268 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



sketch of our practice here, in an address which 

 I have been invited to make to the Philadelphia 

 Society for Promoting Agriculture, on the 17th 

 of October. It will, of course, be substantially 

 the same as what. I have now furnished ; but, 

 if the address shall be published, I will do my- 

 self the pleasure to send you a copy. 

 With the highest respect, I am, 



Dear sir, your most obedient, 



Wm. Darlington. 



John S. Skinner, Esq. ) 

 Washington City. J 



In selecting our paper as the organ for com- 

 municating to the public this valuable essay, 

 Mr. Skinner has done us a favor, for which we 

 thank him in the name of our readers. 



Mr. S. ought by this time to have learned 

 that when he promises an article to an agricul- 

 tural paper he excites expectations amongst its 

 readers, which can only be satisfied by its ap- 

 pearance. A little while ago he hinted at an 

 intended communication upon the varieties of 

 wheat exhibited by Gen. Harmon at the New 

 York show ; by sending it to us shortly, Mr. S. 

 will save us the trouble of answering many in- 

 quiries for it, at the same time that he will gra- 

 tify a large portion of our readers who are deeply 

 interested in the subject. 



P. S. — Since communicating the paper from 

 Dr. Darlington, I have ascertained, by conver- 

 sation with respectable farmers of Montgomery 

 county, in this State, that there they consider 

 liming so important, and economical, that they 

 deem the capital they can command, well em- 

 ployed in applying lime, at the rate of one hun- 

 dred bushels to the acre! — and, what is more, they 

 send eighteen miles for it, and pay twelve and a 

 half cents a bushel. Making a fair charge for 

 the expense of hauling and spreading, and they 

 estimate the lime when thus applied, in the 

 neighborhood to which I refer, at 25 cents a 

 bushel, or $25 to the acre! They can show 

 that the increase of the crops in the first round, 

 or rotation, gives them back their outlay, which 

 is making near twenty per cent, per annum, af- 

 ter allowing or deducting six per cent, for interest, 

 supposing the capital to be borrowed, and leaves 

 their land at least, one hundred per cent, better 

 than in its original state. What business will 

 pay a better interest? But alas! where can he 

 borrow the capital to buy his lime? and what is 

 the guarantee that when he does borrow, he will 

 so invest, and apply it skilfully % The best 

 guarantee, and let young farmers remember it 

 well, is their own character for industry, economy, 

 intelligence and punctuality. 



Your "business note," I think they call it- 



one that is to be taken up at " sixty days after 

 date, 77 is worse to him than nothing. If given 

 at corn planting time, it " comes round 71 before 

 the corn is " in silk," he gets a little stereotype 



notice, J. S. S., $117 cents, due 29-1 



June, 1824, BANK OF VIRGINIA. Such 

 accommodation is no better than a broken reed, 

 and the " moneyed man" finds a thousand ways 

 to " turn over his capital" better than lending it 

 on long time, at six per cent. How then are 

 our worn-out lands to be improved % That is a 

 question worth} 7, of anxious consideration, and 

 so is another — Can grain be made, profitably ^ 

 with slave labor? J. S. S. 



PREMATURE APPLES. 



Every apple that falls from the tree before the 

 crop is ripe, should be gathered up and given to 

 the hogs. Almost every such apple will be 

 found on examination, to contain a small worm 

 or maggot, which is said to be the curculio in its 

 pupa state. This worm will leave the apple 

 soon after it falls, and enter the earth, whence it 

 returns in the spring, in another form to recom- 

 mence its depredations upon your fruit. 



Farmers 7 Gazette. 



SHOES. 



The Journal cle Paris, says that an operative 

 in the Rue des Vielles Andridttes, has invented 

 a machine to make shoes, by means of which 

 any person possessing sufficient strength to turn 

 a wheel, can in the course of a day finish fifty 

 pair of excellent shoes of every size. 



WOOL. 



With some very interesting specimens of beau- 

 tiful wool, which we preserve for the inspection 

 of our friends, we received the following : 



Charles T. Botts, Esq. 



Dear Sir, — I send you some samples of sin- 

 gularly fine and beautiful wool, taken from two 

 flocks of the pure Electoral Saxon sheep, the pro- 

 perty of the late Henry D. Grove, of New York. 

 They were sent to me by Dr. Cook, one of the 

 executors. The sheep were to be publicly sold, 

 in Ohio and New York, in the course of the 

 present autumn'. The reputation of the Saxony 

 sheep is doubtless well known to you and many 

 of the readers of your valuable journal. They 

 are probably unequalled in the United States. 

 Mr. Grove being a native of Saxon} 7 , and brought 

 up as a practical shepherd, succeeded by his 

 skill, in acclimating this, perhaps less hardy, 

 variety of sheep, so as to make them as easily 

 kept in this country as in their native land. — 

 The samples I understand were put up just after 

 being washed, and consequently do not show to 



