14 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



them, therefore, all ibe offal from hogs and cat- 

 tle, and let. it remain frozen till you want it. 



In addition to the above, some experienced 

 poulterers recommend keeping hens or pullets 

 without roosters through the winter. N. Har- 

 dy, Esq. of Waltham, insists that pullets will 

 lay twice as many eggs when kept by them- 

 selves as when roosters run with them ; of this 

 we have made no trial, but would recommend 

 the experiment to others. 



It remains yet to be proved that hens will lay 

 as many eggs when kept confined as when suf- 

 fered to roam abroad. We generally find that 

 they will lay more eggs when at large; but 

 this may be owing to their finding a greater va- 

 riety of food. We hope more trials will be 

 made by shutting up and furnishing all that 

 may be wanted for health and for production. — 

 We find in general that he who keeps a small 

 number has more eggs in proportion than he 

 who keeps a large flock : this may be owing to 

 the more choice supply of food found by the 

 small number.— -Massachusetts Ploughman. 



AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 

 Mr. Rives, in his late address to the Agricul- 

 tural Society of Albemarle, proposes the estab- 

 lishment of an agricultural professorship at the 

 University of Virginia, and the Editor of the 

 "Enquirer," who is almost as much devoted to 

 agricullure as to politics, seconds the proposi- 

 tion, and suggests, in addition, the establishment 

 generally of agricultural schools. He calls up- 

 on the Editors of agricultural papers and certain 

 members of the Executive Committee of the 

 Henrico Agricultural Society to lend their aid 

 in furtherance of the design. This produced 

 the following beautiful response from that dis- 

 tinguished member of the Committee, Gen. W. 

 H. Richardson, which we transcribe from the 

 columns of the Enquirer: 



To the Editor of the Richmond Enquirer. 



" Not having time to call on you this morning, 

 I write to express m}' hearty concurrence rn the 

 suggestions thrown out in this morning's En- 

 quirer, under the head of Agriculture. 



" My consideration of the subject, as you may 

 well suppose, has not been very profound, and I 

 am sensible that the conclusions to which it has 

 led, are very far from being entitled to much 

 weight. I have long admired the plan of the 

 celebrated Fellenburg, to which you refer ; and 

 thought, as I stiil think, that one such school 

 would be worth more than all the professorships 

 of agriculture that could be established in our 

 colleges If the agricultural portion of our peo- 

 ple could be awakenc-d to their true interests, 



one such school at least could be established hi 

 each of the grand divisions of the State and 

 susiained by individual subscriptions. Or, if not 

 effected in this mode, and the financial condition 

 of the Slate should not admit of the requisite 

 aid from the public treasury, might not a lax be 

 laid for that special purpose? It is difficult to 

 estimate the advantages that might justly be 

 expected from agriculiural schools, in which 

 theory and practice would go hand in hand, and 

 where the mental as well as physical powers 

 were judiciously cultivated. We all know, that 

 the few landed estates which are yet left to be 

 transmitted from fathers to sons, most frequently 

 fall into the hands of young men just from col- 

 lege, who, though they may be fine scholars 

 and qualified to attain the highest professional 

 rank, are yet profoundly ignorant of that which 

 jit most concerns them to know — practical agri- 

 culture. So, too, of the less wealthy portion of 

 our people, who train their sons to ihe labors of 

 the farm, but most frequently in the same path, 

 which has been trodden by fathers, grandfathers 

 and great-grandfathers before them, but upon 

 which not one ray of improvement has yet been 

 shed. These young men are, according to cir- 

 cumstances, either poitioned off with small farms, 

 or seek employment as overseers, having, gener- 

 ally, little else than habits of industry, with true 

 and honest hearts, to qualify them for the busi- 

 ness of life. It is easy to conceive, that to all 

 these, the education of an agricultural school 

 would be certain independence, if not wealih. 



"The want of sufficient skill in agriculture 

 and farm management among overseers, we 

 hear complained of by almost every farmer who 

 employs one. It is a serious grievance; but 

 the poor fellows themselves are not to blame, for 

 they have no chance of better information. A 

 case lately came to my knowledge of a lady, 

 possessed of a good estate in land and negroes, 

 who had been repeatedly disappointed in over- 

 seers, and at length employed one whose known 

 industry and integrity it was hoped would suf- 

 fice. But with a full stock of these indispensa- 

 ble qualifications, and every wish to give satis- 

 faction, he proved so utterly ignorant of farm 

 management, and of an}' standard of agricul- 

 ture beyond that with which he had grown 

 up — between the handles of an old style one- 

 horse plough, with a wooden mould-board, 

 and rope traces — that his employer has a cer- 

 tain prospect of loss upon the year's work, and 

 he of losing his place. An experienced and 

 observant farmer lately remarked in my presence, 

 that many who were now struggling in the 

 over-filled professions, and the uncertain risks of 

 commercial pursuits, must soon find themselves 

 driven to agriculture for a subsistence ; and that, 

 instead of every man who can command the 

 means, sending his sons to fill the classical 

 schools of the day, uncertain what they must 



