444 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[July 



A VALUABLE TABLE. 



[Corrected from May number, page 28i,'] 



A box 24 inches by 16 inches square, 28 inch- 

 es deep, will contain a barrel — five bushels. 



A box 24 inches by 16 inches square, 14 inch- 

 es deep, will contain half a barreL 



A box 24 inches by 16 inches square, 5.6 inch- 

 es deep, will contain a bushel. 



A box 12 inches by 11.2 inches square, 8 

 inches deep, will contain half a busliel. 



A box 12 inches by 11.2 inches square, 4 

 inches deep, will contain a peck. 



A box 8 inches by 8 inches square, 4.2 inches 

 deep, will contain a gallon. 



A box 4 inches by 8 inches square, 3.9 inches 

 deep, will contain, within a small fraction, half 

 a gallon. 



A box 4 inches by 4 inches square, 4.2 inches 

 deep, will contain one quart. 



Dr. John N. Powell's Farm. 



In the latter part of May, shortly after our 

 Jime number had gone to press, which accounts 

 for the late appearance of this notice, we spent 

 an afternoon, with a few friends M'ho accompa- 

 nied us, at the hospitable mansion of Dr. John 

 N. Powell, six or eight miles from this city. We 

 there saw, in the order and arrangement of his 

 farm, very much to excite in us the most favora- 

 ble impression of his judicious and skillful 

 management. The doctor has a compact and 

 picturesque farm of more than seven hundred 

 acres, bordering the Chickahominy, including 

 rather over one-fourth part of rich bottom lajid 

 of that famous river, and with the exception of 

 a field in front of his dwelling, which is level 

 enough to have required, in his judgment, the 

 ditches which traverse it, the balance, highland, 

 consisting of graceful undulations and gradual 

 and lengthened slopes, affording ample natural 

 channels for its drainage, with very few, if any, 

 exceptional cases of exposure to the too precipi- 

 tous discharge of surface water, and consequent 

 detrition of the soil. We saw neither gall nor 

 guUey to mar the beauty of the landscape; and 

 if the doctor found such on his entering into 

 possession of the premises, we can well imagine 

 that he lost no time in burying the loathsome 

 spectacle out of sight. 



The soil of the upland is of a stiff, tenacious 

 clay, but not without a sufficiency of sand, suita- 

 bly to adapt it to wheat. It was, as we suppose, 

 naturally infertile, and hard to cultivate, but if 

 such was the case, its present improved con- 

 dition on'y affords the higher testimonial of the 

 skillful administration of the proprietor, who 



has successfully conquered all these natural 

 disadvantages, and removed them out of the 

 way. The chief element of this improvement 

 is the farm-pen, where no means are neglected 

 for producing and preserving the largest amount 

 of putrescent manures, which the careful hus- 

 bandry of all the resources of the farm will 

 allow. 



The stables, cow-sheds, straw-racks, corn- 

 house, barn, &c., and the construction and inclo- 

 sure of the stock-yard, are all models of their 

 kind, and we recommend them to the imitation 

 of his neighbors- The crop of wheat, of which 

 he sowed about two hundred bushels, and put it 

 in with Bickford and Huffman's drill, a part 

 with entire success upon pea-fallow, was magnifi- 

 cent; it was just then fully headed, and promised 

 an average yield of from 20 to 25 bushels per 

 acre. The best portion of this wheat (for fine 

 as it all was, it admitted of degrees of compari- 

 son) was a new white variety, bearing the name 

 of Bowers," which we thought could not fall 

 much short of 30 bushels to the acre. 



After' viewing the outbuildings, crops, &c.? 

 without having seen the doctor's fine stock and 

 splendid clover fields, which were too distant 

 for present inspection, but the quality of which 

 we could not undervalue, for — reasoning a poste- 

 riori — from effect to cause — the abundant speci. 

 mens of the finest butter and richest milk and 

 cream which fell under our observation, could 

 be ascribed to nothing short of the existence of 

 fine cattle and rich and abundant clover pastures. 



Returning from this general review, which we 

 were reluctantly compelled to do, by the wane 

 of day, we passed through his flourishing and 

 exuberant strawberry beds, which had yielded 

 their fifty and sixty quarts per day, (of the finest 

 descriptions, for we know not how long,) and 

 there were gathered and ready for market next 

 morning about the same number of like mea- 

 sure. 



During the balance of the time allotted to our 

 very pleasant and instructive visit, we regaled 

 ourselves at the social board, loaded with the 

 choicest of creature comforts, where we had 

 reason to know that the skill and housewifery 

 of our obliging hostess w^ould suffer no dispar- 

 agement by comparison with the good manage- 

 ment displayed by our gentlemanly and courte- 

 ous host, in the successful administration of his 

 department. 



We crave pardon for the freedom with which 

 we have written. The fact. is, we saw so much 

 to approve and commend that w^e could not 



