THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



243 



WOOL DEPOT IN RICHMOND. 



We congratulate the wool growers of this State 

 that there is at last a depot in Richmond for the 

 sale of their wool, and that it is m such good hands 

 as those of the Messrs. Crenshaw. 



These gentlemen are not without much expe- 

 rience in the sale of wool, having been for a long 

 time the consignees of a large amount of the trade 

 of South- Western Virginia, of which wool is one 

 of the leading staples. But they have, as will be 

 seen, obtained the services of Mr. Waterhouse, a 

 very skilful wool stapler, who was so long in the 

 employ of the late woollen factory of this City. 



At the North these wool depots have been found 

 indispensable, and there are a good many of them. 

 We think that every word said of them in the ad- 

 vertisement of the Messrs. Crenshaw is strictly 

 true, and that they deserve the encouragement of 

 the agricultural community for their enterprise. 



Read their advertisement and give them a trial. 



NEW BOOKS. 



We have received from A. Morris " The American 

 Form Book," containing legally approved prece- 

 dents for agreements, arbitrations, assignments, 

 bonds, wills, deeds, &c, by Benjamin Tate, Coun- 

 sellor at Law — a new edition — edited by Alexander 

 H. Sands, Counsellor at Law, containing, in addition 

 to the original work, forms of deeds of bargain and 

 sale, lease, trust and release under the Code of 

 Virginia; also forms of attachments under the 

 same ; mode of holding to bail under acts of 1851 

 and 1852, and other forms, valuable to clerks, at- 

 torneys, notaries, justices and sheriffs; prepared 

 by the Editor, with a complete index. Price, with 

 the new Constitution prefixed, $1 50, without it 

 SI 25. 



This is a useful book to the farmer and magis- 

 trate, and we do not well see how either can get 

 along without something of the sort. 



We have also received from J. W. Randolph & 

 Co. a book, lately published in New York, entitled 

 Farm Implements, and the principles of their con- 

 struction and use, an elementary and familiar trea- 

 tise on mechanics, and on natural philosophy ge- 

 nerally, as applied to the ordinary practices of 

 agriculture, with 200 engraved illustrations, by 

 John J. Thomas. 



This is a book which we think every farmer 

 ought to possess and study. It embodies the lead- 

 ing principles of natural philosophy in their more 

 common application to the practices of modern 

 approved farming — principles, without a correct 

 knowledge of which, no man can thresh wheat, 

 cut it by machinery, plough his land, or perform 

 any the simplest piece of work on his farm to ad- 

 vantage. Thirty years ago, when the labor of the 



farm was more a matter of thews and sinews, it 

 mattered not so much if a man was entirely igno- 

 rant of the correct principles of machinery. A 

 knowledge derived from practice or long observa- 

 tion of the capacity to endure in the horse and the 

 laborer was all that was necessary. But now a 

 better time has come upon us, and the true secret 

 of operation in agriculture, as in all other useful 

 works, is to economize in the expenditures of labor, 

 and with nothing like as much fatigue as it for- 

 merly took to do the work of one man to make a 

 machine do the work of five men for each horse 

 employed, or a still greater amount where steam is 

 used. This secret the work before us attempts to 

 teach, and from it the reflecting mind will learn 

 much directly, and much more from its own sug- 

 gestions. We very cordially commend it to the 

 young farmer, who often learns more from his own 

 mistakes than from the conservatism of older men. 



We have also received from an unknown hand a 

 book entitled " The Modern Horse Doctor" by Dr. 

 George H. Dadd, of Boston. We do not think that 

 he teaches any thing that is not better taught by 

 Porcival and Youatt. We rather incline to the opi- 

 nion that most that is good in his book has been 

 borrowed, and most that is bad is his own. 



EXPERIMENT WITH LIME. 



[FROM THE PAPERS OF THE NOTTOWAY CLUB.] 



Our friends, the farmers of the Nottoway Agri- 

 cultural Club, have done us and the public the favor 

 of sending, for publication in the Planter, such 

 essaj^s and reports of experiments and other mat- 

 ters of value as we can-cull from them. This step 

 is worthy of all imitation, and we trust it will be 

 imitated by the other Clubs of the State. In that 

 way we shall amass a store of materials of great 

 value, by which the whole agricultural community 

 will be greatly benefited. 



In performing the duty imposed upon me by the 

 rules of our Club, to present some annual contribu- 

 tion in writing to its archives, scarcely any subject 

 of experiment or discussion has stronger and more 

 interesting claims to notice than' the properties of 

 lime and plaster as manures. The constant terms 

 of eulogy with which they have been pressed upon 

 the attention of the tillers of the soil by eminent 

 writers on agriculture, together with the undoubted 

 success with which they have been attended in the 

 hands of experimentalists, invest them with an in- 

 terst of no common character. If the writings and 

 successes of Edmund Ruffm and Willoughby New- 

 ton were alone known upon this subject, it would 

 be enough to enkindle the enthusiasm of all who 

 inherit the patrimony of pine forests and broom- 

 sedge fields. But when, in addition to this, we see 

 no inconsiderable portion of the State of Virginia 

 exchanging the dreary aspect of desertion and de- 

 cay for one of ^greenness and prosperity, and invit- 

 ing to her bosom of plenty the children who had 



