THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



555 



circumstances of the greatest importance 

 in judging of his character and manners, 

 the whole affording very useful hints for 

 others to improve upon. 



There have been many philosophers, 

 mathematicians, mechanics, and others, at 

 various eras of history, who have in a re- 

 markable manner supported their charac- 

 ters, distinguished themselves in their pro- 

 fessions, and merited favor by the service 

 they have rendered mankind, and whose 

 lives if properly detailed, would serve as 

 instructive lessons to others. To render 

 them of general and extensive use, how- 

 ever, they should not only be written with 

 the greatest truth and exactness, without 

 the errors too often consequent upon par- 

 tialities of friendship or the influence of 

 prejudice, but those gentlemen who have 

 taken upon themselves the noble duty of 

 perpetuating their memories and worth 

 should search into the records of Ihe peri- 

 ods in which they existed, and collect andj 

 dispose other facts of interest which have| 

 transpired in connection with them. Upon | 

 such a plan as this it would be easy to seel 

 what advance any art or science had made 

 at a particular time, who were a man's 

 predecessors in the same art or profession, | 

 and what advantage he enjoyed from them. 

 As we come down, as materials increase, j 

 and knowledge and arts advance, a morei 

 extensive account of such cotemporaneous j 

 and useful events may be given, and a| 

 correspondingly increased interest and 

 benefit attached to the lives of praisewor-| 

 thy characters, so that in celebrating the ; 

 virtues of good men who have been orna-; 

 ments of human nature, and whose works | 

 have benefited their fellow men, the can-i 

 did chronicler will not only perform a| 

 highly useful and delightful duty, but con- 1 

 vey to his readers the most comprehensive j 

 and instructive lessons upon the subjects; 

 pertaining thereto. — Scieritific American. 



From the Washington Star. 



Early Ripening Wheat. 

 The N. Y. Tribune says that J. Johnson, 

 of Northern New York, the pioneer in the 

 science of underdraining" in this country, 

 offers a. premium of $1,000 to any one 

 who will tell him how to ripen his wheat 

 ten (lays earlier than it ripens nov/. None 

 but observing farmers comprehend the vast' 

 benefit to the country which the acquisi-| 



tion of good wheat ripening thus early 

 would be. It would do away with three 

 fourths of the damage now done by the 

 rust at the South, and by the midge at the 

 North, as well as perhaps half the damage 

 from the fly, joint worm, &c., which inva- 

 riably affect tender and backward wheat 

 first ; the more vigorous stalks being com- 

 paratively free from their ravages. 



Our plan for trying to get an earlier ripen- 

 ing wheat- that is, the plan we are pursuing 

 — is as follows : To select for se(^d the pro- 

 duce of the portions of the fields ripening 

 first, and in cleaning it to as far as possi- 

 ble rid it of every grain not entirely per- 

 fect and w^ell developed. To plow very 

 deep in breaking up, and to fertilize high- 

 ly ; and, further, to sow the seed so selec- 

 ted on exposures suited for early ripening. 

 We think that the result will be that in a 

 few years we shall have a wheat which 

 will outgrow almost all danger of the fly 

 and rust — a vigorous wheat with early ri- 

 pening tendencies as one of its particular 

 characteristics. 



We are satisfied that with the seed 

 plump and perfect, and the land properly 

 prepared, the best time for sowing wheat 

 in this region is between the 1st and 10th 

 of October, as near as may be. The use 

 of the drill will enable any farmer, even 

 though designing to put in thousands of 

 acres of wheat, to get it in between those 

 dates unless rains prevent, which, our ex- 

 perience teaches, does not often happen. 

 A machine drill requires the services of 

 two hands and three horses, and should 

 plant fifteen acres per diem, which, to be 

 ploughed in in the same time would re- 

 quire the service of ten hands and ten 

 horses. Additional hands are hardest to 

 be obtained, every w^here, just W'hen most 

 needed by the farmer who does not resort 

 to the drill and the machine reaper — at 

 the seasons of planting and harvesting. 

 These machines are, in fact, farm hands 

 of the most valuable kind, requiring noth- 

 ing for their support while their services 

 are not needed, and being always ready 

 to do efficient and invaluable labor when 

 required to go to work. As the use of 

 the drill enables the farmer to select his 

 own time for getting in his crop, by mak- 

 ing him entirely independent of the addi- 

 tional, and, usually, unobtainable, labor 

 Cto his regular force) he otherwise invari- 

 ably stands in need of in planting time, 



