SOUTHERN PLANTER, We Had Been Informed

— . —

SOUTHERN PLANTE 23ebote a to ^srtculture, horticulture, anS the ^ouseJioIU arts.

Agriculture is the nursing mother of the Arts. Tillage and Pasturage are the two breasts of the. Xmophon State.—SuMy'.

FRANK: G. RUFFIN, Editor and Proprietor. T. BAILIE, Publisher.

Vol. XY. RICHMOND, JULY, 1855 No. 7.

GREAT FRAUD IN GUANO. nections, is the great safe-guard against these and other impositions; but, though the British [We do not know to whom allusion is made in agricultural journals the following article which the Boston Cultivator are mostly of a high tone and character, their copies from the Country Gentleman, but we think we price prevents an extensive circulation; and, indeed, comparatively do. It is proper though to warn people here in few farmers Virginia, especially, where our inspection laws are take any agricultural paper whatever. Under such circumstances, not wonh a cent.—En. Plant.] therefore, it is no wonder that fraudulent manure dealers- against the It is common to declaim caution reap a rich harvest. regard tfc the adoption of of farmers in new We have long been convinced that there If, as will not be denied, they have things. were parties in this country engaged in manu- practiced an undue conservatism, it will be facturing various artificial fertilizers which found on inquiry to be, in many instances, are of little value—and we have done our part the natural result of influences to which only towards exposing their fraudulent practices. have been subjected. They have so fre- they We were also aware that inferior guanos are quently led astray the false guides, been ,by often sold under an assurance- that they are that the became the victim of like savage who equal to the best Peruvian, but we had no idea misplaced confidence, they are ready to ask that there was any one in this country engaged " shall know whom to believe, having How we in the manufacture of guano. We are serry deceived ?" The disposition to im- been so to say we have been deceived. Numerous as which been manifest among a por- prove has are our agricultural papers, great as are their tion of the rural population, has opened the circulation and influence, they are found in- for the of empiricism and decep- way practice sufficient to prevent unscrupulous men from tion on a large scale, and the reaction which is attempting to palm off on the credulous far- the result constitutes a serious obstacle to the mers of our broad domain a comparatively spread of truth. Thus the false friends of worthless article, at a high price, under a false agriculture are in reality its worst enemies. name, and, what is most to be regretted, it is following article from the The Country one of the professed friends and teaehera of Gentleman exposes one of the ways by which scientific agriculture that i? engaged in this base men aggrasdize themselves at the expense deception. of honest fanners. The parties engaged in How we discovered the fraud, we are not at this new system of rascality are no " green liberty to state. Suffice it to say, that some hands," as many persons already too well six weeks ago, we were informed that an arti- know. Eds. cle known as Mexican guano was taken to*an "Everyone acquainted with the guano trade establishment, near Neivark, N. J.,'and there of Great Britain is aware that adulteration is mixed with plaster, salt, sugar-hcuse scum, earried on to an enormous extent. The laws Peruvian guano and quick-lime, the whole are stringent, and the penalties in case of de- ground up together and put in bags, marked tection severe, yet the profits are so large and " Chilian Guano}'' the difficulty of proving the fraud so great, Following the direction of our informant,, that numbers of dishonest men are willing to we proceeded to Newark, and there found a brave the chances of detection. The agricul- large heap, of about 250 tons of Mexican go, tural press, when in the hands of honest, inde- ano, and some 200 tons of the manufactured lent men, unjtrammelea hy business con- aruhcte in bags, ronrked "JDhilian guano," as —

194 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, we had been informed. We had also learned hands of Barreda Brothers, and has their that a considerable quantity bad already been mark upon it; so that it would not be easy to shipped to New York and Boston, and one sell a spurious Peruvian guano. Chilian ga- gentleman said he believed a good portion of ano is subject to no such regulations, and the it had been sent to England. books describe it, when " fine,"—and the In New York we were offered the Chilian manufactured article is made fine by grinding guano, if we would take it in quantity, at $35 —as a "very valuable variety, equal to that per ton. of the very best Peruvian." The name, there- took We samples of both the Mexican and fore, has been chosen with consummate cun- Chilian guano, and made careful duplicate ning. analyses of them in the laboratory of Prof. The Oxtord (Me.) Democrat states that it Carr, of this city, chemist to the New York has received a circular containing au analysis State Agricultural Society. The following of " Chilian guano," made by Prof. Hayes, are the per mean eentage results of the analy- " Assayer to the State of Massachusetts," and ses: which is " Endorsed by Prof. Mapes." This Mexican Guano. analysis represents the Chilian guano as con- Sand, --..- o.o taining 27.9 per cent, of "»azotized organic Organic matter, - - - 5.0 matter and fixed salts of ammonia." This is Phosphate of lime, - - - 26.0 a much larger quantity than the sample we Carbonate of lime, - - - 68.0 analyzed contained. The actual quantity of 99.5 ammonia or nitrogen is not stated, and it is Chilian Guano. impossible to judge correctly of the value of Water, ----- 4.0 the manure without it. Fermented saw-dust, Sand, ----- 2.4 " or peat may be termed azotized organic Organic matter, - - - 15.3 matter, with fixed s*lt of ammonia ;" and we Phosphate of lirne, - - - 24.5 can see no use of such to Sulphate of iime, (plaster) - 9.5 phraseology except Chloride of sodium, (salt) - 6.2 deceive.

Carbonate of lime, (chalk) - .37.6 Seeing it stated in the Southern Farmer % that Chilian guano was about to be tried on 99.5 the Model Farm of the Union Agricultural Ammonia, - - - 1.06 Having obtained thesu results, we proceeded Society, at Petersburg, Va., we wrote to the once more to Newark, and there received the Superintendent, Mr. Nichol, for infoimation following account of the modus operandi, in regard to it. He replied that it was ob- adopted in the factory: tained from Messrs. Rowlett &, Harday, of The bags are first marked "Chilian Guano;" Petersburg, who received it from Mr. S., of price they are .then moistened with water, and laid Boston. The was $40 per ton. Mr. T.. Pleasants, the guano inspector in a heap, in layers, with a quantity of Peru- S. at Peters- vian gitano between each layer. burg, informs us, that having made a chemical examination the Chilian The sugar-house scum is pounded fine. of guano, he told " Three barrowfuls, of "five half-bushels" each, Messrs. R. & H. that it was a fraud." On are then mixed with six barrowfuls of Mexican this, Messrs. R. & H. wrote to Mr. S., who replied that the opinion of Mr. Pleasants guano. To this are added 1 \ bushels common " different from other salt, 1 bushel plaster, o bushels Peruvian gu- was very gentlemen, ano, and \ bushel of quick lime. When the mentioning the names of Dr. Hayes, and the Peruvian guano and lime are added, "they Inspector at Richmond, Dr. Powell." make it tremendously strong." In other words, We have now presented the facts in regard the lime sets free the ammonia of the Peruvian to this Chilian guano manufacture, so far as gaano, and gives the manufactured Chilian we have -been able to obtain them. Our read- guano a strong smell of hartshorn, which, to ers can draw their own inferences. Even were the unreflecting, is a sure indication of a valu- the artiele itself valuable, it would be a gross able guano. deception to palm it off asgenu'ne guano; but

The floor , where the bags were filled, was the article is comparatively worthless, as oar covered with Peruvian Guano, in order to analysis fully proves. Thus a ton of it con- make the article look as like genuine guano as tains 490 lbs. insoluble phosphate of Lime, possible. which at two cents perpoinJ—a high esti- What is Chilian guano, and why is this mate—is $9.80; 124 lbs. of salt, worth say name given to it instead of the better known Si; 190 lbs. plaster, 50 cents, and 21 lbs. Peruvian guano? The only genuine Peru- ammonia at 12 cents per pound, $2,52. This vian guano in this country comes through the ib $13,82 per ton Attow'ng that non-azot-- — —

THE SOUTHERN PLANTER m ized organic matter and carbonate of lime is tleman, confirms the written opinion given the worth §1.18, we have fifteen dollars as the consignee by the Inspector, that neither lot outside value of a ton of the so-called "Chilian had ever been within 3000 miles of the coast guano." And for this the farmers are asked of Chili." $40, and are told that it i* better than Peru- From the above, no one can doubt that the vian guano. article manufactured near Newark, is the same Since writing the above, we have received as that sent from Boston and New York to the May number of the American Farmer, Baltimore. We estimated ita*" out-side val- containing the report of the Inspector of gu- ue" at §15 per ton. Dr. Stewart estimates it ano at Baltimore, Md. He says, "two lots, at $13. were told in Newark, that it had consisting of 100 bags each, were consigned We been sent to England, and the consignor avers from New York and Boston, purporting to be " ) that he was informed by Drs. Mapes and ' Chilian guano, and so marked. An average Hayes, that it commanded a high price in Eng- sample of that from New York contained am- land." Can any one doubt, therefore, that the monia 1.78 per cent. That from Boston con- " Chilian guano" referred to by Hayes and tained 2.56 per cent, ammonia, and 21.10 Mapes is the same as that described by us as phosphate of lime." This is a little more am- manufactured near Newark ? monia than we found, and a little less phosphate of lime. The analyses show, however, Thanks to Messrs. Reese and Pleasant3, the that the article is comparatively worthless, guano inspectors at Baltimore and Petersburg,

1 even taking the highest figures.' the " farmers of Maryland and Virginia have been put upon their guard against this worthless stuff, which some one at Boston has en- CHILIAN FRAUD. THE GUANO deavored to palm off upon them, upon the au- The American Farmer, published at Balti- thority, as he states, of Prof. Hayes, " As- more, Md., copies our article on the " Chilian sayer to the State of Massachusetts," and

Guano Fraud," and remarks : Prof. Mapes, of Newark. We trust, howev- " Two lots of 100 bags each, of guano pur- er, that one of these gentlemen will be able to porting to be " Chilian," were consigned to show that he has been in no wise accessory to this market from Boston and New York in this attempt at fraud. Our columns are open April, as will be seen by reference to the In- to these gentlemen, for any explanation they spectors' report for that month, published in may wish to give, of their connection with this our paper. These lots come highly recom- matter. mended, with a printed circular and analysis We also call upon the gentleman at Boston, signed by Dr. Hayes, State Assayer of Massa- who sent this spurious guano to Petersburg, chusetts, and endorsed by Dr. Mapes, Prof, of Richmond, Baltimore, &c, to inform the pub- Agricultural Chemistry, J. Af- Newark, N. lic whether he was deceived by the manufactu- ter speaking of its peculiar qualities, they say: rers of the article and by the analysis and re- ' In any application where Peruvian guano commendations of Hayes and Mapes ; and if this take its place, as its succeeds, guano may so, to come out and clear his character from is sufficient in quantity ammonia compound the stain which cannot fail to attach itself to to it a powerful fertilizer.' and condition render his "respectability," if he remains any longer letter subsequently the In a Written by con- silent. He knows where he procured the

Boston to his agent here,'af-'. ' signor from " Chilian Guano, and, if he was deceived re-

the analysis of the Inspector • ter receiving specting its character, he can easily clear him- it comparatively here, (making worthless,) he self by exposing those by whom he was de- says the Inspector must be in error, as he is ceived. Will he do it? [Country Gent. assured by Drs. Mapes and Hayes, that it is equal to the best Peruvian, and that it com- mands a high price in England. At the re- To keep Flies from Troubling Horses. quest of the Inspector, the consignee had an —It is said that walnut tea, a handful of the analysis made by Dr. Stewart, of this city leaves infused in a quart of cold water over the result of which confirmed the analysis of night, and then boiled a quarter of an hour, the Inspector, and proved its commercial value to be, as estimated by him, but $13 per tpplied with a sponge when cool, will keep flies ton, while it was held at $40, and said to be from troubling a horse. -equal to Peruvian. The result has been, that thing times. not one pound ha3 been sold in this market, We have seen this one hundred tnd the exposition made m the Country Gen- Please try it somebody. « Ed. So. Pl, ;

196 THE SOUTHERN PL AN TEE

ON THE PEA CROP. organic matter 82-£, ashes 3£ ; from 100 lbs. The committee to v»hom was referred a re- of oats he obtained, water 18, organic matter port on the value of tne pea crop for food and 19, ashes 3. for manure, have approached the subject with The same chemist shows the equivalent a full sense of its great importance to the value of several articles of food by analysis. whole system of Southern agriculture. It From 100 pounds of flesh he obtained gluten embraces within its influence results of the 29; from 100 pounds of blood he obtained highest and most desirable character in the gluten 29; from 100 pounds of peas he' ob- reproduction of soils, in rearing and sustain- tained gluten 29, unazotized matter 51 J; ing all the domestic animals connected with from 100 pounds of beans he obtained gluten the plantation, and furnishes a cheap, healthy 29, unazotized matter 52; from 100 pounds and nutritious article for human consumption: of oats he obtained gluten 10|, unazotized Leguminous plants constitute an extensive matter 68. The analysis of Indian corn by family in the vegetable kingdom, embracing Dr. Dance gave to the 100 pounds, starch, many genera and species, extending from the sugar and oil 88.33; 100 pounds gluten and rattle-box, including clover, lucerne and sain- albumen 1.26; 100 water, 9.00; 100 pounds foin, to the locust of the forest. salts, 1.31. In Northern latitudes, clover has long held From the above analysis it is most apparent its proper place as an agent in the restoration that the pea is not surpassed in value for food article, the flesh fat of soil, and as food for domestic animals ; and by any known when and like the pea, its high character not only de- forming principles are taken together. pends on its nutritive properties, its porous The usuul way of feeding the pea, in an and easily decomposed leaf and stem, but, as uncrush/sd state lessens its value as food, and your committee will hereafter show, on a de- is sometimes dangerous from the high fermen- posit of certain substances to the soil, not ne- tation which takes place before and during cessary to the perfect maturity of its seeds, assimilation ; the large quantity of carbonic but of the highest importance to the whole acid gas disengaged frequently produces cho- cereal crop, and particularly to wheat. The lic and inflammation of the intestines, which pea has long been cultivated in this district, would never occur if the pea was crushed and now forms no inconsiderable item in the into meal and fed with cut straw. provision crop; and yet, from the wasteful Nature uses the surface of the earth as a way in which the crop is consumed, its real great laboratory, in which there is a constant value as food cannot be properly appreciated. chemical action sjoing on in the restoration of To illustrate the value of the pea as food, the soil and in the production of certain sub- the committee will give its value compared stances necessary for the support of organic with other articles of food, as analyzed by life, vegetable and animal. The earth is in- different chemists. Einhoff gives the nutri- organic, possesses no positive life, no period tive matter of peas compared with grain as of growth, perfection or decline; is governed by no law, except that of affinity, and is follows, per bushel : wheat, 74.47 ; rye, 70.39 hence completely under the intellectual and barley, 63.33 ; oats, 58.23 ; beans, 68,45 ; peas, 75.49. The same chemist, from 3,840 physical control of man, in the application of parts of beans, obtamed, starch 1,805 parts; those substances necessary to its greatest fertility. Vegetable matter is more or less valu- albumen 85 1 ; mucilage, &c. 799 parts It in proportion to its suscep- is believed that the nutriment property of the able as a manure, bean differs but little from that of the pea. tibility to decomposition, and the gases and Dr. Playfair, whose analyses we will sub- other constituents they impart to the soil. mit, states that the nutrient principles of Ligneous fibre is insoluble in water, and plants are gluten and albumen, and that they in almost any other menstruum, under ordi- ohemically differ in nothing from the white nary circumstances ; the acids are decomposed of an egg, the muscle of an ox, or the blood on it, and a change of color is the only result. of sheep. He divides food into two kinds : When perfectly dried, it resists fermentation azotized and unazotised ; that is, with or altogether, and air and water decompose it without nitrogea ; the azotized is the prin- exceedingly slowly. Although the gramineous ciple forming muscular and other tissues, and and cereal classes are destitute of the ligneous the unazotized such as starch, mucilage, su- fibre, so large a quantity of silex enters into gar, oil, &c., the fat forming principle. the composition of their epidermis to give From 100 pounds of peas he' obtained strength to the plants and protect them from insects, that they v/ater 16, organic matter 80', ashes 3£ ; from the ravages of parasites and. 100 pounds of beans he obtained, water 14, are as impervious to the agents of decom THE SOUTHERN PLANTEK 197

the soil unexhausted for a grain crop, but position as the firmer ligneous fibre ; and the small quantity of medullary matter they con- adds to its fertility. It protects the surface tain renders the whole an inconsiderable of the ground from the hardening effects of means of reproduction, when taken alone, and the summer sun, and leaves the land more unmixed with other manures. Vegetable permeable to every fertilizing agent which earth or mould, depends on vegetable organi- may be brought in contact with it. agri- . ation. It is then the business of the P. Moon, Chairman. culturist to select such plants, in connection with the profits of the plantation, as oppose From the Germantown Telegraph the least resistance to the laws of putrefactive fermentation, and afford the greatest THE OSAGE ORANGE. amount of nutrient constituent to the soil, of BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILADELPHIA SO- which the pea stands preeminent, and seems intended by nature to be the principal restorer CIETY FOR. PROMOTING AGRJCULTCILE. r ads in this climate. To the Editor of the Germanlown Teh- According to the experiments of Beceari, graph.—In the report of the last meeting of gluten, so absolutely necessary to the perfect our Agricultural Society, it is stated I ex- maturity of the whole cereal crop, does not pressed the opinion that the Madura or Osage form a constituent of the seeds of leguminous Orange, pruned with the severity recommend- plants. May not that vegeto-auimal substance ed by Dr. Warder of Cincinnati, in his address te thrown off by the excretory action of the on that occasion, would not be long-lived. roots, or remain unappropriated, with the My opinion, founded on the experience of

stems and leaves, to be returned to the soil many years, is precisely the reverse : I believe by decomposition, and the well known fitness it to be in a remarkable degree adapted to of the soil for wheat after peas or clover de- hedging purposes—perhaps more so than any pend on that fact ? other plant. The doubt I did express,- im- Flour of good appearance sometimes will perfectly heard by the reporter, was, whether

not rise ; the effect is generally attributed the Honey Locust was of similar value and ; and

to the mill, or an unskilful miller ; when in I do very much doubt its adaptation to bodges, truth the land on which the wheat is grown is to which it has been applied. While on the at fault, affording none of the material of contrary the Maclura has every good quality

which gluten is formed, or the grain has been to commend it : hardiness, vigorous growth, injured by slight fermentation, the effect of endurance of the shears without disease or unskilful stacking, or other causes. The pea morbid growth being induced, acrid juice erop in such lands never fails to restore the which protects it against the attack of insects, exhausted constituents of the soil, and insures pungent spines, and disposition to branch a well matured grain crop. when "cut in"—these and other qualities indi- Plants of the same species or kind should cate it as a plant which, it might almost be never follow each other. The wide-spread said, nature had designed for protecting the ruin, common to every plantation in the dis- labors of the huebandmar. trict, may be attributed to the planting cotton While on this subject, will you indulge me after cotton, till the over-taxed soil refuses with space for a few incidental remarks on the longer to produce. Your committee are of original application of the Maclura to hedging opinion that a judicious rotation of crops purposes ? During the administration of Mr. aided by ditching, subsoil ploughing and ma- Jefferson the Western Exploring Expedition, nuring, would speedily change the face of the known historically as Lewis & Clark's, was district—that worn-out spots and gutties would made, and resulted, among other things then disappear, and every acre of Ian 3 retirn an considered of vastly more importance, in the ample reward to the laborer. discovery of this tree, in the Osage country, There can be no doubt but that the pea which, from its use by the Indians, they named should be made the basis of that rotation. "bow wood." A few seeds collected by them The pea is of rapid growth, comes quickly to reached Philadelphia, and from one of those perfe tion, . v nary circumstances, seeds was produced the noble specimen still

- -'-,•.- I i t beaver; and is particularly standing in the rear of my father's old home- rich ir> those constituents on which the for- stead on Federal street. Its pendent branches - '- !/-', :,: . ids. It yj cae of and deep g,^een glossy foliage, which no insect those plants possessing fleshy leaves, a soft Would approach, was for many years the ad- and porous stem, a d makes large demands on rogation of all who visited the nurseries. For the atmosphere for food It not caly leaves same considerable time the enly mode of its ; — '

198 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER increase was by cuttings of the root, placed alone. The plants are also raised in large in pots under glass, and in that way some quantities, and set out and trained at a stipu- thousands were produced, which, from their lated sum per rod, by parties who travel from great variety, were deemed of sufficient im- farm to farm. The attention of Europeans is portance to be exported to Europe in charge also directed to it, and it is presumed for the of a special agent sent out by' the late D. & same purpose, as within a few weeks I have 0. Landreth, who disposed of them in London, filled an order from the " continent" for a con- and they now doubtless decorate the pleasure siderable quantity of seed. grounds of our ar^stoeratie cousins. The pa- Thus, Mr. Editor, from an accidental cir- rent tree in course of time flowered and pro- cumstance, have important results ensued; duced abundance of fruit, which, from the and we may, in reference to it, apply one of circumstance of the specimen being pistilifer- the early lessons

1 ous, was imperfect. At a later period, an- "Big oaks from little acorns u'row.' other tree "of similar origin, planted at the DAVID LANrJRETH; seed grounds on Fifth street, produced stauii- Bfoomsdale, March 24, 1855. niferous flowers; which, as an experiment, were cut off with the branches attached, carefully CAD EFFECTS OF GRASS OK COLTS. wrapped in sheets, and conveyed to the female When horses are turned out to grass m the distance of miles, when, tree, a two greatly to spring of the year, the succulent nature of the the delight of all acquainted with (he made food causes them to purge, often to a great fact, many bushels of "oranges," each with extent, ; this is considered by many persons a perfect seed, was the result ! About the same most desirable event.—a great misconception. time, trees at McMahon's nursery also pro- The herbage is overcharged with sap and duced seed, and the supply of plants vapidly • moisture, of a crude, acrimonious nature, . to increased, faster than the demand for orna- such an extent that all cannot be taken up by they mental purposes, to which had hitherto the organs destined for the secretion of urine, been solely devoted. or by the absorbent vessels of the body ; the father, perceiving the pronii^e of the My superfluous fluid therefore passes oft* through Madura as a hedge plant, used some hundreds the intestines with the indigestible particles of* of surplus ones to (ill open spaces in hedges food, and thus the watery faeces arc thrown English hawthorn, which he had set out in of off. Flatulent colic or gripes is a frequent accordance with his early tastes, many years attendant. The system is deranged ; but the previously. As he had anticipated, they mischief does not terminate here. If the impenetrable mass, and established formed an purging is continued, a constitutional relax- as the best of all plants it in his opinion, for ation of the bowels is established, very debili- hedges. Many. thousands were produced with tating to the animal, and often difficult to • a view to their sale for that purpose, and at- control. I am so decidedly opposed to an tention was called to them in various ways unrestricted allowance of luxuriant grass Ur among others, I (then a youth) wrote several horses at any age, that nothing could induce the which re- articles on subject, were widely me to give it to them. After the. second year published, especially in the west, where the hay should form a considerable portion of the means of enclosing prairie binds were of pri- daily food in summer to every animal intended mary interest. This may have been about for hunting or riding. 1828. Really, my dear Mr. Editor, I fear If a horse is supported entirely upon the you and I are approaching that state which grass which he collects in a rich pasture field, "young America" irreverently terms "old or upon that which may bo cut and carried to fogies."* him in his paddock, he must consume a much*

Since then the ; Madura has been slowly greater bulk than- of hay in an equivalent gaining in popular favor, and the seeds and time, to afford nourishment to the system. plants have become articles of considerable Grass being very full of sap and moisture, it are annually collected trade. The former now is very rapidly digested, consequently the to extent, it is in Arkansas and Texas, the horse must be continually eating it. This said, of thousands of bushels, and from reli- distends the stomach and the bowels, and the able statements it is supposed two hundred- faculty of digestion is impaired; for the di- thousand dollars are yearly expended in this gestive powers require rest as well as other country, principally in the west, for the seed organs of the body, if they are to be preserved in perfect condition. By the custom of grazing, the muscular system is enfeebled, and fat * Our correspondent will oblige us by speaking for himself, and not nitixing «« up in Ms affairs is substituted This mav escape the notice — ~s~"

THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 199 of superficial observers, who do not mark the ever carefully it may be spread along his distinction between the appearance of a fat manger, will soon learn to drive it into a heap and a muscular animal ; who conceive, so that with his uose, and collect as much with his the cones are covered and the points are lips as he thinks lit before he begins to masti- rounded, all that is requisite has been at- cate. Whatever food enters ihe stomach of tained. But that is a very fallacious impres- any animal, and passes away in an undigested sion. Let any person who is sceptical on this form, may be considered as so much dross or point ride a horse in the summer which has extraneous matter, which, not having afforded just been taken out of a grass field, along with nourishment, is prejudicial, to tkf creature another kept on hay and corn, at the moderate which consumed it. A mistaken notion of

rate of seven or eight miles in the hour ; the economy is often the incentive to turning grass-fed horse will sweat profusely, while the horses out in summer, to be entirely depen- other will be perfectly cool and dry. This dent upon grass for their support. A few re- proves that the system of the one eating grass marks will surely dispel that error. Twenty- over-abounds with fat and those portions of two bushels of oats—allowing one bushel per the blood which are destined to form that week from the 15th of May to the 3.6th of deposit. October—may be as the produce of half an Those who advocate grazing will no doubt acre of land, and half a ton of hay that of " another half acre, although a ton and. a half exclaim, Oh i this is a test of condition which is not required in young and growing per acre is not more than an average crop. animals.'' I beg to state that it is highly im- It requires at least an acre of grass land to portant if the acme of condition is to be at- support a horse during the period above tained by animals of mature age, that the named. Mark Lane Express. growth and gradual development of their frames should be composed of those healthy MANAGEMENT OF GREENHOUSE PLANTS. and vigorous elements upon which the struc- BY AN EXTENSIVE PRACTITIONER. * ture of future condition can be raised. Ani- mal substances are to a very great extent Greenhouse plants should never be supplied subservient to the nature and quality of the with much water in wet or frosty weather, and food with which the individuals are nourished. none unless the soil in the pots becomes dry. I believe farmers would find it much to their This rule must be particularly attended to, advantage if they were to consider this sub- from the beginning of November till the end ject with reference to feeding cattle and sheep, of February. BO that they might select those kinds of food In March, the plants may be occasion- which abound with properties more conducive ally syringed overhead to clean and refresh the to fie3h than fat. There is no kind of food leaves, but always select fine days for the pur- which the horse consumes which has not a pose ; and let this, as well as the general wa- tendency to deposit fat. It is a substance terings, be done in the morning, from the mid- which must exist to a certain extent : but as dle of September to the beginning of May, it ie muscular power, not a disposition to adi- and at all other times in the evenings. pose rotundity, which enhances the value of As the season advances, and the weather the animal, the reasons are obvious what becomes milder, increase- the quantity of air, guide should be taken in the selection of until, by the middle of May, a large portion food. of air may be left on all night, except in case I have on a former occasion hinted the proof severe frost. And this rule of admitting priety of bruising the oats, and I will now air must be attended to throughout the winter

state my reasons for doing so. The first I at every convenient opportunity ; but always will mention is economy. Three bushels of make a practice of shutting up early in the oats which have undergone that process are afternoon. equivalent to four which have not, and the Always keep the plants clean, and perfectly

animals which consume them derive greater free from dead leaves and weeds ; this naust be benefit. Various schemes are adopted to in- particularly attended to in the winter season. duce horses to masticate their corn, all of About the beginning of March repot all the which are ineffectual. Scattering them thinly plants that require it, and top-dress the re- over the surface of a spacious manger, mixing mainder with good fresh soil. Some free-grow- a handful of cut hay or straw with each feed, ing kinds may require potting two or three aad such like devices, will not cajole the ani- times in the course of the summer, but the mal to the performance of mastication. A last potting should never be later than the mid- horse that \?. di=po°ed to oclt his com, how- dle of September. — —;;

200 THE SOUTHERN PLANTEK

As greenhouse plants differ materially from Propagation.—The propagation of green- each other in habits, so also the soil suitable house plants must be performed at different for them must vary in proportion.- For a gen- times of the year, according to the nature and eral idea on the subject, the following, with habits of the plants, and the state of growth some few exceptions, will probably be found in which the cuttings will strike with the great-

pretty near the mark : est freedom. All plants whose branches are fragile, and Some grow the best when the wood is quite roots of a fine thready fibrous texture, with young and tender, as Fuchsia, Andcrsonia, general habits like Erica, as Diosma, Ancler- Ad&tdndra, etc.; others when it begins to as- sonia, Epacris, etc., will require the same soil sume a brownish color, called half ripened, as (peat earth,) and very similar treatment to Heliotropium, Goodeneia, Pimelia, etc.; and Cape Heaths. others when it has become quite hard and Those whose wood and general habits par- ripe, as Araucaria,,. Aulax, Melaleuca, etc. tially differ, and whose roots are of a stronger But as a general rule, half-ripened cuttings texture, as Accacia, Ardisia, Stenocarpus, will do the best. Some plants, however, wdl etc., will require a portion of sandy loam—in not grow from cuttings of the stem at all many cases about equal parts ; and where the these are propagated by cutting off large pieces habits, etc. differ materially from the heath, of the roots, planting them in pots of" soil, only a small portion of peat earth will be re- and plunging them in a little bottom heat, as quired, and the compost maybe made a little some species of Accacia, etc. rich by the addition of well rotted dung. All hard-wooded plants make roots best in Almost all Cape and other bulbs, as Spar- clear sand, but soft-wooded kinds should be etc., thrive best in axis, a mixture of light planted in a mixture of loam ; therefore after rich sandy loam, leaf-mold, and a little peat. well draining the pots or pans intended to re-

Shrubby and herbaceous plants, with luxuriant ceive the cuttings, fill them, according to the roots and branches, as Myrtus, etc., require nature of the plants to be propagated. On rich loam, lightened with leaf-mold Plants no account plant soft-wooded and hard-wooded with powerful roots and but slender heads, as cuttings in the same pot. Veronica, Senecio, etc., require a light sandy Some sorts will not grow readily without a soil, mixed with a small portion of leaf-mold little bottom heat. Plunge the pots in a cu- and very rotten dung. cumber frame, or pit of any kind, where thej

Never pot the plants in a soil too wet ; it is will receive the benefit of warmth. better to keep the soil rather dry than other- After putting in the cuttings, give them a wise. Nor ever sift the soil, but. chop and gentle sprinkling of water through a fine rose ; break it as fine as possible, because sifting de- keep the frame as cfosely shut down as can be prives it of the fibrous particles, among which until the cuttings are struck, which will be in the roots grow very rapidly. Always in pot- about three weeks or a month, with some few ting give a good drainage with broken pots. exceptions. Look them over, and water as In the beginning of June the plants may often as they require it. be removed to their summer station, out of Those sorts requiring to be covered with doors. Always place them in an aspect screened bell or hand glasses will require to have the from the effects of the mid-day sun, but yet glasses taken off occasionally and wiped, to where they will be able to receive the sun mor- prevent the cuttings from being injured by

ning and evening ; while in this situation they damp. must be supplied with water as often as they When the cuttings have struck root and are require it. beginning to grow, then pot them in small pots

In the beginning of September again exam- filled with soil suitable to then* nature ; replace ine them throughout, and pot all that require them for a while in the frame, and gradually

it, and top-dress the remainder ; by no means expose them to the air. until they bear the tem- let this be done later than the middle of Sep- perature and treatmeut of the other plants in tember, or the plants wdl not have time to re- the greenhouse. cover before winter. Sow the seed of greenhouse plants in pans Not later than the first week in October, or pots filled with a light soil, as early in tin 1 prepare to remove them back into the green- spring as possible place the pots in a very ; house. Clean and properly tie them up, pre- gentle heat, keep the soil damp by covering with vious to setting them on the stage. moss, and occasionally sprinkling with water After they are removed again to the house, and when they are about an inch high, pot give them abundance of air, day and night, and them oft' into small-sized pots, and treat them

continue gradually to d< crease it as the wea- in t]iftfl»njafat6jaiiei '.s ewttirigs. FloHadt'i ther becomes colder. ral Cabinet. THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 2QI

For the Southern Planter. run a furrow on each side of this trench, which USEFUL HINTS FOR VIRGINIA GARDENERS. throws the dirt over upon it and makes a ridge, which is finished off with the hoe. On this BY E. G. EGGELHSG. ridge the seed are put, about an inch deep and from six to eight inches apart. To prevent the The mouth of July is one of the hottest of soil over the seeds from encrusting, cover the year, but is nevertheless important to lightly with old tan or manure or trash, and in the gardener as the season of preparation for two or three days the plants will be up. Should all the crops of the fall and winter. all come up they will need to be thinned so Celery. —The season for setting out the as to leave them twelve inches apart. This, plants is about the first of August, but the however, should not be done until they begin beds in which they are to be placed should be to run, as many are likely to die out. The made now. Dig trenches six or eight inches Pickling Cucumber should be sown as deep and from four to five feet wide, with best suited for the pickling tub. spaces between the beds equal to the beds Iu like manner may be sown inuskiueious, themselves. In removing the soil from the cantelopes and gherkins, but in different parts trenches throw half to each side, to be used of the garden, or else the seeds will be in earthing at the proper time. After the deteriorated. trench is opened fill with good old manure Plants. These were planted last to the depth of four or five inches and spade Egg — month. They are liable to the attacks of it in, pulverizing the ground thoroughly. The numerous insects, whose approaches and ravages bed is then ready for use. It is probable that must be prevented. The only agencies which a crop of weeds will spring up between this have been found useful are trash tobacoo or and the planting season. If so, they can soot. These should be applied before the be eradicated by hoeing, and it is much better insects appear, as once they have obtained that they appear now than afterwards. when a footing among the plants they are not easily Cabbages.-—This is the best period for dislodged. Here, indeed, ;< an ounce of pre- planting cabbages for fall and winter use. In vention is worth a pound of cure." setting out plants in this month it is advised Irish Potatoes. Every year the people of to select soil moderately rich, worked very — Virginia cities are compelled to rely deep. The disadvantage of putting cabbages our upon importations from the North for their supplies at this season into very rich soil is, that they of this excellent root, when a little care and naature too early, and either burst after they prudence would enable Virginia fanners and have headed or rot. If the plants arc not gardeners to raise any quantity. Those that Set out in this month, then rich soil is best planted in the year to hasten their growth. Let the rows be were early mature about this time and will not keep through the winter. three fret apart, with two feet between At this time, however, they may be planted. each plant. To make sure '•:' every plant that is set out, the following very simple and such as are will keep just as well as any that are brought into the State, abroad. process should be adopted: Make a hole in from thing deserves to be noted in cOnnectibh the ground and fill with water, add soil thereto One with planting the seeds. Many persons eut and stir and mix together until a thick mud is formed. Then take the plants and dip the potato iutp as many pieces as there are 1 them into the mud moving them about therein eyes and put them at once into m ground : There is no harm in cutting the potato, until every root of every plant is coated with kept the mud. Then put the plants in their places but the pieces should be exposed to the. and they will thrive despite the heat of the atmosphere until the wounded part is healed,

is, until has dried : otherwise, sun or the drought. By attending to this that the cut place direction gardeners will be spared the necessity the pieces are apt to rot, and the decay invariably begins just where the sap remains upon of replanting, a- ;i plant thus treated rarely fails to grow. the cut surface.

Cucumbers.— Such as are planted at this . It is usually very difitcult, at this season season are not intended for table use but of the year, to procure potatoes for planting, for pickling purposes. The old fashion of and many persons believe that it is impossible planting them is to make hills, but there to preserve them in our climate through the i another and as wo think better way. Our summer. These are mistaken. They can be custom is to open a furrow with the plow six or kept, as we shall show in a future issue of the eight inches deep. Into this is put very old Planter. At present these directions would Manure, three or four inches thick, which is avail nothing. All that we say now is, plant well mixed with the soil by the spade. Then potatoes for the. winter. —

202 THE SOUTHERN PL ANTE.

Tomatoes. —It is usual with most persons sian Silesia, owned by Messrs. Fischer (father to let the vines lay upon the ground, much and son,) the foundation of which—one hun- to their injury, and to the injury of the fruit dred ewes and four rams—the senior partner during the hot season. To obviate the evil to procured from the Infantado Nfgretti flock, in which we refer, without the great trouble of Spain, in 1811. From this selection, the pre- staking the mass of vine, we merely raise the sent flock has been wholly bred—no blood vines and place under them brush, which from any other sheep having been admitted answers just as well. The brush, which, for forty-four years. This item deserves par- till now, has supported the pea vines, may ticular attention from its influence in estab- be used. lishing a peculiar character for the flock, and Strawberries.—It is very much the fashion as showing that benefit may result from a ju- in this region, with cultivators of strawberries, dicious course of breeding from animals moro to neglect the strawberry beds, when the fruit or less allied by consanguinity. The flock has of the year has been gathered. Walk in some latterly averaged 600 head, the surplus being gardens and look at the beds, and not a plant is annually disposed of at nigh prices to breeders to be seen because of the weeds. This is from Hungary, Russia, and other countries. a fatal error. The beds should be kept scrupu- Messrs. Campbell & Sanford purchased lously clean, and the surface of the ground loose from the flock of Messrs. Fischer, forty ewes and light to assist the runners in rooting. and several rams, which they brought to this This occurs during the month, and to have country. We had the opportunity of exami- fruit of good quality from the new plantations ning these at Troy, N. Y., shortly after their the spring after they are made, care should be arrival, while they were on their way to Ver- taken to plant out only one runner from each mont. Although then in low condition from • of the old plants, and that the first one the effects of their long confinement, we were which appears. Others will make their struck with the many valuable traits txTey ex- appearance but they should be cut off, so hibited, and in an article written at that time as to give the one that is allowed to root all expressed the opinion that they would prove the nourishment which it can derive from an acquisition to the country—an opinion which the parent stock. It may be, however, that subsqquent experience has fully confirmed. the gardener does not wish to make new planta- We quote the following as giving a good de- tions, and in that event none of the runners scription of these sheep, from Mr. Sanford's should be spared, but as fast as they appear notes of his European tour, published in the they should be removed. Albany Cultivator, in 1851 : They (the breeders) have always had two things fleece. These SILESIAN MERINO SHEEP. uppermost : constitution and weight of sheep have more good points than any that I have In oar last week's paper, mention was made ever met with before. They are clothed in wool of the shearing of some Silesian Merino sheep, from the nose to the hoof. The wool is thickly on the farm of Wm. Chamberlain, Esq., of set. and an even surface. They possess what all good breeders in Germany consider very essential Red Hook, N. Y. As this variety of sheep —a perfect wool staph-. The wool hair being of will probably occupy for time to come, a pro- the same size all the way—the wool as thick on minent position with the wool-growers of tin's the out'end as it is near the body. They are very country, we deem it proper to note some points careful about keeping up the thickness of the wool, ord-er to get the greatest weight of fleece. They in regard to its history, in connection with in prefer wool about the medium length. If they get facts having more special reference to the spe- it too long it becomes thin and flabby, parts on the cimens which came under out- examination on back, and they lose in weight. They say it is much the occasion alluded to. easier to get length than it is to retain thickness. In 1851, Mr. George Campbell, of West The sheep will shear as much according to the weight of carcass, I am sure, as any sheep I ever Westminster, Vt., in company with Mr. Wm. saw. There is no waste space on them, and the R. Sanford. of Orwell, in the state, tra- same wool is quite fine for Merino, and very thickly set. velled through Spain, France, and several of The wool is very clean and white on the inside, but the German States, for the purpose of seeing quite dark on the outer ends. the fine wooled sheep of those countries. In We believe Mr. Chamberlain was connected Germany they were so fortunate as to obtain with Mr. Campbell in the importation above the personal aid of Mr. Charles L. Fleischman, referred to. Since then these gentlemen have then American Consul at Stutgard, whose thor- associated with themselves Mr. Wm. H. Ladd, ough knowledge of the sheep husbandry of that of Richmond, Jefferson county, Ohio, for fur- region was of great importance to them iu ther importing and breeding these sheep. Mr. accomplishing their object. Among the cele- Chamberlain has been himself to Silesia, and brated flocks thev examined, was one in Prus- made additional purchases from Messrs. Fis- :

THE SOUTHERN PLAN TEE. 208

importations December last, was suckled till April 2d. when it cher, i A partoi' the late have die been taken to the farm of Mr. Ladd, in Ohio, a. No. 89: 2 years old; fleece 11 months growth, part are kept by Mr. Campbell, and the re- weighed 7 lbs. 12 ox.; has not yet lambed. mainder by Mr. Chamberlain. Some rams No. 326: 3 years old ; fleece 11 months growth, have been sold and taken to different sections weighed 9 lbs. 5 6z.; carcass 84 lbs • her land-) drop- of the country. There are 101 ewes and sev- ped 23d April, not weighs d. eral rams at Mr. Chamberlain's. About sixty These were all the ewas whose fleeces we of the ewes had lambed at the time of our took particular note of. They were not shear- visit. few lambs had been lost, but the A ed very closely ; in some instances it was loss was more than made up by twins, so that thought half a pound more wool might have the lambs reared would outnumber the ewes. been got from a sheep. None of the lambs We examined many of these sheep very were weaned. The following was the only ram closely before they were shorn, noticed partic- weighed : ularly their shape and appearance after the No. 13: -5 years old: got over 100 lambs last fall wool was taken off, and carefully examined — fleece 13 months growth, weighed 1,4 lbs, 12 oz.-. their fleeces before they were tied up. The carcass 125 lbs.

sheep appear to excel in the following points : Messrs. Chamberlain, Campbell >x Ladd 1st, it stands the thickness of the wool as on desire to state that they would cleanse the fleece the skin, growing to an unusual extent on the of this ram, and put it in market for dollars and belly, giving an aud covering every part, un- cents in proportion to weight of carcass, to common weight of fleece in proportion the against any fleece of thirteen months' growth the carcase; 2d, the fineness the sta- size of of taken from any ram in America the present ple considered in reference to the weight of season.

fleece ; 3d, the uniform character of the fleece, The wool in all the above fleeces was clean, the wool on the belly and thighs approximating, for unwashed. Mr. Ladd, who has, had much to degree, the quality of that on a remarkable experience, both as a producer and dealer in the back; 4th, the fullness (uniform size of wool, thought a deduction of thirty per cent. the pile throughout its whole length.) even- would bring the fleeces into u merchan table ness, aud elasticity of the staple. On parting condition— a condition in which wool of that the wool on the body of the animal, it appears, quality has sold for the last ten your,- at fifty to use Mr. Fieisehnian's expression, " as a uni- to sixty cents per pound. formly woven' cloth."* . It should be added It is claimed that, with most fir As of the that the sheep are well shaped they Lave ra- ; country, a cross of a Sile^iau ram t,u ewes of ther small bones, and the body is symmetrical any other variety of Merinocs. will increase I he and pleasing to the eye. The different indi- weight of fleece in the progeny a pound per viduals also bear a close resemblance to each head, or upwards, over the stock to which the other, showing that their characteristics are ewes belonged, and that, except with the finest thoroughly in-bred. They appear to have very Saxon, the quality will be improved. Mj. good constitution?. Mr. Chamberlain is in- Chamberlain, has crossed the Silesem with the clined to think they would bear the usage com- French,, and Mr. Campbell with both the monly giyen flocks iu the country, better than French and Spanish—the latter b^jrjng been the French sheep, and this opinion is the re- long hi the country—anjd fcljpj assure us that sult of several years' experience with both. the jjesults correspond to the above statemenj:. We took the following memoranda in regard In corroboration of their sfpjtearents, we take to seven ewes. They were unwashed— the the following from remarks made at one pf the jreiglit of carcase was taken after shearing : agricultural discussions at the State HousPj in ';! No. : 3 years old.; fleece ;U months growth, this city, last year, by Mr. llnssell, represen- >/. weighed. 8 3 : carcass, 70 lis.; lbs. weight of her tative from Pittsfield. The pojn.avks '\e,\; pub- lamb, dropped 20th December last, 51 Ids'. lished by us at the time : N©". 100: 2 years old; fleece 11 months growth,

- i weighed 7 lbs. 8 bz; carcass 73 lbs.: weight of her jh' (Mr. ft.) spoke of the .vii. ;ht •;.. ..inch

lamb dropped 20th December last, 54 lbs. he regaided perfect as to form, v, ii h ,t, 25 Fbs. ish (the siro being s Silesian ram bred by Mr- 150- Campbell) which averaged five poinds of n ashed No. 3 years old ; fleece 11 months growth, weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz; carcass 771bs.; weight of her wool per head, that sold for si Jy-iU:v.- merits a lamb dropped 13th December last, 45 lbs. pound. The sheep wei e weighed after being shorn, _ '&. 8 years old; fleece 11 months growth, arid none of them weighed over sixty-one,pounds '') each; one which weighed only forty-four pounds, lb'- i ghed , lbs., iarab dropped 17th 2''ve lour pounds and thirteen ounces of wool, *,Pafcent V - ieporifo: l84T,p27& v.astft"! a.- clean as it could be im co-Id water. 204 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER

THREE WELD SYSTEM AND STANDING the land in corn, a crop much mbre certain PASTURE. than the wheat crop. The rotation consists of having land divided With

grass, garlick, bushes, &c. : and if the land is light it may be done with I would premise that this system of rota- single ploughs. And although the farmer this tion is based upon the supposition that the may by system require a good plough land has been thoroughly limed or marled, or team, yet this spring ploughing affords him a that it is sufficiently calcareous, in order that better opportunity of getting in his wheat by at least and of gather- it may decompose the vegetable matter which the middle of October eight before the may be added to the soil. This rotation ing his corn some six or weeks which I have adopted this year, after some end of the year, which time can be devoted to manuring his corn land, and of accelerating deliberation—(having relinquished the five field system) has been preferred from the fact his crop in order that he may be ready to I had often noticed the growth of wheat after commence his fallow for peas. This rotation corn, and the great labor and difficulty of consists of wheat, corn, peas : the wheat following the peas which are fallowed in the land putting in a crop of wheat after corn ; tho of land. cutting down of the corn and its removal from for the benefit the wheat and the field, occupied so long a time, that it was The great advantage gained by this rotation impossible to get the wheat in the land in is not only the fallow of peas for the wheat, time, added to the fact that I had never seen which I consider the very best vegetable mat- a crop of wheat succeeding corn produce as ter that can be given to the land, but the much as the land would have done under advantage gained on the early seeding of th» other circumstances. Another reason why I wheat crop, by which the ravages of the joint have abandoned the five field system of rota- worm can the more easily be overcome, and the tion is the innumerable quantities of briars, early maturing of the wheat, by which the garlick and wire-grass, which are constantly rust and other diseases of the crop may be springing up on the land, causing too much avoided. That this rotation will suppress, labor to remove them before cultivation, as (if not entirely eradicate) wire-grass, garlick well as the great difficulty of getting a stand and bushes, there cannot be*a doubt as it is of corn, arising from the undecayed vegeta- admitted that any crop which will effectually ble matter which remains in the soil, and from shade the land for any length of time must the length of time which has elapsed since the suppress the growth of wire-grass, and the field had been in a hoed crop. And still crop of peas and the wheat crop, being both another objection to the five field system shading crops, its suppression must be the arises from the fact there is only one-fitth of consequence. And the third crop being a . : ' /

THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 205

hoed crop mu3t destroy the grass as well as spring and a crop of peas sown over the field; kill the garlick and bushes which are constant- all of which must become, if it should be ly springing up on the land. generally adopted, a certain and sure preven- That this rotation will admit of the most tive against the ravages of the joint worm. profit to the farmer, there cannot be a doubt, We live in an age of progress—and I leave as it gives two-third of the arable land for it to the candor of all to say if the five or six cultivation, while the five or six field only field system of rotation has not too much of

gives three-fifths ; and we know the true secret "the Old Fogyism" about it for "Young of all successful agriculture is to draw from America," who cannot wait to accomplish in the soil to its utmost capacity of production, five what can be done in three.

consistent with its uniform and ' progressive My ideas have been hastily thrown together improvement—and that it will admit of suc- and written, and my mind drawn to this sub- cessful improvement can be easily demonstra- ject by a communication in the last Planter ted, as all the manures which are now in use from my friend, Dr. John R. Baylor, of Caro- ibr the improvement of land can now be line, whose energy, industry and scientific used, with the exception of clover, which is farming has not an equal in Eastern Virginia. substituted by the much more nutritious pea. I hope the above suggestions will meet his Peas belong to the leguminous class of plants wants. * * * and their leaves and pods are larger than any Forest Hill, other plant used for the improvement of the King 4" Queen Co. soix, consequently they draw a larger quantity of the nseful nitrogenous matter from the THE SHORT HORNS AS MILKERS atmosphere ; which when ploughed in the. land The Society of Shakers at Pleasant Hill, are more easily decomposed and give up their Mercer Co., Ky., have sent seventy-four pedi- valuable substance for the food of plants. grees to the second volume of the American In adopting this system of rotation, the Herd Book, now about to be published. Ac- farmer can much more readily improve his companying their pedigrees they say : "Some land with lime, marl, guano, plaster, &c, from of the cows have been named as distinguished the fact that pea^ will give all the necessary milkers ; others again that have scarcely less organic manures to be decomposed by these merit have not been mentioned. Here, cows inorganic elements added to the soil. And that do not, with the care and attention given again the improvement must be much more them, give 24 quarts of milk a day, are not rapid, from the fact that it can be accom- esteemed ordinary milkers, and those that give plished in three instead of five or six years. 34 quarts a day are among the very best. In the spring an application of lime can be But greatly improved stock implies greatly made upon the corn land, guano can be used improved means and manner of feeding and in much smaller quantities upon the peas, caring for them. Take an extra or a good having seen a better result from one hundred cow, and let her suffer cold, hunger, and other pounds of guano on peas, than three hundred privations for a considerable time, and what upon land without peas. And in every will she be ? Some say keep is everything in instance one bushel of plaster to the acre the improvement of stock. This is not the should be used upon the peas when they have fact, but it is a considerable item in it. Great fully attained their leaves. pains and care in crossing are necessary to Now that joint worm has made its appear- improvement; but this is, to some consider- ance in Eastern Virginia, I can the more able extent, unavading without improved means confidently recommend this system of rota- of keeping, and the manner of caring for tion upon the light and alluvial lands of this them." Here, then, is the whole story in a aection, as the surest means of their destruc- nut-shell, as the experience of this unpretend- tion. As it has a hoe crop and a green crop ing, pains-taking community have proved the for fallowing, the two succeeding years after Short Horns for thirty years. it has been in wheat, by which the worm is Among their cows stands Rozilla, and in a not permitted to commit its ravages the follow- note attached to her pedigree is written ing spring after the wheat crop has been "This cow was calved in 1839. She 'is re- removed, and as the land has been grazed in markable for health and great constitutional the fall, ploughed early the following spring powers, as well as for the quantity and quality before the young worm is hatched, and tho- of her milk, and she is yet living in apparent roughly worked in corn, it would seem that good health. She has given birth to 13 thia enemy must be destroyed. But added to calves, and is soon to have another. The this, the Seld is again ploughed the following arly maturity of this stock is no argument —; —— THE SOUTHERN PLANTER* against its longevity. For years of her prime rious actions of the conditions which must ber Roxilla gave 32 quarts of milk per day for united in the unnatural state of animals fed or after months calving, and fell off but little fattened in order to produce flesh ; and the ad- comparatively afterwards—never going dry vantages attaining its use can hardly be esti- between times of giving birth to her calves mated too highly." and her thirteen calves will compare well with The experiments of Boussingault have often those of any other cow." been alluded to, as indicating that salt by

"We knew another Short . Horn cow some no means exercises a blneficial influence upon years ago, belonging to Mr. Stevens, of the growth of cattle, and upon the development Batavia, N. Y., which in her prime, gave 39 of flesh, to the extent usually ascribed to it. quarts in a day, for several days in succession, His more recent experiments, however, result grass on only. Our informants were John S. in favor of salt. Thus, two lots of steers, of Ganson and Pardon C. Sbermau, now residents three each, were fed on hay for 13 months, of Buffalo, then living in Batavia, who saw one lot being allowed salt, the other not. her milked. The two sisters of this cow, at The average weight per head of the salted? the same thne^ gave—one 28 and the other lot, at the commencement of the experiment, 32£ quarts ; and a daughter of one of them, was 655 pounds; at the end of 13 months, years old, first two with her calf, gave 22 2,090 lbs. Increase 1,135 lbs. They con- quarts; and the daughter of the other, three sumed per head 15,972 lbs. of hay. One tor> years old, gave over 26 quarts. This was in of hay, therefore, produced 143 lbs. of in- June, 1841. The above old cow was Prin- crease of animal. cess IV, (recorded page 216 of the first The second lot, which received no salt, av- volume of the American Herd Book,) got by eraged at the commencement of the experiment Monk (1249,) E. H. B. We saw her a few 896 lbs; at the end of 13 months. 1,890. In- years afterward, at the age of .-.nineteen years, crease 994 lbs. They consumed per head then a large, vigorous, healthy cow, heavy 'in 14,553 lbs. of hay. Or one ton of hay pro- calf—which was her last one. She diJtl or duced 137 lbs. of increase of animal. was fed and slaughtered, at the age of 20 years. The steers receiving salt • produced 6 lbs, In June, 1844, we saw a fine, large Short more increase for each ton of hay consumed Horn cow, also called Princess, on the farm than those which were not allowed salt. This of Messrs. Wells and Pacli Lathrop, at South may be considered only a slight advantage, Hadley Palls, Mass., which was then nineteen and in France did not pay for the cost of salt r years old. The preceding October sho drop- in this country, however, where it is much ped a fine, large calf, which, with its dam, wtis cheaper, 'its use will doubtless, be profitable. doing remarkably well. Will any show one Boussingault remarks " the salt exercises no us thre*e native cows equal to the above for considerable influence on the growth, yet it ap- age, breeding ami milking ? pears to exert a beneficial effect on the appear-, ance and condition of the animal." Up to- S3 VLT IN FKEDLJNG CATTJLK. the first fourteen days, no perceptible difference lots but in the Prom some slight and inconclusive experi- v,-as observed between the two ; ments of our own, as well as from physiologi- course of the month following, the difference cal" considerations, we have had our doubts was visible even to the unpracticed eye. I* whether it was good economy to allow animals. the beasts of both lots, the skin to the touch steers feedingfor the butcher, the free use of salt. was fine and sourfd, but the hair in the " 6? Salt is doubtless conducive to health, favoring having salt was smooth and shining; that the formation of bile, and aiding in carrying the others dull and erect." As the experiment became still more pro- off offensive matter froom the system ; but there progressed, these signs " lot, is no reason to suppose that it favors the ac- minent. In the animals of the second hah? cumulation of fat. Liebig, -indeed, asserts after they had had no salt for a year, the there' de- that " the absence of common salt is favorable was matted, and the skin here and to the formation of fat," and that the " fatten- void, of hair. Those of the first lot on the beasts. ing of an animal is rendered impossible when contrary, retained the look of stall kept of we add to its food an excess of salt, although Their liveliness and frequent indications «hort of the quantity required to produce a the tendency to leap, contrasted strikingly witli

obserr i purgative effect." Recently, however, in al- the heavy gait and cold temperament " lusion to experiments made since the publica- ved in those of the second lot. There' can tion of the work in which the above sentencs soc- bo no doubt," Boussingault adds, "that a higher " obtained in the market cur, Liebig says : Salt does not act as a price would have been under the influence of salt." producer of flesh ; but it neutralizes the inju- for the oxen reared —: ' — —

THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 207

PRESERVATION OF WHEAT FROM THE AT- EMERY'S SEED PLANTER AND DRILL TACK OF THE WEEVIL. BARROW. I have used this drill in planting corn the Numerous remedies Lave been proposed to list two years, with great advantage. It protect wheat from the destructive ravages of plants the corn with accuracy, dropping from the weevil, but most of them have been one to five grains at distances varying from impracticable or too expensive. M. Caillat, three inches to eight feet, as desired. It in France, recommends the use of tar, as a opens the furrow, drops, covers and rolls the certain and economical agent for their destruc- corn, at one operation ; is an easy draught for tion. He says one horse, and' will plant from five to ten a The efficacy of tar in driving away the acres of land per day. This year I planted weevil and preserving the grain, is an incon- 170 acres, with two drills in fifteen days, testible fact. My father had. a long time ago, saving each day one bushel of corn, and the his granaries, barns, and the whole house, labor of two horses and four hands. At a. infested with these insects, so much so, that fair calculation the saving in labor and corn they penetrated into all the chests, and among would be $5 per day, or $75 for fifteen days, the lirren. He placed an open cask impregna- The drill cost me in Richmond, two years ted with tar in the' barn, and then in the ago, $ , and I consider it one of the best granaries ; at the end of some hours the implements that I have ever used. We owe weevils were seen climbing along the walls by its introduction into Virginia to that able and myriads, and flying in all directions away from ardent agriculturist, L. E: Harvie, Esq. If the cask. On moving this tarred vessel from the patentee, H. L. Emery, Albany, N. Y., place to place, the premises were in a few days would make his drill rather stronger, lift the completely cleared of these troublesome and stilts, and establish an agency in Richmond, pernicious guests. The agriculturist who it would be greatly advantageous to himself wants to get rid of weevils, may, as soon as and the State. Full directions accompany he perceives their presence, impregnate the the drill. Wm. H. Harrison. surface of some old planks with tar, and place

I them as required in his granaries. Care must CAMPHOR vs. PEA-BUGS be taken to renew the tar from time to time Having observed in the Horticulturist ati in the course of the year, to prevent the return inquiry relative to seed-peas damaged by bugs, of the insects/' Comptes Readus. I will offer a remedy, perhaps not new, but new to me. Four years ago, last spring, my seed- SUCCESSFUL EXPEPJMENT WITH PEAS. peas were more than half destroyed by bugs, the largest and best varieties being most in- gentleman A well known in the South, jured. The summer following, I had boxes aowed a field in oats, so poor that it yielded made, one for each variety, with a cover ; and only 7 bushels per acre. As soon as the oats when the peas were gathered, I put into each were off, the land was plowed and sowed in box, with a quart of peas, from six to eight peas, which were turned in when at their bits of gum-camphor, the size of a large pea, rankest growth. The next year it was sowed and mixed them together, and closed the box. in oats again, and produced fourteen bushels to The next spring there was not a pea injured. the acre. They were again immediately fol- I have pursued the same course every year lowed by peas, and the next season oats, which since, and have not had one pea. affected by gave a product of twenty-eight bushels per bugs. Plow, Loom and Anvil. acre. This was followed by a third crop of peas, and a yield of over forty bushels of oats Guinea Fowls vs. Rats.—A correspondent to the acre. The land was raised by three of the Prairie Farmer, who was very much coats of peas, fron seven to forty bushels per annoyed by rats, tried shooting, poisoning, and acre. Farmers, read, practice, improve. everything he could think of; but they defied This must become an important branch of the whole cat-egory. He then heard that they your system of manuring. Let it be com- would not remain where Guinea fowls were bined with some methodical plan of saving, kept, and procured several, and now says that collecting and applying every material about for over two years he has neither seen nor the premises that will enrich the land, and in heard a rat about the premises. four years every poor farm on which the sys- We doubt the above rat remedy, and should* tem is adopted and faithfully carried out, will be glad to hear from others who have tried it double, and in some instances, quadruple its to know whether it is effectual. American productions Agriculturist. THE SOUTHEBH PLANTER.

That seems to be now the general opinioa-

among commercial men hereabouts, and it is very natural that those whose gains depend on a wide margin between' purchases and sales, should

entertain it honestly and propagate it widely and in good faith. But we think they are mistaken as to the extent of improvement. The rains came too late—the wheat had not branched sufficiently, it had not attained the requisite height so as THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. t# get a fair exposure to the sun , had consequently too many underling heads in it, and having begun to "fill," or form grain before the rains commenced, RICHMOND, JULY, 1855. and accommodating itself to the existing state of things, had formed shorter heads and fewer

. . TERMS. grains in the mesh, as it is called, than is usual One Dollar and Twenty-five Cents per annum, for an average crop. The effect of this state of which may be discharged by the payment of One Dollar only, if paid in office or sent free of postage within six things has been all along very obvious to minute months from the date of subscription. Six copies for Five inspection, and yet might easily escape a less par- Dollars; thirteen copies for Ten Dollars, to be paid ticular invariably in advance. observation, as may he very easily under- stood by those who know that lime on lands that §3^° No subscription received for a less time than one year. need it will sometimes add twenty per cent to-

" Subscriptions may begin with any number. a crop without showing any increase to the eye so-

' No paper will be discontinued until all arrearages long as it is growing in the field. are paid, except at the option of the Editor. But this state of things is the case mainly ' Office corner Main and Twelfth steets. on the good or guanoed lands, where there was ADVERTISEMENTS. exemption from the insect pests which have A limited number will be inserted at the following rates: devastated so large a portion of the wheat region For each square of ten lines, first insertion, One Dollar; each continuance, Seventy-five Cents. Advertisements of the State. On the poorer lands the case is still out 'of the City must be accompanied with the money, to worse ; on them, as all fanners know, rain, and insure their insertion. a plenty of it, at the proper time, is indispensable UP* It is indispensably necessary that subscribers or- crops they generally make, and such dering a change should say from what to what post office to the scanty ibey wish the alteration made. It will save time to us and rains they did not get. The consequence is lose none to them. extremely short crops in such situations. The ' Postage- on the Southern Planter, (when paid in product, it is true, will be considerably increased advance,) to any part of the United States one cent and half per quarter, or six cents per annum. over our calculation in the last Planter, but we must continue to think that a very short crop, THE WHEAT CROP OF VIRGINIA. but little if any, over one half, will be made in

It is very common, as we all know, when men Virginia, and we come to this conclusion after change an opinion, to compensate by as much error as much information as colloquy with casual on one side as they had in the first instance com- visiters and a pretty extended private correspon- mitted on the other; and farmers, whose revenue dence can afford. Since beginning this article we depends entirely on their crops, are perhaps more have heard of two large crops, samples doubtless given to this oscillation than other men. It is of many others, which have not turned out as well particularly exemplified as to them in the present as was expected, and the rains of this and the last harvest. But a few weeks ago the whole of week, [it is now raining steadily—June 25,] must Virginia, except in a few circumscribed localities, operate injuriously both as to quality and yield of was suffering from a drought which, in duration what has not been secured. and intensity, so far surpassed any other that had We were lately asked what we meant by a half been known as to threaten a famine. The wheat crop. We mean just this, and presume that every. p orop especially was pronounced the most complete farmer in Virginia attaches the same significance

• failure that had ever occurred. But rain fell after to it : that a half crop is only half of what a man's the fields had headed, and then ensued an unex- land may be reasonably expected to yield in a fair that a county, Powhatan^ pected improvement- Comparing the state of the season ; and when we say

wheat then with what it had just been, and not for instance, will make but half a crop of wheat,

with what it ought to have been at that season we mean that the average product of that coui,tyi of the year, the farmer cast aside despondency taking low grounds, upland and forest, will be aad proclaiming that he never had seen wheat only half as much as a reasonable man would

improve so much, declared that he really thought expect it to be on an average of seasons ; and so as he would make an average crop. to the State at large As to predicting the THE SOUTHERN PLANTER.

amber of bushels of wheat to be made in Virginia, As to "how the markets will rule'' the coming few are that cannot be arrived at from any data that season, that is ticklish ground, and very all we we know of; with the many outlets for produce entitled to tread it confidently ; but from however it and the blunders in the census tables, it is impos- can see we have no doubt that wheat, sible to get at anything like an estimate of an may start, will be higher this year than it was to average crop, numerically speaking. last, and we advise farmers not to be in a hurry price now is so much higher than here- It is said that a much larger breadth of land was sell. The tofore, that a man, sure of more than lie dreamed sowed in wheat last fall than is usual. But we ago, afford to risk something for cannot learn how that fact has been ascertained, of two years can the sake of a rise such as we anticipate. We,— and do not believe it. The price only rose extrava- and the fact is mentioned that the motive may not gantly in the latter part of summer, and it was

be misunderstood mean to sell early ; because too late then to make preparation for a much — we want money, having failed to get more than heavier seeding than usual ; farmers cannot in a one-seventh- part of the eleven thousand dollars moment change all their plans, and adapt their due us from the gentlemen who labor under the rotations to the speculations of a merchant, and delusion that they patronize the Southern Planter if they had—as they have not—the labor and teams by owing it an aggregate debt of more than S&000. that would enable them to rot-ate according to the Our opinion in this regard is based on the class market, they are too wise and wary to try such of facts that will be found in the above referred to- ventures. Besides, the fall was so dry that in the article from the Mark Lane Express, and from most extended wheat regions the trouble was to considerations which lead us to believe that plough and sow the accustomed quantity of land. other prices will never again come down to "old levels." In other States the crops are said to be good, Wheat has never risen, in any era, on an average but we have yet to learn that they are anywhere of prices, to the proportional rates of other pro- better than an average. In the West, Northwest ducts—perhaps providentially, as it is the main and North, the winter was very hard, and the breadstuff of so large a part of mankind—but it spring late, dry and cold, circumstances particu- has always felt the fluctuations of other staples, larly unfavorable to full the yield of spring wheat, and risen, if it was at a lpwer rate, as they have which is largely sowed in regions. those Passages risen. We think it will do so now, and thus give like the following from the Ohio Farmer, are the farmers some of the benefits of^the great gold continually : meeting our eye "Within the last supply, which all other classes seem now to be en- two weeks, great and abundant rains have refresh- joying. It will also derive some advantage indi- ed the parched earth, and changed the gloomy antici- rectly from the same thing. Within the last year pation of the husbandman, into bright prospects of a more wheat was consumed in England, though rich harvest , and a bovmti id tn the year's before and m for the prices were higher, than the year ; '.ml." is But this all a mistake ; a fortnight's everywhere the demand for other food at enhanced reasonable weather never yet made "a rich har- rates was increased, and is still increasing, but not vest" out of well founded "gloomy anticipations," exactly in the ratio of wheat. This would seem though a three days rain has ruined many a bright to shew that the condition of the great consuming prospect, and may yet in this particular instance, class is improving, and that high prices are in part if our present weather invades the later crops of the result of competition among the buyers as the free States, where the weevil also threatens to well as of a scarcity of the article sought. divide the crops with the sickle. surplus The Board, too, is now clear : there is no It is true that more wheat has been sowed in the wheat in the world, and we begin the sale of the Northwest than usual, but under the impetus of crop now with at least a chance of short crops in immigration rather than high prices ; and that will several countries, which, if they do fail, will need doubtless affect the quantity somewhat, but not supplies, and must look mainly to us to furnish much, we think, as far as price is concerned, in them. view of circumstances did which not exist at the These are our opinions and the grounds of them. last harvest, and certainly not to such an extent as But every reader owes to himself even more than to operate a fall on the principle of over produc- to us, to examine them well for himself, and not to tion. act upon them unless he is fully satisfied of their The prospects of the crop abroad, as far as any correctness. If we thought that our opinions indications are yet afforded, are not very good, as were to guide the farmer we would be very chary may be seen, more fully in an article of the Mark of expressing them generally, and would perhaps Lane Express, which we take from that very valua- be absolutely silent, if we could suppose that by ble Journal, the New York Economist, (which taking our advice without proper reflection «n his should be in the hands of every producer in the own part, he should make us wholly responsible country.) for the amountof his revenue. — —

210 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER

PREMIUMS BY INDIVIDUAL DONORS. LANDSCAPE GARDENING.

The following letter of Dr. It. T. Baldwin, of Mr. E. G. Eggeling proposes to visit the upper Winchester, offering premiums on three subjects of country this summer, and on his tour will be glad very important, practical and scientific interest, ex- to give his assistance to those wishing to improve plains itself. their homesteads. To all such we recommend We are authorized also to state in regard to that him with pleasure as just the man they want, and class of premiums, that the premium of $100 for very moderate in his charges. the best essay on the connection of moral and agricultural improvement, and their reciprocal CULTIVATION OF FRUIT operation and effects, is again offered as before, To the Editor of the Planter : with the exception of a slight change in the com- Sir—As you are aware, I have been for several mittee, which will be announced in the proper years past, a devoted cultivator of fruits and fruit trees. It is with pleasure that I witness the inter- place : est taken in this branch of husbandry, and the Winchester, June 13, 1855. columns of the Planter occasionally graced by the Dear Sir :—hi accordance with the rules and communications of friends to the cause, able and regulations of the Virginia Agricultural Society willing to impart instruction. I hope those corres- in relation to premiums offered by individual pondents will not look back, now they have put

donors, I offer the following premiums : forth their hands to the plough. There are many points in fruit culture not yet settled even by 1. A premium of one hundred dollars for any scientific cultivators, and practice are fact or facts derived from experiment, which prove and theories variant. Let us compare notes, let us commune conclusively that "woody fibre in a state of decay freely, let us give our several modes of cultiva-»- is the substance called humus." tion, and by all means, endeavor to ascertain what 2. A premium of one hundred dollars for any varieties are best adapted to our soil and climate, fact or facts, derived from experiment or observa- and i id our orchards of the worthless sorts with tion, which prove satisfactorily that any substar.ee which many are now filled. There are several whatever possesses the fertilizing qualities of large nursery establishments eminently deserving manure, except the residue of putrefaction patronage, in addition to those enumerated in the 3. A premium of one hundred dollars for any February number of the Planter, by my friend, fact or facts, derived from experiment, which prove Captain Henry B. Jones, of Rockbridge ; of which that the surface of the earth itself is incapable of I shall merely mention that of Mr. Oliver Taylor, experiencing the putrefactive process. of Loudon county. There is no difficulty now in The awards to be made at the November meeting getting home raised trees of the best quality and of of the Society, 1856. varieties corresponding with the present improved j Yours, &c, state of fruit culture. A few years ago this part R. T. Baldwin* of the State %vas overrun by tree pedlars and grafters. Those who patronized them are now reaping the harvest of their impositions. Their HOW TO OX. MOVE A SULLEN trees were generally the refuse of Northern nurse- " Did you never observe/' said a plain man, a ries, and if of suitable varieties for cultivation here, stunted, badly treated, hauled in open friend of ours, a few days since, as we were dri- were waggons with the roots exposed to all the vicissi- ving a dog out of the cow-pen, to prevent his ta- tudes of the weather during a long journey. One king refuge behind us—as the cows took it by person bought two hun'rjd peach trees, under turns t0 chase him over the lot—" did you never assurance that they contained all the finer varie- planting observe that a cow never will make friends with a ties from the earliest to the latest. After and nursing them for several years they came into dog"?'' "Often." "Well, the best way you ever bearing, and it was then found that all were of one tried to make steers rise when they get sullen, and sort, ripening at the same time. Other impostors lie down, is just to bring a dog and drop him down have traversed the country, professing to have on them. It will make them jump up when noth- grafts of the most celebrated apples, which by trees soon come into bearing, ing else in the world will." We seized the hint at putting on old would and strange to say, many farmers patronized them, once for the benefit of our friends who own such and their orchards were ruined. It is now appa- pests as obstinate oxen, and give it to them now. rent that they carried grafts from one Jarm to We believe there is no antipathy so universal and another, and often grafted a tree with its own sort. tricks, long as our people inveterate as that of cattle against dogs, and it These are Yankee and as think strikes ns that when all other means fail, that will answer. "the pleasure is as great Of being chealed, as to cheat," we shall not have an end of such impositions. NEW PAPER ENTERPRISE. Nurserymen, in general, have too much work at It will be seen in our advertising columns that home to allow them to travel and dispose of their generally advertise, and furnish Mr. Grierne, of this city, long connected with the trees. They catalogues and information to their customers, and newspaper press of this city, proposes to publish this is as much as can be expected. There are a newspaper mainly devoted to commercial and establishments at the North that may be character- statistical subjects. ized as tree 'manufactories. They are root grafted THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 211

small pieces of roots being used, and the tree The yellow peaches are more liable to over-bear- looks very well while young, but when transplant- ing and to disease than the pale-fleshed sorts, and ed they do not strike root freely, and they soon indeed it would be to the interest of the peach become worthless. A thrifty, good apple or pear grower to discontinue planting yellow peaches as tree can only be had when grafted or budded upon much as possible. If it be desirable to keep a an entire plant whose tap root has been shortened few for the sake of number and variety, the ; it then will send out lateral roots and make a good following are the best, having regard to the excel- tree. There are. also nnrseries at the North where lence of the fruit and habit of the trees. Free-

there is honest dealing and good trees. When I stones : Crawford's Early, Crawford's Late, Yellow

commenced planting apple trees in March, 1845. Rareripe, Smock. Clingstones : Kennedy's Caro- not knowing of any nurseries in the State, I had to lina, or Lempn Cling-stones, Tippecanoe, and send to Newark, N, J., for what I could not obtain Algiers, or Yellow Preserving. To these, for a

in Washington. I continued for the next two years good collection, may be added : Pale-fleshed—

to plant from the nurseries at that place, and Freestones : Walter's Early, Coles Early, Chan- better bearers or more thrifty trees I have never cellor, Oldmixbn-free, Large Early York, Grosse seen here or elsewhere. I was awarded at the Mignonne, or Royal Kensington. La Grange, Presi- •first Annual Fair of the State Agricultural dent. Clingstones: Old Newington, Oldmixon, Society, the premium for the largest and best Rodman's Red, Heath. variety of apples, and if I attend this year, he The Columbia, sometimes called the Georgia who takes the premium over me will deserve it. peach, and in that State the Indian peach, is a

I am collecting the finer varieties : of Virginia slow growing, long lived variety, and deserves a apples, and there are a great many fine ones, place in every collection. There are other mostly natural seedlings, which have a local peaches of merit, such as the Early Tillotson, popularity, and I wish to bring theni .together and Druid Hill, Morris Red Rareripe, Haines' Early compare them with my Northern varieties. I and George IV, (if true,) which may be cultivated should be happy to receive information of the best as market peaches. Out of upwards of fifty varie- local varieties, and will exchange grafts with any ties by name in my orchards, the above are all orehardist or nurseryman in the State. I raise my that I think really worthy of general cultivation. stocks from the seeds of the Denizen apple, which I Those that I omit to mention, though good, ripen am told is a native of this county, and is only a good with the above and have no special quality to cider apple, but the trees are remarkable for their recommend them. In our genial soil and climate vigorous growth and longevity. I have nearly the peach is so easily raised, and all are so fine that one hundred varieties, Northern and Southern, it is a hard task to say what should be excluded under experiment, and in the course of ten years from an orchard. lean name but three which I I hope to be able to decide which are the best would condemn to banishment, viz: Red Cheek. varieties for general cultivation. Melocoton, Morris' White, and Kenrick's Heath Your correspondent ; S., whose acquaintance I and yet these are popular market fruits. There doubtless made at Richmond in 1843, publishes a are many accidental seedlings, having a local popu- ' recipe which he recommends as a remedy for the larity and fanciful names, to be found on some peach worm. I think, however, if he applies this catalogues, but I cannot say that it would be pemedy extensively, he will find that it will not desirable to extend their cultivation. I have interfere much with the worm as his ; but prescrip- raised several myself, slightly varying from the tion imparts nitric acid and potash, chlorine and parent tree, but while we keep the originals free soda to the soil, the vigor of his trees will be pro- from deterioration there seems to be very little moted, and the effects of the worm overcome. propriety in bringing forward a brood of seedlings. The amplest and best remedy that I have used to The peach obeys the same general law that dr-stroy the worm is scafdfag water. For this influence all other vegetables. If fertilized by purpose, Thavea small furnace, which I take bv the pollen of another variety we may expect a hand through the orchard ; when I find where the cross breed, yet in a majority of cases there will worms have colonized, 1 heat a tea kettle of water be a decline in the merits of the fruits. Winds over a charcoal fire, make a basin like cavity with and insects scatter the polien of the peach, as is earth around the collar of the tree, and pour in done with different varieties of corn, melons and the boiling water. A little salt and tobacco may other annual plants growing in close proximity, be added. The application should never be made causing them to mix. It can be artificially per- in freezing weather, but in the spring or summer; formed, as was done by Mr. Knight, President of it does not m the least injure the t»ee;. in fact it the London Horticultural Society, to whose skill will restore its health and luxuriant growth. in cross budding we are indebted for some of our I have never <;cen a single case of the "yellows" best fruits. There are some varieties of peaches. in this State, and what is termed so with us will, the Columbia, Oldmixon Cling and the Heath, in without doubt, prove to be starvation. A neglect- particular, whose individual character is so ed tree on exhausted soil will linger for a year or strongly impressed upon them that they appear to two, inviting, as all diseased trees do, insects and refuse a union with others, and hence they will in a other enemies, and finally die, but not of the majority of cases reproduce themselves from their yellows; that is a very different disease, often own kernels. The Heath has been in my father's attacking awhole orchard under good culture. To family for more than sixty years, grown all the keep this dreadful malady from extending within time from the seed. In Georgia, Tennessee and oar borders, should be a leading consideration with Arkansas, where he cultivated it, it is called the every fruit culturist. With care it can be done. "English peach." from the circumstance that Col. Let nurserymen never raise two crops of trees in Hamilton, who is mentioned in Lee's memoirs as succession on the same ground. They should an officer in the revolutionary war, and afterwards plant no kernels except from hardy, healthy young Consul at Norfolk, having brought stones of this seedling trees, au/l never from a yellow variety" peach from Scotland, distributed them among his 212 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER,

old neighbors in Caswell or Person County, North 15th of the months of August and September fol Carolina, where he had been a merchant previous lowing, similar examinations severally were made, to the war. Coxe ascribes the introduction of this with the same evident gradual increase of the mag- peach from the Mediterranean to a Mr. Heath. nesia in the surface soil. The two peaches are identically the same, and The following are the results as obtained : its constant habit of reproducing itself without Box Box Box variation, proves its universal popularity, and 40 in. 28 in. 16 in tends to confirm the history of its appearance in high. high. high. this country at two points remote from each othei. Per centage of Magnesia : A seedling Heath makes the best stock for budding May 25th, 0.1 S O.lfe 0.13 of any of our fine varieties. There can be no June 28th. 0.55 0.30 0.32 good object attained relying alone by on seedlings July 17th, 0.52 0.46 0.47 for an orchard. The uncertainty of getting good Aug. 15th, 47 0.53 0.54 fruit ripening in succession throughout the season, Sept. I5tli, 0.51 0.58 0.61 should deter any person from attempting it when Before our nurseries contain so many fine varieties, such the middle of October, when it was in- well grown trees, and so very cheap. tended to make another observation, the fall rain*

and frosts ; I find, Mr. Editor, that this communication is had commenced on this account the ob- much longer than I had intended. I wished to servations were discontinued. The elevation of the speak more of the apple, my mode of planting and magnesia, as shown in the above experiments, evi- cultivation, and the theory on which my practice dently depends upon a well known and quite uni- is founded. But this I must defer until some other versal property of matter, viz : —the attraction of time, if you can find room for me in the Planter. solids and liquids, or what is commonly denominated capillary attraction, or the property which Woodford, » most liquids have to rise in tubes, or between Near Falls Church P.O. I H. ('!. Wiu.iams. plane and curved surfaces. This may be clearly Fairfax County, Va. } illustrated by taking a series of small capillary June 17, 1855. glass tubes and insert one extremity of them in a solution of sulphate of magnesia, or chloride am- CAPILLARY ATTRACTION OP SOIL. THE monium, and break or cutoff the upper extremity, Prom numerous observations which have been just below the height to which the solution rises. made at different times on the peculiar appearance Expose them to the sun's rays. The water of the of the surface of soils, clays, &c, during the solution evaporates, and the fixed sulphate of warm summer months, and the fact that they, magnesia will be deposited just on the upper ex- when covered with boards, stones, or other mate- tremity of the tube. rials, so as to prevent them from supporting vege- As the solution evaporates, more rises up from tation, become in a comparatively short time, much below, keeping the tubes constantly full. Yet no more productive than the adjacent uncovered soil, sulphate of magnesiapasses off; it all, or nearly led to the belief that the soil possessed some pow- all remains at, or rises just above the evaporating

er within itself, aside from the roots of plants—of surface. Just so in the soil ; as the water, evapo- elevating soluble materials from deep sources to rates from the surface, more water pregnant with the surface. soluble materials from below, rises up to supply Dr. Alexander II. Stevens, of New York, was, I its place; as this evaporation goes on, it leaves the think, the first to suggest this idea. He speaks fixed materials behind in the surface soil at the of it in his address delivered before the State Ag- several points of evaporation. ricultural Society of New York, on the Food of This explains why we often find during the Plants, in January, 1848. No accurate experi- months of July, August and September, a crest of ments were performed, however, to fix it with a soluble salts covering the surface of clay deposites degree of certainty, till those made which appear which are highly impregnated with the alkalies or in this paper. any of the soluble compounds of the metals, earth, To throw some light upon the subject, in May, or alkaline earths. Also, the reason, in many in- 1852, 1 sunk three boxes into the soil—one 40 inches stances, of the incrustations upon rocks that are deep, another 28 inches deep, and a third 14 inches porous and contain soluble materials. It also helps deep. All three of the boxes were 10 inches to explain the reason why manures when applied square. I then placed in the bottom of each for a short or longer time upon the surface of soils, box three pounds of sulphate of magnesia. The penetrate to so slight a depth. Every agricultu- soil was to be placed in the boxes above the sul- rist is acquainted with the fact that the soil direct- phate of magnesia, was then thoroughly mixed, ly under his barn-yard, two feet below the surface, so as to be uniform throughout. The boxes were (that is any soil of any ordinary fineness) is quite then filled with it. This was done on the 25th of as poor as that covered with boards or otherwise, May, 1852. After the boxes were filled, a sample two feet below the surface, in his meadow ; the of the soil was taken from each box, and the per former having been for years directly under a centage of magnesia which it contained, accurate- manure heap, while the latter, perhaps, has never ly determined. On the 28th of June, another had barnyard manure within many rods of it. sample of surface soil was taken from each box, The former has really been sending its soluble and the per centage of magnesia carefully obtained materials to the surface soil, the latter to the sur- or as before. The result in each case pointed out face soil and the vegetation grown near ; upon clearly a marked increase of magnesia. it, if iincovered. On the 17th of July, a sample of the surface soil The capillary attraction must vary very much in was taken for a third time from each box, and different soils; that is, some have the power of ele- carefully examined for the magnesia. Its per vating soluble materials to the surface from much centage was found to be very perceptibly greater deeper sources than others. The pores or intersti- than on the 28th of the preceding month. On the ces in the soil correspond to capillary tubes. Thp -*-*- : — —;

THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 213 less the diameter of the pores or tubes, the higher England would be called Summer Squashes. The the materials are elevated. Hence one very im- "Autumnal Marrow" is eaten only when fully ripe portant consideration to the agriculturist, when he the "Vegetable Marrow," like your " Cymlings/'is wishes nature to aid him in keeping his soil fertile eaten only in unripe state. The former cornea into —is to secure soil in a fine state of mechanical di- eating in September, but may be kept with care vision and of a high retentive nature. Nothing is till March. When pure or unmixed by crossing more common than to see certain soils retain their with other kinds, it is considered as the very best fertility with annual addition of much less manure autumnal and winter squash in New England. than certain others. In fact, a given quantity of Many cultivators have allowed it to degenerate or manure on the former, will seem to maintain their become mixed with the larger and grosser Valpa- fertility for several years, while a similar addition raiso, so that we do not often find it in entire purity to the latter quite loses its good effects in a single in our markets. It generally has only three season. The former soils have invariably the rocks, double rows of seeds'. For a description of it, minerals. &c, which compose them, in a fine -ee the works before cited, also Cole's New Eng- state of division; while the latter have their parti- land Farmer, vol. I, No. 12, May 26, 1849, p. 185. cles more or less sandy and coarse. —3. M Salis- I am not sure what is the fruit denominated bury. M: D., in Prairie Farmer. Connecticut Field Pumpkin, and the Cheese Pump- kin 13 unknown to me except by its name in catalogues. PUMPKINS AND SQUASHES. The Valparaiso Squashes, of which there seem We know of no vegetable genus in which, there to be several varieties, known to .cultivators by i3 so much confusion of names and characters many different names, some of them merely local among cultivators, as the Pumpkin and Squash in their application, belong to a peculiar group of tribe, or Cucurbita of Botanists. Their common the genus Cucurbita-, the distinguishing characters name have so multiplied, that a farmer wishing to of which have not been fully described by botan- grow some for his stock, or his table, can hardly ists. The word squash as applied to these fruits is tell what to ask for at the seed stores, or what will a misnomer, as may be shown hereafter ; it would be the character of his crops when obtained. be well to drop it entirely, and to call the fruits of Knowing that T. W. Harris, the distinguished this group pompions, pumpkins, or potirons. It is Entomologist of Massachusetts, had been paying my belief that they were originally indigenous to special attention to this subject, with the view of the tropical and subtropical parts of the western reliable scientific some and classification, we ad- coast of America ; they are extensively cultivated dressed him the following queries, to which he from Chili to California, and also in the West In- has most kindly responded: dies, whence enormous specimens are sometimes brought to the Atlantic States. How much soever Tc ! 'i£ Edi'or of the Farm Journal —In your com- these Valparaiso pumpkins may differ in form, munication, you request to be informed what is <: size, color, and quality, they all agree in certain the distinction, if any, between the Boston and peculiarities that are found in no other speciea^r Vegetable Marrow Squash, also between the varieties of Cucurbita. Their leaves are never Com e t'cufc Field Pumpkin and the cheese Pump- deeply lobed like those of other pumpkins and kin ; what is the Valparaiso Squash, and is it a de- squashes, but are more or less five-angled, or sirable variety ; what are the distinctive marks of almost shaped at base ; they the Winter and Summer Crook-neck Squash, Early rounded, and heart are also of pumpkins Egg or Apple Squash, Pattypan Squash, Turban softer than those other and Squasli, Cashaw Pumpkin, Mammoth Pumpkin, squashes. The summit or blossom-end of the fruit has a nipple-like projection upon it, consist- Acorn Squash ; what are the correct names and ing of the permanent fleshy stile. The fruit-stalk synonymes of these kinds ; which of them is most is short, nearly cylindrical, never deeply five-fur- valued in New England for pumpkin pies, and rowed, longitudinally striated or which for stock and field culture ?" but merely wrinkled, never clavated or enlarged with pro- In September, 1834, Mr. John M. Ives, of Salem, and jecting angles to the fruit. With few excep- Mass., exhibited in Faneuil Hall, Boston, a new next tions, they four or five double row of seeds. squash, to which he subsequently gave the r,ame contain To this group belong Mr. Ives' Autumnal Marrow of the '"Autumnal Marrow Squash." It was figured before named, and described in Fessenden's New England Far- squash (or pumpkin) Commodore Porter's Valparaiso squash (pumpkin), the 30-call- mer, vol. XIII, No. 16, Oct. 29, 1834, page 122, and Cucurbita of again in Fessenden and Teshemacher's Horticul- ed Mammoth pumpkin or maxima the botanists, the Turban squash or Acorn squash, tural Register, vol. I, No. 3,- March, 1835, page 93. Cucurbita This fruit thus introduced and brought into notice, jnliformtr, of Duchesne, the Cashew pie Stetson's soon became a great favorite, and has ever since pumpkin, Cole's Connecticut squash, his hybrid called the Wilder been extensively cultivated for table use, as a Cuba squash, and squash, with various others. sauce and for pies, in the vicinity of Boston. So popular has it become in the market of Boston The variety introduced from Valparaiso by that it may be well be called "the Boston Squash," Commodore Porter, became known' to me about though I never heard that name applied to it. the year 1830, since which time it has been more Mr. Ives, in his description of it, called it a variety or less cultivated in New England both for the of Cucurbita melopepo, which is an error. If not a table and for stock. It is of an oblong, oval shape, mere variety of Commodore Porter's Valparaiso of a pale reddish yellow color externally when Squash, it doubtless descended from the same ripe, nearly smooth, and very slightly furrowed, stock as the latter. It must not be confounded and often grows to a large size. It readily mixes with the kind cultivated in England under the name with the Autumnal Marrow, but is inferior to it of " Vegetable Marrow," a very poor vegetable, as in quality. It may prove better and more valua- I am assured by friends who have eaten it in Lon- ble in the Middle and Southern Stateu than in don, and apparently one of the sorts which in N^w New England. — ; — - 2J4 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER.

The Turban, sometimes called also the Acorn The second group contains the common New squash, because when the fruit is small it resem- England field pumpkin, Bell-shaped and Crook- bles somewhat an acom in its cup, seems to be necked Winter squashes, the Early Canada Winter the C ucurbita pit'iformis of Duchesnw. The middle squash, the Custard squash, and various others, all lower figure of the group on page 283 of the vol- of which (whether rightly or not cannot now be ume on "Timber Trees and Fruits," in the "Libra- determined,) have been generally referred by bo- ry of Entertaining Knowledge," seems intended tanists to the Cucurbita pepo of Linnaeus. This for the Turban squash. It sometimes grows to a group is readily to be distinguished from the first large size, measuring 11 or 15 inches, in transverse one by the following characters. The leaves are diameter, and looks like an immense Turkish tuf& rough, and more or less deeply and acutely five- ban in shape. Specimens raised in my garden in lobed. The fruit has only three carples or doubre 1851 were little more than ten inches in diameter, row of seeds, and the stile drops off with the blossom. and weighed ten pounds or more, having very The fruit stem is long, and clavated or enlarged thick and firm flesh, and but a small cavity within. next the fruit, where it spreads out into live claw- They proved excellent for table use, equal in like projections ; and is five-angled and deeply five- quality to the best Autumnal Marrows. They furrowed. The fruit is eaten only when fully ripe, keep quite as well as the latter. and may be kept with care throughout the winter. The earliest account of the Cashew pumpkin The rind, though sometimes quite hard, never be- flesh remains juicy that has fallen under our notice is contained in the comes a woody shell, and the English translation of Du Pratz's History of Lou- and succulent till it rots, never drying up iuto a respects isiana, (vol. II, p. 8.) where it is called Ciishaw. spongy or fibrous substance, in which these fruits differ what are called Summer In the original French work, the name given to it from is Giromon. Du Pratz described two varieties squashes. The seeds are not so broad, thick or one round, and the other curved, or of the shape plump, and white as those of the potiron group, of a hunter's horn. The latter was considered the but are smaller, thinner, and of a greyish color. best. The Cushaw or Cashew pumpkin is not The common field pumpkin of New England, cultivated or much known in New England. I which formerly was extensively raised for stock, raised some specimens of the crook-necked variety, and is still used for the same purpose, and of (which has only three double rows of seeds), a few which our pumpkin pies and pumpkin sauce were years ago, from seeds received from New Jersey. made, till the winter crook-neck and autumnal They did not ripen well, and many of them rotted marrow came to be substituted therefor, has a form before half ripe. They are evidently too tender somewhat resembling that of the mammoth pump- for a New England climate. From the account kin, but its longitudinal often exceeds its trans- given of them by Du Pratz, they seem well suited verse diameter, its color is of a deeper yellow or to Louisiana, where the are much esteemed. See orange, the furrows on its surface not so deep or his work. broad, and its rind much thicker, and in some va- The genuine Mammoth pumpkin, or true Potiron rieties quite hard. Its flesh is rather coarse, of a {Cucurbita 'maxima,') may be considered as the. deep orange yellow color, and of a peculiar strong typical species of this group, having rather soft, odor. Baked pumpkin and milk, pumpkin suace, roundish heart-shaped, and entire leaves, a short and dried pumpkin for winter use, have had their cylindrical fruit stem, a permanent fleshy stile, day, and gone out of fashion ; and pumpkin pies and five carpels or double row of seeds. Tlie form are now mostly made of the autumnal marrow and of the fruit is an oblate spheroid, depressed at the crook-necked winter squashes, except by some of blossom and stem ends, and marked with ten or the old folks, who still prefer the pumpkins, baked more wide meridianal furrows. It sometimes in a milk-pan, and without any pastry. grows to an immense size, two feet or more in di- The New England " crook-neck squash,'' as it Is ameter, and sixty pounds or more in weight, being commonly but incorrectly called, is a kind of light in proportion to its size, on account of the pumpkin, perhaps a genuine species, for it lias large hollow within. It is known to vary much in preserved its identity to our certain knowledge ever color and size, and somewhat in form. In some since the year 1G8G, when it was described by Hay. of its_ variations, it may have lost its original char- It has the form and color cf the Cashaw, but is acteristic form, so far as to be no longer recognized. easily distinguished therefrom by the want- of a If this be true, Cole's Connecticut pie squash, the persistent stile, and by its clavated and furrowed round Valparaiso squashes, and several others. fruit stem. Before the introduction of the Autuin be may merely varieties of the Mammoth pumpkin! rial Marrow:, it was raised in large, quantities for To some of the varieties of this fruit the name table use during the winter., in preference to pump- Giromon or Girovwnt, otherwise written Giraumon kins, which it almost eutirely superseded. Many and Giraumout signifying a rolling mountain, farmers use it now instead of pumpkins for cattle; seems originally to have been applied, in allusion the vine being more productive, and the fruit con- to the form and size. French writers subsequent- taining much more nutriment in proportion to its it ly transferred this name to certain varieties of the size! It varies considerably in form and color. Cucurbita pcpo. The best kinds are those which are very mucli k The plants of the foregoing Valparaiso, or Potiron curved, nearly as large at the stem as at the blossom V, group, are more tender and less hardy than those end, and of a rich cream color. Some are green of the common variegated with cream colored stripes and spots pumpkin or Pcpo group ; they are also much more subject to the attacks of worms or Some are bell-shaped, or with a very short and borers (JEgeria cucurbita;) at the roots. Their straight neck, and are less esteemed than the fruits, compared with common pumpkins and winter others ; for the neck being solid and of fine texture, squashes, have a thinner and more tender rind, and is the best part of the fruit. These crook-necks finer grained, sweeter, and less strongly flavored can be kept all winter, if not exposed to frost, and flesh, on which accounts they are preferred by most I have eaten of them when a year old. On account persons for table use. of its hardiness, its fruitfuluess, and its keeping ; — .

THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 215

qualities, this is perhaps the most valuable variety form and size of an orange. Mr. Nuttall informs to the New England farmer. It is said to degene- us, that the warted squash, Cucurbita verrucosa, rate in the Middle and Southern States, where was " cultivated by the Indians of the Missouri to probably Commodore Porter's Valparaiso or some its sources." It has generally been supposed, on kindred variety may be better adapted to the the authority of Linnaeus, that the Egg Squash, climate. Cucurbita ovifcra, was a native of Astrachian in The Early Canada squash seems to be a preco- Tartary. On turning to the account given of it by Dr. cious and dwarfed variety of the common crook- Lorche, from whem Linnaeus received his speci- neck. It is smaller, with a short and often straight mens, I find it included in a list of plants, not neck, and is of a dark and dirty buff color exter- natives of the vicinity of Astrachan, but cultivated nally. It comes into eating early, quite as soon as only in gardens, where it is associated with such the autumnal marrow, and was, indeed still is. much exotics as Indian corn or maize, with which it was esteemed as a table vegetable. probably introduced directly or indirectly from The custard squash pr pumpkin is an oblong, America. We also learn from Lorche that this deeply furrowed, and prominently ten-ribbed fruit., species varied in form, being sometimes pear- with a pale buff and very hard (but not woody; it shaped ; that was sometimes variegated in color rind, and fine, light yellow flesh, much esteemed in with green and white ; and that the shell served the making of pies and puddings. For a figure instead of little boxes. Here we have_ plainly in- and description of- it, see Cole's New England Far- dicated the little gourd-like, hard-shelled, and mer, Vol. Ill, No. 4, Feb. 15. 1851,-page 59. From variegated squashes, that are often cultivated as seeds received from Paris, under the name of ornamental plants. For further account of the Patagonian squash, I raised a fruit exactly like Squashes of the North American Indians, Wood's the custard squash in form and size, but of a dark " New England Prospect," Josselyn's " Rarities," green color externally and entirely worthless as an and Vander Donek's " Description of the New article of food. Nevertheless I infer that the cus-. Netherlands," may be consulted. From these and tard squash is merely an improved variety from similar authorities, we conclude that Summer the same original stock. Squashes were originally natives of America, The fruits belonging to this second group pro- where so many of them were found in use by the bably originated in the eastern and central parts of Indians, when the country began to be settled by the two Americas. They were cultivated by the In- Europeans. dians.and were found here in their gardens and fields The Summer Squashes, like the plants belonging by Europeans on the first settlement of the country. to the second group, have acutely five-lobed, rough Pumpkins, or bell-shaped squashes (as New Eng- leaves, and large yellow flowers, a clavated five- ianders would now call them), were found as far angled and five-furrowed fruit stem, and a deci- north as Saco, by Champlain, in 1605 and 1606. A duous stile. Their seeds also resemble those of similar variety was cultivated by the Iroquois In- common pumpkins and winter squashes, but are dians, and still bears their name in France. Pump- smaller and thinner ; some of them are runners kins were found by Raleigh's Colony among the In- and climbers, others have a dwarf erect habit, and dians in North Carolina, and by early voyagers in the hence are sometimes called "bush squashes." West Indies. There are indigenous kinds in Brazil They differ from all the foregoing kinds in having ana we have seen that even Patagonia has added when ripe a hard and woody rind or shell to the another to the common stock. Cultivation has fruit, with a slimy and fibrous pulp, which when doubtless improved their qualities., and has caused dry becomes a mere stringy and spongy mass. them to sport in numerous varieties, so that it is Hence, these fruits are only eaten while they still now difficult, if not impossible, to determine which remain tender and succulent, and never in a ripe of the known kinds are typical species, and which state. On account of their woody shells, they are are mere varieties. sometimes mistaken for and miscalled gourds, from which are only distinguished by their ova) A third group remains to be described. The they not and thin seeds, but the largeness and yellow representatives of it are the Cvcurbita Melopepo, by verrucosa, and color of their flowers, those of gourds being small- ovifcra, of Linnaeus. It includes all those kinds called in New England Summer er and white, and by their deeply lobed and rough Squashes, leaves, those of gourds being eatire, or at most becuase they are eaten onlv during the summer, while only slightly angular and downy. they are soft and tender, and in. an unripe state. These are the only two Squashes if Under the name of Cucurbita melopepo is to be regard be had to the origin of the name, derived included what in New England is called Scalloped from the language of the Massachusetts Indians Squash, and in the Middle and Southern States, by whom, according to the is anoth- Roger Williams, this kind' Cymlings ; perhaps Patty-pan Squash of " friut was called Askutasquask, which the Eng- er synonymefor the same. This melopepo is a very lish from them call Squashes:' From the same broad and thin or compressed fruit, with scallop lutbority, and from other edges, or it sources, we leam that and more less warted surface ; measures the Indians of New England cultivated this kind often ten or eleven inches in transverse diameter, )f fruit or vegetable, and used it for food: that and three to four from stem to blossom. It varies in some of their squashes were "of the bigness of ap- form, being sometimes much thicker, and more or Jles, of several colors," while others are represented less turbinated or top shaped , when it takes the name >y Champlain, as being of Bonnet rle pictrc priest's cap perhaps this is considerably larger, turbi- or ; lated, and more or less puckered on the margin, really its original form. Other varieties nearly md of the same- form as that which in France is round, are sometimes seen. Sued Bonnet

216 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. cosa. Intermediate between these, there is another I alluded above to an investment which I thought which may be described as pestle-shaped, meas- would be more judicious. It is to purchase for uring ten inches or more in length, and quite the use of the members, with the surplus funds of smooth on the surface. These two kinds, namely the Society, such superior stock animals, stallions, the Cucurbita mclopcpo and C. verrucosa, with all jacks, bulls, boars, rams—such seed grains and their varieties, are generally of a dwarf habit, with grass seeds, implements of husbandry, &c, •&(:., erect stems. as in the wisdom of the Executive Committee, and Cucurbita ovifera, with its varieties, auridntiaca, of a committee of two or more gentlemen, mem- the Orange or Apple squash, and the pyrifornvis or bers of the Society, may most conduce to the pear-shaped and variegated squashes, has a run- prosperity of the "Old State." This latter com- ning or climbing stem. Some of the orange squashes mittee might be appointed by the Executive Com- are the very best of the summer squashes for table mittee for the purpose of purchasing these ani- use, far superior either to the scalloped or warted mals, &c. Let these animals, &c, be distributed squashes. by the Executive Committee, or by a committee The Vegetable Marrow, as it is called in Eng- elected for the puspose, throughout the four great land, has been considered by botanists as a variety divisions of the State, the animals all to be exhibited of the Curcubita ovifera of Linnasus ; if this be cor- every fall at our State Fair as Society animals rent, cultivation has forced it to a most unnatural not for premiums of course. The details of this size, and has greatlv changed its original form. scheme I leave to the wisdom of the Society. In T. W. Harris. a future communication. I may enlarge upon some of the advantages which it appears to me to For the Southern Planter. possess. A V.4LLEY F.\RMnn. At a meeting of the State Agricultural Society of Virginia in November, 1854, a committee was appointed to ascertain if by the aid of the friends CORN.—REMEDY FOR of this Society, Agricultural Professorships could GAS TAR FOR SEED not be established at one or more of our Literary SMUT IN WHEAT. Institutions. Near Easto.nt, Md., April, 1855. Should this arrangement be made, a large por- To t/ce Editor the Southern Planter. tion of these funds will be thus absorbed. With of for subscription many of my brother farmers, I think a more judi- Dear Sir— I enclose one dollar cious investment may be made of any surplus for the present year. seed corn, v/hich shall exist. Virginia derives from her agri- In reference to the use of gas tar on with culturists much the larger portion of her revenue; I take occasion to say, that I have used it not un- the farmers have an undoubted right to have estab- good effect as against blackbirds. It is absence of lished at her colleges, and at her Military Institute, likely, that its power in causing the *is much agricultural education, embracing scientific lec- insects from the corn-hill does indirectly as is done tures and practical experiments. Her agricultu- towards preventing injury from birds, tar. rists have a right to require that her seats of by a positive dislike of the latter for the its use, as my learning shall offer to their sons facilities for It will be well to exercise care in suffered from attaining such knowledge as their avocation may negroes have in several instances and face require, so far at least as such means can accom- sore eyes and eruptions about the hands been coated plish this object. AVhy, of all classes alone, should after handling the corn which had the farmers be expected to contsibute especially with it. puts his to the establishment of those chairs at our Univer- The practice of your correspondent who of a fact sity and Institutes, which are connected with their wheat into boiling water, reminds me ' in the " bay side particular employment 1 Would it not be as rea- latelv stated by a farmer living severe- sonable that the professional gentlemen of our of Talbot county, a region which suffered said, that in State should, by their individual contributions, ly from last summer's drought. He when the rfapport the particular lecturers on whom their every instance within his observation, moistened in the usual pro- sons attend 1 If at our colleges such an educa- seed wheat had been vegetated earlier tion as may prepare the lawyer or the physician cesses for preventing smut, it had better than where it for the duties of after life, be accessible to these, and had continued to grow on his own farm he and very properly so too, why should not the same had been sown dry, and that lay on the ground institutions afford to the farmer's sons agricultural had observed, where the wheat ploughed in early in education upon terms equally easy'.' The subject through the night, and was morning, the same thing had occurred. As a has been long, far too long, neglected ; but the the no doubt the use of period has arrived when if this abuse continue, it preventive of smut, I have with almost will be from the supineness of the farmers them- boiling water is good. We use here, and lime recom- selves. They have in their own hands the remedy; perfect effect, the Glauber's salts Farmer's Register 12 or 15 years let them promptly apply it. No one who saw the mended in the say seven numbers, and observed the intelligence and gene- ago. For convenience in measuring, gallons of ral bearing of the representatives of the agricultu- pints of the salts dissolved in seven stone lime, ral interest of Viginia in Richmond last fall, can fresh water; one peck of unslacked about a gallon doubt the influence of this class. Let the agri- slacked to powder by pouring on it quantities upon culturists of the State call upon the Legislature and a half of water ; use these in the to establish, under competent professors, at her every ten bushels of wheat, by first stirring wetted, then different literary institutions, such courses of lec- salts while the grains are thoroughly tures, agricultural and veterinary, as the wants of intermixing the newly slacked lime. in the the State may demand, and as the friends of the If I were to do as Mr. Ruffin has done could bring previous proposition may require. The call will, case of marling versus sheep-sorrel, I to prove the v.n- I iroagihe, be quickly responded to almost as many witnesses both : ; ; '— —

THE SOUTHEKN PLANTER 217

questionable fact for which he has been contend- Be it observed, too, that this falling off in ing, and the thoroughly practical effect of Glau- the foreign supply has not risen from lowness of ber's salts and lime versus smut. I might, in re- price with us, or wholly on the contingency of war. ference even to the latter case, provoke some edi- In 1853-4, for instance, our high prices stimulated tors of agricultural journals and some farmers of the export of wheat and flour from the United notoriety, to produce an account of facts (1) as States to' such a degree, that every barrel of the beggarly, and an amount of conclusions as bar- one, and bushel of the other, that could be convey- ren, as have been, produced in reference to the ed to the seaboard, was shipped off to Europe. I former suspected at the time that they were overdoing it, themselves .too bare Very respectfully, and would leave of stock ; and such proved to be the case. A deficient harvest, Thos. R. Hoi.i.yoay. . last year, found them totally unprepared, and the WHEAT TRADE. consequence is that flour is at this present time 10s. per barrel higher atNew York than it is here; bo that To the Edilor the Mark Lane Express of we can look for no further supplies from thence this Dear Sir—My last communication on the above season; and what is more, our Canadian supply is important subject was dated the 20th September, diverted to the United States as the best market 1854, at which period the uncertainty hanging over So that the whole ofNorth America is, in respect to a our prospects of a supply of wheat for the current supply of wheat or flour, as effectually shut against year, was alleviated only by the conviction that as as if we were at war with that continent. our own crop, being unprecedentedly productive, And with respect to the Baltic ports, the same) would be sufficient for the year's consumption, may, to a certain extent, be said of them ; that the» whilst it would leave us nothing in reserve, except prices of last year in England and France stimula - to the extent of what we should be able to import. ted export beyond its natural limits, to the ex- is probable that England has never been placed It haustion of the stocks. This we learn by evidence in so anomalous and critical a condition since the from Rostock and other nothern ports ; and if we year 1800, in regard to the supply of bread-corn are just now obtaining a tolerable supply from for by the deficiency in the crop of 1853, and her thence, it is the accumulated stock brought dWrj Titter inability to import a sufficient quantity by land during the winter months, whilst; the navi- from abroad to cover that deficiency, she was gation was stopped. And the same communication compelled to fall back upon, and consume to the informs us that they cannot send us much more extent of five millions quarters of the reserve after the present shipments are despatched, until stock, which is usually held over the harvest, another harvest, especially if the Russian prohibi- to meet the contingency of a wet or damp season, tory ukase is strictly enforced in every part of that which renders a mixture of old corn absolutely otherwise we might expect a empire ; supply to necessary in the manufacture of flour. Had the reach Dantzic, Stettin, and Rostock from Russian succeeding crop (185-4) been also deficient, or even Poland, by the Vistula, and other rivers and their an ordinary average one, it is impossible to tributaries. say what might have been the consequences, or to regard to Spain, we are obtaining what height the prico of wheat might have been With a small flour from supply of wheat *and thence ; if run up. For not only should we hare immediately but we are to have the United States for a competitor, the .felt the exhaustion of the usual reserves : but, quantity in future will be still more limited ; whilst, as it turned out, we should have had no means however, our prices are so high, and only then, whatever of relief. This will be sufficiently clear they will send us all they can spare, and probably if we consider that our foreign resources have something beyond it, unless a better market this season failed us to such an extent, that with can be found for it. The difficulty in Spain owing to the an ordinary crop it would have been impossible to — state of the roads meet the consumption. wretched and the absence of ca- nals and railways in getting the produce to the For instance, in the United States, from whence, — seaboard, prevents them, in ordinary years, our importations amount upon the average to from exporting corn; so much, in fact, is the o." about 800,000 quarters, the price of wheat and price grain enhanced by the enormous expense of th'. flour is at this time higher than, hi London; and transit by land, that, as I have before stated, agents from thence are actually purchasing Span- me inhabitants of the coast find it more to their inter- ish flour (to be shipped in Spain) on Mark Lane, est to import wheat and 'flour from the Unite,! for the Xew York market. From the Black Sea, States than to fetch it from Old Castile, too, our supplies are wholly cut off for at least the where the first cost is frequently not more next three or four months, whether we have peace than Is. 6d. per bushel. But when a high price can be obtained -or a continuance of the war. From France and on importation, and then only, Spain can export a the European ports of the Mediterranean wjstp large quantity of wheat. We can, however, in the the exception of Spain, we have bad little or present instance, make no estimate whatever no supply since harvest; and uutil the next crop, of the quantity to be obtained this season. they will have enough to dp to hold their own. The bulk of our imports of wheat, therefore, have We must now turn to Egypt and her dependen- come from Egypt, Spain and the Baltic port-: cies, from whence we may expect a considerable in a few weeks. In and to .vhat have they amounted 2 Only $50,0010 supply of wheat the Delta of the Nile they reap two quarters in the six months from the 5th of Sep- 1 harvestsjn the year; the terober, 1854, to the 5t" 3,100,000 quarters in of the previous season.

' to sow than usual, a would have been the probable farmers more they will have a consequence to this kingdom of a cleflcieat large quantity to export. On the other hand, the

' ..;'. supplies from the Alack Sea being cut off I I by oo io i I ho I sucfi the

. i .. • - v"ir 'beM^ditf" fel&nds,' rri--' I Tfaflm which depe'na upon = . . »- J_—-^—^~ ___ ; — — . »»v

218 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER.

tiie hard wheats from the Russian ports of that as maize. It also attacks some of the more suc- sea, will now be competitors to a large extent with culent grasses, particularly the annuals. us for Egyptian wheat. This will apply also to In the latter part of May, it commences breed- Turkey, which derives a large quantity of wheat ing. At what precise time the young swarms may from South-eastern Eussia when at peace, as well first be seen alive, I am not able to say, nor can I as from her own Danubian provinces. Upon refer- tell whether they are produced in successive ring back to my letter of the 17th August, 1853, I swarms, through the season, or not, but judging find that out of about nine million quarters of from the myriads that appear soon after wheat wheat shipped at Odessa in six years, above six harvest and the apparently regular increase of millions were sent to the Mediterranean ports, in their numbers, as they spread over large fields of maize, especially iri dry seasons, it seems prob- eluding Constantinople ; whilst only, one-fourth of the entire quantity came to the United Kingdom able that they are produced in regular succession direct, and ihe small remainder to Northern Eu- through the entire season. rope. This supply is now wholly cut off, as well The first time they were ever observed in this Vi- as that from the Danubian provinces; and Egypt cinity, so far as I have been able to ascertain, was is the only country in the East from whence we can nine years ago last summer. They we e seen in a look for any considerable supply. corn field, about three miles from this place. They Under all these circumstances, and looking at appeared to come from the stubble of a wheat field the small amounts of the imports the first six that bordered on the corn. TLey did but little months of this season, I do not see how we shall be damage. A few successive days of rainy weather .able to make up the year's importation beyond 2l put a stop to their progress, and nothing more was million quarters, which will be only sufficient to seen of them,.that season. Two years later, they replace half the stock cousumed last year, andv/ill appeared on the farm of one of my neighbours, consequently leave us minus 2J millions of the about half a mile distant. They came apparently, "usual stock of old wheat on the eve of harvest. — as before, from wheat stubble, though none had

And this will be further reduced by the lateness of been observed in the wheat while growing ; and the ueason, it being almost certain that the haryest they began on that part of the corn adjacent to it. will be at least a fortnight or three weeks later than But few appeared at this time, and not much dam- usual, which delay will be further increased from a age was done. In 1851,1 observed them for the week upwards by the shortening of the days. We first time, on the farm where I now reside. The must depend for this season's consumption, wholly field in which they made their appearance had upon our own produce of wheat, and shall have but corn on. one side and oats on the opposite side, little of arty kind to begin upor. the next. Whether with a strip of wheat between. They were seen the supplies will be brought forward to market immediately after the wheat was cut, on the rows

regularly will depend in some degree upon the of corn next to the stubble ; and were so nume- opinion entertained by the farmers of the probable rous, as to cover from one fourth to one half of the

continuance cf the war ; and whether under any stalk, in many of the hills. The corn soon began circumstances, the price of wheat is likely to con- to wither. They did not devour the solid parts of tinue for any length of time at or near its present the plant, but pierced the outer part, or skin maximum. This, however, is a branch of the sub- full of holes, or destroyed it in large patch- ject which nmst form the subject of a future letter. es, here and there, over the stalk, and ap- Yours faithfully, 3 peared to feed on the juice. A few rows next to London, May 26, the wheat, were completely destroyed. The crop was more or less injured to the distance of about eight rods from the stubble. On the opposite side, • THE CHINCH BUG. the oats were killed to the distance of two or three rods from the wheat. The remainder ripened Christy's Prairie, Ind., May 26th, 1855. without injury. appeared again the next year, and about Mr. Tucker—I send you a few specimens of the They the same time of the year ; but did little damage. corn, fiy—the most destructive insect that has ever appeared in this part of the country. If they come Strange to say, it had not yet entered my or could do, to hand alive, I would advise you to keep them thoughts, that they had done, any damage to wheat. The next spring, (1853,) my wheat close prisoners ; for they increase very rapidly, and you might have more of them on hand than you looked unusually promising. I knew the wheat would desire. fly was found in it the fall previous, and expected suffer injury, but little expected it I had purposed writing to you, to make some in- it would some would have to encounter a more destructive enemy quiry respecting this insect ; supposing, of course, connection with this. it had grown to the that it was well known through the country, and in When especially to editors of agricultural papers. I height of a foot or more, I observed that more than was told, however, a few days ago, by the Itev. T. half of it had stopped growing. This portion was Lowrz, of Park County, that he had written to only six or eight inches in height, and it grew no withered died; from cause, I you on this subject, and was informed that it was more, but and what could not imagine. The same fiy appeared again the fir.:t time you had heard of the existence of corn, after the wheat was cut. The rank such an insect. The name ho gave it, if I mistake in the corn, together with one or two not, wajs ths zoi n cMnch, the same that it has some- growth of the heavy showers, prevented it from doing much injury. times been called by here. i!n North Carolina, when it is said to have existed many years, I .am Last summer, there was the same appearance in

told that it :.-; called the chinch bug. But I would the wheat, as the summer previous. A part of it i consider no name more appropriate that the one dwindled away, after it had grown to the height of few inches. At the time of cutting the wheat, I have given it, the tarn fiy, as it is properly a fly, a insects were observed, in motion towards not a bug , and commits its ravages on all kinds of these corn that grow here, wheat, rye and oats, as welt the corn, which was close by. In a few days, the — —

THE SOUTKEKN FLANTKli 219 com nearest, to the stubble, was so covered with fjie Latin name for a bug, ciniez, through the Ital- them, as to appear, at a little distance, as if cov- ian cimice, but this appears to me to be rather far- ered with black paint. The com was backward fetched and doubtful. In Dr. Hill's Decade of Cu- and dwarfish, and the season excessively dry, both rious Insects, published in 1773, a species of Thrips of which circumstances favored their destructive is described under the name of the Straw-colored effects. About fifteen acres of corn was destroyed Chinch. And if any one under whose eye these l»y them. They swept over about forty acres more, remarks fall, is sufficiently versed in philology to seme parts of which were nearly destroyed, others throw any light upon the origin of this word, we

only slightly injured. One of my neighbours, had shall be happy to have him do so ; for, in connec- twenty-six acres of corn completely destroyed by tion with this insect, it has become current in our them last summer, and fifty acres more greatly country, and will thus be perpetuated. ciSimaged. There was not a cornfield on the prairie, Though the name Chinch bug is generally ap- in which the crop was not greatly damaged. I do plied to this insect, it has obtained other names in not know that they have ever been seen in this re- particular localities. All over North-AVestern Il- gion, till last anywhere else than on the prairies, linois, they have been called Mormon lice, in con- summer. Then, they were seen on farms formerly sequence of their having come into that section covered with timber, many miles distant from any about the same time that the self-styled Latter-day- orairie. Saints commenced their settlement at Nauvoo, ma- The attention of people here, was so thoroughly ny ignorant people firmly believing they were in- called to this insect, last summer, that when it ap- troduced there by these deluded fanatics. And it. peared this spring, it was readily recognized. It appears from Mr. Smith's letter, that in his vicinity, was first observed fences, on or flying about, and this insect is called the Corn fly. This name, how- alighting here and there, like other winged insects. ever, Mr. Smith himself will be aware, when he re- Soon it was found about wheat, the roots of —then flects further, is by no means so appropriate for in oat fields, and in it timothy grass. Wherever has this insect, as he supposed at the moment of wri- been seen grain or grass, the among some of blades ting. The name " fly" properly belongs only to in- were seen to turn yellow, and the growth to be sects with clear and glass-like wings, like the com-

checked, or stopped entirely ; and in many cases, " mon house-fly ; while the name bug," although the whole plant completely killed. Probably, not it is in this country currently applied to almost all less than one third of crop, this the wheat in vi- insects, strictly belongs only to those which pertain inity has already been destroyed and by them ; to the Order Hemiptera, which embraces all those their destructive operations are still in progress. flat-backed insects which have a slender, sharp- The leasons why they have not before been ob- pointed beak, for puncturing and sucking the flu- served in the early part of season, the are these. ids of those plants or animals which they infest : • . first place, they have never before been so such insects as the common squash or pumpkin numerous in the spring season, as at present. And bug, and that disgusting object which at one iext, when in wheat they are usually partly or en- time and another has obtruded itself upon the no-

tirely concealed by the blades the ; near root and tice of every person in our land, the bed-bug. The T?ould not be likely to be distinguished from other species under consideration, moreover, exhales the Insects without close observation. E. Smith. C. same disagreeable odor which is peculiar to the insects of this group. There can, therefore, be no more appropriate name for it, than that by which

-.< i )Ut "" tievt it has been so long and so widely known—that of Chinch Bug. By Da. A. Fitch.. This insect was first scientifically described by Bis, li jusa — The facts which arc embodied in Mr. Say, in a pamphlet upon North American in- ;Lo

: a description and history of this important the science of entomology is of almost endless ex- Meet, for your readers; and therefore, I merely tent, that in those parts of Europe, where for sev at present, that it is the insect, which is eral generations a host of collectors and men of ge icrally known by the name of the Chinch Bug science have been assidiously engpged in gather- —not Chintz, as the word is sometimes erroneously ing and describing every insect which those1 coun- ipelled. ! have searched my library in vain for tries contain, new species continue to turn up al- inforr to the derivation and import of this most every year. Even in the environs of the city •wd ebster supposes if. to o/wo from of Paris, which may be regarded as he hoiad «1

220 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER.

quarters of this science, and where almost every relative value of boiled and dry corn for the inch of the ground has often 'been examined with nourishment of a working horse. The result is a the greatest care and the most searching scrutiny, gain by boiling varying from 20 to 25 per cent. ray esteemed friend and correspondent, Dr. Signo- We had rather feed four bushels of soaked and" ret, has recently discovered , anew insect; which, partly cooked corn than five bushels of the grain from the specimens he has been so kind'as to send dry, particularly where one has very little "hay, me, "I find to be almost identical with the chinch straw, blades, or other "roughness," to give with hug of this country. This species he proposes to the corn. name fhe*-Micropus Spinels, in honor of the distin- It is well worth while to heat water boiling hot, guished entomologist who founded the genus to and pour it over cut feed and ground grain to which it pertains, and who has done so much to facilitate the extraction of their alimentary pro- elucidate this important Order of insects. In view perties in the stomachs of working animals. If of such facts, who can refrain from devoutly ex- is not enough to fill the digestive apparatus with claiming with the inspired Pslalmist, " How man- coarse forage, or the seeds of cereals, if we would ifold are ' orks, Lord !" thy And what an secure the best attainable results for the food con- amount of close observation and patient, perse- sumed. It must be so prepared as to yield up its vering will it research require to render our know- life-sustaining virtues in a speedy and perfect ledge of the icseets of cur own country teiera'bly manner. Asa general thing, grain fed to "horses complete. Asa Fitch. is quite imperfectly digested; so much so, indeed, June 4, 1855. that not a few hogs and cows in and near villages and cities, subsist mainly or> the droppings of PEACHES. horses that travel the streets. Over 60 per cent, of corn is This fruit has always found a large market in siarch, which is insoluluble New York, and one which has encouraged the in cold water, and not very soluble in juices of the stomach. By boiling or baking, cultivation on a. large scale. The soil of New starch is transformed into Jersey seems to have been well suited to their a kind of gum, which dissolves readily in water, growth, and very great quantities in ordinary and is easy of digestion. If grain keeps up to years were thence exported. In some years the anything like its present market price it will soon be as to quantity was so great that they sold for fifty cents, common bake bread for horses as for men. Unlike the ox, the or little more than the cost of their freight and horse has a small single stomach these is baskets. In other years choice varieties have ; and not one argument in favor of cooking food for sold as high as $5 and $6 per basket. Last year persons that does not apply to its equal preparation the frosts of May cut off the whole crop—no for horses. Scotch farmers have been years in good ones, and very poor ones were to be had at some the practice of baking bread for their plough teams any price- The severe cold of the -past winter has when hard at work. It is soon eaten, agrees well again proved destructive in many localities. In with the stomach, and gives a fatigued animal the Connecticut, in the northern part of this State and maximum or time to lie down on a good bed and at the West the crops have been cut off, and the rest. This kind of feed, designed to make good trees killed out. In some parts of New Jersey blood, and a plenty of it, does not supercede the the crops are good, and speculators are already necessity of cut hay, fodder, or straw, whote bulk seeking to forestall the markets. The growers, is important for the due expansion, and vigorous however, appear to he on their guard, since great action of the digestive organs. numbers of orchards have been pulled out, the great uncertainty of the crops being a bar to Our practice is to boil corn some three or four its profits in the long run. The peach does not hours, and salt it about as much as for hominy or tear until its third year, and then alternate years bread. It swells to twice its original volume, for four yea'rs, seven years being the average life which is no inconsiderable advantage. Horses fed cf the tree. The grower is fortunate if he gets in mostly on green rye, barley, corn, clover, or that time oue crop that will pay. The usual lucerne, do best when a part of the water in such ' distance of planting is 16j feet apart—an acre succulent plants is dried out before they are eaten. Lotde 160 trees For the first three years green Even cows giving milk like half cured new hay crops may be planted among the trees- If the better than perfectly green grass. A young corn tree3 then bear a large crop, the prices will be plant two feet or so in height, has about 90 parts » to low that they will not pay to send to market. of water in 100 of its stem and leaves. This fact In the next year they may, as last year, fail does not prevent its being nutritive at that early altogether. The chances of profit are then that stage of its growth, for it has very little wood, or during four years the grower may have crops woody fibre, which is indigestible. Dry matured yied their nutrient when they have failed elsewhere. If he does, it plants elements sparingly to will reimburse his expense. At the end of seven horses, as compared with oxen and other rumi- yeais he palls out the trees, which leaves his nants. ground no utterly exhausted that a great expense Corn alone is too heavy feed for both horses and

r is requisite to renovate it. These discouragements oxen ; and among the thousand and one inventions have greatly curtailed their culture- for crushing and grinding corn in the ear, we doubt t whether there is anything equal to the " Little Corn and Cob Mills," advertised !& BCOKOMS IN FEEDING HOUSES AND Giant by Messrs. Garmiphael &Bean, in the pages of this journal.—

fi " "Hence in feeding corn and cob meal has' '7t\-,. aeilk at a dollar and a quarter a Remonstrated' it& economical value. The cobs do*' bushel, a planter ias pretty strong inducemehfe aot yield any notable amount of positive sustenance; to Gtiidy economy in feeSitife this grain to his but they serve to render all nutritive elements in Lc.'sos and mules. The writer has recently been the com available for the support of animal life, c'xpefiriientrag alittle in the way of testing the and when fodder is scarce, as it new is, rru.shed — —;

THE SOUTHERN PLANT!!- 221 cobs, if sound and not weathered, mix admirably For the Southern Planter. with pure meal. A statement of the financial condition of work mules, oxen, and horses, or waste To poor the Virginia State Agricultural Society ap- their expensive food, is bad economy; and one pears in the June number of the Southern way 10 keep teams poor is to use dull, worthless ploughs and harrows, which require man and Planter, and I wish to say through the same twast to go three times over a field to effect a de- channel, that of the amount of commission to gree of tillage which, with really good implements, which I was entitled as General Agent of the might have been better done at one ploughing or Society, as set forth in that exhibit, there re- harrowing. Every step in agriculture ough to tell bat it cannot, with bad tools, and badly kept work- mained, after defraying the various expenses ing cattle and servants. Southern Cultivator. incurred by myself and my son, less than $400 to me, and $217 to him; as is more fully stated in report to the Executive Commit- GREAT SALE OF SHORT HORNS IN ENG- my LAND. tee, a part of which is published as an adden- dum to the financial statement. Last week we noticed Mr. Tauqueray's For this, however, the Executive Commit- sales of Short Horns, at Hendon, on the 24th tee is in no degree responsible. The canvass of April. It would seem hardly possible, had conducted by myself and others employed by we not facts and figures, that from a. single me, was arranged with the President of the herd there should be sold, at one time, 101 Society, and had commenced with considerable animals— consisting of 77 cows and heifers success before the meeting of the lOthof March, and 24 bulls—at an average price of nearly 1S53, when the subject was first submitted to $400 each. Some of the English journals the Committee. They undoubtedly wished .itribute the high prices to American buyers and intended to make the compensation as who, they say, are getting away their best liberal as they felt themselves justified in do- stock. They add, that we have the advantage ing ; it was entirely'satisfactoiy to me, and I of them in the associations formed here, by have neither desired nor would have received means of which the expense is divided, and the more. The President himself had offered in influence of superior animal* more widely ex- the first instance to guarantee a larger amount tended. from his own purse. At the Hendon sale, however, the competi- The operations of my agency were conduct- tion was chiefly between Messrs. Morris & Be- ed without instructions or control from any ar and Mr. Spencer, of New-York city, and quarter; the various expenses incurred was Mr. Gunter, a young grazier of Brompton, my own voluntary act, and so directed a* in England. Mr. Gunter obtained the highest my own judgment was best calculated to build price animal (500 guineas,) after which the up a great State Society. My motive for en- American buyers seemed to have their own tering upon this agency was rather to render way, as they secured a majority of the what service I could to a great cause, than tc animals, best and Mr Gunter's name ap- make money by it I relied for a support pears afterwards only as the purchaser upon other business in which I had previously of one of the bulls. However, Mr. G. now engaged, and thought it would be in my power- cwns more of the Duchesses and Oxford** to render this service also without detriment the highest priced families of the Short Horns to my private interests. The pecuniary re- —than any other breeder in England, and sult was, as before stated, and without going English breeders now turn to him as being re- further into matters merelypersonal to myself rponsible for keeping at home any of these bet- and my son, I only wish to state the fact. er animals. Wm. H. RlCHARPSO*.. [Am. Agricult. For the Southern Planter. JOINT WORM—SUBSOILING ANDMANURIMG. Labor Saving Soap. The wife of an — Am- A communication in the June number again irican Agriculturist has been experimenting recommends destroying wheat straw and stub- >n soaps, and finds that the addition of three- ble as a sure means of shortening the reign c:' juartcrs of an ounce of borax to a pound of that ever powerful enemy to the wheat crop., oap, melted in without boiling, makes a sa- the joint worm. Under the above head I will rin? of ore-half the htbor in waeUfi}?. venture a few suggestions which can do no •nc h teness oi the fabrics; injury to the crop if it docs none to the joint • ff< el is removed, worm. I believe the joint worm will have its left with a peculiarly day, and for all we know, it may be a very long

. ing nothing more to dar ; but I think the fact that they are so v-. f. Qi. ;-'.-• v,y the most ambitious washerwo- merous and increase' -' fasr, is an indie.'.''': —

THE SOUTHERN PLANTER

that they will have but a short reign. But have." I then asked him what land rented

be this as it may, no means has as yet been for ; he replied, "that land was never tenanted devised for their destruction. I now propose, out in that country for less than 19 years, and instead of perplexing ourselves about them, that that no rent was paid the first year, but we farmers, one and all, get into a good humor double rent was paid the last year, which was aud join at once in the race of irradication. done to enable the tenant to purchase manures Moisture, shade, &e., is said by some writers and put the land to clover and grass the first to shorten their lives; if that be so, let's pre- year; and that land rented at from $15 to $30 pare for them as early every spring as possi- per acre, it mattered not whether it was kept ble. This, i suggest, can be done by seeding exclusively for grazing or cropped. He also the earliest varieties of wheat, which may be mentioned that many of the best farmers brought to maturity much earlier than it would not permit a sheep to come upon their now is by early or summer fallowing, subsoil- land, because they regarded them as being the ing, and a moderate usd of superphosphate of most injurious stock to grass, or clover, it be- lime, or guano, drilled in with the wheat at ing their habit to take the bud out of every the time of seeding. I have observed this plant in earty spring they had access to, which season a field of 40 acres of wheat, which is if it did nothing more kept it back a month now estimated at 20 bushels per acre, which later. * The joint worm, fly, &c., together with was plowed very early last season and seeded the droughts we are now-a-days liable to, will, in Mediterranean wheat. This field is sepa- I think, force us to reflect upon the course we

rated at one point by a • narrow lane from a have been and are yet pursuing, and also to field that was very much injured last year, enquire into the manner of preparation, &c, and is now in white, smooth wheat and cannot in those wheat growing countries that outstrip make one-fourth as much as it did last season, us so far in the growing of that most beautiful whereas the joint worm was scarcely percepti- of all crops. I have been unable to account ble in the 40 acre field last season, and the for the want of success on the part of those present crop is said to be better than the last. few farmers in Virginia who have attempted After seeding this (40 acres,) a 60 acre clover to subsoil their land, but am inclined to think fallow, which was plowed after the stubbie, was that it must be for the want of an effective and seeded in the same way with a drill, with the reliable subsoil plow. addition of 3 tons of guano, and the addition Since the joint worm has become so bad, of o\ tons of plaster in December. The joint many farmers who do not feed it to cattle keep worm is more numerous in this field than I their straw over one year and then spread it ever saw them, and much the larger portion very thinly over the young clover, which im- it the time will scarcely be worth cutting ; was bound- proves the clover and the land too, by ed by a public road, by grass land and a corn it conies to' be a fallow. I have long wanted field. I account for this difference from the to subsoil for corn, but could never find th§ ; fact that one was plowed early and seeded time, (as I thought,) but the last spring, I re first—the other being regarded a good chance solved to subsoil 25 acres, and actually sub^ for 25 bushels per acre without the guano or soiled 60 or 65 acres out of 100 I put in corn, » plaster, was fallowed last and seeded late, and and had it planted by the 2nd of May. I in-

it being very dry, came up very late. A few tend to subsoil a portion of my fallow for months since I had a conversation with a gen- wheat, and I request all who can to do like- tleman residing in Washington City, who owns wise every spring and fall, until we Virginians 450 acres of land in Scotland, which he had can, in some degree, rival the smaller yields of recently hired, and more recently visited. I Scotland, Whose soil is not to be compared to asked him if they were annoyed in his country the average soil of Virginia. We have the by joint worm? "Yes," he replied, "with all soil and the climate, and we have a number of ' ' labor without paying sorts of worms. ' I then asked, ' what do you do good farmers who have to guard against them, or can you raise good hire, and we have the means (or the credit) to crops of wheat ?" "Yes," was his reply, "our purchase manure; then why not raise better farmers make from 40 to 60 bushels per acre." crops despite of the joint worm?

"Pray, how do they do it?" he replied, " they LI. Him , crop, inches plow well, for every about 7 or 8 White Post P. O., Clarke Co., Va., and fallow with a subsoil plow, about the deep, June 18th, 1855. same depth, which disturbs the soil on an 15 inches, and they manure average about should be To broil hams properly, the slices t every crop with phosphate of lime, | heavily for first soaked in hot water, dried in a cloth, and broil- i bone dust, or any good manure? they may ed on a gridiron over a clear fire ; : ;

THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 22c

RICHMOND MARKETS, JUNE 28, 1855. Wines Port, Burgundy, gla2,50, Port Juice S2,50a 4, Madeira, Sicily, 45a81,75", old Madeira, S2,50a4, Sherry, Apples— Va. 85 per bbl. none in market. Permartin, Duff Gordon and Amontilado, 82a6,50. Bacon City cured,- none in market ; Western Sides — Wood—Oak. 83 50 per cord, 82a2 25 for Pine, retail (new) held at lie, new Shoulder?, lOalOjc, Hams, 10Jal2 S4 50 for Oak, $3a3 25 for Pine. c, Smithfield hog round, llje. Queen City Hares, 13j. Wool—Small parcels of tub-washed sold at 27c Butter Mountain 24, to 2S cts., Roll 20 lo 25 cts., do — Unwashed 18al9c. No sales of firm fleece made as yet. Goshen 25a23 cts , old and inferior, SalOJ cts. Beef- - 3 50,a4."0, per cwt. gross, which is $9a7 net. Beeswax—25ia26£ per lb. Hogs—H't'i per hundred, supply moderat « Cotton— 12* cts. per lb. Sheep—Mutton sells for 83a5 a piece for ordinary and Cotton Yabns—UalS ?ts., cash; Cotton Cordage 20 superior Sheen Lambs S S. a 3 50 each. cts., per lb. _ Corn—We quote lOoallO .;,<.. per bushel. Corn Meal— Si 30al 3a. PAYIi1ENtS~f0" THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, COFi'EE—Rio lOJalH cts, Laguyra llf c, Java 15* To the 2.7th of June, 1855. Moclia 15lc. All persons who have made payments early enough to Flock—We quote country superfine at 811all*. entered, whose names do not extra 811*, family Sl2al2*. Stock very light-, and very be and appear in the following little arriving". receipt list, are requested to give immediate notice of the Flaxseed—We quote at Si 62; per bushel. omission, in order that, the correction may be rr_p.de in the Feathers—Live geese 40 cts. per lb. next issue Fish— Herrings, N. C , clipped, none in firsr hands ; Halifax, clipped, No. 1, 85*; No. 2, 85. Shad—Last sales Rev. W. Tiraberlake to January 1856 si 00 89; Mackerel, No. 1, -S2l'per bbl., No. 2, 812 50, No. 3, J. McMulIen to September 1855 1 00 mall, 50aS, 84 No. 4, 84 SOaS, medium 5 50a6, large 9 25 Dr. R. H. Nelson to January 185*. 1 00 9 "50. John Tyler to January 1856 1 00 Ginseng—25 cts., per lb. N". Edmonds to January 1856 1 00 Grass Seeds—Clover SO ''r^.l per bushel, Timothy Jno. T. Bland to January 1859 5 00 4a4 25, Herds' Grass 81 25al 50 per bushel. J. J. Hite to January 1857 1 Gdano—We quote 850 from wharf, 850 50 delivered, 00 H. Hudgins to January 1856 Tor Peruvian, Mexican Guano §30a835. 1 00 to January 1856 Gunpowder— Dupont's and Hazard's Sporting, F, FF, S. B. Spratley 1 00 nd FFF, 84J, Blasting, S2,75aS3 per keg. W. H. Hughart to January 1856 1.00 Hoop Poles—We quote at 87 per thousand. Gen. H. B. Woolhouse to January 1856 00 Slaughtered Hides— 61 cents per lb., green weight ; calf II. F. Woolhouse to January 1856 00 kins, gr»en, Si. No Spanish Hides in market. N. B. Richardson to January 1856 00 Hay Sales from store 8 1 50. — Ro. II. Vest to January 1856 00 Iron and Nails— Pig Iron, 832a840. Swedes 8107 50, Dr. D. S. Green to September 1855 00 English refined and Tredegar 895, Common English Capt. II. Jones to January 1857 00 580, American country 835. Cut Nails 4a4|c. Dr. W. S. Morton to May 1857 1 00 Liquors—Brandy, Otard, Dupuy & Co. 83a5 per gal F. Grayson to January 1856 L Seignette, 82 25a84; Sazerac, S3 25a 84 50; Hennessey, 1 00 W. W. Alyis to January 1856 3 95a85; Peach, scarce at $1 25a82; Virginia Apple, 60c. 1 00 ,85c; do. old, 75c.aSl 50; Northern do, 55a75c; Imitation, Jas. C. Cook to April 1856 1 00 5a4.£c. Rum, New England, 45c. Gin, Holland, 8 1,20a H. G. Argule.te to January 1856 1 00 1/5; American 45 cts. Morgan Wood to Jauuary 1855 2 00 Pig Lead— 6|a7|c., cash and time. J. D. Massenburg to January 1856 1 00 Labd—Prime Lard, inbbls. 12c, scarce, in Kegs, 12al3?r Counsel to January 1856 , H. B. 1 00 l pails, 14c. Ed. Walden to January 1855 1 00 Leather—Good stamp 20a22c., per lb., damaged 13c, B. G. Harris to January 1856 1 00 oor 15a 17c., upper leather 81 50a83, as in size" weight Capt. C. Lowndes to January 1856 1 00 nd quality, the latter price only for superior heavy sides. Geo. Taylor to January 1856 kirtir.g and harness Leather is more plenty with less 1 00 P. Walker to emand. We quote 20 to 29c, as extremes, principally Col. B. January 185C 1 00 ale3 22a26c. Bev. Hutcheson to June 1856 1 00 Lime—$1 37 in store, 84 311 from vessel. Jas. F. Harper to May 1856 1 00 Molasses—New Orleans 32a35c. per gallon. Cuba, Dr. W. R. Holt to January 1856 1 00 3. Porto Rico, 35. W. A. Kearnev to April 1855 2 00 Oats—Stock very light—sales at 70a75cts. per- bush. W. Fretwell to April 1856 1 00 Offal—Bran, 25c. per bushel; shorts, 32*c; brown stuff", Dr. W. Selden to January 185C 2 00 Sc. shipstufT, 75c. B. F. Tardy to June 1856 1 00 Potatoes—No demand for old and nothing doing. W. W. Harris to January 1856 1 00 Piaster— Ground 89 per ton, calcined 825 per bbl. Rte—81 30 per bushel. • J. R. Gates to January 1867 2 00 Rice—New ~l\ cts. per pound. Samuel A. Darden to June 1856 2 00 Salt— Liverpool tine Si 60 per sack from wharf! W. Wheeler to January 1856 1 00 Sugars Fair to .;trictly — prime New Orleans 5|a7 cts., 0. Moore to Janue.ry 1856 1 00 loffee Sngar 7fa8f, refined loaf 9|a Iffj, crushed and J. Matthews to January 1856 1 00 ordered 9a9fc. S. D. Fisher to July 1855 1 00 Shot— 7a7£ cts. per lr.. W. M. Hannah to January 1857 1 00 Teas— Imperial and Gunpowder 55c.a8l 20. Geo. E. Welsh to January 1856 1 00 ToBAcf 0— The breaks of Tobacco are very much crow- J. A. Montague to January 1856 1 00 ed at ibis time and receipts laTge. We ouote inferior A. J. Bracey to January 1856 1 00 ige a; 5 >a6 ; good t5 and fine, 96 25a7 ; inferior leaf, 88a W. C'ullingsworth, Jr. to January 1856 ; good, Yj 5QalO \r 4 50 50; shipping, 812 50aI5 ; fine iao„. ictttring, 8' '••?>. C. H. K. Taylor to January 1856 2 00 " Ed. to '- ' '—T*o or three limned conlrac-s for the new Towns January 1856 1 00 rop ban been made recently (v.e believe lor July Jos. W. Campbell to July 18o.» 3 00 tt**ry) at per &.'¥. 82 i-.uhel; but this, we sup ose, Sampson to July 1856 1 00 unot be regarded a* an iadb.-tfion of the opeiing rates A Foster to October 1855 1 00 |pl ' new whea; beena >.o cme '.-.. W. Wooter to June 185C 1 00 '

PLANTER 224 THE SOUTHERN VALUABLE NORTH CAROLINA I 00| A N. Matthews to J une 185G ESTATE FOR SALE. 5 00 Lewis to January 1850 tract of "Warner subscriber offers for sale a valuable 1855 [ 25 riAHE Jas. Hite to July 4,400 acres, lying in the cou» 180b 1 00 1 land, containing W. Wormley to January 14 miles 0& Dr C. of Warren and Halifa*. #> Q., September 185o 2 00 tu7s .Littleton Geo T. Thomas to con, and 8 miles from 1 00 tantf om Warren to January 18o6 Railroad having Jno. H. Barksdale and Gaston I 1 00 Depc ton the Raleigh to January 18oL Rich. Wm. Applebury, 3x. advantage of the Norfolk, Petersba^and Ibob 1 00 the upland u T. T. Hundley to January 2,000 acres of the J. 1 00 mond markets-near Eaugeley. Jr. of Oak, Hickory and,MM Jas. in native growth 18o6 1 00 the land on W. A. Love to May There are 3 creeks running through 1856 1 00 grounds of fane B. Winston to June which are about 800 actes of low 185t' \ bo cleared and canalled. B. V. Iverson to January quality, one halfof which is 1856 1 oo half ism ongma e' D. Brown to January and throughly drained;the other 1856_ 1 oo This land^produces Geo. M. Carter to January forest and heavily timbered I 75 (corn wbj Beni Brown to July;1855 the various staples of the region Estate finely, trac 185fa 1 00 l not the best H. A. Watkins to January and tobacco;) and is equal to, 185t> 1 00 the Roanoke river The T. Minor to January in the two counties off Dr. H. 1 00 heal hfuIness Pulliam to April 1856 county of Warren is celebrated for its J. R. 1 00 The improve to January 18of. the refinement of its sotiety. Richard Baylor and for house with 1 00 of a two story dwelling E. F. Redd to May 1856 ments consist 1 00 necessary out houses. Also Redd to January 1856 four rooms, and all the C. E. 1 00 Middleton to January 1850 25 excellent tobacco barns. C. 1 00 accommodating 1856 sold *ery low and upon J. Munsey to January This land will be 00 information apply to to January 1856 terms For further Jos. A. Peck 00 to January 18ot N. AUGUST, Br S. S. Griffin 00 18oG for sale of lands &c. Col. Jos. Martin to January General Agent 1856 00 Planter Office, Richmond M P B. Sledge to January v—4t Southern J January 1856 00 — Anderson to NORRIST" e'. M. 00 RICE & A January 1850 Implements, Machines, far- f' Lecler to 00 Dealers in. Agricultural to July 1856 Garden Tools, Seeds,

VII perfect, grains a*, OF NUMBER part the sound and CONTENTS which a V the bgL PAGE the rest for seeding, eav.ng eoaratedVom that m • 193 marketable condition, so Great Fraud in Guano ance in a good • 190 sach On the Pea Crop farmer ntel sow only • 197 SmallerS™V™Ksseed, such as 2tlgraa : The Osage Orange „, m, f erowth.. 3d. . 198 in the most perfecj, Bad Effeets of Grass on Colts STdoVfTseed, are. cleaned Plants . 919 plan will clefl Management of Gceenhonse 4th. fans built on this -f 201 manner. la Virginia Gardeners- • second cleaning, Useful Hints for .."202 rain, both in the"u first and I he cnear. Merino Sheep ;.'"'"" •'--rs nownowinuse.5trin use. 5th, Silcsian 204 and better than any others System and Standing Pasture construction. Price $20" i Three Field ^ ness and durability of its Short Horns as Milkers The 200 Discount to dealers. Salt in Feeding Cattle '.',""< •• 207 of Wheat from Weavel- • -Preservation 207 Cider Press, whidit • • portable Mill and Experiment with Peas to purch™ nase ice 2071 apples would do well ,' ?l , f3, Seed Planter and Drill Barrow mamanyny ,andMachiWj,| Emery's 207 of Implements eneral variety ; vs. Pea Bugs A particuM Camphor 298 hand. We would call Crop of Virginia trpnt constantly on Mi The Wheat 210 Donors • *™ to our Hohse Power Premiums by Individual auention u"i which hav dven universal«JJ«ffiS-satisian - Move a Sullen Ox iiines, How to 210 all the kindy _+ variety of Plows, ei bracing Cultivation of Fruit ™-eat Iron Beg market ; also Riches Capillary Attraction of the Soil made or sold in this ,'." vU oy Hon. W.O.RJI Pumpkins and Squashes . Plow, highly recommended Prouty ars P 1 Gas Tar for Seed Corn of Virginia and otheis; & Mf, ",, 217 Mills; Scot Trade Harrison's Portable Wheat n , Q and castings; > ' Chinch Bu and Cob Crusher; RevolvingJ : ntCorn The Li^ le Gi assor a and Mules-muies- ".'": ""^ ; a general Economy in Fe«ding Horses '-y Independent teeth Horse Rakes .-Peaches 221 ra ent of garden Saving Soap Proof Labor Agents for Herrin ^i^J^^ 222 • tne^and despaW- Joint Worm 223 rdess attended to with P™- P Riehardson " XnO •...- ter from Wm. H. jy- -tf