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THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



tory in our midst, where our exact wants will 

 be known and supplied. The proprietors are 

 now engaged in the manufactory of a peculiar 

 cloth expressly for the purpose of supplying the 

 Southern farmer with negro clothing. Gentle- 

 men from the country will find much to interest 

 and profit them in a visit to this establishment. 



For the Southern Planter. 



COMMENTS ON THE AUGUST NUMBER 

 OF THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Rust Pi-evented by the Use of Jlshes.—li is 

 admitted on all hands that silica is as necessary 

 for the support of a plant, as bone is for the sup- 

 port of an animal ; and that for this purpose the 

 silica must be in a soluble state, or in other 

 words, it must have become "pure earth of 

 common flint." And it is also admitted that an 

 overdose of ammonia will cause grain sowed in 

 the usual way, to rust, lodge, and fall. " But 

 that rust proceeds from the want of the indurat- 

 ing quality in the straw, afforded by the (pro- 

 portionate quantity of) silica," cannot hold good 

 universally ; for throughout my observation, that 

 land which is best adapted to the growth of the 

 bamboo (which contains a large portion of sili- 

 ca) is most liable to rust grain. Moreover, grain 

 standing very thin, seldom fails to rust; and 

 where grain has been spilled, and thus planted 

 at the rate of ten or twenty bushels to the acre, 

 it but seldom rusts. The silica in wood, pro- 

 perly speaking, has already been dissolved, and 

 the lye in the tub only extracts it perhaps; but 

 I do not know that it dissolves or extracts or 

 xlecomposes the silica in wood, much less do I 

 know that by this means oak staves will be 

 shrunken to one half their width. A strong 

 alkali may decompose quartz and flint, but an 

 Usual dressing of ashes cannot. Ashes out of 

 which all the soluble alkaline matter has been 

 extracted, contain a large portion of silicate of 

 potash, which silicate when applied, is under- 

 stood to go directly to the nourishment of plants. 

 On Long Island and other places where ashes 

 are used most profusely as manure, they seem 

 to be valued none the less because they may 

 have been leached. 



Report of the Mecklenburg Club. — As Mr. Botts 

 has in substance given my views under this 

 bead, I shall only add one more remark. The 

 committee say that " Dr. Venable's corn field 

 was well prepared and planted, and although 

 recently covered with a strong herdsgrass turf, 

 gave promise of an abundant crop," &c. Now 

 I understand by the insertion of although, that 

 objection is made to planting corn on a grass 

 turf. If the gentlemen intended to assert that 

 the Doctor's corn field was covered with a strong 

 Jierdsgrass turf recently growing amongst the 



corn, then I say O fie ! for the Doctor ; but if 

 they intended what I understand, then I say O 

 fie ! for the committee. 



Hessian Fly. — Did Mr. McKenney never see 

 a bug with its bill poked into a chesnut or a 

 chinquepin 1 Did he never see thousands of 

 eggs deposited on the hulls of peas? If he has 

 not, I would not give a cent for his theory and 

 observations on Hessian fly or any other insect. 

 Whether the bug with his proboscis in the ches- 

 nut was merely feeding, or intending to deposite 

 eggs, I will not undertake to say ; but from the 

 egg on the pea-hull I have often traced the 

 maggot to its lodgment in the pea, and noticed 

 it in all its stages up to a full grown bug. As 

 well may one tell me, that the action of the 

 clouds can create an eagle, as that the action of 

 a vegetable can create an insect. And as to 

 "the perfection of the grain depending upon the 

 proportion of insects therewith connected, which 

 proportion is modified by weather, climate, soil," 

 &c. — away with it. I suppose the gentleman 

 would say my old sow must be lousy, to be in 

 health. These remarks are rough, but I feel it 

 my duty to speak boldly, not only on this sub- 

 ject, but also on that of 



Gearing Horses. — This drawing and theory 

 are both wrong. In the first place, I will re- 

 mark, that in the use of a right hand plough, the 

 right hand horse must be kept in the furrow, 

 therefore, lhat end of the tree to which he is at- 

 tached will not go to the right, at e, though the 

 horse be thrown back thus far; but must keep 

 the line of direction. Again, although the 

 horse at a be thrown back to e. yet this will not 

 place the horse at b more than halfway to the po- 

 sition d. Let us consider the horse at a stationa- 

 ry, and let the horse at b draw the end of the 

 tree forward to d, it will be seen that whilst the 

 horse is going to the right the plough is going 

 to the left ; consequently the width of the fur- 

 row is increased, and consequently the draft is 

 increased. It is asserted that the fulcrum or 

 centre of motion is at c ; this I deny, and assert 

 it to be in front of the tree, and equidistant be- 

 tween the horses, and there it will remain al- 

 ways. But suppose the fulcrum to be at c, and 

 this point always in the line of direction ; yet, as 

 the points a, b, c, are made fast with regard to 

 each other, and their distances equal, I cannot 

 for my life see how placing one end of the tree 

 back or forward can create inequality. When 

 the tree is perpendicular to the line of direction 

 all will admit the draft is equal— when the tree 

 is parallel to the line of direction the draft is 

 equal — and if all do not admit the draft to be 

 equal at any angle, I undertake further proof* 



* " Investigator," we respectfully suggest, has mis- 

 understood this article. What he means by the draw- 

 ing being wrong we do not exactly comprehend. He 

 seems to take it for granted that the principle is only 

 applicable to ploughing, and that the furrow horse 



