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AGRICULTURAL.
DANIEL LEE, 91. D., Editor.
SATURDAY AUGUST 6, 1859.
SUN - STROKE—WHAT IS IT?—THE SCIENCE
OF KEEPING COOL IN HOT WEATAEB.
We are informed by a gentleman residing in
the county of Oglethorpe, that there were tn o
deaths last week from this cause in that county.
The thermometer on the day stood at 102 .
In both instances the subjects were negroes
one belonged to Jacob Phinizy, Esq., the other
to Mrs. Rebecca Dunn.
We do not recollect the paper from which the
above was cut a few days since, and cannot
therefore give the proper credit. Many ex
changes, however, notice fatal cases resulting
from hot and oppressive weather, in connection
with undue labor.
At the risk of being a little professional, we
will briefly explain the cause and nature of the
infliction called “Sun-Stroke,” and develope the
science of keeping cool in hot weather.
Strictly speaking, the term Sun-Stroke is a
misnomer, for it conveys the idea that the mala
dy is always produced by the action of the di
rect rays of the sun. Such is not the fact; al
though it occurs more frequently under such
circumstances than any other. \ itality, and
especially that in the higher order of animals,
can endure only a limited degree of internal heat
above the normal state, without perishing. M
M. Delaroche and Berger tried several experi
ments on different species of animals, in order
to ascertain the highest temperature to which
the body could be raised without the destruc
tion of life, by enclosing them in air heated from
122 to 201 degrees, until they died. The result
was very uniform, the temperature of the body
at the end of the experiment only varying in the
different species between eleven and thirteen
degrees above their natural standard; hence, it
may be inferred that an elevation to this degree
must be fatal. In a moist atmosphere, this ele
vation is soon attained ; partly, because of the
greater conducting power of the medium that
surrounds the body, but principally on account
of the check given to the evaporation of water
which appears as perspiration on the skin.
In man, as in lower animals, the skin performs
to a certain extent, the function of respiration ;
and it is supplied with numerous small glands
which separate much water, and some mineral
salts, oleaginous and nitrogenous matter, that
appear as an excretion on the surface of the body.
For all the purposes of removing animal heat,
sweat may be regarded as pure water. —
When it is seen on the skin, it is simply an ex
halation from the glands that separate it from
the circulating fluids. When waterchanges into
an invisible gaseous state by evaporation, it ex
pands to some seventeen hundred times its vol
ume as a liquid ; and from 112 degrees of heat,
it imbibes 972 degrees which is rendered latent
and insensible, by this enormous enlargement of
vapor, as compared with water. To exhale
water from the skin, and have it drop off as
sweat, or be wiped oft' with a handkerchief or
towel, cools the skin and body very rapidly, for
the water converted into an invisible vajior must
absorb, and render insensible, the large amount
of active heat which we have named.
We have now to study the capacity of the at
mosphere to take up water, and hold it as one of
its gaseous constituents. This capacity is large,
but by no means limited. The higher the tem
perature of the air, the more water it can hold
as vapor; and the converse is equally true.
In a separate article, we will explain why it
rains, why it stops raining, and why it refuses
to rain, when the farmer needs a season very
much to save his crops; at present, let us con
sider the dew-point in its relations to the remov
al of heat from bodies of working persons and
animals. From numerous meteorological and
mortuary records before us, we cite the follow
ing: “At New York city, August 12th to 14th,
1853, the wet thermometer stood at 80 ° to
84 °; the air at 90 ° to 94 ° . The mortality
from this joint effect was very great—over 200
persons losing their lives in two days in that
city.”
The dew-point, as shown by the wet bulb of
the thermometer, was remarkably high—not the
temperature of the atmosphere. The great de
gree of humidity in the atmosphere restricted
its capacity to take up vapor from the bodies of
persons and working horses, and consequently
brought within narrow limits their natural ad
vantages for the timely removal of an excess of
animal heat lienee, many die from what is
called “ sun-stroke.” When the air has a low
dew-point, that is, when it is comparatively dry,
and especially if moved by wind or a gentle
breeze, then men and beasts can work, even in
the sun, with safety, though the thermometer
shall indicate a temperature of 130° in the
sun.
Under all the ordinary circumstances, the ap
paratus for cooling the bodies of animals is very
efficient. This is strikingly shown by the fact
that Chabert, the “Fire-King,” was in the habit
of entering an oven whose temperature for bak
ing meat was from 400 to 600 degrees of heat.
The workmen of the late Sir F. Ciiaxtrey were
accustomed to enter a furnace in which his
moulds were dried, whilst the floor was red-hot ,
and a thermometer stood at 350 ®. Heat and
a dry atmosphere stimulate the cutaneous glands
to the most copious secretion, and the water
vaporised from every pore cools all the circu
lating fluids, and prevents the heating to any in
jurious excess of the living organism. Men who
would avoid injury to themselves, their field I
hands, horses, mules, and oxen, should pay more
attention to the moisture than to the tempera
ture of the air in hot weather. All may be
overcome by heat which cannot escape, as well
in the shade as in the sunshine. The depres
sion in vital force affects simultaneously the
brain, nerves, and muscles; so that the senses
gotnrxEs&ii mu as» vxasszss.
are partly or wholly lost, while the heart and
lungs act feebly, or not at all. Our American j
climate is subject to extreme and sudden changes. :
Thermometers adapted to show the humidity !
of the air, as well as those that indicate its tern- j
perature, are now cheap, and every farmer should
have both. Instrumental records are always
valuable when properly made. The Caucasian
race having had most of its experience in the
cool climate of Europe, knows far better how to
keep warm in cold weather than how to keep
cool in our tropical summers. When the heat is
greatest, we should practice frequent ablutions
with spring or well water, and have our cisterns
so deep and shaded, as to furnish cold water for !
bathing purposes. Negroes should bo made to .
wash themselves frequently to keep the glands
of the skin in a healthy state. They should
have more vegetables with vinegar, and in some
cases, less fat bacon. Give them a plenty -of
com bread, and see that it is fully baked before j
it is eaten. In case a negro, or white person, or
a horse, is overcome by heat, be cool yourself,
and do prudently what is right, so far as you
know. In the first stages of the complaint, use
cold water freely, and fan the person to remove
the air as it becomes saturated with moisture, ,
that fresh air may come and take off more heat.
Everybody knows how rapidly a wet hand grows
cold in the wind in a cold day in winter; and all
know how refreshing is even a slight breeze in
a hot, close, sultry evening. The suffering from j
a high dew-point, and a warm, still atmosphere,
is relieved at once by the active motion of the
air, which simply removes the surplus of animal
heat. In case of sun-stroke, bathe and wash all
the skin, but use no towel—let the water evapo
rate. Be cautious in the use of cordials and
stimulants given internally. Send for your fam
ily physician, who can best judge how to treat
all the after symptoms. To keep the system
healthy, avoid all alcoholic drinks, lessen your
consumption of tobacco and other poisons. Eat
moderately of light*food, composed mainly of
fruits and vegetables, take your sleep regularly,
and preserve a cheerful and happy temper, by
reading the Field and Fireside. Beware how
you patronise quack medicines and quack doc
tors. Study the laws of human life to prevent
disease, and avoid misfortunes by thoughtful
ness and true wisdom. Learn the art of keeping
property, that you may never drive like Jehu to
obtain what you really need. Cultivate more
mind and less land, that you may be rich and
contented with a little, rather than poor and
under the harrow with a great deal.
WIRE FENCES.
Mr. Editor: Thinking I may render the
planter and farmer some service by calling their
attention through your valuable paper to the
adoption of wire fences instead of wooden ones—
after the experience of nine years, I pronounce
wire fence lor all inside purposes better to stop
cattle and horses than any fence ordinarily
built on a farm. I have a string of fence five
hundred yards long, which has stood over eight
years, having forty head of cattle and horses
running along side of it, and none has been over
or through it. It has not cost me fifty cents to
keep it in repair for the eight years; and it does
not cost one-tenth as much to keep it clear of
briars, weeds, and bushes as wood fences; and
I can plow and mow (with a horse mower)
nearer to it than to a common rail fence. It did
not cost me forty cents a rod of 16£ feet, in
cluding all materials and making. My fence
was built on a small ridge, with four wires; on
a level, I use five wires, which are sufficient -if
made of number nine wire. Annealed wire
should always be used ; any good hand, after a
little experience and due explanation, can put
it up and repair it. lam positive I can buy the
wire and make wire fence cheaper than to mako
it from my own timber standing on the ground.
L. Bailey.
Fairfax county, Ya., June, 1859.
Both Mr. Bailey and our correspondent G.
P. Thompson, Esq., of Virginia, have our thanks
for their valuable communications. We happen
to know Mr. B. personally, and have often been
on his beautiful farm, which is only seven or
eight miles from Washington, D. C. His wire
fences, of which a part are above referred to,
are intended to turn cattle and horses, not hogs
and sheep, and are all inside division fences.
We have, however, seen outside highway fences
made exclusively of wire, which answered a good
purpose; although two or threo straight bars or
rails in posts for the bottom, are better than all
wire. Mr. Oscar Bailey, now of Clark county,
Ga., (a son of Mr. L. Bailey,) has had experience
in making this kind of fence, and has promised
to favor our readers with a full description ofjtlie
manner in which the wire is stretched, the posts
set, and the whole affair turned out complete.
Virginia worm-fence looks badly at best; where
as a well made wire fence is neat, graceful, and
ornamental. We have seen wire that has
served as fence some sixteen years without
being sensibly corroded by rust.
—
CENSUS OF ABBEVILLE DISTRICT.
We learn from Johnson Ramey, who was ap
pointed to take the census of the white popula
tion of this District, that he has finished his
work, and that there are in this District 5,746
males, and 5,500 females, making a total of
11,216. Our slave population is not quite
20,000. We take the following figures from
the United States census of 1850, from which
it appears that since that time our white popu
lation has decreased 1,483.
Dwellings in Abbeville, under that census,
2,381: Families 2,381; White population, 12,699;
Free Colored, 359; Slaves 19,262; Total 32,318;
numb'r of Farms in the District, 1,841.
AbbeviUe Banner.
It is the part of wisdom to study the causes
which give to the healthy District of Abbeville
a decrease of its white population of some eleven
per cent, in nine years, instead of an increase
equal to the natural increase of its citizens.—
There is a serious defect somewhere in its in
dustry and economy, or there would be a large
gain of inhabitants, where there is so much land
of an average fertility, uncultivated and unim
proved. It strikes us that the people of the
District have not duly considered their local ad
vantages for engaging extensively in the produc-
tion of wool as a staple. They sell large tracts
of land for a trifle, and remove West, and often
into comparatively sickly countries: when, if
they would take a little pains, their old planta
tions in Abbeville might be converted into some
of the most productive sheep farms in the world,
and they remain to enjoy health long life, and
all the blessings of a cultivated and refined
society in the good old Palmetto State. Nature
has done much to make excellent sheep walks
and stock ranges in both South Carolina and
Georgia; and what little is lacking to complete
them, our enterprising citizens and readers should
cheerfully perform. They certainly can make
ten blades of grass grow where one is now seen,
and this grass will give them a pound of wool as
easily as they can produce a pound of cotton'.
The profits of wool-growing depend almost
entirely on the fact whether any grass or other
herbage can be produced cheaply for the sup
port of sheep. Our experience and observation
in the vicinity of Athens, Ga., do not permit us
to doubt in this matter; and what is true of
grass culture in central and upper Georgia, is
no less true in central and upper South Carolina.
In place of abandoning Abbeville District, and
counties of the same geological formation in this
State, an earnest effort should be made to draw
wealth and prosperity from the earth through the
growth of perennial grasses and the economical
production of fine wool for exportation. Every
intelligent reader knows that wool is a great
commercial staple no less than cotton. Sheep
husbandry is very profitable at this time. As
high as seventy-five thousand dollars profit have
been made on a single flock of sheep driven across
the continent from Ohio to California. Let us
then prepare our sheep walks at once, and give
to the old cotton growing States two valuable
staples, instead of one. Sheep increase rapidly,
and yield a large profit in meat, as well as in wool.
There is no insuperable difficulty in the way,
and any man may succeed who will try. The
grass-seeds needed are cheap and abundant;
and one can pick up thousands of breeding ewes
at something like a dollar a head. Why, then,
should we delay this great and most promising
enterprise until our lands are far worse worn
than they now are, and tons of thousands of our
be3t citizens have emigrated with all their ser
vants and other property ? The proposition is
to render the soil in these old States three times
more productive than it now is, and thus enable
it to support a three-fold larger population. It
now yields a great deal too little; and therefore
so many leave it never to return. A bad sys
tem of perpetual grass-killing has seriously im
paired its natural fruitfulness. Perpetual grass
growing is the natural and true remedy.
STEAM PLOWING.
The following report on the subject of plow
ing by steam is encouraging to the friends of
agricultural progress:
The undersigned, a committee on behalf ofthe
Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society, at the
invitation of Mr. Fawkes, the inventor of the
Steam Plow, visited Oxford Park, near Phila
delphia, this afternoon, Thursday, July 21, and
witnessed the operatien of the plow. The soil
was in good condition, owing to the late rain,
which rendered the experiment more satisfac
tory. Before proceeding to plow, about 300
gallons of water were pumped into the tank by
a donkey-engine attached to the machine, and in
a very short time sufficient steam was raised to
prepare it, so as to display to great advantage
tho ease and grace with which it could be moved
forward, turned round, backed, Ac.
The engine, which is of 30 horse jiower, is
adapted to either wood or- coal, and when the
lat ter is used consumes about half a tun a day.
The anxiety and interest of the committee
and a number of visitors now became manifest.
Sympathy with the inventor, who had devoted
years of toil and his entire means to the perfect
ing of his machine, as well as a consciousness
of the many failures of projected agricultural
improvements, and of the unhappy results to the
originators, sensibly affected the minds of the
committee.
All doubts, however, of its success were
speedily removed. The plows, eight in number,
which were suspended by chains in a frame at
tached to the rear of the machine, about eighteen
inches above the ground, by means of a slight
adjustment of a crank, were dropped to their
proper position for action; and, at the sound of
the whistle, the plow moved forward in the most
graceful manner, performing its work with ease,
and to the admiration and perfect satisfaction
of the most skeptical.
The soil, which was made to yield to the unit
ed action of the eight mold boards, each turn
ing a furrow slice of fourteen inches in width,
and six inches depth, moving at the rate of four
miles an hour, (or four acres an hour,) presented
the appearance, in viewing it from the rear, of
the undulations of a wave, hiding the plows en
tirely from view. The effect was most pleasing,
and elided the admiration of all.
The experiment was made upon a tough
timothy sod, which had not been plowed for
some seven years previously.
The grade was of about seven degrees, which
tested the powers of the machine to perform on
inclined surfaces. One of tho committee, fami
liar with prairie plowing, affirms that he has
never seen level prairie turned as beautifully by
horse power as the uneven timothy sod was by
the steam plow.
Mr. Fawkes, still further to show the capacity
of his machine for easy locomotion over uneven
surfaces, propelled it rapidly over several gullies,
one of which was eighteen inches in depth,
while others were very abrupt, and this without
an}' apparent detriment to the machinery, and
also moved it in a circle several times, of a
diameter of about twenty-five feet, and passed,
by request, across the ground just plowed,
without any difficulty, showing conclusively its
adaptedness for all agricultural purposes, not
only as a field plow but as a means of propulsion
for mowing and reaping machines.
Your committee are further of opinion that
the engine is applicable to the driving of thrash
ing machines, farm mills, circular saws, Ac.
It may be proper to add that Mr. Fawkes
placed the machine entirely at the disposal of
the committee, and subjected it to every test
which they suggested.
Chas. K. Engle, f Comnlittee '
—
New Wool. —The receipts of the new clipped
wool appear to be enormously heavy. The ar
rivals per Erie railroad alone have increased
two thousand bales for the past week.
M Y. Paper.
PEAS CULTURE IN THE. SOUTH.
The reader will find in this paper an interest
ing article on pear culture in the South, from Mr
L. E. Berckmaxs, of this city. Mr. B. has made
the cultivation of this fine fruit and the trees
that produce it a specialty. We take the liberty
of adding, that our associate, who conducts the
Horticultural department of the Field and Fire
side, has been very successful in producing su
perior pears on beautiful and healthy dwarf
trees, at his residence in Athens, Ga. Dr. Ste
vens, of New York, (a gentleman well known
to the profession,) and his brother, were among
the first in this country to plant and cultivate an
orchard of dwarf pear trees, which the writer
visited some twenty years ago, when in full bear
ing. We shall have a leading editorial on the
subject soon; and in the meantime, commend tho
remarks of Mr. Berckmaxs, and those of the cor
respondent of the Charleston Courier, which fol
low, to the attention of all fruit growers :
Editors Courier : Reading an article in your
valuable paper on the culture of pears, I am in
duced to send you a few specimens. I have
about fifteen hundred pear trees on my farm,
some of them set out three years ago, and the
rest two years. They are all dwarf, many of
them not larger than a moderate sized walking
cane, and not over three feet in height.
The pears sent you are from three trees,
many of which gave me fruit the first year.
From the nature of my occupation in the city*
I have but an hour or two in the afternoon, con
sequently cannot and have not given them the
attention they ought to have. There con be no
doubt but that the pear is well adapted to our
climate, and can be brought, with proper care
and attention, to great perfection.
St. Andrews Parish.
——
WHEAT CULTURE IN DELAWARE.
Knowing the writer of the following letter to
be a large and successful wheat grower, and no
less successful in his efforts to improve badly
impoverished land, we copy it from the Albany
Cultivator for August of last year:
Messrs Editors. —We are in the height of
the wheat harvest hereabouts; and although we
have heard, as usual, a good deal|said about the
ravages of the locust, the grasshopper, the
chinch bug, tho joint worm, the army and the
grub worm, the weevil, the Hessian fly, the
scab, smut, and the fungi, with something
about the winter kill and overflow—all of these
reports mostly from the sunny South and the
much boasted West—the crop I am pleased to
say, is still about a full average with us. The
fancy wheats—all the varieties ofthe white and
beardless particularly—the velvet and the
Gale’s wheat, have suffered from some cause
or other, mostly the scab and rust; we have no
smut. There was, however, not much of any
other variety than the old Mediterranean of the
importation of 1819, sowed in this section of
the State, nor has there been for the past twenty
years as a general sowing. The Mediterranean,
when first sown, was a coarse, unsightly,
large grained, half shrivelled, dark-looking
wheat, not liked by our Brandywine millers—
rejected by some of them as not fit to grind at
the price pf ordinary reds. But a few farmers
who tried tho early Bowing in August, aud
some in July—found that the straw was stiffer,
and that it was not as liable to lie injured by
tho Hessian fly, and as it ripened when sown
so early, some ten days earlier than the varieties
then sowu, of the old reds, the yellow bearded,
and the smooth head, eagle and blue stem white
wheats—it became more in favor; having, in the
meantime, become Jinore acclimated, plumper in
shape, and being less liable from the attacks by
fly, from the stiffness of the straw, and less lia
ble to rust and scab, by being earlier, conse
quently escaping those three enemies of tho
wheat. It is now the favorite and most certain
crop, and of a quality known in the market as
best of the reds, producing, when well sown on
good fields, from 20 to 40 bushels per acre. I
have known 47 bushels on corn ground the field
through ; and from the appearance of the shocks,
much of the wheat of the present season will
range with the above rates, and those averages
are all made on land that in 1832 would scarcely
produce an average of ten bushels per acre.
The most of these lauds have been brought
up from that worn-out condition by the applica
tion of lime aud clover. One of the best shock
ing fields of the neighborhood, Wheatland, my
own, has been brought up fairly by the use of
lime and clover. Tho first dressing put on in
183 G, of forty bushels of quick-lime on corn fol
lowed with wheat—corn with clover turned un
der without pasturing—produced 24 bushels.
After several rotations between times, in 1848,
this encouraged me to lime again; and in 1849
I put the same stubble field in corn, and gave
the com a dressing of 50 bushels to the acre.
This was too heavy—4o bushels would have
done better: the corn was injured by it This
I laid to the wire-room, and thought I would
remedy it, and planted it with corn the follow
ing season, but had still less corp than the year
previous. I however cut off' the corn, sowed
it with wheat followed with clover, and had a
fair crop of wheat, and a tremendous field of
clover. A portion, say 32 acres of this field of
clover, after standing two years with light pas
turing, I turned under well in July, and sowed
with wheat in 1852—cut and saved 37| bush
els in the harvest of 1853, besides losing all the
Takings from continued rains, which would
have swelled the crop to 40 bushels and over,
had all been saved. That same field is now in
wheat, and from tho appearance of the shocks,
bids fair to be as good as that of 1853—without
any dressing of manures except as before, two
years of clover and lightly pastured—well
turned under in July last, and sown in last of
August and first week of September.
Thus, in the short space of 20 years, we have
increased the value of our land by better culti
vation and the introduction of fertilizers and
improved implements, till both our land and our
crops have been increased in value over tenfold.
Much land that we bought at ten, yea five dol
lars per acre, cannot now be purchased for $l2O
per acre, and the production of our crops of
wheat has been increased from five or less to
forty bushels per acre. John Jones.
Middletown, New Castle Co., Delaw are.
—
Good Crops. —The Clarke (Yu.\ Journal says:
“The Wheat crop has never been better in this
county. From twenty to forty bushels per acre,
much of it will yield ; weighing from sixty to
sixty-six pounds to the bushel.”
Tho Alexandria Gazette says: Several of the
farmers in the adjacent counties have sent us in
samples of the wheat. The grain is invariably
large, and of excellent quality. This will un
doubtedly be a year remarkable every where for |
the abundance of agricultural products.
H
MARYLAND AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.
Tin National Intelligencer of the 26th ult.
learns that the Faculty of the College was or
ganised on the 21st ult, by the election of Dr-
Geo. Schaeffer of Washington, D. C., as Pro
fessor of Chemistry and Physics in their applica
tion to Agriculture; and of D. Gough of Hart
ford county, Maryland, as Professor of Mathe
matics, Engineer, Jfcc.; and of Baptista Lori no
of Mississippi, as Professor of Ancient and Modern
Languages. It was also determined that the
College should be opened for the reception of
students on the first Monday of October.
Bullock County, July 26, 1859.
Dr. Lee — Dear Sir: Will you be kind enough
to give us through the columns of the Field and
Fireside, your views of the use of the Alabama
plow, as a Southern farming tool? Now, that
the scales are fast falling from our eyes,
and we are willing to be taught, even by men
who write, I hope to see great benefit from the
use of proper tools, as directed through an agri
cultural journal like the Southern Field and Fire
side. Yours, Inquirer.
Never having seen the Alabama plow at work,
we are unable to express an opinion of its mer
its. We should be pleased to see the relative
advantages of the most esteemed tillage imple
ments discussed in our columns. If there is no
room for improvement, there is an opportunity
of making the best plows more widely known.
[Written for the Southern Field and Fireside.]
LAND IMPROVEMENT.
llow can this be done in Middle Georgia? In
but two ways : Rest, and deep plowing, and
manure. If we rest land, nature will feed and
clothe it.
We must then plow it in deeply, and con
tinue to do so; wc must make all the manure
we can, and apply it to the crops; leaves of
trees, and all trash with lime and animal dung,
will make manure better and cheaper than we
can get Guano. Animal dung and urine should
be used only as a yeast to ferment; cotton seed
and corn can be added to hasten and increase
this ferment. Transmutation is the great plat
jorm. Everything is transmuted. The earth is
always ready, with the atmosphere and man's in
dustry, to change all animal and vegetable mat
ter into food for plants. Land cannot be worn
out; constant cropping will only lessen produc
tion. Shallow plowing will only fit the earth
for being washed away. We can fatten the
earth more readily than we can a child. The
earth is a self-feeding machine, for itself and all
creation. This self-feeding machine requires an
engineer, if we use up its products. One acre
of land will yield support for one man, viz.: 30
bushels corn; this corn will make his meat.poul
try, eggs, bread, soap, and fermented drink. If
we will return the excrements, stalks, grass, and
t ashes, on the acre, it will, in a few years, support
two men if broken up twelve inches deep.—
Three acres of land alternated will get richer
every year, if all is returned after it is used, and
plowed in deeply. We can't expect to ship this
production without lessening the productive
capabilities of the land. The fibre of one bale
of cotton is so many pounds of essence extract
ed from the soil; one bushel of corn ditto. Un
less you return grass, or vegetable productions,
that have extracted from the atmosphere what
the earth has given off in the cotton and corn,
the soil is minus; but if returned, it is equal and
plus.
One acre of pure red clay broken up deeply
every year, for three years, will absorb at
mosphero, and decompose, and improve, and
bring a good coating of vegetation, which, when
rotted, is the manure that God makes for the
earth.
The richest alluvial soil can be used up in al
coholic drinks, tobacco, and segars, one hundred
dollars ladies' dresses, tine houses and furniture,
horses and carriage, indolence, loafing, laziness
and neglect. The recuperative laws of God’s
economy can’t save it under these criminal
drafts.
An old field, sown down in drills with black
berry seed and plowed once, will keep down
broom sedge, persimmon, and sassafras bushes,
yield well in wine, quicker, and more abundantly,
and more surely, than the grape vine, make a
good hog pasture, and restore the old field to its
original production, cheaper than any other
known process. I dare a denial of this truth.
Farmers will have to do this in Middle
Georgia, starve, move away, or steal all that
they have originally made.
A heretofore Land Ruiner.
———-——-
[Written for the Southern Field and Fireside.]
THE.CULTIVATION OF RED CLOVER
Red clover delights in a gravelly loam, but
will grow in any stiff soil, if rich enough to pro
duce twenty bushels corn to the acre—the rich
er the better.
In the month of August turn over a piece of
stubble—the more weeds and grass the better
—using a short heavy chain to bend the weeds
before the plow, which will completely cover
them, if well plowed. If subsoiled at the same
time the better. Prepare the ground as for sow
ing any small grain, from 15th October to 15th
November, pulverize well sow any kind of
small grain.
After harrowing and brushing, sow 12 to 20
lbs. red clover seed per acre, harrow or brush
lightly, and the thing is done. By thus early
sowing, the roots have time to run deep enough
to stand the frosts of winter.
After the grain is harvested, do nothing with
it until in bloom; then, it may be moderately
pastured; but stock must be kept off in winter.
The first growth the succeeding year may be
cut for hay when the bloom is turning brown,
or for soiling as soon as large enough to cut.—
This plant will never run out in this climate, on
moderately good land, if it is not too closely
pastured. This is from experience. S****
Oakhurst, Richmond county.
—
Protection against tiie Turnip-Fly. —A
farmer in England has secured his crops of tur
nips and rutabagas from the attacks ot this de
structive insect, by steeping the seed for about
five minutes in a solution of salt in water, made
so strong as to float an egg. He stirs the seed
about, skims off the light grains, puts the good
into a sieve to drain off the liquid, and then
places it on a cloth to dry. For sowing in the
evening he thus prepares his seed in the morn
ing, and for sowing in the morning, prepares it
in the evening previous. He bows annually
from 230 to 250 acres, and has not had occa
sion to re-sow on account of the fly for seven
teen years. Does not this fact—this experience
of 17 years—furnish sufficient encouragement
for making trials of a similar mode of preparing
the seeds of cabbage, cucumbers, Ac., and of all
plants, indeed, which are liable to the attacks
of insects at an early stage of their growth ?
The result desired may appear but little prob
able. or difficult to be accounted for, it found to
take place; but if obtained, it willjbe valued
whether it can be explained or not.