76 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



From the Genesee Farmer. 



How Can Setting Hens be Taught to For- 

 sake the Lazy Habit? 



Make a small open pen, of laths, or some 

 similar material, in one corner of your hen 

 house, about eight inches wide, and of any con- 

 venient length and height. Let one of the laths 

 or slats be so secured that it may be easily ta- 

 ken out or moved one side, so that a hen may 

 be conveniently passed into or taken out of the 

 pen. On the bottom of this pen, and running 

 lengthwise through it, set up a couple of laths 

 on edge, and fasten them about the same dis- 

 tance from each other and from the sides of the 

 pen. Run a small perch across the pen and the 

 work is done. When a hen wishes to set, put 

 her in there. She will soon find that she can 

 walk leisurely upon the floor, or roost comfor- 

 tably upon the perch, but she can't set without 

 " riding on a rail/' and that, they seem to think, 

 isn't decorous. The length of time for which 

 they will have to be confined will vary some- 

 what, and in obstinate cases it may be neces- 

 sary to put a few pegs or tacks into the edges 

 of the laths. N. 



ffegroes and Cotton. 



The New Orleans Delia estimates the num- 

 ber of Slaves at the South at over three and a 

 half millions, and their aggregate value, at 

 present prices, at fully sixteen hundred mil- 

 lions of dollars. The Cotton plantations in the 

 South it estimates at about eighty thousand, 

 and the aggregate value of the annual product, 

 at the present prices of cotton, is fully one 

 hundred and twenty-five millions of dollars. 

 There are over fifteen thousand Tobacco plan- 

 tations, and their annual products may be val- 

 ued at fourteen millions of dollars. There are 

 two thousand six hundred Sugar plantations, 

 the products of which average annually more 

 than twelve millions. There are five hundred 

 and fifty-one Rice plantations, which yield an 

 annual revenue of four millions of dollars. 



Sou th em Cu Uiva tor. 



From the Valley Farmer. 



To keep Babbits from barking Trees. 



Eds. Valley Farmer. — The time is approach- 

 ing when we must secure our young fruit trees 

 against the incursions of rabbits, or have them 

 killed or very much injured. I will give you 

 the simple plan that I and some of my neigh- 

 bors have pursued with complete success. I 

 tear up old newspapers in strips fifteen or eigh- 

 teen inches long, and wrap them around the 

 body of the tree, commencing at the ground, 

 and securing it with common twine. The pa- 

 per will withstand all the rain that falls on it, 

 and I never knew a tree injured by rabbits that 

 was thus protected. Another advantage of the 

 plan is that it can be so quickly done — one per- 

 son can tie up a hundred trees in two hours. 



B. A. Rives. 



From the Valley Farmer. ' 



An Essay on the Bearing, Management 

 and Food of the Horse. 



Editors of the Valley Farmer : — It is not 

 my intention to make invidious distinctions be- 

 tween the various breeds of horses in our coun- 

 try, yet I must think that, without some atten- 

 tion to blood and judicious crossing, the best of 

 management, in other respects, will prove a 

 failure, and be unprofitable to the raiser. 



It may be thought that the thorough bred 

 race stock belongs entirely to the turf, yet we 

 think a cross of the thorough blood is best for 

 almost every purpose, and the thorough bred 

 mare is the best brood mare, for all purposes. 



She being crossed with the Northern trotter, 

 the produce will be a superior harness horse, — 

 with the Canadian or pacer, you will have the 

 best saddle horse, — with the draft-horse, you 

 will have a horse of more action, durability, 

 longevity and a better farm horse, than if a full 

 draft horse, and so for the above purposes, the 

 fross will produce a better animal, with more 

 symmetry and action than he would be without 

 the thoroughbred cross; and finally a mule 

 from a thorough bred mare, will be a better 

 animal and command more money in market 

 than a mule from a large, coarse mare; hence 

 the propriety of obtaining the most thorough 

 bred mares to breed from. 



There should be great care and judgment ex- 

 ercised in selecting a sire, who excels in those 

 parts in which the dam is defective, as there is 

 no horse perfect ; a sire may be defective in 

 those parts that excels in the dam, unless your 

 object be to produce a saddle, or fast-moving 

 animal. In that case, let the dam be fine as she 

 may, never breed to a horse that has a defective 

 shoulder or limbs. As it is an admitted princi- 

 ple that like begets like, great care should be 

 exercised, that the sire be a hale, sound animal, 

 free from those diseases which are hereditary, 

 such as blindness, thick wind, ring bone, &c. 

 Let him be possessed of a noble and docile dis- 

 position. A horse with a sullen, slyish and 

 vicious disposition can never be made a plea- 

 sant and safe animal. 



A great and very common error in breeding 

 is to cross a small, compact dam with a large, 

 overgrown sire, the object being to increase the 

 size of the offspring above that of the dam. The 

 result is a disproportioned colt, having, per- 

 haps, the large head and feet of the sire, with 

 long legs, and the light body and short neck of 

 the dam. The sire may be somewhat larger 

 than the dam, but it is certainly somewhat 

 safe* to have the dam a large, lengthy animal, 

 (but compact) with ample room for the foetus to 

 develop, bred to a horse of medium size than 

 the reverse. We think there is as much, if not 

 more depending upon the qualities of the dam, 

 than there is upon those of the sire, and if we had 

 a small, coarse bred mare we would dispose of 



