198 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



wide enough for the teams to turn around in ; 

 always keep the work clean up as you progress, 

 leaving the points where you go out for the last, 

 as the rise will aid the teams very much in 

 going out, and at these points I have to finish 

 with shovels. If the cleaning out is not wanted 

 for raising or strengthening the hanks, it makes 

 first-rate manure mixed with lime, ashes or 

 stable manure. I hare so u ed it to a great 

 advantage. Here the scrapers will equal fifteen 

 or twenty hands. In straightening my creek, 

 where I had some washed places to be filled, 

 from fifty to a hundred yards distant, I think 

 my man, two horses, coulter and plough, did 

 more than any fifteen or twenty hands could 

 have done in cleaning out some shoals, and 

 moving the dirt to some low or weak places of 

 the embankment. 



I let the water out of the canal and permit it 

 to get dry enough for the hand, horses and scra- 

 per to do good work in ; and if any part of it be- 

 comes too compact, then, as thought best, the 

 colter or plough is used. I never work but 

 one man and one set of horses at these jobs : 

 more would be in the way, as it is only necessa- 

 ry to take the stretcher or double-tree from one 

 and fix it to the other, which is quickly done 

 With a quick and sensible driver, and a quick 

 pair of horses, you would be astonished at the 

 amount of work done in a day. The shoals in 

 my creek are merely loosened up by the coulter 

 or plough, and quickly removed by the scraper. 

 Where the creek is to be straightened, it is 

 laid off, and the grass tussocks, roots, &c, re- 

 moved by ploughs, spades and carts when it is 

 to be carried off; for the scraper cannot work in 

 such rough materials. Small holes made by 

 the crawfish and eels, I have stopped bet- 

 ter by saw dust than any other article I have 

 ever used. I have thus hurriedly answered 

 your enquiries, and I hope you may be able to 

 understand my letter. If you should use it, and 

 find it of any service to you, please let me hear 

 of it through the Planter, that it may be 

 of service to some other of our numerous 

 brethren of the plough. Most of us poor fellows 

 are so hard to believe and so slow to try is the 

 one great cause why improvements progress so 

 slowly. If I know anything, that little is 

 always at the service of my brother farmers. 

 With best wishes for your success. 



Most Respectfully, 

 GEO. C. GILMER. 



Inglewood, Albemarle Co., May 3d, 1856. 



Cooking Onions. — Onions are very good 

 boiled in milk and water, which diminishes the 

 strong taste of that vegetable. An excellent 

 way of serving them up, is to chop them after 

 they are boiled, and put them in a stew pan, 

 with a little milk, butter, salt and pepper, and 

 let them stew about fifteen minutes. — Western 

 Agriculturist. 



Report of the Committee of the United Farmers' 

 Agricultural Club on Agricultural Implements. 

 Communicated to the Southern Planter. 



The subject, referred to the committee at a for" 

 mer meeting of the Club, is second to no other 

 in importance to the farming community. At 

 no former period has the knowledge of me- 

 chanics, or skill and enterprise in mechanism, 

 been so successfully applied to the interests of 

 agriculture. Until within a few years past, 

 implements employed in husbandry were of the 

 simplest and most primitive character, costing 

 but little in the outlay, but expensive in the end, 

 and constructed without reference to the econo- 

 my of manual labor. But the general progress 

 of science, the necessity of increased products to 

 meet the multiplied wants, real or imaginary, of 

 a higher civilization, and the reluctance of labor 

 to seek employment in agricultural pursuits, 

 have conspired to give an impetus to improve- 

 ment in agricultural implements, and to stimu- 

 late the invention of time and labor saving ma- 

 chinery, hitherto unknown. This direction of 

 mechanic art has been encouraged and fostered 

 by the liberal patronage of more enlightened 

 agricultural enterprise, till implements of hus- 

 bandry have multipled to a degree, in some de- 

 partments, almost beyond the knowledge of the 

 farmer of their use or mode of operating them. 

 Hence, the judicious and enterprising farmer of 

 the present day, possesses advantages wholly 

 unknown to his predecessors. Time and labor 

 constitute an essential item of the capital of the 

 farmer, and he, who fails to economize these, 

 cannot hope for successful competition with 

 more enterprising rivals. To neglect the 

 strengthening of ourselves by all such substan- 

 tial aids, would be that species of economy 

 which may properly be designated as "penny 

 wise and pound foolish," 



But in availing ourselves of the advantages 

 we may enjoy, a shrewd discrimination is ne- 

 cessary, to save us from becoming victims to the 

 tricks of trade, or dupes of those whose creduli- 

 ty, and not judgment or experience, forms the 

 basis of their opinions and recommendations. 

 It is often the case that implements of real 

 merit in one locality are worse than useless in 

 another, where peculiar conditions of soil and 

 other circumstances exist, not taken into calcu- 

 lation in the mode or principle of their con- 

 struction. In such cases, injustice to one party 

 and injury or loss to the other may result from 

 the want of a proper discrimination. In Con- 

 cluding these introductory remarks, the com- 

 mittee will take occasion to suggest the proprie- 

 ty of a distinct understanding between buyer 

 and seller, in all cases, where the implement is 

 not of tried and acknowledged merit, and also of 

 familiar use to the purchaser, that it be re- 

 turned on terms agreed, if, on fair trial, it fails 

 to give satisfaction — the experimenter pointing 

 out its defects and the special reasons of its 



