THE SOUTHERN" PLANTER. 



399 



for a portion of the Wilton estate, refers to 

 " the indigo vats." A stone trough, for evap- 

 orating the dye, was at the spring on the Wil- 

 ton estate, not many years ago. Rice was cul- 

 tivated at Curl's before and during the war of 

 1776. Licorice was cultivated at Shirley, sixty 

 years ago. Cotton was cultivated before and 

 after that period, but the process of ginning 

 by two wooden rollers, turned by hand, was so 

 tedious that it was abandoned for flax and 

 hemp. 



Sainfoin, burnet and lucerne were cultivated 

 by many farmers ; but all failed, as field crops. 

 Sainfoin was light and of little value : so was 

 burnet : lucerne was highly valued, but broom- 

 straw, wire grass and partridge pea soon choked 

 it out, when sown broadcast in drills, in bor- 

 ders, in gardens, it was generally cultivated 

 and highly valued. The partridge pea is indi- 

 genous, and bears seed below, as well^as above 

 ground : in rich land it yields an abundant and 

 valuable crop, greedily eaten by all stock. In 

 the year 1814, Col. Thos. M. Randolph of Edge 

 Hill, sold from his Varina estate, many tons of 

 it at a high price. I have never heard that the 

 lupine was cultivated in Virginia. Massie may 

 have tried at Colle's, near Monticello, in Albe- 

 marle ; he surely did not succeed. Mr. Jeffer- 

 son tried many foreign plants; none of them 

 save clover and lucerne, succeeded. Ribwort, 

 or narrow-leafed plantain, was imported by 

 Carter Braxton, and sown on his estate in King 

 William ; it proved a pest, and is so consid- 

 ered by all farmers. Clover was cultivated in 

 "lots," more than sixty years ago. In the 

 year 1795, two barrels of plaster of Paris were 

 sent from Philadelphia to D. M. Randolph, of 

 Prey Isle, but were lost on the way. Marie 

 was used in Virginia a hundred years ago and 

 approved ; an old farmer in New Kent told me 

 that he had tried and approved, but " the hill 

 was too steep for the steers to pull it up, and 

 he abandoned the use of it." Col. Archy Cavy 

 of Ampthill, in Chesterfield, imported horses, 

 cattle, sheep and hogs, of the most approved 

 breeds, and had them in great perfection when 

 the British went to Ampthill, burnt his mill, 

 filled with flour, and destroyed his stock. John 

 Page of Rosewell, Gloucester, had imported 

 stock of all kinds, as the inventory of his es- 

 tate, recorded in the oflice of the old general 

 court, will show. It. R. 



2d June, 1857. 



How to extract the essential oil from any flow- 

 er. — Take any flowers you like, which stratify 

 with common sea-salt in a clean earthen glazed 

 pot. When thus filled to the top, cover it well, 

 and carry it to the cellar. Forty days after- 

 wards put a crape over a pan, and empty the 

 whole to strain the essence from the flowers by 

 pressure. Bottle that essence and expose it \ 

 or 5 weeks in the sun and dew of the evening 

 to purify. One single drop of that essence is 

 enough to scent a whole quart of water. 



For the Southern Planter. 



Black Teeth in Hogs. 



A few days since, while reading a newspaper 

 at a hotel in Washington City, I heard the 

 words " black teeth i« hogs" used by one of 

 two gentlemen conversing together, near where 

 I sat. I stopped reading, and heard the other 

 reply that he had practiced knocking out the 

 black teeth in hogs for 30 or 40 years. There 

 was something so strangely new in the idea that 

 I asked the strange gentlemen to explain to 

 me what they meant by black teeth in hogs, 

 and what evil they did — how knocked out and 

 where located ? I was told by them that in al- 

 most every instance where a want of thrift was 

 manifest in a grass-fed hog, that it would be 

 found to be caused by a black tooth in the jaw 

 of the hog, which seemed to protrude farther 

 out than the rest, become loose and very sore, 

 so as to prevent their shewing what caused the 

 decline, and by taking a punch and punching 

 it out they would get relieved at once. If the 

 above be true, which I "derived as above from 

 plain, hard-sensed farmers in appearance, they 

 are worthy of note. G. W 



May 29, 1857. 



From the Scientific American. 

 One Hundred Tons of Grass to the Acre. 



Messrs. Editors. — The statement you pub- 

 lished, taken from an English paper, respecting 

 the raising of one hundred tons of grass on a 

 single acre of land pertaining to Lord Derby's 

 estate, is undoubtedly correct, or very nearly 

 so. I had the pleasure of visiting his Lord- 

 ship's estate last summer, while on a tour of 

 agricultural observation in England, and I am 

 prepared to believe the statement. My visit 

 was made about the first of June, and they had 

 already secured two heavy crops of grass, and 

 it is not improbable that four or five more were 

 cut during the long and favorable season of last 

 year. Four or five crops of the heavy, stout, 

 Italian rye grass is not unusual ; and Mr. Me- 

 chi, of the celebrated Triptree Farm, informed 

 me that he had once grown seven during the 

 summer. This grass grows with great rapidity 

 in England when stimulated by the rich liquid 

 nutriment so liberally and continuously applied. 



Our farmers have yet much to learn respect- 

 ing the scientific cultivation of the soil. They 

 have yet to learn how bountiful mother earth 

 may be when properly dressed and cared for 

 by the husbandman.. It should be observed 

 that the climate of England is much more fa- 

 vorable for the growth of the grasses than our 

 own, owing to its excessive humidity ; but still, 

 I do not know why several successive crops may 

 not be produced here by the use of liquid man- 

 uring, and by careful systematic culture. 



Jas. R. Niciiols. 



Haverhill, Mass., May 1857. 



