No. 8. 



The Bene Plant. 



^4tl 



sively. In our county, however, where 

 lands are much hi£>-her, a mixed husbandry, 

 grain, grazinu^, and sheep, would probably 

 do better. Small flocks, from 10 to 20, 50 

 and 100, are very common with the New 

 England farmers. It affords lamb or mutton 

 for the table, wool for domestic purposes, as 

 well as sufficient to sell or exchange for the 

 cloth required by the family, and the trouble 

 and expense of keeping a small flock, incon- 

 siderable and hardly felt. Another circum- 

 stance results from this common practice of 

 keeping sheep ; the dogs get used to them, 

 become as it were, domesticated with them, 

 and sheep for this reason are seldom dis- 

 turbed there by dogs. The first clip at the 

 present price of wool, will nearly return the 

 capital invested in the sheep. And the an- 

 nual clip from a flock of .500, including the 

 sale of lambs, would afford in these hard 

 times, a neat little income, and with this 

 advantage, that there would be little or no- 

 thing to be paid out of it for labour, to pay 

 which, nearly half the receipts of our grain 

 farms have to go, and with this still further 

 advantage, tiiat our sheep farms would every 

 year be growing better instead of worse, and 

 "that without any outlay for lime or manure. 

 We might almost afford to sheep our old 

 fields with this exclusive object, and without 

 regard to further profits. It is not best, 

 however, for the farmer to be too sanguine 

 of realizing great profits. The pursuit of 

 agriculture is not likely with us, to result 

 in great profits or the sudden accumulation 

 of fortunes ; it is better that it should not — 

 it is our privilege that it does not. The 

 farmer is content to pursue the even tenor 

 of his way, avoiding alike the extremes of 

 poverty or riches, engaging in no mere 

 speculative pursuits, but at the same time 

 exercising an intelligent and discriminating 

 judgment in the objects he selects for pro- 

 duction — and with this view he should espe- 

 cially seek to comprehend the bearing of 

 the legislation of the country upon his own 

 immediate interests, and he will thus be able 

 to direct his efforts in a manner most likely 

 to ensure a fair reward for his labour. — Dela- 

 ware Journal. 



be a valuable one, on account of the oil 

 which its seeds contain, I presume but few 

 of your readers are in possession of the early 

 numbers of the work I allude to, and for 

 their information I will briefly notice the 

 most material part respecting this plant. 

 The seed, it appears, was first brought to 

 the south by African negroes, who cultivated 

 it as a valuable and important ingredient in 

 their pottages, being first moderately roasted. 

 The pod which contains the seed, is shaped 

 like, and much about the size, of a tobacco 

 pod. It is stated that two gallons and up- 

 wards of cold drawn oil, were obtained from 

 a bushel of the seed, and that it is equal to, 

 and used for the same purposes, as the best 

 olive oil, and will keep for several years 

 without turning rancid. The usual mode of 

 planting the seed is in hills, three feet apart, 

 two or tliree plants in a hill, and the ground 

 lo be worked much in the same way as for 

 corn. 



I have no right to doubt the correctness 

 of the article from which I have given an 

 abstract, and as the subject is worthy of in- 

 quiry, I siiall be glad to learn through the 

 columns of your valuable work, if the Bene 

 plant be still cultivated in any of the South- 

 ern or other States, and if so, where I can 

 procure some of the seed, for if all be true 

 that is said respecting the article, it would 

 prove a valuable one for cultivation. 



J. T. 



HaniiUon tovvnsliip, Hunterdon 

 CO., N. J., Jan. 12th, 1844. 



The Bene plant— Sesainjfm Orientale, is an annual 

 plant, and is we believe, cultivated to some extent in 

 the Southern States. It delights in the tobacco and 

 cotton region, where the seed readily ripens. In this 

 vicinity H is frequently grown in our gardens, but the 

 season is too short for the seed to mature, unless the 

 plant is urged in hot-beds. A decoction is made of the 

 leaf, and is valued as a remedy in dysenteric affections. 



The plant, which is sometimes called vanglo, or oil 

 plant, is said to have been introduced into Jamaica by 

 thf" Jews, who are fond of the seed, and frequently 

 make them into cakes. In Japan and China, where 

 tliey have no butter, they use the oil for frying fish, &c. 

 The seed is rich in oil, and may readily be procured, 

 we apprehend, at our seed stores. — Ed. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



The Bene Plant. 



Mr. Editor, — In looking over some of 

 the early numbers of the " American Farm- 

 er," the other day, I found in one for the 

 15th December, 1820, an interesting article 

 respecting the "Bene plant," which w^as at 

 that period cultivated in Georgia. I never 

 before heard of this plant, but it appears to 



Speaking of farming in Belgium, a cor- 

 respondent of the N. Y. Tribune says : " It 

 is one vast garden ; every inch of ground is 

 compelled to produce its utmost. The su- 

 perficial farmers of America, who imper- 

 fectly turn up the soil of a thousand acres, 

 might take a profitable lesson from the care 

 and skill which here enable every acre to 

 support more than its man." 



