434 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTEE. 



[July 



From the United States^ Economist. 



Steam Ships between Hew Orleans and 

 Liverpool. 



The South is earnestly bestiring itself to 

 establish a regular line of communication 

 with Europe. The prospectus is out of a 

 new line of steamers, six in number, to run 

 regularly between New Orleans and Liver- 

 pool, touching at an Irish port, and proba- 

 bly also calling at Havana. The Company 

 is entitled the "British and American 

 Southern Steamship Company,^'' and is to 

 commence operations with a capital of 

 $1,000,000, in twenty thousand shares, 

 which are to be taken up equally in Eng- 

 land and America. The vessels are to be 

 first class propellers, constructed capable of 

 making the passage within twenty-five days. 



. It is gratifying to witness the quickening 

 of Southern commercial enterprise, of which 

 this undertaking and the formation of the 

 Belgian Direct Trading Company are sub- 

 stantial evidences 3 and^ in the present case, 

 the prospects of success are as encouraging 

 as the spirit of enterprise is commendable. 

 If the Southern States have had a danger, 

 it has been in their confining themselves tco 

 exclusively to the developing of the re- 

 sources of their soil, whilst purely commer- 

 cial enterprises have been neglected. 



This movement will tend undoubtedly to 

 the diversion of a portion of the Southern 

 trade of this city, and those who feel the 

 consequences, will, of course, be no friends 

 to the new enterprise. Such regrets, how- 

 ever, are quite unavailing. If the mer- 

 chants of New Orleans find it to their in- 

 tere>?t to transact their business directly with 

 Europe they will unquestionably do so, and 

 it. is an unwise and selfish policy that would 

 wish to see business take any other course. 

 The true interest of the country lays in 

 each section managing its own, affairs in a 

 manner most conducive to its own prosper- 

 ity. If New Orleans thinks she can ad- 

 vance her interests better by trading on her 

 own account, why who would not say let her 

 dissolve the partnership now existing be- 

 tween her and New York. We shall be ex- 

 ceedingly sorry to lose a customer so wealthy 

 and prompt ; but if it should prove that we 

 must do so, we shall not turn cross and 

 slight her praiseworthy efforts at indepen- 

 dence, but wish her good-bye and good luck, 

 and turn :0ur attention to the cultivation of 

 .some new source of demand. New York is 



just now in such a position that she can 

 afford to be liberal. Her trade is annually 

 increasing to an immense extent, and she 

 might lose even a very large sHce of her 

 present commerce and feel it but very little. 

 She is becoming very powerful too as a com- 

 mercial rival ; and it may be well for our 

 Southern enterprisers to remember that she 

 will considerably annoy them by her uncon- 

 querable competition. 



For the Southern Planter. 



Best Shape for a Manl— How to Feed 

 and Train Work Oxen— Recommenda- 

 tion of a New Ground Coalter— Reply 

 to E". C. Crenshaw, Esq[. 



Lexington, Ya., June 4th, 1860. . 



Editor of the Southern Planter : 



Thinking the following facts, accumulated 

 in between thirty and forty years experience 

 as a farmer, may be of service to the public, 

 I give them to youlo dispose of as you may 

 think proper. 



.1st. With a maul, shaped as a mallet, a 

 man can maul one fourth more rails than 

 with the straight maul in ordinary use. 



2nd. Work oxen should be fed exclu- 

 sively on the offal of the farm, such as corn 

 stalks, shucks and wheat straw. If suffered 

 to taste better food, they will not eat enough 

 of the coarse food to keep them in working 

 order. G-reat pains should be taken in 

 breaking them — to walk briskly and to trot 

 with the empty cart, in going for a return 

 load, by which much time is saved, and a 

 much greater amount* of work performed 

 by the team. They should also be carefully 

 trained to obey the word of command. I 

 have seen a team of oxen so trained that 

 the driver could pass them through a gate 

 as far as they could hear his voice, without 

 touching a post ; and he could, by word of 

 command, make them move in a complete 

 circle. This team would trot with an emp- 

 ty cart, nearly as fast as horses, and would 

 thus perform more work in a day than two 

 teams broke in the usual way. Oxen broke 

 and fed in the way recommended, are of 

 more value on a farm, than either horses or 

 mules, as they cost nothing to keep them, 

 which more than compensates for the dif- 

 ference in the amount of work performed 

 by well broke oxen and horses, or mules. 



3rd. I would direct public notice also to 

 an instrument used in Eastern Virginia, 



