THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



567 



the fibre may be cured as yellow as the leafy 

 part of the plant. If too much Tobacco is put 

 in the house at one time, it is almost impossible 

 to keep it from getting in a sweat. 



With the hope that the above may prove 

 profitable to your numerous readers, and par- 

 ticularly to my esteemed friend "A Planter of 

 Wake/' I now close. B. 



Experiments in Pulling Podder and Cut- 

 ting Tops. 



We have received from the Secretary of the 

 "Hole and Corner Club of Dinwiddle and 

 Brunswick," the following "Report'' — with the 

 expressed wish of the Club that we should in- 

 sert it in our pages. We gladly do this and 

 return our thanks to the Club for the paper. 

 We hope they will continue to send us a report 

 of every experiment which is conducted, as 

 this has evidently been, with care and accurate 

 observation, by any of their members, and 

 which they may deem interesting or " profita- 

 ble for instruction." 



An agricultural paper ofiers to farmers a 

 channel for communicating to their whole fra- 

 ternity their ideas on Husbandry, both theories 

 and facts. In it, it is meet that they should 

 freely discuss every subject which is likely to. 

 prove either beneficial or injurious to the inter- 

 ests of so important a class. A paper thus 

 used, must be the means of doing a great deal 

 of good ; and we off'er ours for such purpo- 

 ses to all persons who are interested in the 

 cause of agriculture. In our columns we shall 

 cheerfully afi'ord them room to " take counsel 

 together," assured that a benefit must accrue 

 in which we may be participants : 

 Exj^eriments reported to the Hole and Corner 

 Club of Brunswick to ascertain the proprietjj 

 of pidling Fodder and Cutting Tops. 



Mr. President : — In compliance with a reso- 

 lution of this Club, passed at its last meeting, 

 in reference to the result of an experiment I 

 made with corn, I report 



That I selected three rows, contiguous to 

 each other, and running parallel across a piece 

 of ground of uniform fertility ; the corn in each 

 row appearing entirely similar in quality. 



No. 1. I stripped ofi" the fodder about the 

 20th of September and cut the tops about the 

 1st of October, as I did my whole crop, which 

 is the usual custom in this region. 



No. 2. I chopped down even with thesurHice 

 of the ground, on the same day that I pulled 

 the fodder of No. 1, and put it in small shocks 



of 30 to forty stalks to the shock, neither pul- 

 ling the fodder nor cutting the tops. 



No. 3. I did not disturb till gathering corn- 

 time ; neither pulling fodder nor cutting the 

 tops. About the middle of November I gath- 

 ered the corn, hauled, shucked and weighed 

 thcf contents ■ of each row separately — being 

 particularly careful that not an ear was mis- 

 placed — with the following result, viz : 

 No. 1, weighed - - - 274 lbs. 

 No. 2, " . - . . 266 " 

 No. 3,^ " - - - - 316 " 

 Thus showing a difference in favor of No. 3, 

 over No. 1, of 42 lbs.; and over No. 2, of 50 lbs., 

 there being between No. 1 and 2 a diff'erence 

 of 8 lbs. only. From the above it would ap- 

 pear that the gain in the corn, by not pulling 

 the fodder nor cutting the tops at all, over the 

 usual plan of saving both, is a little over 15 

 per cent,, and over the plan of chopping down 

 stalk and all at pulling fodder time, of about 

 19 per cent. Now, when we consider the entire 

 fodder crop, when well saved, as constituting 

 about 25 per cent, of the value of the corn 

 from which it is taken, apart from the cost of 

 gathering and securing it, and the loss sustained 

 in our tobacco from worms and succors while 

 attending to the fodder, we may have a tolera- 

 bly clear idea of the impropriety of pulling 

 fodder at all ; and especially when our tobacco 

 is to sufi'er by it. 



Respectfully submitted, 



W. F. Doyle. 

 Dinwiddie Co., Va., Aug. 5th., 1858. 



Explanatory. 



Accidents will happen in the best regulated 

 families, and everybody knows of the existence 

 of a " Devil," in every printing office. He it 

 is who bears the blame of all sins of omission 

 and commission in the establishment. We but 

 "give the Devil his due" in informing our rea- 

 ders of the fact, that some of our cotemporaries 

 were deprived of the credit due them for several 

 articles copied by us in the August No,,' by 

 his machinations. We would credit them now* 

 but unfortunately, the copy has been lost, and 

 we cannot say from what paper the article for 

 Dairymen — the " Milk of Spayed Cows" — was 

 taken. 



The letter of Mr. Lewis Bailey, on " Green 

 Rye for Soiling Cattle," was addressed to the 

 Editor of the Country Gentleman, published at 

 Albany, N. Y., by Messrs. L. Tucker & Son. 

 In this connection, we cannot help saying of the 

 Country Gentleman, it is in our opinion, a very 

 interesting and valuable journal for the fiirmer. 



In reference to the mistakes referred to 

 (occurring in the August No. of the Planter}^ 



V 



