THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



101 



machine, log-ether with the very many valuable 

 improvements, found monthly in the columns of 

 the Planter, will swell the long list of obliga- 

 tions under which your zeal, enterprise and ta- 

 lents have laid the farmers of Virginia and agri- 

 culture every where. 



It may not be amiss to state that as far as 

 my observation has extended, the wheat crop is 

 at this time more advanced and more promising 

 than I have ever seen it. The seeding was 

 larger, and without some disaster this county 

 will produce 10,000 bushels more than any for- 

 mer year. 



Three years ago, I commenced the use of 



ashes, leached and unleached, as a top dressing 

 for wheat. My time of applying them is Feb- 

 ruary and March. I aim to put about two hun- 

 dred bushels to the acre, and select the lightest 

 and most sandy parts of my fields. With the 

 result so for, I have cause to be entirely pleased, 

 and I would respectfully invite the attention of 

 farmers to this use of their ashes, than which, 

 in my judgment, no belter disposition can be 

 made. 



With great regard, 



Yours, 



Alex. Bryant. 

 JMantua, Prince George, Jipril 5, 1845, 



BERKSHIRE HOG. 



In our last number we furnished a cut of the 

 Siamese sow ; we now present our readers with 

 a very fine engraving of the old Berkshire hog, 

 by the cross on which the modern Berkshire 

 was produced. Although the unnatural excite- 

 ment and artificial interest that pervaded the 

 country a year or two since on the subject of 

 hogs, has passed away, the fondness for good 

 bacon still exists, and the history of the hog is 

 not without its interest either to the farmer or 

 the epicure. 



Low, in his " Illustrations," furnishes us with 

 representations of all the different varieties of 

 hogs in England, and amongst them he seems 

 to give the preference to the one at the head of 

 this article. With the far seeing wisdom of a 

 philosopher, he appears to have dreaded the very 



error into which the public now think the au- 

 thors of the modern Berkshire have fallen. For 

 our own part, we adhere to the opinion, that in 

 the mania for Berkshires a great many varieties 

 of hogs were produced ; thousands of which 

 were entirely worthless, some of which were 

 very superior. If the following quotation serves 

 no other end, it may at least warn breeders from 

 the common error of pushing a principle to an 

 extreme. Low says, 



" Those varieties of the swine of England, 

 which have received the name of breeds, have 

 been usually named from the counties, or places 

 where they have been reared in numbers — thus 

 we have the Hampshire, the Suffolk, the Berk- 

 shire, and other breeds, each supposed to be dis- 

 tinguished by a set of common characters. Of 



