204 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



A few apple trees in a large pasture are but 

 a nuisance in case they bear any fruit, for the 

 cattle will spend half their time in chasing 

 after it. But a peck of ripe apples to each 

 cow at a certain time each day would help her 

 milk. 



As to the modes of planting or sowing corn 

 for summer feed, we prefer drills to hills, or to 

 broadcast sowing, and as the stalks are the ob- 

 ject, there seems to be no good objection to 

 placing manure in the drills and burying it 

 with a plough. If the theories of philoso- 

 phers in regard to exhaustion by letting plants 

 go to seed be correct, corn for fodder may be 

 grown without much fear of reducing the soil 

 — the ground to be tilled of course. 



Corn to be cut up in the summer should be 

 planted at different times — say first of May — 

 middle of May — and first week in June. The 

 flat southern corn yields the most food, and as 

 cattle will eat it in July without waste, it may 

 be best to sow this first — but the stalks are not 

 so sweet as those of the sweet boiling corn, 

 therefore have this sown latest when the pro- 

 duct may be used after the cattle are a little 

 cloyed by the large kind of stalks. 



We fancy that the sweet corn may prove 

 quite as good for soiling as any of the larger 

 kinds, though the yield may not be so great. 

 There may be some difficulty in procuring seed, 

 but if proper care is taken in autumn, there 

 need be no lack. — Massachusetts Ploughman. 



The following communication of our friend, Mr. 

 Thompson, was not received until lately. We are 

 much obliged to him for it, and publish it with 

 pleasure. It is valuable as the testimony of a prac- 

 tical man to the efficacy of a cheap labor saving 

 contrivance, which, from having been improperly 

 constructed by others, has fallen somewhat into 

 discredit. 



In another aspect it is still more valuable : any 

 thing which tends to introduce an abundance of 

 water into our houses and tempt us to lave our 

 aching limbs and tired bodies, is a blessing. It is 

 only of late that this use of water is beginning to 

 be understood among us, and we hail the dawn of 

 that day when an unwashed body will be consid- 

 ered as great a reproach as a dirty face or unkempt 

 hair. This is the mission of the water cure people 

 if they did but know it : to spread the use of water, 

 and so by cleanliness to promote not health alone 

 but virtue. For a man habitually well washed has 

 more refinement and feels more revulsion at immo- 

 rality, other things being equal, than a greasy fellow. 

 "The great unwashed" is not the phrase of mere 

 fastidiousness, it has a meaning, and the criminal 

 records show it. 



Even in Russia, as we learn from the Count Do 

 Gurowski's book, (which, by the way, every one 

 should get as containing more information about 

 those people than any other accessible work,*) the 

 people bathe once a week — the women on Friday, 

 the men on Saturday — in a public bath which each 

 village keeps up for itself. And in that it must be 

 confessed the serfs beat us hollow, for we grieve to 

 say that in this particular the Americans are, per- 

 haps, the dirtiest people in Christendom — dirty 

 enough in all conscience — and tlje statistics of 

 bathing would make a curious though not inviting 

 chapter in the history of our domestic economy. 

 " Lend me a shirt," said a very clever man some 

 few years since, to his companion at a certain 

 town in Virginia, " lend me a shirt," — " I cannot," 

 replied his friend, "I have but two left, and as I 

 shall stay here two days longer, I shall want them 

 both." "What! a shirt a day!" exclaimed the slo- 

 ven, in unfeigned surprise, " Why, my dear fellow, 

 with two shirts I could circumnavigate the globe." 



Use water, dear readers of the Planter, " water," 

 as the sobering drunkard said, " in the first degree" 

 — get it by some means, and if by Mr. Thompson's 

 tried and approved plan of a Telegraph, then be 

 sure and attach a bath room to the " tower." 



WATER TELEGRAPH. 



Mr. Editor, — Being idle upon this snowy March 

 day, I thought I would employ myself by giving 

 to my friends and the readers of the Southern 

 Planter a sketch of my Water Telegraph, its bene- 

 fits, its accommodations, its comforts, and its^labor 

 saving to my little servant boys and girls. 



Some years ago, I was looking over the June 

 number of the "Cultivator" of 1842, and upon 

 page 96, my eye fell upon a piece headed, "Water 

 Elevator," and its cut. It struck me with much 

 force ; but I thought it susceptible of improvement. 

 Shortly after, I heard of one being in operation in 

 Green county, erected by Dr. J. F. Early. I got an 

 ingenious carpenter to go with me to see it, deter- 

 mining if I liked it, to have one. I liked it much, 

 but thought one might be made to give more ac- 

 commodations and benefit. After some months the 

 workman commenced the erection of one for me. 

 The length of my wire (which is \ in. in diameter) 

 is 66 yds. or 198 feet. I shall commence with my 

 spring: this I dug deep enough to have the water, 

 when full, to be two feet deep. I then walled it 

 with stone 18 in. thick, (the sides and back end, 

 leaving the front end open). The spring is three 

 feet wide. The side walls I ran as long and as 

 high as the circumstances of the situation required 

 in my judgment. We put in a strong piece of tim- 

 ber across the spring into the side walls at a proper 

 distance from the water to accommodate the car 

 and bucket, to fasten the wire through and to lodge 

 the car against : the bottom of the spring I floored 

 with wide flat stones, the top is covered with a long 

 flat stone. My spring house or tower is in the 

 back yard, between the house and the kitchen, and 

 is made of durable timbers, sills and corner posts 



* Russia as it is, Count De Gurowski, 1 vol. 8vo.: Nash 

 & Woodhouse, and other booksellers, Richmond. 



