PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 343 



1 oil-cloth capote $1 25 



A bed comforter, biennially _ 63 



1 blanket 1 25 



1 wool hat _ 50 



Total $7 78 



Annual bill of cost of feeding slaves (where full fed as upon 

 the plantation of Col. Williams, and other first class planters) : 

 3^ pounds of bacon a week is 182 lbs, at 5 cents per lb.. $9 10 



1 peck of meal per week is 13 bushels, at 50 cents 6 50 



Molasses, about 1 6-10 gallons 40 



Tobacco and salt _ 28 



Potatoes, and all other vegetables, estimated __ 9 72 



Total ...$26 00 



Or 50 cents a week. 



Upon most plantations the three last items would not be esti- 

 mated, as the slave would have to provide his own tobacco, salt, 

 molasses, potatoes and other vegetables, out of his own crop, 

 which he is allowed to cultivate Sundays and moonshiny nights, 

 or from the sale of eggs, chickens, brooms, meats, coon skins, and 

 other merchandize. 



In another paper, if desired, I can give similar statistics of 

 cotton, sugar and rice plantations in other States, and of southern 

 cotton manufactories. 



In all the estimates of number of pounds of cotton per acre, I 

 believe the calculation is made upon the crop in the seed, and it 

 is generally estimated that 1,000 pounds of seed cotton will give 

 290 or 300 pounds of ginned cotton, and about thirty bushels of 



NEW VARIETIES OF CORN. 



Wm. L. Carpenter showed twenty-six varieties of corn, several 

 of which were produced by himself by crossing some of the best 

 varieties. Stowel's evergreen sweet corn will grow five or six 

 ears to the stalk, but it is not as good as the excelsior. A dwarf 

 sugar corn grows only eighteen" inches high, matures in fifty days. 

 As a general crop the excelsior is the most valuable of any vari- 

 ety of sweet corn. It is estimated that several hundred tons of 

 green corn are consumed annually in this city, and it is highly 

 esteemed for food by all classes. 



