THE SOUTHS 



11 N PLANTER. 



231 



close, with board roof, so as to admit air, the 

 leaf will dry quicker, and you will retain all the 

 valuable qualities of the plant. I have once 

 been an advocate of close houses, but observing 

 that the tobacco which hung about the door (for 

 I never shut the door until the leaf is cured,) 

 generally cured nice, and before the balance of the 

 house, convinced me of the propriety of having 

 my houses less close. 



After having adopted this course, I conversed 

 with a friend on this subject, he gave into my 

 views, and stated that he had one very close 

 house, in which it was but seldom he could 

 cure well, whilst in an adjoining house of mo- 

 derate closeness, he had no difficulty of curing 

 to his taste. 



The system of curing with stoves and flues, 

 required that the houses should be made so close 

 as to resist, as much as possible, the admission 

 of air. Why is it that this practice was of such 

 ephemeral existence? My impression is, that 

 the tobacco was subject to so severe a sweat as 

 to destroy, in a great measure, its oily properties. 



Some of your subscribers contend that tobac- 

 co is an improver of land, others, that it is a de- 

 stroyer. Some of my negroes in the year 1841 

 planted a portion of old land in tobacco, (no ma- 

 nure,) where corn and oats have been grown for 

 the last 40 or 50 years ; the tobacco was very 

 inferior of course : The field is now in corn, 

 and to my surprise, I find that the corn where 

 the tobacco grew, is far superior to the rest of 

 the field, and maybe distinguished as far as the 

 corn can be seen. Having given you the fact, 

 I shall not attempt to account for it, leaving that 

 to abler hands. 



Wishing you and the Southern Planter a long 

 and successful life, I remain, yours truly. 



GULIELMUS. 



N. B. As there is still some space on my 

 sheet, 1 will give you the mode of keeping sweet 

 potato seed in kdns, by myself and others in this 

 section. We generally put them up in the 

 patch where they are dug. Raise the earth six 

 or eight inches in a circular form, as a kind of 

 floor, sufficiently large for the quantity of seed 

 you wish for one kiln ; set a stake in the centre, 

 merely as a guide to put the potatoes around, co- 

 ver the earth with boards or pine bark, over this 

 strew pine beards, then put on your potatoes, let- 

 ting the kiln terminate in a point at the top ; 

 cover with the pine beards, say two or three 

 inches deep, then with boards or bark, throw on 

 earth until the kiln is covered at least six or 

 eight inches deep ; over this throw potatoe vines 

 plentifully, to prevent the rains from washing 

 the dirt down, and in the spring they will open 

 in fine order. I design keeping my potatoes for 

 table use in this way the next season. Some 

 cover their kilns with leaves or straw, and erect 

 a temporary scaffold (or shelter) over the kiln, 

 but I prefer the vine as they are at the spot rea- 



dy to throw on. The stake should not project 

 bej'ond the top of the potatoes. I generally 

 saw them off previous to covering the kiln. 



G. 



The following was taken from a newspaper 

 several years ago : 



" The following discovery was, a few years 

 ago, communicated by the Royal Society of 

 Sweden to that of London. After roofing a 

 house with wood, boil some tar, and mix it with 

 finely pulverized charcoal till it is of the thick- 

 ness of mortar, spread this with a trowel about 

 a fourth of an inch thick over the roof, it will 

 soon grow hard, and defy all the vicissitudes of 

 w T eather. Roofs thus covered have stood in 

 Sweden over a century, and still want no repair." 



G. 



Charlotte, Va. t August 5, 1843. 



PLOUGHING IN GREEN CROPS. 



Living plants contain in their substance not 

 only all they have drawn up from the soil, but 

 also a great part of what they have drawn 

 down from the air. Plough in these living 

 plants, and you necessarily add to the soil more 

 than was taken from it — in other words, you 

 make it richer in organic matter. Repeat the 

 process with a second crop, and it becomes rich- 

 er still — and it would be difficult to define the 

 limit beyond which the process could no fur- 

 ther be carried. — Johnston's Lectures on Agri- 

 cultural Chemistry. 



MILCH COWS. 



The Editor of the "Agriculturist" informs us 5 

 that the unrivalled reputation of the milch cows 

 of Jersey and Guernsey, has been obtained by 

 the common adoption of a judicious scale of 

 " points," with their relative values affixed. 

 This scale, which we subjoin, will serve at least 

 to remind many of our "good judges" of cattle, 

 how vague and loose their ideas upon the sub- 

 ject have heretofore been, as we will venture to 

 say that not one in fifty of those most accus- 

 tomed to selecting cattle, has ever thought of 

 fixing in his own mind the relation of one good 

 point to another. 



If we understand this scale correctly, it is to 

 be used as follows : — Suppose a lot of cows to 

 be exhibited for premium. No. 1 is examined, 

 first, with respect to her family; perfection in 

 this respect is denoted by 4 marks, the mini- 

 mum being represented by one : her number is 

 set down as she is entitled to the one or the 

 other, or, as in the opinion of the judges, she 

 ranges between the two. So with respect to 



