98 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



of summer heat and winter cold, and he says, 

 it is impossible to persuade him, that land groan- 

 ing under the weight of its products, as he has 

 seen some of the James River low grounds, 

 could not, by proper management, be made to 

 produce anything. He thinks it likely that 

 lime may be wanting in our soil, but where, he 

 asks, is the difficulty in supplying it. It is an 

 entire mistake to suppose that when our grass 

 turns yellow, it has been destroyed by the sum- 

 mer heat ; it is then, on the contrary, in its most 

 nutricious state ; succulent grass is never whole- 

 some, and it is a standing proverb among gra- 

 ziers, " the dryer the year, the fatter the cattle." 



When we commenced this article we expected 

 it to consist, like the memoranda upon which it 

 is based, of a medley of ideas, but we find that 

 we have from memory so elaborated our notes, 

 as to extend a single subject over a greater space 

 than will probably be agreeable to the reader; 

 we shall therefore conclude, for the present, re- 

 serving the balance of our notes for future oc- 

 casions, premising, that we may hereafter in- 

 troduce them without any further allusion to 

 the source whence they have been obtained, 

 which, as we are compelled to conceal the name 

 of the author, will detract nothing from the in- 

 terest of his remarks. 



TIMBER. 

 To the Editors of the Southern Planter: 



Dear Sirs, — In answer to the inquiries made 

 by Mr. Whit'l P. Tunstall, whether timber lasts 

 better cut in winter than summer, I should say, 

 from many years experience, that winter is the 

 proper time to cut most timber ;* because, if cut 

 in the warm season while full of sap, it imme- 

 diately turns dark, (or as we term it, mildews,) 

 and remains heavy even after seasoning. This 

 is particularly the case with the pine. We in 

 this section of the State, have been for some 

 years in the habit of cutting wood for market, 

 and so evident is the difference, that an expe- 

 rienced wood buyer will, on first sight, designate 

 the wood cut in winter from that cut in summer; 

 the former being light and bright, while the lat- 

 ter is dark and heavy, though cut more recently. 



I should say that locust or mulberry is deci- 

 dedly the most lasting timber for posts, or any 

 thing else for which it can be made to answer ; 

 nor is good red cedar much inferior ; the next 

 that I know of is chesnut, particularly toward 

 the top of the tree, which will last much longer 

 in the ground than the lower part ; and this is 



* Carriage makers say ash (and perhaps there may 

 be some other timber) should be cut in May or Octo- 

 ber, as the worm will get into it, cut at any other time. 



the only reason why it is said that a post set in 

 the ground with the top down lasts longer than if 

 the root end is set downwards, because the further 

 you go up a tree, the more solid, dry and dura- 

 ble the timber becomes. This is especially the 

 case with chesnut and oak. All timber placed 

 in the earth should, if possible, be first seasoned. 

 I should prefer chesnut to oak if it is to be placed 

 in the ground. On the subject of the rising 

 and falling of the sap, all that I can say is, that 

 every year's sap adds a grain to the tree, for in 

 all graining timber you can certaininly see dis- 

 tinctly every year's growth, and that the sap of 

 one year is the next converted into wood, which 

 enlarges the tree that much in each year. 

 With due regard, yours, 



J. Chowning. 

 Lancaster Co., Va., lOtk March, 1843. 



For the Southern Planter. 

 SORREL ERADICATED BY LIME. 



Messrs. Editors, — The farmers, as a class, are 

 the soundest and most original thinkers in the 

 world ; the nature of their occupation not only 

 invigorates the mind, but affords them peculiar 

 leisure and opportunity for reflection ; the lone 

 forest and the solitary field are undisturbed by 

 the din and confusion that mark the place of 

 congregated men, and the even tenor of their 

 lives secures the certain exercise of sober judg- 

 ment. Whence then arises the almost universal 

 prejudice against the science of agriculture? Is 

 it, as some would have us believe, only the 

 groundless objection of ignorant and conceited 

 men? For my part I am free to admit that I 

 know many liberal and strong minded men, who 

 turn with disgust from any scientific theory of 

 farming. I do not mean to say that this is ex- 

 actly right, but I do mean to assert that such 

 men do very few things without a reason, and 

 that they have grounds, and substantial grounds, 

 for their prejudices; not that they have any 

 grounds for prejudice against genuine science, 

 which is only another name for truth itself, but 

 that they have much reason to be dissatisfied 

 with the counterfeit presentment that has been 

 so frequently set before them. I am sometimes 

 not a little amused at the pomp and solemnity 

 with which the theory of some closet professor 

 is heralded forth : the agricultural papers laud 

 it to the skies, and the sober minded countryman, 

 who refuses to embark his labor in it until it is 

 established by time and experience, is stigma- 

 tized as an ass and a barbarian. What is the 

 result 1 In less than a twelvemonth, the short- 

 lived favorite is exploded by the discovery of 

 some simple fact overlooked by the author of its 

 being, but the ass is never exalted above the 

 professor. 



A few years ago we were told, that as alkalis 

 neutralized acids, all we had to do, to destroy 



