106 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Until it has passed that stage it is easily de- 

 stroyed by dry weather, or by a freeze. The 

 first warm spell after it is sowed causes it to 

 germinate ; and as that spell is almost certain 

 to be followed by a freeze, the clover is either 

 heaved out of the ground, or killed by the 

 cold. 



The first to the tenth of March is the proper 

 time to sow it. If those who differ with us 

 will try the plan on a small scale, we shall be 

 glad to hear the result. 



The following, clipped from an exchange, 

 seems to favour the drilling of seed: 



DRILLING CLOVER SEED. 



According to the report of a practice upon a 

 farm near Chelmsford, in England, the drilling 

 of clover seed has been found not only a great 

 saving of seed, but also has rendered the crop 

 more certain, and of better quality. The wri- 

 ter says clover and all other seed have been 

 drilled upon this farm with the most successful 

 results as regards the plants; indeed we feel 

 that no other mode is more certain, and feel 

 assured that two-thirds the quantity of seed 

 will secure a greater crop by drilling than one- 

 third more would effect if sown by hand, ten 

 pounds of clover being ample per acre when 

 drilled properly. Few will pretend that a field 

 of ten acres can be well seeded with less than 

 two bushels or one hundred and twenty pounds. 

 Should the drill save one third of this, and at 

 the same time produce a crop one-third better, 

 and with more certainty, the drilling of clover 

 seed should certainly be considered a matter 

 worthy the attention of farmers. 



Corn Crop. 



The corn crop of the United States must be 

 short. i\ll our exchanges speak of the vast 

 injury done by the cold weather in November 

 last, when the corn had not fully matured. In 

 very large districts of Kentucky and the West, 

 we learn from the same sources that there will 

 not be a single ear fit for seed. Much of it is 

 rotted, and all of it soft. 



We observe that it is rising in the market? 



Sugar from the Sorghum. 



We observe that a Mr. Lovering, a sugar re- 

 finer from Philadelphia, has received a medal 

 from the United States Agricultural Society, 

 for extracting sugar from the Sorghum. The 

 United States Agricultural Society is a hum- 

 bug. We do not know whether Mr. Lovering 

 is or not. But we have no faith in his extract- 



ing sugar from Sorghum. We have none, be- 

 cause Dr. J. Lawrence Smith, of Louisville, 

 sometime Professor of Chemistry at the Uni- 

 versity of Virginia, says that only one tenth of 

 the boiled juice is chrystalizable sugar. We do 

 know Dr. Smith to be one of the best chemists 

 in the United States, and- a master experimen- 

 talist. 



For the Southern Planter. 



Orchard Grass, &c. . 



Holkiiam, Albemarle, Jan. 21st, 1858. 

 Bear Sir: — Yours of January 16th, asking 

 information for a subscriber on the subject of 

 orchard grass, &c, was received a day or so 

 since, and I avail myself of the earliest leisure 

 to reply. 



I have been growing orchard grass ever since 

 I commenced farming, and consider it among 

 the most valuable of all the artificial grasses. 

 For fattening stock, it is not so nutritive as 

 Timothy or the Poa Pratensis, or Spear grass, 

 generally called green sward — but putting up 

 so very early in the Spring, and affording good 

 pasturage on soils too poor for any of the 

 grasses known here, are great advantages, 

 especially to the most of Virginia farmers who 

 have not yet rid themselves of the legacy of 

 galls and lean spots bequeathed them with no 

 sparing hand. 



If intended for a meadow, it should be mixed 

 with other grasses maturing about the same 

 time — if for a pasture, the addition of a variety 

 of grasses, coming at different periods of the 

 season, thus affording Spring, Summer, and 

 Autumn grazing, will greatly enhance the 

 value of the pasture. -In some of the best 

 pastures in England there are no less than 

 twenty-six different kinds of grasses, on an 

 acre of which are fattened a large bullock and 

 from three to five sheep. The following grasses, 

 in the proportions given, will make a good 

 meadow — enough for one acre — 



Dactylis Glomerata — Orchard grass, 4 pecks. 

 LoliumPerenne — Perennial Rye grass, 2 " 

 Red Clover, - - - - - \ " 



A few years since I was on several farms 

 near Philadelphia, in the month of June, when 

 the farmers were busily engaged in saving hay. 

 This combination of grasses generally pre- 

 vailed, with white clover and spear grass, which 

 put up spontaneously. The hay made of the 

 above was represented as exceedingly nutritive. 

 The yield was immense, not a spot of soil could 

 be found unoccupied. The addition of the fer- 

 tile seeded tall fescue, a grass highly approved 

 in England, would probably be a considerable 

 improvement. I shall procure some to experi- 

 ment with; and I will take this occasion, to 

 suggest that our Agricultural Society could, at 

 this time, do nothing more advantageous to 



