THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



" 3. Backwater is no impediment when there 

 is a head above. 



"4. Ice cannot form on the wheels. 



" 5. They occupy less space than a flutter 

 wheel mill. 



" 6. The increased speed of the saw makes 

 better lumber, cuts the same distance with less 

 resistance, and the saw dust is freely thrown off, 

 which often returns with the saw, causing it to 

 bind and heat, with slow mills. 



" 7. They can be placed on the shaft of a 

 common flutter wheel mill, if in good order, and 

 hung upon the same bearings if sufficiently 

 strong to sustain the power of the wheels. 



"8. The wheels being of cast iron, will last 

 an age. They also constitute the requisite fly 

 or balance wheel, securing a uniform motion, in 

 all parts of each revolution. 



"9. The introduction of mills is reduced to a 

 plain system, so that if the head of water is 

 known, the result is a mathematical certainty. 



"10. Any workman havmg the patterns, a 

 model and table of calculations, can adopt mills 

 to any location, with perfect success. 



"11. The improved mode of feeding is much 

 approved of by those who have adopted it." 



For the Southern Planter. 

 GOING AHEAD ! 

 Mr. Editor, — Mr. Joseph K. Weisiger, of 

 Goochland, bought of Dr. Joseph Watkins 12 

 acres of low grounds at $120 per acre ; so much 

 for the value of Goochland soil. 



Yours, respectfully, R K. P. 



February 18, 1844. 



P. S. — The above was exchanged for high 

 land at $25 per acre. R. K. P. 



If we did not know the value of Goochland 

 highland, we might think this was something 

 like the story of the man, who bragged of hav- 

 ing sold his dog for a hundred dollars, but when 

 questioned more closely, he confessed he had 

 taken four puppies in exchange, which he reck- 

 oned at twenty-five dollars apiece. 



THE BLOOD HORSE. 

 The tenor of our article on this subject in the 

 last number of the Planter, has been much mis- 

 understood by the Editor of the Spirit of the 

 Times; a misapprehension attributable, without 

 doubt, rather to our want of perspicuity, than 

 to any negligence of his. In the last number 

 of the "Spirit," we find this remark : 



"As a national benefit, it may be asserted by 

 some — and the Planter would seem to take this 

 ground — that wc do not require that breed in 



69 



use for the turf, technically termed the blood 

 horse." 



Nothing upon earth was farther from our in- 

 tention than the taking any such ground. We 

 believe that no one circumstance in the history 

 of the brute creation has ministered so much to 

 the convenience and comfort of man as the in- 

 troduction, and preservation in its purity, of the 

 blood horse. We are aware that very loose and 

 indefinite ideas are frequently affixed to this 

 term, and we shall, therefore, state distinctly our 

 conception of its meaning. The different soils 

 and different climates of the world have given 

 birth to various races of horses, possessing pe- 

 culiar and distinctive traits. Upon the barren 

 sands and under the torrid zone of Africa and 

 Arabia, is found a peculiar race, possessing in 

 the highest degree those properties, which in a 

 state of domestication are most subservient to 

 the requirements of his lord and master. It is 

 not to be imagined that every horse born within 

 the limits of Africa or Arabia, is possessed of 

 superior merit ; but there is a race highly va- 

 lued by the inhabitants, and carefully preserved, 

 which affords specimens of the greatest perfec- 

 tion of animal construction. They are marked 

 by a fineness of hair, a cleanness of limb, a 

 litheness of form, a nobleness of carriage, and a 

 solidity of bone and muscle unknown to any 

 other race. 



It has been long since these qualities were 

 known and appreciated. The English, of all 

 European nations the most remarkable for their 

 devotion to this noble animal, were taught to 

 feel the superiority of the Eastern horse upon 

 the plains of Palestine, and many a Saracen 

 steed found his way to England in the re- 

 turning train of her noblemen. But it was not 

 probably until about the time of Charles II. that 

 selections from the Eastern race were made with 

 care and judgment. This monarch, whose only 

 redeeming trait was a good eye for a fine horse, 

 introduced a lot of mares direct from Barbary, 

 of a very different character from the indiscri- 

 minate importations that preceded them. By 

 means of these the heavy draft horse of Flan- 

 ders soon yielded to a light active, and nervous 

 race, that placed the English horse where he 

 stands now, at the head of his species in Eu- 

 rope. To them succeeded the celebrated Barb, 

 known as the Godolphin Arabian, the Wellcsley 

 Arabian, and the Darley Arabian. The extra- 

 ordinary properties of these horses and their de- 



