38 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



readily accessible to the farmer, must ever be 

 more desirable for agricultural purposes than 

 the uplands midway between tide water and 

 the mountains, where neither "liming" nor 

 "marling" can, as yet, be made practicable; 

 but Providence, ever mindful of the "sons of 

 toil," and as if to compensate, in some sort j 

 for these privations, has here blessed them 

 with the purest water— a most salubrious air, 

 and placed within the soil itself a sufficiency 

 of lime to enable the industrious farmer to 

 grow remunerative crops for a very long time 

 without incurring the labor and expense of 

 "liming," and when at last these fail, then by 

 its own recuperative energies the soil begins 

 afresh the great work of self-improvement by 

 covering its sterile surface with a luxuriant 

 vegetation of "old field pine" — and rapidly 

 eliminating from its rocks by its own great 

 digestive apparatus all the elements of fertility, 

 speedily accomplishes the work of restoration, 

 compelling the pine at last to give place to a 

 sturdier and richer growth. 



P. B. P. 



Louisa, January 12, 1853. 



BREAKING COLTS. 



The breaking of a colt should be com- 

 menced before he is twenty-four hours old. 

 Handle him frequently — make a petof him. 

 Bridle him young 1 , and the winter when he 

 is two years old, place a wagon saddle 

 on his back, and buckle the girt loosely. 

 Take it off at night, and after doing this 

 a few times, add the breeching, and pur- 

 sue this course with all parts of the har- 

 ness, until the whole is familiar to him. 

 Then add the whippletree, and while a 

 careful person leads him, hold back so that 

 he may feel the pressure of the collar or 

 breastplate gradually. If he is high spi- 

 rited, so much the better — if you do not 

 beat him. Be resolute and firm with him, 

 but not abusive. 



Let him understand that you are master, 

 but a humane and reasonable one. Treat 

 him in this manner, and ninety-nine in a 

 hundred will need no other breaking. — 

 Breaking is the word, no other will express 

 the practice which has obtained. They 

 have been broken, head, back and legs, 

 until they were nearly valueless, and not 

 from any fault of their own, but from the 

 ignorance of the breaker! 



Colts do not refuse to work from any 

 disposition not to earn a living, but because 

 they do not understand what is required 

 • of them. They need to be educated, and 

 this must be done gradually — not in a day, 

 or a month, but months. These are only 



a few brief hints — study the animal your- 

 self, and you will learn what course is re- 

 quired to be pursued. — N. E. Farmer. 



•We have never kiK>wn the above plan, or 

 something like it, faflPn breaking colts. We 

 take up the subject now because we wish to 

 recommend our own winter practice in the 

 matter. Attached to the house in which we 

 strip tobacco is a fine large shed, in which, 

 among other stock, colts are kept, in large 

 roomy stalls. Every day that it rains, whilst 

 the other hands are stripping, it is the business 

 of one to handle the colts. He is a fine tem- 

 pered negro, who never abuses or scolds them. 

 Beginning with those that are eighteen months 

 old, he bridles them and puts them in the break 

 harness, as it is called. This consists of a 

 bridle with a bearing rein and check rein, a 

 harness bridle, in fact, without the blinkers, a 

 crupper, martingale and surcingle; the latter 

 well padded on top, and provided on each side 

 with buckles, to which the reins are attached. 

 After letting them stand until they become 

 pretty well worried, which is manifested by 

 profuse sweating, the reins being gradually 

 tightened so as to bring his head into the pro- 

 per position, he is released, and the harness 

 transferred to another, and so on, taking first 

 one and then another through the day. It is 

 the business of the breaker to remain with 

 them all the time and to rub, pat and gentle 

 them. In this way the colt becomes gentle 

 without any loss of time, and is afterwards 

 taken through the other stages of breaking to 

 harness and the saddle without difficulty. — 

 Ed. So. Planter. 



For the Southern Planter. 

 EXPERIMENTS. 



Mr. Editor, — The following experiments 

 were made by the request of the Nottoway 

 Club, and when reported, it was ordered that 

 an account of them be sent to you for publica- 

 tion in the Southern Planter. This was done 

 in August, but as you informed me at the 

 meeting of the State Agiicultural Society^that 

 you had not received my communication, I 

 will, in compliance with your request, write 

 them off again and put them at your disposal. 



At the meeting of the Nottoway Club, June, 

 1850, one of the members and myself were 

 requested to seed three similar acres of land 

 in wheat— to apply on one guano alone, on 



