152 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



der the patronage of the State Legislature. It 

 certainly has equal claims to State patronage, 

 to a military school, or any other literary insti- 

 tution, which are more particularly designed to 

 prepare j ; oung gentlemen to enter upon the stu- 

 dy of the learned professions of medicine, law, 

 or divinity. Such an object as this is certainly 

 worthy the attention of the State Agricultural 

 Board. The Female Collegiate Institute which 

 it is now proposed to convert into a Collegiate 

 and Agricultural Institute, is a substantial brick 

 building one hundred and eighty feet long, 

 thirty-six wide, and has fifty-two rooms, cost 

 within ten years past between twenty eight and 

 thirty thousand dollars. It can now be pur- 

 chased for six thousand dollars with one hun- 

 dred and twenty acres of land attached to it. — 

 It is situated in one of the most healthy regions 

 of Virginia — of easy access, only twelve miles 

 from New Canton on the James River and Ka- 

 nawha Canal, and eighty miles from Richmond. 

 A daily line of stages passes the Institute to meet 

 the canal packets. It is in a fine, respectable 

 neighborhood of country gentlemen ; removed 

 from all haunts of vice and dissipation; and 

 where, if any where, the morals of the youth 

 can be guarded. If the Agricultural Board 

 will move in this matter and let the public know 

 they design to purchase these premises for an 

 Agricultural Institute, in less than three months 

 three collectors appointed for this purpose will 

 raise ten thousand dollars for the object. In old 

 Buckingham alone at. least from two to three 

 thousand dollars could be raised for it. Yea, 

 let the Board act at once, secure the premises, 

 and the farming interests of the country will 

 sustain them. 



J. F. ScHERMERHORN. 



STUMP LIFTER. 



What is the best kind of machine for taking 

 out stumps'? Many contrivances have been got 

 up for the purpose of clearing fields of stumps. 

 One of the most common in this section is the 

 wheel anil axis, mounted on high posts so as to 

 lift the stumps up. The Albany Cultivator has 

 a cut of one which it says cost $300 or $400, 

 and which has cost the inventor, first and last, 

 $10,000 to bring to perfection. This appears 

 to be an excellent machine, but although it, re- 

 quires but a single hoise to pull up a stump of 

 the largest rate, yet it costs too much for " these 

 diggms. 1 ' 



We have seen the following very simple plan 

 of stump clearing, adopted with good success. 



Take a strong, stiff, hard wood stick of tim- 

 ber, say fifteen or twenty feet long and six inches 

 in diameter. Cut around the stump and take 

 off some of the roots; then place the timber 

 upright against the stump, and chain them to- 

 gether strong. From the upper end, which is 



now in the air, let the chain pass to the axletree 

 of a pair of cart wheels, to the longue of which 

 a pair of strong oxen are attached. When all 

 is ready, start the oxen along, and the stump 

 8 keels over" as easy as you capsize a cabbage 

 in a garden. — Maine Farmer. 



WOOL. 



We have the satisfaction of knowing that our 

 efforts to draw the attention of the farming 

 community of our own immediate region to the 

 important subject of wool growing, is being re- 

 alized, and that they are awaking to a sense of 

 the vast resources that are presenting themselves 

 through sheep raising, and also of the increasing 

 value of t he mountain lands in this State adapted 

 to this purpose. 



A few facts connected with the history of 

 | other countries, when brought before the notice 

 of the farmers of Tennessee, and indeed of the 

 whole -of the South- Western States, if consi- 

 dered with care, will, we think, induce many of 

 them to revive their systems of sheep husbandry, 

 land extend them to their utmost limits. 

 I The growth of wool has never been under- 

 I taken by any country or by any people, without 

 j returning to that people all the blessings to be 

 'enjoyed on this earth, that peace and plenty 

 could bestow. The political situation of Spain 

 may for a time, and no doubt, will operate 

 j against, that prosperity which she has so long 

 j enjojed through her wool trade ; and it is pro- 

 j bible that her Hocks may comparatively degen- 

 erate, through the anarchy and confusion that 

 reigns through her once fair provinces. In this 

 respect she stands a warning to every true pa- 

 triot, though it is satisfactory to know that even 

 this confusion had not taken place until the ci- 

 vilized portion of the globe have availed them- 

 selves of the treasures once possessed by Spain 

 alone, but now happily spread to nearly every 

 corner of the earth. 



One reference that we will make to exemplify 

 the results of a judicious system of sheep hus- 

 bandry, is to that of Germany, standing as she 

 does before the world, as the greatest exporting 

 wool country known. It is to be borne in mind, 

 that previous to the year 1765, Saxony was not 

 a sheep raising country, and that it was entirely 

 owing to the enlightened policy of her then 

 ruler, who enforced his views, especially amongst 

 his own tenantry, making it a part of his agree- 

 ment with those to whom he rented, that they 

 should keep a certain number of sheep. And 

 let us now see her condition. It appears from 

 the parliamentary documents, that the wool im- 

 ported from Germany into England, in the year 

 1841, amounted to 20,958,775 pounds, being 

 more than a third of all the foreign wool, in- 

 cluding all the colonies, imported into that king- 

 dom in the course of that year. 



