268 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Mr. Samuel Denoon exhibited grates of pat- 

 terns and workmanship to please the most fasti- 

 dious. Mr. Hill, in addition to some elegant 

 boots that would have graced the foot of the 

 most exquisite dandy, exhibited a pair of shoes 

 of superior workmanship, substantial and neat, 

 the very thing for a farmer's wear. These 

 unanimously secured him a premium in this de- 

 partment. We must not omit the beautiful dis- 

 play of guns and rifles from the manufactory of 

 Mr. Thomas Tyrer, for which the Society 

 awarded him an honorary medal. Virginia 

 sportsmen will hereafter need go no further than 

 Mr. Tyrer's shop to supply themselves with an 

 outfit in the most elegant and approved style. 



But above all, we were most astonished at, 

 and interested in, a pair of blankets of su- 

 perior quality from the manufactory of Mr. Bon- 

 sack, in Botetourt. We should like to know 

 something of the history of an establishment 

 that produces such goods as these, and will be 

 much obliged to Mr. B. or any friend of his who 

 will introduce us to the establishment. We are 

 satisfied that the day will come, when the sheep 

 and wool business will be a great one in Virgi- 

 nia. The sheep are only waiting for the manu- 

 factories, and the manufactories are only waiting 

 for the supply of wool. 



But to return to the exhibition. The speci- 

 mens of needle work were very beautiful, and 

 excited great admiration. The fair altogether, 

 was esteemed by many the most interesting 

 ever held by the Society. 



The mechanical department, interesting as 

 the exhibition was, was not half represented, 

 and we think we see that a degree of emulation 

 has been excited among the mechanics of Rich- 

 mond, that will, another year, lead to an exhibi- 

 tion, which of itself will be worth a visit from 

 ijie most distant part of the State. 



An address was delivered before the Society 

 by C. T. Botts, Esq., of the merits of which 

 it does not become us to speak. 



From the South Carolina Planter. 



LARGE YIELD OF POTATOES, 



I have delayed sending an account of my 

 last year's potato crop, as I promised, until the 

 account kept by the boys who did the work, is 

 lost, so that I am unable to arrive at the cost. 

 The quantity of ground was 32 square rods of 

 old and poor land, manured with stable manure 

 and broke deep, then furrowed off with a shovel 



plough, about 21 inches apart, the furrows near- 

 ly filled with barn-yard or long manure, the po- 

 tatoes cut and dropped ; the pieces about nine 

 or ten inches apart in the furrows on the manure, 

 then slightly covered with a hoe, leaving the 

 surface smooth. The whole was then covered 

 with leaves and trash from the woods, three or 

 four inches thick, then some heavier litter, such 

 as drifted brush from low grounds, sedge, corn- 

 stalks and weeds, thrown on to prevent the wind 

 taking off the leaves. 



Here ended the tending, except where the 

 trash was not thick enough to prevent weeds 

 springing up, they were pulled out by hand. — 

 The planting was done in the latter part of the 

 Third month last, the product was 121^ bushels, 

 being a fraction over 3| bushels to the square 

 rod, or 607| to the acre. The planting was 

 from the stock I have had for several 3'ears past, 

 and the product quite as fine as I ever saw from 

 the mountains. 



Thomas T. Hunt. 

 Springfield, Guilford Co., JY. C. \ 

 Third mo. 1st, 1843. ] 



ORCHARDS. 

 We hope those who are without them, will 

 not permit another season to pass without sup- 

 plying themselves with an abundance of young 

 fruit trees. If its convenience and value are 

 properly estimated, there is probably no acre on 

 the farm that pays so well for the labor bestowed 

 upon it, as the orchard. We are satisfied, and 

 are prepared to satisfy others, that the climate 

 and soil of Virginia are as well adapted to the 

 growth of apples and peaches as any in the 

 Union. We mentioned the fact last year that 

 pippins raised in this State are so much more 

 highly esteemed in this city than the northern 

 apple, that they bring fifty cents in the barrel 

 more in the market. We have just received 

 from a friend in Goochland a present of a bar- 

 rel of pippins, that in flavor and quality are 

 equal to any we ever saw. And yet the old 

 idea was, that a pippin was not fit to eat unless 

 it came from New England. Peaches, too, as 

 we have asserted over and over again, attain a 

 flavor in this climate that is totally wanting in 

 the large, fine looking, highly cultivated fruit of 

 the North. Yet " with all the means and appli- 

 ances to boot," we are in the general miserably 

 supplied with this delicious and healthy gift of 

 nature ; whilst in the more ungenial region of 

 the North, every fifty acres is furnished with its 

 well selected, neatly trimmed, and highly culti- 

 vated orchard. 



