THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



313 



the other, and the victor, is blooded, being by 

 Eclipse (what Eclipse?) out of a Messenger 

 mare. One was stopped and rested awhile, 

 and the other was walked eleven miles. 

 The Albany Statesman says : 



This is the greatest race on record, nothing 

 of the kind ever having been attempted before, 

 and the speed shown by the horses surprises 

 everybody. Even in the hundred mile races 

 over a course* the time has not been equalled, 

 and had the same speed been kept up to the 

 end of the journey as was shown to Herkimer, 

 the hundred miles would have been trotted in 

 a little over nine hours. 



We think this is a mistake. If we remem- 

 ber correctly, Mr. George Presbury of Louis- 

 ville, Ky., trotted a mare one hundred miles, 

 from Lexington to Louisville, in a match against 

 time in ten hours ; and the time has been 

 equalled on the race course. It has been 

 equalled elsewhere. A few years ago a mare 

 in the neighbourhood of Woodville, Albemarle, 

 as we heard shortly afterwards from Mr. Ben 

 Wood of that county, with no training what- 

 ever, went under the saddle in a hilly country, 

 upwards of one hundred and twenty miles in a 

 day ; and was not much fagged. 



In old times when gentlemen travelled from 

 Albemarle to Richmond on horseback, it was a 

 feat that a good many persons accomplished to 

 "traveFfrom Charlottesville to Richmond, about 

 87 miles, in a day, on horses that were not 

 trained. The late Gov. Randolph had a noted 

 horse Dromedary, that he rode several years, 

 and on that horse he never drew bridle between 

 Charlottesville and Richmond; and he was a 

 pacing horse at that. The tame horse, or an- 

 other, was once ridden the same distance by 

 the Governor's man Phil in one night. 



Both horses and men under training, or even 

 without it, if inured to fatigue, and of good 

 constitutions, can perform journeys, and make 

 time which would be thought marvellous. Mr. 

 Zachary Lewis, now living near Scottsville, 

 once, when he was in his prime, Avalked from 

 Richmond to Scottsville — a distance of seventy- 

 five miles — in a day. An Indian at Fort Craw- 

 ford, after a fortnight's training, ran on the 

 parade ground forty-one miles in two hours ! 

 And in a subsequent race, for his life, he out- 

 stripped twelve Winnebagocs — he was a Sioux ; 

 and the horses, ridden by our officers who were 

 to accompany him to the boundary of his own 

 country, were so thoroughly blown in attempt- 



ing to follow him that they gave in after a run 

 of four miles. 



We wish we had space for the whole of this 

 Indian story, for it is exceedingly interesting. 



The Wheat Crop. 



A friend who has lately paid a visit from Al- 

 bemarle to Loudoun writes us: 



This country is now looking badly. If you are 

 collecting wheat statistics, I can speak for the 

 crop of Fauquier and Loudoun as being the most 

 unpromising I have ever seen. All the early 

 seeding is destroyed by the fly and hard winter. 

 Many fields show no sign of life at all. My 

 father has a thirty acre field which cannot make 

 thirty pints, and there are others equally un- 

 promising. The wheat in Albemarle is look- 

 ing better than any I saw between that county 

 and this. I am inclined to think that the Al- 

 bemarle "dogs" are about "having their day," 

 and that other parts of the State are to pass 

 through the period of bad-luck under which we 

 groaned so long. 



Another friend from Amelia writes that his 

 wheat crop is a very good one, and the other 

 crops of that region are fair. 



We hear conflicting accounts of the wheat 

 from lower James River. Probably the river 

 farms are promising ; the uplands not so good. 

 Late sown wheat, especially, is not apt to be a 

 good crop after such a hard winter and late 

 Spring. 



The crops in Augusta is only tolerable. 



A gentleman who has recently been over a 

 part of Fauquier, Prince William and Stafford, 

 informs us that he saw but three promising 

 crops of wheat. Other information from neigh- 

 boring counties is of like import, and unless a 

 very material change takes place the crop will 

 be unusually light on the eastern slopes of the 

 Blue Ridge. — Fredericksburg (Va.) Herald. 



A New Tow Boat and Lighter Line. 



One of the purposes which it was thought 

 would be subserved by the Dock connection 

 was, that a line of lighters capable of entering 

 the basin and discharging and receiving car- 

 goes at the mills would be established. This 

 would save a good deal of expense to the far- 

 mers and to the millers who now have to haul 

 to and from Rocketts, and load and unload 

 twice. The lighters might take down the flour 

 directly from the mills, and call at the different 

 landings on their return for wheat. 



We are happy to be authorized to announce 

 to the farmers on the lower James that there is 

 a prospect of such a benefit being done them. 



