THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



113 



that attention may be called to the varieties for 

 sale, and other particulars for ihe diffusion of 

 correct information. It is their intention to ex- 

 amine all available manures, and make them 

 known publicly, as well as the results of careful 

 experiments in agriculture, horticulture, and the 

 management of stock, and to issue not only in- 

 formation from time to time, but a series of trans- 

 actions, embodying the particulars of their ex- 

 periments, analyses, &c. All those wishing to 

 advance the cause of improvement are respect- 

 fully solicited to become members, and forward 

 suggestions for the advancement of agriculture. 

 Letters or communications to be addressed, post 

 paid, to the Secretary of the Executive Com- 

 mittee, Dr. D. P. Gardner, 412 Fourth street, 

 New York. 



By order of the Executive Committee. 



R. L. Pell, Chairman. 



BEES. 



Dr. Waterman gives, in the Cleaveland He- 

 rald, his mode of catching the bee-miller or moth. 

 He says, "1 took two white dishes, (I think 

 white attracts their attention in the night,) or 

 deep plates, and placed them on the top of the 

 hives, and filled them about full of sweetened 

 vinegar. The next morning I had about fifty 

 millers caught ; the second night I caught fifty 

 more; the third night being cold, I did not get 

 any ; the fourth night being very warm, I caught 

 about four hundred." 



CHINCHES. 



A gentleman very eminent in the science of 

 bugology, an editor too who ought to be supposed 

 to know every thing, informs us, that by simply 

 anointing the joints and crevices of his bed- 

 steads with lard in the spring of the year, his 

 household escape the ravages of those devouring 

 insects commonly denominated chinches. 



We believe it is a discovery of his own, and 

 we think it ought to place his name, which he 

 is too modest to give to the public, upon the 

 same pinnacle with that of the inventor of the 

 safety lamp and the protector from smallpox. 



For the Southern Planter, 

 COCKLE. 



Mr. C. T. Botts : 



Dear »S/r, — Enclosed you will find one dollar 

 for your valuable paper, the Planter, this year ; j 

 valuable not only for its agricultural intelligence, 

 but for the able and independent manner in 1 

 which you expose all humbugs, either in farming , 

 operations, stock, or labor-saving machines; and , 

 Vol. V.— 15 



permit me to say that the public have been mora 

 imposed upon by the latter than any other class 

 of arjicles. We see an implement or machine 

 advertised, and recommended as a 11 sine qua. 

 non" and relying too much on what we see in 

 advertisements, are induced to order, and at high 

 prices, what, to our chagrin and loss, we find 

 almost a worthless article, and soon serves to 

 help fill a room with old lumber. 



Would that some plan could be devised by 

 which the various implements, labor-saving ma- 

 chines, &c, could be tested, so that the worth- 

 less could be condemned, and the truly useful 

 recommended to the public. It would be the 

 means of bringing the useful into more general 

 use, as a great many persons who would pur- 

 chase them, and cannot afford to submit to the 

 loss, are now deterred from doing so by the fear 

 of imposition. 



If our law-makers could create a fund for the 

 purchase of seeds and manures, implements and 

 machines to be tested by a committee of intelli- 

 gent farmers, whose report should be made to 

 the succeeding Legislature, and made public, 

 more essential service would be rendered the 

 good old Commonwealth of Virginia than is 

 now done by two-thirds of the time occupied in 

 legislating. I would also have the State offer 

 premiums for the best implement or machine for 

 certain purposes, the invention or improvement 

 to be made by native or resident citizens. 



I submit these views to you, hoping, if you 

 can make any thing of them, that you will take 

 them in hand, build upon them, and induce such 

 action as will best promote the mechanical and 

 agricultural interest of our good old State. 



I am now in want of a machine, and for the 

 want of information, am at a total loss about it. 

 It is a machine for separating cockle and cheat 

 from wheat. I don't know that there is any 

 thing that will answer the purpose, and if there 

 is not, I've no doubt but a screen might be con- 

 structed which would succeed, and which would 

 free our crops entirely, or nearly so, of such 

 stuff the second or third year, if not the first 

 year, and give us much better seed wheat ; to 

 the inferior quality of which I attribute much 

 of the failure in that crop. 



My wheat is very much infested with cheat 

 and cockle, which repeated farmings, and sub- 

 stituting a board for the screen in the fan, and 

 blowing hard, (which has been recommended 

 by the millers,) together with soaking in strong 

 brine, (on which the cheat floats,) would not re- 

 move ; and for the want of a better sieve I took 

 out the screen of my fan, and by putting in a 

 small quantity, and sifting it slowly, was enabled 

 to sift out all the cheat and all ihe cockle, save 

 some of the largest grains, which would not 

 pass through. A good deal of the wheat passed 

 through, but what was left was large and of 

 superior quality for seed. This was a very slow 



