. J. Moore, to January, 852, James Hll, to January, 1853, P. St. Geo. Cocke, (7 copes,) to Jan Wn. Gordon, to January, 1853, Ro. W. Calloway, to January, 1853, Dr. T. B. Anderson, to January, 1853, J. T. Goodwn, to January, 1853, Martn James, to January, 1853, B. H. Dawson, to January, 1853, A. D Martn, lo January, 1853, Maor Yancey, to January, 185-2, F. Thompson, to January, 1853, Dr. Mles George, to January, 1853, J.ames M. Sublett, to January, 1853, Eas P. Burnett, to January, 1853, saac B. Edwards, to January, 1853, Wm, H. Davs, to January, 1853, L. \V. Allen, to January, 1853, Edmd. A. Pendleton, to January, 1853, Henry Street, to January, 1853, Robert G. Halle, to July, 1852, Robert Brook, to January, 1853, Dr. Thomas Means, to January, 1853, Walker B. Blanton, to January, 1853, J. M. Ladley, to January, 1853, Capt. John Sms, to January, 1851, Wm. E. Glen, to January, 1853, John Marshall, to September, 1852, F. Lews Marshall, to Januarv, 1653, Fred. Gllam, to Januarv, 1853, Pelerfeld Trent, to January, 1853, Thom;Ys J. Myers, to Januarv, 1853, ~) t. S. Bonham, to January, 1853, John L. Sanders, to January, 1853, Wm. P. Creel, to January, 1853, Thos. Copenhaven, to January, 1853, Abah Thomas, to January, 1853, Jas. F. Pendleton, to January, 1853, 10 J> Nathanel L. Cox, to January, 1853, Ro. H. Rchardson, to Januarv, 1853 C. F. MDonald, to January, 1853, E. A. Scott, to January, 1853, Watkns Johnson, to January, 1853, Wm. F. Campbell, to January, 1853, J John P. Stevens, lo January, 1853, Larkn S. Garrett, to October, 1853, Nathanel Tally, to January, 1853, Charles H. Lee, to Januarv, 1853, Ro. H. Vest, to January, 1853, Napoleon B. Rchardson, to Jan. 1853, Robert Burke, to January, 1853, G. C. Trevlan, to October. 1852, Wm Guthrey, to August, 1852, Wm. H. Ott, to January, 1853, $ G 2 2 2, S. Dabney, to January, 1853, Chales Brown, to July, 1852, C. Carver, to January, 1853, P. Teel, to January, 1852, :M B. Jarman, to January, 1852, D E. Watson, to January, 1852, St. George ttarrs, to July, 1852, W. Dabney, to January, 1853, P. Chamberlayne, to January, 1853, C. C. Lee, to January, 1853, Belleld Cave, to January, 1853, Wm. A. Durvn, to January, 1853, T m. Durvn, to January, 1853, Mrs. Susan A. Gardner, to Jan. 1851, W. S. Kemper, to January, 1853, Martn Tutwler, to July, 1852, Alexander Fason, to January, 1853, England, to January, 1853, Dr. J. H. Ellerson, to January, 1853, J. Blake, to January, 1853, James C. Hohbs, to January, 1853, G. Breant, to Januarv, 1853, Robert Wlson, to July, 1852, Dr. R. C. Prlehard, to July, 1853, Wm. JV. Prce, to January, 1852, Klsey Fogg, to January, 1853, P. P. Nafle, (cor ) to January, R. Strng-fellow, (corr.) to January, 1853, Col. D. B. Hancock, to January, 1853, John B. Ayres, to September, 1852, Robert S. Ells, to January, J. W. Heptnstall, to January, 1853, H. Ponton, to January, 1853, C. Moorman, to Januarv, 1853, H. M. Krbv, to January, 1853, H. S. Hubbard, to Jan. 1853, Chaney, to January, 1853, John Wlknson, to January, 1853, T. Olver, to January, 1853, [Joel H. Tanner, to January, 1853, C. Townes, to January, 1853, Thomas Plppn, to Januarv, 1853, Wm. Wlson, to January, 1853, T. O. Sogars, to January, 1853, saac N. Dodron, to January, 1853, Brd Dodron, to January, 1 853, Thomas Chaney, to January, 1853, Frederck Payne, to January, 1853, Woodson Hughes, to January, 1853, N. B. Clarke, to January. 1853, Reuben Blanton, to January, 1853, W. H. Harrson, to January, 1H53, R. G. Morrss, to January, 1853, Gustavus Wngfeld, to Januarv, 1853, Capt Thomas Lang, to July, 1855, E. F. Pnchbeck, to January, 1852, Dr. George C. Scott, to Januarv, 1 853, Col. C. B Kllbrew, to January. 1853, Dr. H. C. Worsham, to January! 1853, Rev. W. C. Meredth, to Sept. 1852, B. Wggnton" to January, 1853, S. & M. Pennock, to July, 1852, Thomas Hnes, to January, 1853, J. L. Deans, to January, 1853, John H. Tabb, to January, 1853, Geo. H. Dobyns, to January, 1853, W. D. Mansfeld, to January^ y S o 3 ( 1 ( 1 ( 1 ( 1 ( 1 ( 5 ( 1 ( 1 c 2 C 1 l 1 ( 1 ( 1 C 2 ( 1 C 1 1 (1

27 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 91 George W. Clake, to January, 1853, 51 Patrck B. Carter, to September, 1652, 1 Andrew Mapwell, to January, 1853, 1 Elas Dodron, to Januarv, 1853, 1 Wm. A. Bbb, to July, 1852, Jfeorge C. Glmer, to September, 1852, 1 Thomas Garland, to July, 1852, 1 Eugene Davs, to Julv, 1852, 1 E. T. Jeffress, to Januarv, 1853, 1 Wm. tl. Ncholson, to January, 1853, 1 vlrs L. W. Barlow, to January, 1852, 1 M. Harrson, to January, 1853, 1 W. H. C. Lovu, to January, 1 853, 1 Col. Wm. A. Dozer, to January, 1S53, 1 A. N. Bernard, to July, 1851, W. A. Leavtt, to January, 1853, 1 C. W. Montague, to January, 1m53, 2 W. B. Montague, to January, b53, 1 M. Davs, Jr. to January, 1853, 1 Bannster Coffee, to Januarv, 1853, 1 H. \V. Jones, to January, 1853, 5 James Newman, to January, 1853, 1 Mrs. Dr. W. B. Smth, to January, 1853, 1 Samuel,T. Mller, to Januarv, 1853, 1 E. B. Hunter, lo January, 1853, 1 R. H. Sharpe, to January, 1853, 1 A. Aldrdge, to January, 1853, 1 Wm. Robertson, to January, 1853, 4 Estate ot J. M. Merwether, to Jan. 1853, 1 Thos. Jells, to January, 1852, 3 Wm. E. Glover, to September, 1852, 1 Mss Nancy Perkns, to January, rs53, 1 Samuel T. Chandler, to Januarv, 653, 1 John S. Rogers, to Januarv, 1853, Charles E. Kent, to January, 1853, Arche Brown, to January, 1853, Dr. J. N. Powell, to July, 1852, a R. Smms, to January, 1853, Jfcr. Wm. Fuqua, to January, 1853, HJol. sham Trotter, to January, 1853, 3oL Wm. T. Mason, to January, 1853 foseph Jones, to January, 1853, ubbard Mnter, to January, 1853, arland Hargrave, to January, 1853, Thomas Frend, to January, 1853, Henry Deurson, to Januarv. 1853, Wm Gbson, to January, 1853, Wm. S. Harrs, to Januarv, 1853, Thomas L. Pleasants, to January, 1853, 1 Bolng Jones, to January, 1853, Wm. E. B. Ruffn, to January, 1854, George H. Burwell to January. 1853, oseph Glmore, to January, 1853, Thomas G Burke, to Januarv, 1853, rlenry Harrs, to Januarv, W. Y. Hter, to Tanuary," 1853, oseph Rock, to January, oshua Cannon, to January, 1853, rehd. MLean, to July, 1851, Edward M. Tompkes, to January, 1852, 1 rv. W. PTarrs, to January, 1853, 2. M. Jeffress, to Januarv, 1853, 3 )r. John R. Garnett, to January, 1853, 2. C. Watkns, to January, 1853, 1 \. G. Jeffress, to January, chard Bagby, to January, 1853, 1 rvra. P. Peyton, to January, 1853, 3 1 ;! oo : 1! 1 ob : :! oo : oo oo () Davd Shelton, to July, 1853, E. B. Jones, to January, 1653, Wm. T. Scott, to January, lr53, Wm. rby, (correcton.) to Jan. 1853, Charles Guerrant, to July, 1S52, Thomas D. Edmunds, to January, 1853, Thomas Masse, to January, 1853, John S. Woodson, to January, 1853, Hlary Harrs, to January, 1853, Wm. Townes. to July, 1852, R. D Warwck, to January, 1853, Robert Anderson, to January, 1 Wm. W. Watkns, to January, 1853, Gen. W. H. Rchardson, to Jan. 1853, Maor R. P. Blown, to August, lt-53, T. B. Robensun, to January, 1853, R. C. Dcknson, to January, 1851, Lews W. Ganh, to January, )P53, John G. Hancock, to January, 1853, Dr. James Latane, to January, 1853, Joseph Farrar, lo January, 1H53, W. P. Smth, to January! 1853, James M. Morson, to July, 1854, Thomas W. Merwether, to Jan. 1853, Rev. T. W. Sydnor, to January, 1853,"] 853, J. H. Dobbn, to January, 1653, S. H. Pettus, to January, 1853, Robert Scot, lo January, 1853, G. A. Cralle, to January, 1653, Samuel Scott, to January, 1853, J> A. Worsham, to January, 1853, Reward Farley, to January, 1853, Dr. W. J. Harrs, to January, 1853, E. F. Wllamson, to January, 1853, Dr R. E. Haskns, to Januarv, 1853J P. T. Spratley, to January, 1852, Wm. H. Goodwn, to January, 1853, Gen. H. B. Woodhouse, to Jan. 1853, H. F. Woodhouse, to January, 1853, Henry R. Frankln, to Jannary, 1853, H. B. Jones, to January, 1853, Col. T. F. Wngfeld, to January, 1853, Rchard M. Graves, to January, 1853, Rchard L. Farenholt, to January, Wm. Metlock, lo January, 1853, James P. Anderson, to January, 1853, R. H. Harwood, to Januav, 1853, J. T. Baker, to January, 1853, Elas T. Harrs, to January, 1853, J. O. Claybrook, to January, 1853, Wm. Elsom, to January, 1853, John A. Thurmond, to January, 1853, A. M. Hobson, to January, 1853, John D. Hobson, to January, 18?3, E. W. Shepherd, to January, 1853, D. E. Jggts, to January, 853, Col John Hargrove, to January, 1853, James C. Spotts, to January, 1853, Geo. D. Saunders, to September, 1852, W. T. Wooton, to January, 1853, Wm. S. Graves, to January, 1853, J. A. Clay, to January, 1853, M. P. Brooke, to January, 1853, Thomas S. Hall, to January, 1853, Samuel M. Wlson, to January, 1853, J. Tsdale, to September, 1852, N. B. Gay, to September, 1852, 2 2 Oo ) ro 01 1 (0 2

28 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. John MAlster, 10 January, 1853, Thomas Watkns, lo January, 1853, E O. Grffth, to January, 1852, E. G- Booth, to January, 1852, John Hodges, to Jannarv, 1853, W. B. Harrson, to January, 1853, J. W. Brockwell, to January, 1853, Randolph Harrson, to January, 1853, Wn. Tompkns, lo October, 1852, G. B. Mll, to January, 1853, J R. Barksdale, to January, 1853, Pnch & Carlton, to January, 1853, R. M. Glenn, lo January, 1853, Anderson Edwards, to January, 1853, El. M. Anderson, to January, 1853, Wm. L. Pannll, to January. 1853, A. J. Perkns, to January, 1853, W. W. Key, to January, 1852, Gen. Alex. Brou-n, (2 cops.) to Jan Z. H. Bn.oks, to January, 1853, S-tmuel Grffn, lo January, 1851, P. W. Grubbs, to July, 1852, Capt. Edwd. Haskns, to January, 1S53, SANDY PONT FOR SALE AUCTON. $ O 3 25 AT rp HE undersgned, prevented by engage- M merts requrng hs undvded attenton elsewhere from resdng on hs farm, wll sell publcly, unless prevously sold prvately, (and of whch due notce wll be gven,) at the Bollngbrook Hotel, n Petersburg, an Wednesday, the 26th day of May nex, at 1 1 oclock, A. M. wthout reserve or regard to weather, that valuable, hghly mproved and heavly lmbered estate, known as SANDY PONT, stuated on James Rver, n the County of Charles Cty, Vrgna, 45 mles below the Cty of Rchmond, and 32 mles below the Ctv of Petersburg. Ths fne body of land contans 4,453 acres, and has been advantageously dvded nto four well located farms, wth dwellngs, commodous barns, &c. and nto lve valuable lots of tmbered land, exclusve of an ample allotment of wood and tmber for each farm. Persons desrous of nvestng n lands of a qualty not often n market, are nvted to examne ths estate. Prnted blls gvng the qanttes n the subdvsons. &c. wll be furnshed, and accurate plats exhbted to applcants. Possesson gven of the tmbered lands mmedately after sale; of the farms, at the end of the year, wth the prvlege of fallowng and seedng wheat. Terms One-ffh cash; balance n fve annual nstalments for the farms; for the tmbered lands, one-hrd cash and three annual nstalments; credt payments to bear nterest, and to be secured by deeds and approved endorsed negotable notes or bonds. R. B. BOLL1NG. Address to Petersburg, Va. fe tf Pannll & Sons, Aucls. VALUABLE AGRCULTURAL WORKS for sale by NASH & WOOD- HOUSE, Eagle Square. The Complete Farmerand Rural Economse and New Amercan Gardener, by T.J. Fesse; den, n one volume, about 7 pagvs, clotlf, glt $1 25. Johnstons Agrcultural Chemstry a new edton, n one volume, 12 mo. cloth, glt $1 25. Johnstons Elements of Agrcultural Chemstry 50 cents. Johnstons Practcal Agrculture, one vol. cloth 75 cents. Busts Famly Ktchen Gardener, cloth 75 cents. Hoares Treatse on the Cultvaton of the Grape Vne on open Walls 50 cents. Sheep Husbandry, by H. S. Randall $1 25. Stephens Book of the Farm, complete S4. Brownes Amercan Poultry Yard, tenth edton S. Allens Amercan Farm Book, one volume $1. Mal edton 75 cents. Allens Dseases of Domestc Anmals, one volume 75 cents. Chemstry Made Easy for Farmers, paper 25 cents. Southern Agrculture; or, Essays on the Cultvaton of Corn, Hemp. Tobacco, Wheat, &c S. Danas Prze Essay on Manures 25 cents Mners Amercan Bee Keepers Manual S- Mal edton 75 cents. Browns Amercan Brd Fancer 50 cents. Mal edton 25 cents. Canfeld on the Breeds, Management, Structure and Dseases of Sheep S. The Amercan Archtect, the cheapest a,)] best work of the knd publshed n the wortz, complete n 24 numbers, at 25 cents each, o S5 for the work complete $6 bound n two volumes. Youatt and Martns Treatse on Cattle,! wth one hundred llustratons, edted by Am- brose Stevens, Esq S 25. Yonatt on the Breed and Management ol Sheep, wth llustratons 75 cents. Elements of Agrculture, translated from the- French,byF.G. Sknner, adapted for Schools 25 cents. Gunns Domestc Medcne; or, Poor Man.J Frend n Afflcton, Pan and Sckness &3;f mar ly UNON AGRCULTURAL WARE- HOUSE AND SEED STORE. EALPH & Co. No. 23 Fulton street, Newf York, near Fulton Market, Dealers n all] the most approved Agrcultural and Hortcul tural mplements, mported and Amercan! Feld and Garden Seeds, Ornamental Shade and Frut Trees, Guano, Bone Dust, Poudrette,! &c. Wrought ron Ploughs, Trucks, Barrows,] &c. &c. always on hand. or Calforna Plough. Also, the Excelsor.] mar3t \

29 ] TO for that, the ; can wth hgher Chemcal edtor THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 93 TO AGRCULTURSTS. ]\/rorrs & BROTHER have receved the VJL followng valuable Books, pertanng 10 Agrculture: Elements of Agrcultural Chemstry and Geology ; by Jas. F. W. Johnston. Amercan Agrculturst, for the Farmer, Planter. Stock Breeder, and Hortculturst: by A. B.Allen; numerous plates. The 8th and 9th volumes of ths most valuable work are receved, also complete sets. Every farmer should have ths -work. Amercan Farm Book, on Sols, Manures, Dramngs, rrgaton, Grasses, Gran, Roots, Frut, Coton, Tobacco, Sugarcane, Rce, and Every saple product of the Unted States. Ths s a perfect fanrers lbrary, wth upwards uf 1 engravngs; by R. L. Allen. Farmers Manual, wth the most recent ds- :overes n Agrcultural Chemstry; by F. Faulkner. A Muck Manual for Farmers; by S. L. Dana. Farmers Land Measurer, wth a set of usell Agrcultural Tables; by Jas. Pedder. Amercan Husbandry. Seresof Essays on Agrculture, wth addtons; by Gaylord and Tucker. Farmers Encyclopaeda; by Cuthbert W. obnson. (^Productve Farmng, wth the most recent " overes of Lebg, Johnston, Davy^and tters. European Agrculture, from personal obseraon; by Henry Coleman. Ths s a very >opular work. Johnsons Chemstry and Geology, wth ther pplcaton. Johnsons Dctonary of Gardenng; by Dad Lsndreth. Londons Gardenng, for Lades; by A. J. ownng. Squareys Agrcultural Chemstry, Bonssnault, Rural Economy, Bnsts Ktchen Garener, Landscape Gardenng, and Rural Arhle c ure; by A. J. Downng. Pe -endens Amercan Gardener. Amercan Frut Book, wth full ustructons; THE AGRCULTURAL PLANTERS OF VRGNA. Compound Chemcal Manures. John Ketllewells (late Kettlewell & Davsons.) Agrcuhural Dtpot, Baltmore, Maryland Renovator, Generator, Dphosphates, Mxture ^/Elements of Scentfc Agrculture, or the connexon between Scence and the Art of Practcal Farmng. Ths was the prze essay of Potash and Plaster, Pure Ground Plaster, of the New York State Agrcultural Socety; wth every descrpton of Chemcal resdum by J. P. Norton, M. A. the mprovement of Crop and Land. The undersgned, after fveyearsexpenence, and a very consderable outlay of captal, has fnally trumphed over every obstacle of doubt and preudce, and s prepared to demonsrate (o Crop and Land, he can present to the publc the cheapest and best Manure known to the age. Hs Compounds contan Ammona, Polash, Bphosphate Soda, ndeed every Chemcal element, n a powerfully concentrated form, whch sol requres. Any one who doubts ths have hs Salts analyzed at the expense of the undersgned, and f they fal n the test, he wll return the money, f purchased. n Wheat, he s wllng to admt, that so powerful a stmulant as Guano, wll, n many sols, produce a larger frst crop, but vey far less n a thrd crop, than hs Sals. n Corn and Grass, he challenges a far tral, upon any sol wth Guano or any other Manure and for any forfet that would make he experment nterestng. For. Corn and Grass, he avers that there s no Manure equal to hs from a frst to a fourth crop; and he s able to establsh t by expermental proof. Hs "Bphosfhates" are pure, dssolved the strongest Sulphurc Acd, and the Bones fresh. n England, no manure s n favor, or more sought alter for Crop and Land. PLs "Renovator" s a Compound of every whch scence and experence have shown to be necessary to renovate worn-out land. Hs "Generator" s a compound made expressly lor Tobacco, and s worthy the most careful nvestgaton of the Planter. Hs "Plaster and Potash" s also manufactured for the growth of the Tobacco Plant, and when the almost absolute necessty of Poash s known, for the growth of prme leaf Tobacco, the value of ths artcle may be readly estmated. Hs "Ground Plastfr" s so well known and so eagerly sought from the most dstant sectons of the Unon, lhat he deems t only necessary to say, that below the standard he has adopted, lhe undersgned wll never permt t to go. There s no artcle whch the Farmer buys that he s more mposed-upon, than n ths one, of unversal use. n the January number of the Amercan Farmer, the followng reply s made by the y S. W. Cole. Downng on Frut Trees. Theory of Hortculture; by Lndley. Florsts Manual; by H. Bourne; 80 colored Bgra vngs. Br gnans Ktchen Gardener. n addton to whch, Morrs & Brother have.1 of the late Works on Agrculture, Hort- of that valuable paper, n reply to the enqures of a correspondent: abure, and Rasng Ptock, of any celebrty. Rchmond, March. 12, ly "Were we to that when unaded plant Corn n by manure, land would so poor, only

30 , 94 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER produce fve bushels of Wheat, we certanly would not rely upon less than four hundred pounds of Guano, producng a good crop." Now, not relyng upon less than four hundred pounds would certanly mply that an addtonal hundred pounds would do no harm. Those four hundred pounds of Guano, wth transportaton, woul.1 cost the Farmer not less than ten dollars per acre, whch, wth the expenses of cultvaton, would requre "a very good crop" to remunerate, provded no durable beneft was rendered to the sol. Now, what permanent beneft does Guano render to the land] What s ts value, except the frst crop] Does t operate lke a smlar powerlul stmulant upon the human mnd? wth prodgous, almost delrous exctement] to be followed by a commensurate depresson and exhauston? s Guano a stmulant or a manure] These questons the expeence of the Farmer can best answer. But at the present prces of gran they are of vtal mportance; although n agrcultural ournals hut lttle dscussed. n Pennsylvana, the most lastng manure s called the best further South, the frst yeld s the standard. Now, when these Salts are ntended for Corn, the undersgned never recommends more than one barrel to the acre, (three dollars,) f appled n the hll or two barrels for the poorest worn-out land. f the Corn crop s to be followed wth a Wheat crop one barrel n the hll, and one broadcast s recommended, slghtly harrowed n n ths way, he Salts are more effcacous than when appled wth the Wheat at seedng tme. For lastng heneft to Land, these Salts are only subordnate to fresh lme. As a top-dressng they are certan and valuable. The prce of the Dphosphates are four dollars per barrel; the Renovator three dollars per barrel, or twenty-one dollars per ton. The prce of the Tobacco Generator s four dollars per barrel; the Mxture of Potash and Ground Plaster two dollars and ffty cents per barrel; valuable for any crop, but ndspensable for prme tobacco leaf. There s one dollar and ffty cents worth of Potash n every barrel. Hs Plaster s sold exclusvely by Messrs. Deane & Brown of Rchmond, and Messrs. Wakns & Morton of Petersburg. Freght from Baltmore to Rchmond and Petersburg, seventy-fve to eghty-seven and a half cents per ton transportaton not beng more expensve, counrng teams and laborers, f as much so, as haulng out barn-yard manure. No man need make an extravagant experment; therefore, no great rsk s necessary to make a tral. The Agrculturst can Factory, Federal Hll, Baltmore, where, fc personal nvestgaton, nvte all persons th; order from the undersgned, to be shpped to take an nterest n Agrcultural pursuts, wh Rchmond or Petersburg, and to the care of vst Baltmore, and to whom wll cheerfull each partcular Agent, upon, whom the undersgned can draw free of expense. n explan my whole process. There s no seen t. All sums under ffy dollars, cash; over ffty dollars, lour rnonhs; over one hundred dollars, sx months, for acceptances. nstead of publshng certfcates, whch more expensve and less satsfactory, the he dersgned begs leave to refer to the follown names. He has taken ths lberty wthou consultaton or permsson*)! the partes namet. but from ther ntellgence, success and enter prse as Agrcultursts, and ther character a gentlemen of the hghest respectablty an honor, he has no doubt but what they woul cheerfully mpart ther experence and nfo maon, many of them havng largely use these Salts. The postal drecton of eac party s affxed. t may be proper to observ that the Salts do not produce as heavy a stal n Corn, as Guano. For ts yeld the farmt must look to the gran of the Corn. REFERENCES. Professor Hggns, Slate Chemst of Man land, Baltmore, for ts Chemcal consttuent; Rev. J. S. Armstead, Stony Pont post offo Cumberland county, Va Joseph W.Twyma ; Esq. Earlysvlle, Albemarle county, Va.; Joh M. Dow, Esq. Washngton Cty, D. C ; D Wn. Mosher, Catonsvle, Baltmore count; Md.; Dr. Wllam Krkwood, Prnce George county, Md.; Wm. H Herbert, Esq. Beltsvll Prnce Geores county, Md.; Seth W. Wa feld, Esq. Sherff Howard Dstrct, Mr.; D Wm. J. Saddler, Saddlersvlle, Q.ueen Ann county, Md.; W. W. W. Bowe, Esq. Prnc Georres county, Md.; George E. Yeatma Warrenton, Fauquer county, Va ; Gener; Henry S. Stles, Cecl county, Md.; H. E. Bat man, Esq. Easton, Talbot county, Md.; Arlln MCourt, Baltmore; Dr. Robert Dorsey, ( Edward, Frankln, Baltmore county, Md John L Stavesberry, Treasurer of Baltmo; county, Baltmore; Peter Gowan, Esq. Laurd Howard county, Md.; Col. Horace Capro Laurel, Md.; Carrvlle S. Stansbury, Esq. Ba tmore county, Md., wth hundreds of othf names, but the above s amply suffcent ft all practcable purposes. he Messrs. Ba bours of Orange county, Va. have also use the Salts, wth what effect the undersgne has never heard. Pamphlets wll be furnshed to all who fe nterest enough to nvestgate; and who a wllng to beleve that there may be progres n Agrculture, equal to other branches an enterprses of lfe. JOHN KETTLEWELL. Offce at the Wholesale Drug Store of Obe & MConkey, corner of Lombard and Hanove streets. Orders addressed to DEANE & BROWF Rchmond, Va. wll be promptly attended t. for John Kettlewell. mar 3

31 VV THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 93 THE ;analyss of sous, &c. undersgned s prepared to execute the analyses of Sols, Guano, Marls, Plaster, &c. &c. at the Laboratory of the Vrgna Mltary nsttute. Packages may be forwarded through. Webb, Bacon & Co. Rch- Snond, or Echols & Pryor, Lynchburg. Persons desrng further nformaton wll please address WLLAM GLH\M, Prof. Chera. and Agrculture, V. M.. Fb 1,1832. Lexngton, Va- FRUT AND ORNAMENTAL TREES, ASD SHRUBS. THE Subscrber offers for sale a select as- J. sortment of Frut and Ornamental Trees and Shrubs, a number of new Evergreens, and a good collecton of Greenhouse Plants, especally of Ca:uellas, Roses. Geranums; also, Dahla Roots, Pceonas, wth Bulbous Roots. Garden and Flower Seeds, &c. All orders thankfully receved and promptly attended to. Prces moderate. The subscrber s commencng a Nursery for the growth of Frut and Ornamental Trees and Shrubs, n whch the greatest care wll be taken to grow ooly those fruts that are adapted to the clmate; and all wll be worked on seedlng stocks. The subscrber has secured the servces of an experenced Nurseryman, and thnks he wll be ame to supply those who! may favor hm wth orders wth good Plauts at reasonable prces. Catalogues wll be publshed soon and can \ le had on applcaton. a3t J JOSEPH RENNE. COMMSSON HOUSE N RCHMOND fctttth the vew of gvng our frends and all Others who may favor us wth th:r patronage, the advantages of both rnakets, we have establshed n the Cty of Rchmond a house for transactng a General Commsson Busness, to be conducted by Tazewell S. Morton, under the style of Tazewell S. Morton & Co. The busness of Watkns & Morton, wll selves. Messrs. Pratt & Co. clam to be the frst to ntroduce the sky-lght system nto the be conducted n Petersburg; by Samuel V. State, and appear to be constantly nventng Watkns, asssted by John A. Morton, as! somethng for the mprovement of the art. Repar to ther gallery and "secure the shadow heretofore. t s our purpose to adhere strctly to the ere the substance fades." Rchmond Tmes. Commsson Busness; gvng our undvded attenton lo the sale of the staple products of BOOKS. PANOS, MUSC, &c. the conn try, vz: Tobacco, Wheat, Corn, Flour, NASH& WOODEOUSE, Wholesale and Coton, &c. Retal Dealers n Be ks, Pano Fortes, We return our thanks for the lberal patronage that has been bestowed on our concern n mond, Statonery, Musc, &c. 139, Man St. Rch- Vrgna. Petersburg, and to the dealers n produce and merchandse n that cty we feel under many oblgatons for the generous lberalty and punctualty we have at all tmes met wth n our transactons wth them. TAZEWELL S. MORTON & CO. Rchmond, Va. WATKNS & MORTON, a 3t Petersburg, Va. NEW STYLE MEDALLON DA- GUERREOTYPES N COLORS. Ths splendd mprove- ^L-.^-gfffHL mert must be seen to be apprecated. Ourlrends are nvted to call at the =5 orgnal Vrgna Skv- Lght Daguerrean Gallery, where may be found all the latest mprove ments. consstng of the CELEROTYPE, by whch nfant chldren may be taken n one second; TALBOTYPE, or Daguerreotype on Paper, and HYALOTYPE, or Daguerreotypes on Glass, whch, wth every oher mprovement, may now be obtaned at the Gallery, No. 139 Man street, above Governor. N. B. Ther NORTHERN COMBNA- TON SKY LGHT s now open n full operaton t s the largest n the State. WM. A. PRATT & CO. Propretors. MEDALLON DAGUEREOTYPES N COLORS. We have nspected the a! ove style of Daguereotypes, lately and so successfully ntroduced here by Messrs. Pratt & Co 132 Man street. By ths process, a relef almost magcal, and a varety hghly pleasng, s obtaned. n some cases, the pcture so closely resembles an enamelled mnature, n ts vory tone, as to deceve even an art.-te; n others from the mdst of a dark back ground, appears the "human face dvne,"- n all the vvdness of lfe; then, by stll another process, the pcture appears entrely upon a bllant whte ground, surrounded by wreaths of flow ers. But, we feel our nablty to do full ustce to these beautful medallon Daguereotypes, and must, therefore, request the curous n such matters, to call and udge for them- hand, a full supply of stand- Constantly on ard Agrcultural Works. oct tf OSAGE ORANGE PLANTS FOR HEDGES A few thousand rased by myself, for sale. WM. H. RCHARDSON. Rchmond, Jan. 1, t. S to y

32 » Phladelpha, to : 05 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. CONTESTS OF NUMBER. PAGE GREAT REDUCTON N PRCES OF HATS AND BOOTS. J. H. ANTHONYS FASHONABLE HAT STOKE, Columban Hotel Comer. THE Worn Out Lands n Vrgna..05 Experments n the Applcaton of Plaster cheapest place n the cty of Rchmond to buy Hats and Boots s at bst to Manure above store, where every artcle sold may be Guano ~T U «n~l (M reled on as represented. By ths means he Curng Bacon Hams W,.. ngd ^ of cusl and hs cus. A Subscrbers Appeal n Beh.lt o the ^. Be)ow s & ^ q{ hs P Lnlpr U.M _,.,.,,,..,. _.-_ Planter thtmvhvr 7(1 prces, whch wll be strctly adhered to: Colrcn Horses, and the Besl qualty moleskn, - - S3 50 Second qualty ".. 3 Best qualty slk, Seco.d " " 2 Fne Calfskn Sewed Boots only three dol Applcaton of Tobacco Stalks to Tobacco Beds, &c...71 Estmated Costs of Free and Slave Labor., 1 Pal of Ran tor the Years 1850 and Lme-Burung and ts Applcaton to Land n Pennsylvana 04 On the Use of Guano and ts Permanency. 77 Hollow * Hom "E ars and ffty cents. Also, Caps, Shoes and Umbrellas. J. H.Anthony has made an arrangement.. Tomato Plants...*.»0,th one of the best makers n the cty of 1 Vgma State Agrculmral Conventon 81 to supply hm wth a handsome Clover Does Not Exhaust. Land 8-2 and substantal Calfskn Sewed Boot, whch " fe sell at the unprecedented low prce of Wheat-Reapers Saundors Wnnower...82; wn Dsease of Sheep " *?? * * To Correspondents The January Number v^ntf State^gS^Scety- \ dollars and ffty cents. The attenton of ntlemen s respectfully solcted, as they are 86-1 the best and cheapest Boots that have ever been offered for sale n ths cty, He ntends.80 keep but the one knd, and sell them* one \ \ \ \ M,, prce- ^ e l y Ploughng _ <_ 2 Payments to the Southern Planter. (e_3t* r^he RCHMOND AND PETERSBURG RAL ROAD COMPANY respectfully JL FEMALE SEMNARY. nform farmers lvng on the Roanoke Rver PEDMONT and on the lne of the Ralegh and Gaston subscrber wll open a Female School tobacco THE ^"X^ that tbey^are transportng tobf at hs house, near Gordonsvlle, on the an ^ other produce between Rchmond and. Petersburg wth promptness and despatch, run 15th of January. He has already engaged a teacher of unquestonable qualfcatons. Hs nng daly trans of eght wheel covered cars, terms per sesson of 10 months wll be 6120, sacurpg tobacco and goods from damase: for board and tuton n all the Englsh branches, Tobacco consgned to the care of J. Lynch, and n the French language. An addtonal Ral Road Agent, Petersburg, wll be forwarded, free of commssons, to Rchmond. fee of $30 wll be ctarsed for musc. *F J AS. W. GOSS. OSAGE ORANGE SEED, SAVED wth great care, and receved drect from the regon where t s grown, of relable qualty. For sale by L. S. HOYT, de 4t 55, Water st. New York. AGENCY FOR THE PURCHASE AND SALE OF MPROVED STOCK. STOCK Cattle of all the dfferent breeds, Sheep, Swne, Poultry, &c. wll be purchased to order, and carefully shpped to any part of the Unted States, for whch a reasonable commsson wll be charged. Apply to AARON CLEMENT, Phladelpha. Referto Gen. W. H. Rchardson, Rchmond, Vrgna. 1ST. B. All letters, post-pad, wll be prompt- Jy attended to. ap tt Goods purchased n Rchmond and consgned to the Ral Road Agent at Gaston wll be forwarded up the rver wthout charge for forwardng. THOS. DODAMEAD, Supt R. & P. R. R. June 21, 1851 tf THE VRGNA AXES. undersgned, n connexon wth ther Rollng Mll, have erected an extensve Manufactory of Axes, Hatchets, and Tools generally, whch they warrant equal lo any manufactured, and offer at Northern prces. They solct the patronage of the agrcultural communty. R.Archer,, R. ARCHER & CO. A. D. Townes, f R. S. Archer, C. Dmmock. J oct ly BOOK AND JOB PRNTNG executed at ths Offce wth neatness and dspatch. Offce South Twelfth Street..