56 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



is living improved stock comes from improved 

 farms,) after he has read and practised improved 

 farming", tried a few new grapes, and has put a 

 few acres in clover to feed his pigs, calves and 

 lambs on, then he may safely order a fine blooded 

 bull, boar and buck to range among his cows, 

 sows and sheep, at the proper season. And on 

 the subject of the right time in the year, for al- 

 lowing the free intercourse of bucks and ewes 

 much of the success of sheep rearing depends. 

 The bucks should be kept up until such time as 

 will effectually prevent the too early production 

 of lambs in the spring. In any effort to rear a 

 fine animal, care must be taken from the very 

 first that it does not become stunted. More de- 

 pends on the first year's growth, in any animal 

 than ever after. If the animal is neglected the 

 first year of its growth, give it up, and try 

 another. 



In adopting the native stock to rear from, we 

 have all the produce of native and sound consti- 

 tution and not liable to the vicissitudes of cli- 

 mate. Most, if not all, the discredit of the Berk- 

 shire humbug, as some call it, would have been 

 avoided by observing the above method — of first 

 learning what sort of food is most suitable to 

 the animal and having it provided ready, when 

 he first needed it. Sir, agriculture and improve- 

 ment of stock must go hand in hand. 



The food of improved stock has been of a 

 very superior grade to that growing on our 

 worn-out hills and old fields. The imported 

 sheep have been nursed with great care by per- 

 sons who are shepherds in fact, and if we are to 

 raise sheep, we too must turn shepherds. It 

 will never do to say to every negro, do so and 

 so through the spring ; and so and so through 

 the summer, and so on for the year with my 

 sheep; but every man must daily inspect his 

 sheepfold ; (for such he must have, secure from 

 without and within,) he must look to his flock 

 carefully ; if one is sick it must be separated 

 from the flock and taken the strictest care of. — 

 It must be separated from the flock, because 

 most diseases of sheep are contagious or at least 

 contaminating, and liable to infect the whole 

 flock more or less — as the old adage has it — 

 ,c one smutty nozed sheep will spoil the whole 

 flock." There is more truth than fiction in the 

 old saying. It must be nursed, because the 

 constitution of sheep soon sinks under disease; 

 and if once a flock of sheep become weakly 

 and sickly, it runs out. There is no restoring a 

 puny flock of sheep. The food for a better flock 

 of sheep than we now have must be commen- 

 surate with the grade. The finer the breed of 

 sheep the more delicate the nature of the animal 

 and the greater care must be taken of it. Sheep 

 must be sustained at all seasons of the year. — 

 It is the nature of sheep to graze, and in North 

 Carolina they can do so most of the year. In 

 the winter a few oats are the best support weak 



sheep can have. On the subject of diet and 

 diseases, every sheep raiser should be provided 

 with a full treatise. It costs but little, and is of 

 the first importance — buy one. 



Mr. Lemay, I will give you something on the 

 protection of sheep, soon. 



Yours, &c. M. R. 



Wake County, Nov. 12, 1845. 



THE NORTHERN NECK. 

 We have received a communication complain- 

 ing of the supineness of the farmers in the 

 Northern Neck of Virginia, and begging us to 

 awaken them to a sense of their true interests. 

 Our correspondent is much better fitted to the 

 task than we are, and we invite him to occupy 

 the columns of the Planter with such subjects 

 as would be most interesting to his friends and 

 neighbors. 



For the Southern Planter. 

 BACON. 



JVlr. Editor, — Amongst the many excellent 

 things that I have found in the Planter, I have 

 been a little disappointed at seeing nothing about 

 an art for which the farmers of Virginia are so 

 famous, I mean the curing of bacon. Will you 

 be so good as to give us particular directions for 

 the best method of curing and preserving hams, 

 and thereby oblige 



A Lover of Good Bacon. 



Long Meadow % North Carolina. 



Dr. Robert Nelson, of Hanover, will please 

 teach this gentleman bow to make bacon. 



CULTURE OF CORN IN DRILLS. 

 PLANTING MACHINES. 



Mr. Bateham, — A neighbor and friend of mine 

 called upon me to act as his amanuensis; and 

 he has dictated to me the following communica- 

 tion for your paper, which I have the pleasure 

 to transmit to you at his request. 

 Truly your friend, 



D. Lapham. 

 Mount Tabor, February, 1845. 



Mr. Editor, — I am an old hard-fisted farmer, 

 and I can also blow the bellows and run the 

 jointer; but T have had little practice in using 

 the H grey goose quill." I want to say a few 

 words, however, in the columns of the Cultivator, 

 on the subject of raising corn. 



It is the common practice in this section of 

 the State, to furrow the ground both ways, 

 about four feet apart, and to drop the corn by 

 hand at the intersection of the furrows. In this 



