4 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



never found in new land, but abounds in old or 

 manured ground — and in some years I have 

 seen them so numerous, as to have from forty to 

 fifty taken out of one hill in a morning. The 

 alternatives are either to abandon the crop, or to 

 go over the ground every morning, when they 

 can be found at or near the surface, and destroy 

 them. The missing hills to be regularly re- 

 planted. The Horn Worm is produced from a 

 large, clumsy, grey coloured fly commonly seen 

 late in the evening sucking the flowers of the 

 Stramonium or thorn apple, commonly called here 

 the James-town weed. The flies deposit their 

 eggs in the night on the tobacco, and all other 

 narcotic plants indiscriminately as Irish potatoes, 

 tomatoes, &c. In twenty-four or thirty-six 

 hours the eggs hatch a small worm which im- 

 mediately begins to feed on the leaf and grows 

 rap ; dly. Great care should be taken to destroy 

 them while young. Turkeys and Guinea fowls 

 are great auxiliaries in this business, but the evil 

 might be greatly lessened if the fixes were de- 

 stroyed, which can easily be done in the night 

 by a person walking over the ground with a 

 torch and a light paddle. They will approach 

 the light and can easily be killed. In this way 

 I have known a hundred killed in one held in 

 the course of an hour. 



Tobacco has been reproached as the cause of 

 the general exhausted condition of our lands, of 

 the slow paced improvement in the Virginia 

 system of agriculture ; in short as the bane of 

 all good husbandry. This stigma, is, I am per- 

 suader!, in a great measure unmerited. It is 

 true, that, like Indian corn, from the frequent 

 and high degree of tillage it requires through- 

 out the summer, it exposes the ground to be 

 washed by hard rains, and evaporated by the 

 hot sun ; out the plant in itself is less an ex- 

 hauster than corn or wheat. A proof of this is 

 to be found in the superior growth and perfec- 

 tion to which any crop will arrive when grown 

 after tobacco, than after any thing else, not ex- 

 cepting clover that has been ploughed in. Per- 

 haps this may be accounted for from the facts, 

 Is'. That the roots and stubble of tobacco left, 

 on the ground are more in quantity, and contain 

 more of the essential qualities of manure than 

 those of any other plant. 2d. The plant itself 

 while growing feeds more from the atmosphere 

 than any other: and 3dly. It is not suffered to 

 go to seed, the process in all vegetation which 

 is supposed to make the greatest draft on the 

 fertility of the earth. Neither is the culture of 

 tobacco incompatible with a proper rotation of 

 crops, and an improved system of husbandry, 

 for we find as extensive and successful efforts at 

 improvement, made in the tobacco region, and 

 by tobacco makers, as in any other section of 

 our State. 



(To be continued.) 



ROOTS. 



We ask the attention of the South to the fol- 

 lowing communication. It comes from a tho- 

 roughly practical man, and affords a better essay 

 upon the subject than we could hope to obtain 

 at home. We have visited Mr. Bement's farm, 

 and had ocular evidence of his superior skill 

 and management. It w r ould not do to subject 

 all of our agricultural writers to the same test. 



Three Hills Farm, Dec. 6, 1842. 



Messrs. Editors, — From the very flattering 

 manner in which you have introduced me to the 

 readers of the "Southern Planter," I cannot re- 

 sist the call to furnish you with a statement of 

 the treatment, culture, and produce of my carrot 

 patch and field of Sweedes. 



I am not so vain as to think I can furnish any 

 thing new on the subject, to your readers; but 

 a plain, practical, matter-of-fact account may not 

 be uninteresting to them. 



Although the root culture has been gaining 

 favor, in this country for several years, still, in 

 my opinion, it has not received that attention it 

 deserves. My soil is a loam, some parts inclin- 

 ing to sand and some to clay, and what is termed 

 here, sandy-loam and clay-loam, and well adapted 

 to the growth of roots, particularly carrots and 

 ruta bagas. I have cultivated roots for my 

 stock, for the last ten years and I have found no 

 crop that pays better, for the expense of culti- 

 vation ; none that abstracts less from the soil, or 

 that leaves it in better condition for a succeeding 

 crop. I have never failed in procuring a good 

 crop of barley, and after ruta bagas, grass seed 

 always take well. I have been less successful 

 with oats, as the richness of the soil causes a 

 too luxuriant growth of straw, whereby they 

 lodge and do not fill so well. 



You will recollect that my carrot patch was 

 near my house ; I call it my accommodation crop, 

 from its being near by and can be worked at 

 odd times ; besides it is the scene of my labor ! 

 Do not start, gentlemen, for I assure you I do 

 not belong to the silk-stocking gentry. If you 

 had made your visit in the summer, you might 

 possibly have found me in my " frock-and-trow- 

 sers" in the very midst of them, and the perspi- 

 ration profusely rolling off my face in drops as 

 large as peas. 



To ensure a good crop of carrots, and it. will 

 apply equally well to all crops, it is necessary to 

 have the soil not only rich but well worked and 

 pulverized. As soon as the soil is sufficiently 

 dry in the spring, I plough as deep as possible, 

 and after one or two weeks, I haul on at the 

 rate of sixty cart loads, (equal to thirty wagon 

 loads,) of compost manure, and spread evenly, 

 and harrow it thoroughly, when the plough is 

 again put on and a shallow furrow turned, just 



