THE SOUTHERN PLANTER; 



29ebotrti to ^flttculture, ffiort(culturc, an& the ©ousdiotti ^rts- 



Agriculture is the nursing mother of the Arts. 



Xenophon. 



Tillage and Pasturage 

 State. — Sully. 



are the two breasts of the 



C. T. BOTTS, Editor. 



Vol. IV. RICHMOND, DECEMBER, 1844, 



No. 12. 



For the Southern Planter. | well as a man can take time to look at the qua- 



ON LIME-AS USED IN PENNSYLVANIA. \ ° f > nd > when gying over it at three-quarter 



I speed in pursuit of an old red, that the super- 

 He would render good service to the cause of j stratum of the hill sides about Ravensworth, 

 agricultural improvement, (especially in districts J appeared to be clay, and red enough and poor 

 of old country where the primitive fertility of ! enough too. 



the soil has been exhausted by continued milking j Suppose an outlay of fifteen or even twenty 

 without feeding until the cow is stripped to skin \ dollars, on a first cost of five dollars, to result in a 

 and bone,) who would show the maximum price j yield of forty-five bushels of corn, equal to twen 



at which the farmer can economically afford to 

 use lime as a manure. 



It is understood, for example, that lime may 

 be bought in Georgetown, 13. C, by the quan- 

 tity at twelve and a half, perhaps ten cents a 

 bushel — the question then is, how far the farmer 

 can haul it into the country and spread it, before 

 it begins, like the Indian's gun, to cost more 

 than it comes to? — and that depends, to be sure, 

 on the nature of the road and the kind of team 

 and vehicles employed and at what expense 

 they are maintained. Whether his driver be 

 bond or free ? and this last branch of the ques- 

 tion branches out again into the question of dif- 

 ference of expense between slave labor and free 

 labor, for it by no means follows that because 

 the man belongs to you, that therefore, his labor 

 comes cheaper than if you hired either a slave 

 or free laborer, at eight or ten dollars a month — 

 because, for every slave laborer of your own, 



you may 



be encumbered with a woman whose 



ty-two dollars and fifty cents, and twenty bushels 

 of wheat, equal, at the Georgetown mills, one 

 year with another, to twenty dollars, would it 

 not be a good investment ? provided the pur- 

 chaser buys no more at a time than he can soon 

 improve! Remember that, unlike it is in Ma* 

 ryland, the proprietor has from Virginia access 

 by a good road over free bridges to market 

 within from five to fifteen miles. 



My pen would easily glide into a comparison 

 of the advantages of location here, in a healthy 

 and civilized country, one of the glorious old 

 thirteen ; as compared with the base of the 

 rocky mountains — I mean the eastern base — 

 while yet there are some content to stop this 

 side of Oregon ; but I have not time. In fact, 

 Mr. Editor, I only meant to send you the in- 

 closed paper, on the use of Lime in Pennsylvania^ 

 and to tell how it came into my hands. 



Doctor Darlington honored me with his 

 audience of an agricultural harangue, recently at 



labor is not equal to her expenses, and with se- , Wilmington, and there, incidentally, mentioned 

 vera! children — consumers of much, and producers 

 of nothing — moreover the interest on the value 

 of the slave is to be considered — what would it 

 cost to insure his life and to insure him against 

 running away 1 while the capital is at best, con- 



tantly wearing and tearing onwards towards total to send me a copy, and not knowing any coun- 



that at the instance of Judge Wilkins, he had 

 written out some observations on the subject for 

 the use of the President — and well kno wing- 

 that no light reflected from his lamp should be 

 hid under a bushel, I prevailed with the Doctor 



loss. To give these speculations a practical 

 bearing, let us take the case of lands, which 

 may be bought in almost any quantity between 

 this (Washington) and Fairfax Court House, 

 for, from four to six dollars an acre, well watered 



try where information on such subjects ought to 

 be more valued than in the Old Dominion ; and 

 forever grateful, moreover, for the kindness with 

 which my good friends in that State have al- 

 ways received, and even over estimated my poor 



nd eminently healthy ; as much so as any part endeavors to speed the plough, I send it for in 



of New, or of Old England. Can that land be 

 economically improved with lime from the Po- 

 tomac, costing there, say ten cents a bushel? 

 One hundred bushels is considered a liberal 

 dressing and then it is believed this five dollar 

 land would produce from forty to fifty bushels 

 of corn and twenty bushels of wheat per acre, 

 for, without knowing, I believe, the substratum 

 of the land in that region is clay; 1 know, as 

 Vol. IV.-34 



sertion in the Southern Planter. 



that's all. 

 J. S. 



s. 



Westchester, Pa., Sept. 30, 1844. 

 J. S. Skinner, Esq,. 



Dear Sir, — In compliance with your request, 

 I proceed to furnish you with the chief portion 

 of my letter to Mr. Wilkins, on the use of Lime. 



