68 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



in feeding sheep on mountains. Sheep are very 

 healthy, and liable to but few diseases here. I 

 have not noticed a sheep with rot for several 

 years ; and as to foot-rot I never heard of a case 

 in he State. The greatest pest to our sheep is 

 the worm in the nostril, which is often mistaken 

 for the rot ; and although irrelevant, I will take 

 occasion to say, those worms may be dislodged 

 and cast out, by laying the sheep on his back 

 and pouring a spoonful of oil or melted lard in 

 each nostril. 



A flock of sheep can feed plentifully on our 

 mountains till near Christmas, and through the 

 winter they can be supported mostly by the 

 growing rye ; the snows being light and seldom 

 lying more than two or three days. 



Suppose a flock of six hundred sheep. 



Sheep account. Dr. 

 To wages, one man twelve months, $100 00 

 To wages, one boy, twelve months, 25 00 

 To finding man and boy, 75 00 



To feeding 600 sheep the winter, 300 00 



$500 00 

 Cr. 



By 150 old and young sheep sold, $225 00 

 By 2,000 lbs. wool sold, at 35 cents, 700 00 



$925 00 



Annual profit on $500 cost, $425 00 



A man and boy can attend 1,000 sheep, which 



is perhaps as many as should be together, even 



in a healthy region. 



This estimate does not give a just profit, but 



jet it for the present suffice. 



Za. Drummond. 

 Amherst Co., Sept. 10, 1845. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS. 

 We have many esteemed favors on hand — 

 pur friends whose communications are kept back 

 will please to consider that the delay proceeds 

 Father from a desire to insert such matter as the 

 season demands, than a failure to appreciate 

 their communications. We have been so un- 

 jgallantj even, as to put off a lady for a while. 

 Under such circumstances no gentleman will 

 complain. 



For the Southern Planter. 



MR. PEGRAM'S MODE OF CULTIVATING 

 INDIAN CQRN. 



Mr. Editor, — When your January number 

 reached me I was quite unwell, but have not 

 been unmindful of the call of " E. B." and there- 

 fore, regret that my bad health has prevented 

 my sooner responding to it. It \$ true 2 I have 



made large crops of corn for the quantity of 

 land cultivated, for several years back, with the 

 exception of the last, when the excessive drought 

 cut me off nearly one-half. I never had so fine 

 a growth of stalk before, but alas ! this is a 

 world of disappointment. 



My land is marled ; in preparing it for corn, 

 especially, I flush it very deep, then harrow it 

 over, after which I lay it off five feet, and bed 

 it — I then harrow, or rather drag the beds until 

 they are in good order; then open them deeply 

 with a trowel hoe, and the planters follow on, 

 and drop two grains a common step, about eigh- 

 teen inches, apart. I seldom commence planting 

 sooner than the 10th of April. As soon as the 

 corn is three or four inches high, I throw the 

 dirt from it with a turn plough, and in the fur- 

 row made by this plough I run a trowel hoe 

 (about nine inches wide) up to the beam ; I then 

 thin to one stalk, and weed it. My manure, 

 which is in small heaps over the field, is scat- 

 tered along on the top of the ridge just before 

 we plough and weed, and the most of it is co- 

 vered up in this working. As soon as I "get 

 over" in that way, I throw the dirt back to the 

 corn with the turn plough, just lapping it on the 

 corn ; then plough the furrow out. I then take 

 a twenty-five tooth drag, fixing the clevy, &c, 

 near the corner, and run once in a row, which 

 puts the ground in level and nice order. This 

 last ploughing, or dragging, is followed with the 

 weeding hoes, cutting every particle of grass 

 away. The "laying by" is begun about the 

 10th of June, and completed about the 25th, 

 the corn generally being waist high. My ex- 

 perience in the management of the corn crop, 

 satisfies me that early " laying by" is much the 

 best. I seldom start a plough sooner than the 

 middle of February. Our lands in this neigh- 

 borhood are for the most part light, and I am 

 certain are injured from fall fallowing. The 

 later, in reason you flush them, for any crop, I 

 think, the better. You can certainly make a 

 crop of corn with one ploughing less, by this 

 course. 



"A Young Farmer," from the neighborhood 

 of Hawkinsville, in this county, has alluded to 

 me more than once in an article in the last 

 Planter. I would say, most respectfully, to him 

 and E. B. that T feel flattered by their good opi- 

 nion — I wish I deserved such compliments. — 

 My " compost heaps" of manure are the main 

 cause of my success in growing the various crops 

 that are cultivated in this section of Virginia. 

 The great advantage of marling is, that it tends 

 to fix manure in the soil. Marl by itself will 

 not make poor land rich, but a proper application 

 of it will enable its owner to enrich it in a third 

 of the time, and more permanently ; for lime in 

 some form is indispensable to the durable im- 

 provement of every soil. I can say, with truth 

 for myself and several of my neighbors, that we 



