202 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



A sheep consumes several pounds of food 

 daily. Of this, at least ei<rht ounces are com- 

 posed of the constituents of wool. Now if the 

 capillary organs of this animal transform only 

 two pi^r cent, of these elements into wool in 

 twenty four hours, then in one hundred days the 

 sheep will grow one pound of this valuable pro- 

 duct This will give a fleece which will weigh 

 3 iVff l !,s in davs. Is it not practicable so 

 to improve the vital action of the wool-forming 

 machinery of our twenty millions of sheep in 

 this country, that, this machinery shall transform 

 four instead of two per cent, of the raw material 

 of wool into that substance? That this organic 

 machinery is perfect no one pretends; or that it 

 has already been greatly improved, is not denied. 

 The manufacture of wool out of its constituent 

 elements, is a branch of science of great impor- 

 tance to i he fanners of t he United States. They 

 possess an inexhaustible quantity of the raw ma- 

 terial of wool, and enjoy every advantage for its 

 profitable production. To develop the capillary 

 organs of the sheep, the animal should have a 

 warm, or rather a comfortable, well ventilated 

 apartment in winter — should be kept quiet 

 throughout the year; that is, it should not be 

 compelled to travel too much to find its food. It 

 should have the organs that form this animal 

 product at all times stimulated to a preternatural 

 action, by having the arteries that convey nour- 

 ishment, to these organs, preternaturally loaded 

 with the elements of wool. A plant grows best 

 in a soil rich in the elements of such plant. So 

 too an animal, and especially a young animal, 

 elaborates the most flesh and fat when its blood- 

 vessels are best supplied with the elements of 

 those products. j 



Clover, oats, turnips, beans, peas, and other 

 leguminous plants, contain more of the consti- 

 tuents of wool than timothy, herdsgrass, potatoes, 

 and corn. All animals should be fed regularly, 

 and particular attention should be paid to their 

 health and comfort. It is, perhaps, needless to 

 say, that every improvement in the practical 

 workings of all this living machinery can be 

 transferred from parent to offspring by judicious j 

 breeding. 



The action of the respiratory organs in all 

 domestic animals has a material influence upon 

 the formation of fat, muscle, milk, and wool. — ! 

 The lungs never cease night nor day to expel j 

 more or less of the elements of animal food i 

 through the windpipe into the air, in the form ofj 

 carbonic acid and vapor. The organization of 

 some animals is so defective that they consume 

 in this way a much larger quantity of the con- 

 stituents of flesh, fat, milk, and wool, than is 

 necessary or profitable. The more an animal 

 exercises, the faster he breathes, and other things 

 being equal, the poorer he becomes; because, 

 instead of nourishing and supplying the waste 

 in the system, the elements of the food escape 



in a lurger ratio from the assimilating organs. 

 The food of animals consists essentially of car- 

 bon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. The first 

 escapes through the lungs, the second and third 

 escape in vapor, perspiration and urine, and the 

 last (nitrogen) also escapes by the kidneys — 

 Hence, a cow when driven twelve miles a day, 

 never gives as much milk as she does when 

 consuming the same amount of food and re- 

 maining quiet in a pasture or stall. It is an 

 easy matter to enlarge or diminish the size of 

 the blood-vessels that convey the elemenis of 

 milk to the lacteal gland of the cow, or the ves- 

 sels that convey the elements of wool to the 

 capillary organs of the sheep. It is not difficult 

 to increase boih the size and strength of the 

 muscles of a colt, or of a young bullock. Like 

 the enlargement of the muscles in ihe arm of a 

 blacksmiih, judiciovs exercise must come to the 

 aid of judicious keep. 



D. Lee. 



Albany, April 30, 1844. 



From the Albany Cultivator. 

 CHARCOAL FOR PEACH TREES. 



Messrs. Editors, — A friend of mine has just 

 informed me of the success he has met with, by 

 the application of charcoal to his peach trees; a 

 few years ago he had some fine trees in his gar- 

 den which invariably had wormy fruit ; and the 

 trees full of gum ; when the fruit was about the 

 size of marbles, he had the earth removed from 

 each tree about two feet around and three inches 

 deep, and filled up with charchoal ; the result 

 was that the fruit grew to a fine size free from 

 worms ; and every year since, the fruit has been 

 good, and the trees became healthy and free 

 from gum; while two trees left without the 

 charcoal, continue to bear wormy fruit, and the 

 trees unhealthy. As this will be in time for the 

 readers of the Cultivator to make a trial this 

 year, and should it prove as good with others as 

 in this case, it will certainly be of great benefit 

 to the fruit grower. 



If farmers will plant their pumpkins, melons 

 and other vines on land that brought corn the 

 past year, they will never be troubled with the 

 striped bug. This course has been practised 

 here for many years, and has always proved suc- 

 cessful, when vines planted on land that had 

 any other crop, even vines the year previous, 

 are destroyed by the bug. 



H. R. Robey. 



Hopewell, Va., May 10, 1844. 



HINT TO CORN PLANTERS. 



The advantages of deep ploughing in planting 

 Indian corn, is well exhibited in the following 

 article, first published more than twenty years 



