THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



215 



"The Duke of Gloucester, nearly three years old, 

 sold for 650 guineas, and the fourth Duke of York, 

 nearly seven years old, fetched 500 guineas. Ex- 

 cluding one cow of this family, which we have not 

 named — as, owing to some doubt existing as to 

 whether she would breed, she fetched but a low 

 price — the nine animals descended from Charles 

 Colling's Young Duchess, three of them being 

 calves, fetched the enormous sum of 4,160 guineas, 

 (§20,800,) averaging 462 guineas, ($2,313,) a piece." 

 But this is not all; the bull, Grand Duke, (No. 

 10,284 in the Herd Book,) which was bred by the 

 late Thomas Bates, and also descended from Young 

 Duchess, was sold at Mr. Bates' sale, May, 1850, 

 and was purchased last summer at private sale by 

 Mr. Thorne of New York at $5,000. " This bull 

 was the first calf of Duchess 55th, and the sire of 

 Duke of Gloucester; Duchess 64th and Duchess 

 66th were the produce of Duchess 55th. Thus it 

 will be seen that these three animals, the produce 

 of one cow, also realized the immense sum of 

 2,300 guineas," ($11,500 of our money.) 



I have not given you the above list of prices for 

 the purpose of exciting surprise ; but for the pur- 

 pose of showing that certain families of Short Horns 

 are prized for possessing certain qualities in greater 

 perfection than others, to wit: good hair, good 

 handling, good milking and feeding capacity, ar- 

 riving at maturity early, and being moderate con- 

 sumers in proportion to the size of the animal; for 

 I contend there is no animal consumes less in pro- 

 portion to its size, than the well bred Short Horn. 

 If persons choose to buy grade cattle, for full blood, 

 without any regard to the pedigree, coat or. handling 

 of the animal, and, then, afterwards, in their de- 

 scendants, find ragged, narrow hips, coarse heads 

 and necks, hides as tight as drums, coarse thighs 

 covered with flesh of the worst kind, and bones 

 sufficiently large for a Pennsylvania dray horse, 

 they have no right to condemn the Short Horns as 

 a race. It only shows that they are very easily im- 

 posed upon. I have seen some animals with all 

 these objections, sold as thoroughbred Short Horns. 

 There were a great many brought here from Ken- 

 tucky, several years since, with pedigrees made for 

 the occasion, scarcely one of which produced an 

 animal worth having, even to make a steer of. I 

 am afraid I have already extended my article to too 

 great a length — I could not well make it shorter. 

 In my next, which I will have ready for your July 

 number, I will give you a short history of the Short 

 Horns, as I understand it, and which I believe to be 

 true ; and will afterwards try and make good my 

 position as to their being the best cattle in the 

 world — capable of improving all others, and inca- 

 pable of being improved by any others; always 

 keeping in mind, however, the position with which 

 I set out, that there shall be " an adaptation of soil 

 and climate." 



Your friend, 



Alex. S. Mathews. 

 Wythe County, May 23d, 1854. 



WHEN ARE PEAS POISONOUS TO HOGS? PEAS 

 COMPARED WITH GUANO.— GRASS CROP ON 

 TIDE WATER. 



The following letter from Col. Herbert, in answer 

 to one from us on the subject of the query above, 

 discloses a very interesting fact. Will all whose 

 experience, (not theory,) on similar soils confirms 



or contradicts the statement that peas on such 

 soils, poison hogs, do us and the pea growing far- 

 mers the favor of giving their views on this head. 



We congratulate Col. Herbert on his crop of 

 grass. Last fall in Norfolk we saw a specimen of 

 his hay, and never beheld better. We think he is 

 a pioneer in that business in Princess Anne, and if 

 he is, he deserves as much credit as those who in- 

 troduced "trucking," or growing vegetables for 

 the Northern markets. 



Level Green, Princess Anne, June 7lh 1854. 

 Mr. F. G. Ruffin: 



Dear Sir, — Yours of the 9th of January was duly 

 received, and would have been answered immedi- 

 ately, but for the difficulty of seeing Messrs. Bur- 

 roughs & Old. 



I saw those gentlemen last week. They think 

 that you are mistaken in thinking them to say 

 " that hogs frequently died from being pastured 

 on pea vines grown on the islands, when the same 

 sort of food grown on the main land would fatten 

 them;" but they said "that hogs fed or pastured 

 on peas grown on the islands or main land, where 

 there are shells, (Indian deposit of oyster shells,) 

 frequently died, while those fed or pastured on 

 peas, where there is no Indian deposite or shells, 

 would fatten and do well." The above is the ex- 

 perience of many gentlemen in my countj^. As I 

 am frequently in North Carolina, I will briefly state 

 what I have learned there in regard to the same 

 subject. There is in Currituck county a deposite 

 of oyster shells extending from the Court House 

 about thirty miles to Powell's Point — on the south 

 side of Currituck Sound parallel to the same. Far- 

 mers living in that portion of the county have fre- 

 quently said to me that they could not turn stock 

 of any kind into the peas grown on that shelly land, 

 as it would be almost certain death to cattle or 

 hogs to do so. The whys and wherefores I know 

 nothing of. 



I think I know that peas are a great improver 

 of land. Many farmers cultivate their land every 

 year in corn, (by sowing it down in peas at the last 

 working of corn) without any deterioration. The 

 pea crop in my humble opinion as an improver, is 

 worth more to the farmers of Virginia and North 

 Carolina in this district of country, than all the 

 guano in Peru. I have been using both guano and 

 peas for many years, and have as yet to see much 

 benefit from guano on summer crops ; I believe that 

 it has in many instances been injurious, while the 

 pea crop has never failed to come up fully to my 

 most sanguine expectation. 



I believe that many of us have been spending 

 our money for guano, not because we have realized 

 paying benefit from the same, but because it is 

 somewhat fashionable to do so. 



The Corn crop in eastern North Carolina and this 

 portion of Virginia is rather small, owing to the 

 cold weather. The wheat crop is very fine. The 

 oat crop looks well, and beyond doubt will be very 

 good. Our Irish potato crop promises to be abun- 

 dant and profitable. 



Grass is not much cultivated here, owing to an 

 old crazy notion that has gotten into many of our 

 farmers heads, that our climate and soil are not 

 adapted to the growth of grasses. A few of us, 

 however, are cultivating the orchard and timothy 

 grasses with entire success. I am cutting at this 



