122 



Their houses should be provided with large glass 

 windows, and when a pane is broken they should 

 be made to leplace il raiher than fill iis place wiih 

 old rags. Light and air are necessary to the proper 

 making of blood ; and negro women and children, 

 who spend so much lime within doors, should br 

 compelled to enjoy both these elements. They 

 have to be forced to it, lor in sleeping a negro will 

 coyer his head. if his leet freeze, and thus breathe 

 over and over again ihe same air, charged as it be- 

 comes with carbonic acid and exhalations of the 

 body, and deficient perhaps in oxygen, the element 

 so needful in making good arterial blood. It is 

 considered by medic si men, I believe, that this bad 

 elaboration of blood develops lurking scrofula and 

 even generates it. 



Glass windows enable the negro to do much work 

 "in doors," and are surely more convenient than* 

 lightwood knot in enabling the physician or nurse, 

 in case of sickness, to examine the patient or min 

 isier to his wants. J think a doctor has just cause 

 of complaint when forced to burn a negro's eye 

 brows off with a pine torch before he can get a sight 

 of his tongue at mid-day. 



Ne°ro houses should be provided with chimneys 

 that don't smoke. Air-light stoves are liable to give 

 negroes cold from the extremes of temperature they 

 produce and are objectionable in that they give no 

 light. The Franklin stove is well adapted to negro 

 cabins, and was used by yourself while you lived in 

 Albemarle. Any thing is better than a smoking 

 chimney. On many of our Virginia Farms, I 

 doubt not there is lamp-black. enough accumulated 

 in the breaihingtubesof the negroes during the night 

 to black the master's boors in the morning. 



Cabins should not be placed at a less distance 

 than from 75 to 100 yards from each other, lor the 

 reason that it is highly probable thai infectious dis- 

 eases, such as scarlet and typhoid fever, measles, 

 whooping cough, and even small pox may not be 

 communicated at that distance. 



Yours truly, 



R. W. N, N. 



Albemarle, Feb., 1856. 



For the Southern Planter. 

 CORN PLANTERS. 



Mr. Editor : — I have tried several kinds oi corn- 

 planters. The first was made by Sinclair & Go, 

 Baltimore, which has received the premium at the 

 two last fairs, but which I think is a very indiffer- 

 ent machine in many respects. It is so lop-heavy 

 that it will take one hand to keep it in proper posi- 

 tion, and a more awkward implement 1 have never 

 seen. After using this one probably in ail one day, 

 I laid it aside, and having an opportunity 10 get 

 Emery's Planter, which was highly recommended 

 to me* 1 purchased it and used it a good deal. The 

 performance of the machine is very good, and I 

 could recommend it, if it were made in a style to 

 suit our latitude; but this is not ihe case. The 

 gentleman from whom 1 got it commenced ts re- 

 pair his before gelling it to the field. 



If some of our Southern Manufacturers would 

 make ihem in as durable manner as they make other 

 implements for a home market, i do not doubt but 

 what it would be used very extensively, especially 

 by farmers who own large fields, free, of stamps 

 a»d roots. 



In haste, ybtsrs truly, 



Ell GUARD JSOY, 



Nottowat, Ya., Mar. 14th, 1856. 



For the Southern Planter. 

 BELLS ON SHEEP. 



February 6th, 1856. 

 Friend Rvjjin : — In the January number of the 

 Planter I eaw an article upon bells " to prevent 

 dogs from killing sheep. " When a boy, 1 passed by 

 Mr. Richard Sampson's farm, of Goochland county, 

 a e in the evening, and saw his servants penning 

 his sheep with his cattle. I asked the reason. The 

 boy said it was to protect the sheep from dogs. I 

 remembered it, aud have practised it ever since I 

 have owned a sheep, which has been twenty odd 

 years, and have never had a sheep killed or attack- 

 ed by dogs ; whilst my neighbors have sustained 

 great damage, and some have had their entire flock 

 destroyed. I have told my plan and my luck, and 

 strange to tell, I do not know a man who thus pens 

 his sheep; and there is not a man in Albemarle 

 county, who has lost fewer sheep from any and all 

 the evils to which this valuable stock are subject^ 

 than I have. Sheep cannot stand dirt, in or out of 

 a pen ; my cow pens are frequently moved or well 

 litter d, and the sheep always turn out the first 

 thing in the morning, and after a little practice 

 will come to the pens every evening themselves, as 

 if for protection.. 



Yours respectfully, 



G. C. Gilmer. 



P. S. My sheep boy would not hire for five 

 dollars per year. This winter sheep have suffered 

 much for shelter and for water. To do well, sheep 

 must have water every day. 



For ihe Southern Planter. 

 DITCHING. 



February 7th, 1856. 

 Friend Kuffin : — Yours of the 8th of January 

 was received, and should have been answered, had 

 this been the season for such work. You ask if I 

 have ever tried ditching with the assistance of a 

 horse and coulter. I have for years done much of 

 this work with two horses, a coulter and plough, 

 then scrape out with a cast iron two horse scraper, 

 by which I easily and quickly remove all the dirt 

 from the channel I wish to make, and deposit it in 

 some washed or sunken place, thereby killing two 

 birds with one stone. I can, and have done more 

 work of this kind per day, with one man thus 

 equipped, than could have been done in the old 

 fashioned way of spading and shovelling by fif- 

 teen if not twenty as good hands. I do all 'of 

 my straightening of my creeks, clearing out my 

 mill race, and removing the sand bars, shoals, and 

 obstructions in my creek with my horses and 

 scraper. It is a great labor saving machine. I 

 have never tried it upon the narrow or common 

 ditches of the farm, but will try it as you advise, 

 and inform you of its result and my opinion. 



Yours, truly, 



G. C. Gilmer. 



Ingi. swoop, near Cartersbridga 

 P. 0., Albemarle co. 



For the Southern Planter. 

 EXPERIMENTS WITH MANURES. 



In April 1853, I made a compost of one ton Pe- 

 ruvian Guano, half ton of Plaster, and two tons of 

 U-aehed ashes, i applied this mixture in the hill 

 fro corn on about twenty acre* of land, ten acres 



