THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



55 



SPECIFIC MANURE FOR TOBACCO. 



The following recommendation of a specific 

 manure for tobacco, we find in a letter printed 

 in the Richmond Enquirer. We know nothing 

 of the manure or the writer, and give the pre- 

 scription for what it is worth; but it cannot 

 hurt to try it at all events, as we mean to do 

 Should others do the same, we shall be glad 

 to hear their results. 



"The best preparation I have ever known 

 for the tobacco crop is made of a mixture of Pe- 

 ruvian and Mexican guano, salt, and Kettle- 

 well's potash and plaster. Last spring I mixed 

 as follows: 2 bushels sifted Peruvian guano, 

 1 bushel salt, well incorporated with it, 2£ 

 bushels Mexican guano, and U bushels potash 

 and plaster; the whole were well mixed in a 

 close one-horse wagon body, and sown on an 

 acre— the land had been previously pretty well 

 dosed with farm-pen, stable and pit manures 

 The tobacco that was planted in good time was 

 the largest I ever saw, and so said every one 

 who saw it. If the land were thin, I would 

 add to these quantities, say 150 pounds Peru- 

 vian guano, \\ bushels salt, 200 pounds Mexi- 

 can guano, and 200 pounds potash and plaster. 

 The cost would be about $8 50 per acre, and 

 I am sure it would add more than four times 

 that sum to the product." 



M'CORMICK'S REAPER. 



In publishing, as we do with pleasure, the 

 following letter from an esteemed correspond- 

 ent, we merely wish to^tate our own position 

 and that of the Executive Committee with re- 

 spect to all such things. 



The Planter is of no party in the matter of 

 Reapers or any other machine, or agricultu- 

 ral process. It seeks only the best, and will 

 neither commence nor carry on a war against 

 any; but will only, as all, we are sure, will 

 approve, express its candid opinion, when 

 called on, as to the merits of each. But the 

 Planter has stated, and we think proved, that 

 all reapers sell for more than they are worth, 

 whether we consider the reward to the inventor, 

 the cost to the constructor, or the service to 

 the farmer. A comparison of them with 

 wheat machines as to cost of construction and 

 saving of labor will prove this to any one. 



The Executive Committee does not mean 

 to endorse or be held responsible for what they 

 permit to be published, and would not think 

 for a moment of settling the merits of men or 



machines by "an order of publication." They 

 are merely the medium of communicating to 

 the public certain essays which seem to them 

 to possess merit. To alter or amend these 

 essays would be to judge not only for them- 

 selves and for the public, but for the author 

 also, which is more than they can undertake 

 to do. As to the terms which an essayist 

 chooses to employ, they are to a great extent 

 matter of taste and opinion, and cannot be pre- 

 scribed. Forourselves personally, we are will- 

 ing to say that we do not consider Mr. M'Cor- 

 micka humbug at all, but a very ingenious and 

 meritorious citizen ; and such, in view of what 

 he has done is, we presume, the opinion of the 

 whole of the Executive Committee, including 

 Mr. Booth, who, we have no doubt, used the 

 term "Humbug" in the hurry of composition 

 without intending to reflect injuriously on Mr. 

 M'Cormick. The question whether or not 

 there is a superior machine is a very different 

 question; and the discussion of it will not at 

 all affect Mr. M'Cormick's claim to originality 

 and acknowledgment of service. We very 

 much doubt if it will be in the power of the 

 State Executive Committee to make such a 

 trial as Mr. Grigsby indicates, howeverdesira- 

 ble it may be. But we promise, if it be prac- 

 ticable, to do all in our power to bring it about. 



Rockbridge, December, 1852. 



Mr. Ruffin: Dear Sir,— I have just re- 

 ceived the Southern Planter of this date, 

 and am sorry to find in it, what seems to 

 me, a partisan attack on M'Cormick's 

 "Virginia Reaper," and the more so, as it 

 is endorsed by the approval of "the Exe- 

 cutive Committee of the Virginia State 

 Agricultural Society"— so far at least as to 

 have ordered its publication. Now, as the 

 patentee of that reaper is my county-man 

 and personal friend, I beg, in his absence, 

 to appeal in his behalf to the Virginia 

 State Agricultural Society itself to afford 

 him a fair trial of his reaper in competition 

 with Hussey's and all others — not for "a 

 half hour or half day," but for weeks, or 

 as long as the material, whether wheat, 

 oats, or grass, can be found to operate on. 

 But as I fear that Society, for want of le- 

 gislative aid, may too soon be numbered 

 with "the things that were," I also appeal, 

 through you, to Mr. Booth and the Execu- 

 tive Committee, to give Mr. M'Cormick a 

 chance to rescue his "magnificent and 



