THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



33 



He has brought peace, comfort, and happiness to 

 our houses and our firesides. 



Yours, &c. L. Durand. 



Derby, Dec. 27, 1842. 



COMMUNICATIONS. 

 In the renewal of subscriptions we have re- 

 ceived a great many accompanying remarks 

 and criticisms upon the conduct and manage- 

 ment of the paper. These we were much 

 pleased to obtain ; first, because they were in 

 the highest degree friendly and laudatory, and 

 secondly, because they afforded us some index 

 of the public taste to which it is our business to 

 cater. However variant and discordant might 

 be the advice thus gratuitously bestowed upon 

 us, the general tenor of these communications 

 confirmed us in the popularity of the principle 

 upon which the Planter was founded, viz : that 

 the farmer wants a paper in which he may find 

 a short, clear, and condensed description of the 

 practical discoveries and improvements in his 

 profession. Circumstances of a character which 

 no one but an Editor can appreciate, have forced 

 us, sometimes, to admit disquisitions of a gen- 

 eral and theoretical nature, against our better 

 judgment, and universally, we believe, to the 

 dissatisfaction of our readers. Now in com- 

 mencing the third volume, we take the liberty 

 of saying to our correspondents, to whom we 

 lie under a load of obligations, that we desire 

 to confine our disquisitions to short statements 

 of practical facts. Not that we mean to depre- 

 ciate the value of scientific essays and theoreti- 

 cal discussions ; they are excellent in their place, 

 but our paper is not the place for them. Our 

 little sheet can be filled with what we conceive 

 to be more to the taste, aye, and if you will, 

 more to the advantage of the every day farmer. 

 Whenever scientific investigations have resulted 

 in the establishment of well settled practical 

 principles we shall be most happy to receive 

 and report them to our readers. We moreover 

 wish it to be distinctly understood, that we 

 claim, and intend to exercise over our communi- 

 cations, the most despotic power, condensing, 

 erasing, extracting, &c. &c. at our sovereign 

 will and pleasure ; and those who are not will- 

 ing to subject their contributions to this arbitrary 

 arrangement, had better seek some other chan- 

 nel of communication. We do not know that 

 we shall exactly adopt the advice of a correspond- 

 ent, who recommends us to insert no piece longer 

 Vol. III.— 5 



than his hand, of which, by the bye, he did not 

 send the measurement, but we are determined 

 to act upon the knowledge we have acquired, 

 that pieces to be read must be as short as their 

 nature will admit. The very great trouble and 

 labor incident to this plan of. condensation, we 

 are willing and ready to incur. 



U 



RECIPE FOR MAKING GOOD BREAD. 



James Roche, long celebrated in Baltimore, 

 as a baker of excellent bread, having retired 

 from business, has furnished the Baltimore Ame- 

 rican with the following recipe for making good 

 bread, with a request that it should be published 

 for the information of the public : 



" Take an earthen vessel, larger at the top 

 than the bottom, and in it put one pint of milk- 

 warm water, one and a half pounds of flour, 

 and half a pint of malt yeast ; mix them well 

 together, and set it away, (in winter it should 

 be in a warm place,) until it rises and falls again, 

 which will be in from three to five hours, (it 

 may be set at night if wanted in the morning ;) 

 then put two large spoonfuls of salt into two 

 quarts of water, and mix it well with the above 

 rising; then put in about nine pounds of flour 

 and work your dough well, and set it by until 

 it becomes light 1 Then make it out in loaves. 

 New flour requires one-fourth more salt than old 

 and dry flour. The water also should be tem- 

 pered according to the weather; in spring and 

 fall it should only be milk-warm ; in hot weather, 

 cold ; and in winter, warm." 



FOOT-ROT IN SHEEP. 



Mr. R. North, Jr. in a note to the Editors of 

 the Cultivator, sa} r s, after trying several recipes 

 for the foot-rot in sheep, which he had seen re- 

 commended in their paper, to very little or no 

 purpose, he discovered by mere accident a cheap 

 and sure cure, without much trouble or injury 

 to the sheep, viz: "take a few bushels of lime, 

 and put it near some place over which the sheep 

 have to pass, say the bars ; and as it is natural 

 for sheep to jump, take notice where they alight, 

 and place the lime there, about three inches 

 deep. This did effectually cure my flock in 

 about one week. The lime should be fresh and 

 slacked, and not less than three inches deep; if 

 deeper, it might take the hair off the leg above 

 the hoof." 



GRAIN FOR SEED. 

 The late Professor Sprengel, of Germany, 

 is said to have remarked that his best seed wheat 

 grew on some of his most inferior land, and that 

 it was by no means the best for making bread. 



