THE SOUTHE 



RN PLANTER, 



185 



in this region of Virginia, would be of great 

 service to them. Mr. Bolls by obtaining sub- 

 scribers and procuring correspondents, between 

 tidewater and the mountains, could make his 

 work valuable to persons, whose attention is 

 turned to grazing and restoring worn-out land 

 to fertility by the 1 use of clover and plaster.— 

 The products and system of farming pursued in 

 lower Virginia, differ from the products and sys- 

 tem prevailing in this region. They rely on to- 

 bacco and corn as their money crops ; we on 

 wheat and cattle : — they have inexhaustible 

 flats ; we have hills, which require improve- 

 ment. His correspondents are tobacco growers, 

 and what they discuss would have been useful 

 in this section, when it was under process of 

 being worn out by tobacco; but now, is nothing 

 but mere reading. On the oilier hand, the Cul- 

 tivator is published for a region of country, 

 where slave-labor is not known ; where the 

 farms are small, and roots and vegetables culti- 

 vated very extensively. Hence it is that there 

 is more about turnips and potatoes than is of 

 interest to us. There are in the counties bor- 

 dering on the Blue Ridge practical farmers and 

 graziers, whose intelligence and experience, can 

 furnish a variety of useful information; and if 

 Mr. Bolts will only enlist them in his service his 

 publication will suit all Virginia better than any 

 other yet sent out. We have in this county 

 men who know how to farm, and how to keep 

 their land rich, and make money besides. Thou- 

 sands of acres hereabouts, which, twenty years 

 ago were poor, are now producing heavy crops 

 of clover, timothy and grain. To such as these 

 we refer Mr. Botts. 



We extract the above from the " Flag of '98," 

 published at Warrenton, Fauquier, chiefly for 

 the purpose of saying, that our great ambition 

 is to publish an agricultural work that shall be 

 entirely of a practical character, and acceptable 

 to every portion of the Stale of Virginia. To 

 enable us to do so we must rely upon the as- 

 sistance of the friends of the cause in every 

 section of the State. Nothing would please us 

 more, than if, through the assistance of our 

 friend of the " Flag," we could grace the Planter 

 with the experience and wisdom of the farmers 

 of Fauquier and Loudoun ; especially upon the 

 subject of the clover, plaster and cattle system, 

 which has enriched the proprietor and the soil at 

 the same time, wherever it has been introduced. 



FEEDING HORSES. 



Various opinions are entertained as to the best 

 and most economical mode of feeding horses, 

 and many experiments are on record that have 

 been instituted to settle the question. The result 

 Vol. III.— 24 



seems to be, that at the ordinary prices of grain 

 and hay, it is cheaper to keep horses on grain, 

 than on hay or on hay and grain. There is an- 

 other important matter to be considered, how- 

 ever, and that is — is feeding entirely with grain, 

 as conducive to the health of the animal, as a 

 mixture of hay and grain 1 We do not believe 

 it to be ; and the general result of the experi- 

 ments has been to show that it is not. Our 

 own experience too would lead us to speak de- 

 cidedly upon this point. We have tried feeding 

 horses upon grain alone, and upon grain and 

 hay, and found the latter the best for the animals. 

 They were not so shrunk up or gaunt, there 

 was more muscle and consequently more weight, 

 and whatever may be thought of this latter 

 quality in a race horse, where nothing but sinews 

 and bones are required, every farmer knows that 

 the road or farm horse is worth but little with- 

 out weight. Feeding horses on grain alone, is 

 like keeping a man on wheat bread solely ; he 

 will live for a time, but will finally sink under 

 the experiment. In this case, the finer the flour 

 the worse for the man. We have never had 

 horses in better condition for labor, than when 

 we have fed them with cut wheat straw, Wet 

 up in a tub with Indian corn meal. It is evi- 

 dent there must be some proportion between the 

 bulk and the nutritive power of food, and grain 

 alone gives too much nutritive matter for the 

 bulk. Oats, perhaps, approach nearer the stand- 

 ard than any other grain; but the use of these 

 alone will in a long run be found (inadvisable. 



One of the most carefully conducted experi- 

 ments we have noticed was the one made by 

 Mr. Brotherton, near Liverpool ; and he came 

 to the conclusion that horses cannot be kept in 

 a condition fit for work, if fed on grain alone. — 

 For nine years Mr. Brotherton allowed eight 

 horses, three Winchester bushels of oats and 

 one of beans, but no hay or chaff. During this 

 period he annually lost more or less horses, 

 which he attributed to the quantity of grain 

 being greater than the stomach could digest. — 

 This induced him to adopt feeding hay with his 

 grain in the following proportion : — To eight 

 horses he allowed one bushel of oats, one bushel 

 of beans, and three bushels of cut hay, straw, 

 or clover ; and he found them better able to do 

 their work than before, and for several years af- 

 ter adopting the plan lost but one horse from 

 disease. Farmers, we are confident, have much 

 to learn on the subject of feeding animals, and 

 the health and good condition of the latter will, 

 we doubt not, be found compatible with greater 

 degrees of economy than has generally been 

 practised. — Cultivator. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 

 We have been much complimented lately 

 upon the greatly increased quantity of our ori* 



