THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



209 



as under great obligations to Mr. Smith for the 

 fund of valuable information he has afforded us 

 in this work. By an attentive perusal of its 

 pages, the reader becomes familiar with the es- 

 timates that have been made of the value of 

 different kinds of food, the most economical 

 modes of feeding, the relative value of the dif- 

 ferent kinds of labor of man and beast, the 

 quantity of labor that may be expected from 

 each, the production and preservation of ma- 

 nures, and the thousand questions that are in- 

 volved in the management of the labor and pro- 

 ducts of a farm. The whole is furnished in a 

 closely printed pamphlet of 130 pages for fifty 

 cents, and we are sure that we have already 

 marked for extracts what will be worth twenty 

 times the sum to any farmer in Virginia. If 

 the publisher thinks fit to ship us two or three 

 dozen copies, we will dispose of them for him 

 with pleasure. 



METHOD OF CAUSING CABBAGES TO 

 HEAD DURING THE WINTER. 



In the fall of the year when it is time to ga- 

 ther cabbages, we always find more or less of 

 them that have not formed any heads. They 

 may have grown well, and have a large stock 

 of leaves, but have not closed up in the form 

 necessary to make a good, solid, compact cab- 

 bage. 



William Vance, Esq. of Read field, has prac- 

 tised for many years the following method, which 

 effectually closes these loose leaves in the course 

 of the winter, thereby furnishing him with a 

 supply of the best kind early in the spring. In 

 the fall of the year, just before the ground closes 

 up he gathers all the cabbages which have not 

 headed, together. He then digs a trench eigh- 

 teen inches or more, deep, and of sufficient width 

 to admit the cabbages. He then closes the 

 leaves together by hand, winding a wisp of 

 straw or something else around them to keep 

 them together, and then puts them in this trench, 

 with heads down and roots up. He then packs 

 straw or leaves and earth snug about them, and 

 rounds up the earth over them. The trench 

 should be dug in a place where the water of 

 the rains and snows runs off and will not stand 

 about them. A board, or couple of boards, 

 nailed together in the form of a roof and put 

 over the mound, may be useful. 



In the spring of the year open your trench 

 and you will find that the cabbages are all 

 headed firmly together, and if the water has not 

 got in, will be solid and hard. Mr. Vance has 

 had the goodness to send us a few heads which 

 he has formed in this way, which were very 

 nice. By following this plan, we not only pre- 

 Vol. III.— 27 



serve the cabbages well during the winter, but 

 save much of the crop which is not considered 

 worth much. — JSlaine Farmer. 



For the Southern Planter. 

 CULTIVATION OF CORN. 



Mr. Editor, — I did not design the communi- 

 cation, from which an extract is made and pub- 

 lished in the July number of the Planter, for the 

 public eye, or I would have been more careful 

 and intelligible. " Investigator," an anonymous 

 critic, seizing upon its imperfections as well as 

 the errors of the printer, makes, though in a 

 vein of sarcastic raillery, some pertinent inqui- 

 ries, to which I most cheerfully respond. 



In order that the system of cultivation, which 

 my communication recommended, may be the 

 better understood, I propose to explain the man- 

 ner in which I have managed my present crop. 

 That I labored judiciously will be known from 

 the result, and may be conjectured by a compa- 

 rison of it with that of any other on this section 

 of the Roanoke; and it would afford me very 

 great pleasure to have Investigator himself in- 

 stitute the comparison. 



A freshet prevented my planting as early as 

 usual, or desirable. As soon, however, as the 

 land was in order to do so with safely, it was 

 commenced and completed. It was laid off h 

 by 2, with a single stalk to the hill, and so 

 thinned (as a substitute for re planting) that 

 each acre contained its requisite number, of the 

 same age and size. After the corn was well 

 up, and before it could be much benefitted by 

 work, I ploughed every other row, alternately f 

 through the crop, with a trowel hoe, an instru- 

 ment well calculated to soften the land and pre- 

 pare it for future operations. Having gone over 

 in this way, I then used the turn plough in the 

 other row, throughout, alternately, barring the corn 

 and running only twice in a row. The corn' 

 was ancle high, the grass springing up very 

 fast and thick, and the season favoring it. The 

 result of this operation fully met my expecta- 

 tion, and the young grass was most effectually 

 destroyed. The corn was not only benefitted 

 by the removal of a dangerous enemy, but by 

 converting it to useful purposes. Grass when 

 covered in this way soon undergoes fermentation 

 and the regular process of decomposition, and 

 becomes no insignificant auxiliary in pushing 

 forward the crop. 



It will be recollected that now the crop is 

 ploughed entirely over, one row with the trowel 

 hoe and the other with the turn plough, alter- 

 nately, throughout. The corn was leg high 

 and sufficiently vigorous to bear a moderate flirt- 

 ing (not "destroying"). The trowel hoe was 

 run as near as possible to it, in the row previously 

 ploughed with the same instrument, and with 



