176 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



The great error in all that I have seen writ- 

 ten on this subject is, that there was no differ- 

 ence made for the fall of straight or crooked, 

 long or short, very steep or gentle, hill-side 

 ditches. 



I will here close this subject that might fill 

 a volume, and still be productive of no good — 

 still fail to convince others, as others have fail- 

 ed to convince me. I have tried many plans, 

 adopting in the outset the motto, " Try all, and 

 hold fast that which is good." 



If I have made myself understood in the 

 foregoing pages, I am satisfied ; and in conclu- 

 sion, in behalf of the plan here recommended, 

 will only claim of others &fair trial. 



From the American Agriculturist. 

 SHANGHAI COCKS AND HENS. 



The Knickerbocker Magazine gives the following 

 life-like description of the Shanghais. We cannot 

 improve it by words; but we have added an engra- 

 ving to illustrate the editor's idea: "Will the 

 Shanghais ever stop growing V As our engraving 

 may be supposed to be a perfect likeness of a 

 growing chicken, it cannot be wondered that his 

 owner should inquire anxiously, will he ever stop 1 

 Our friend of the Knickerbocker may quiet his 

 fears about the danger of waking up some morn- 

 ing to find the Shanghais have eaten up half the 

 family — they will never stoop so low as that. 



" Your correspondent has at last got his Shang- 

 hai hen ! I wish him joy of it. He should have seen 

 the brutes, as I have, in the unmitigated ungainli- 

 ness of early youth; stalking about the barn-yard 

 on stilts, gazing stupidly around from that bad 

 eminence; blown over by every sudden blast of 

 wind, or coming down heels-over-head on a kernel 

 of corn. My Shanghais began life with an inordi- 

 nate pair of drum-sticks, and have been running 

 to legs ever since. They remind me of nothing 



but the ostrich, which I saw long, long ago, with 

 my little brother, who in his excitement fed the 

 creature on pennies, and burst into tears when, as 

 the last copper was gulped down, the sense of ut- 

 ter bankruptcy broke upon him. Their crow's not 

 the honest Saxon crow, expressive of day-break, 

 war, and animal spirit, but a horrid guttural ejacu- 

 lation, between a Chinese sentence, as described 

 by missionaries, and a badly blown dinner-horn. 

 They move like a man whose legs are asleep ; in 

 fact, their whole carriage is such that I wonder the 

 country louts, stumbling along the road to church, 

 do not recognize their own gait in that of the 

 wretched fowls, and feel "the deep damnation of 

 the taking off. " My game-cock has gone mad on 

 the subject. Reared by that noble Earl of Derby, 

 who lately forsook breeding race-horses and fight- 

 ing-chickens to assume the reins of government, 

 this bird, whose family is as old as the earldom, 

 cannot bear the sight of a great commoner like a 

 Shanghai. Every one of their actions, however 

 innocent, he considers personal. He climbs their 

 sides holding by one feather, like a midshipman 

 boarding a ' liner. ' He cannot take his own meals, 

 for fear they will get a morsel. He follows them 

 all day like a shadow, which, at this rate, he will 

 soon become. One question presses upon me : 

 Will the Shanghais ever stop growing, or shall I 

 wake some morning to find the barn-yard in their 

 possession, several farm-hands in their crops, and 

 a deputation of domestic poultry waiting at the 

 door of the house to pick up the family as they 

 come out, and breakfast on their benefactors 1 Let 

 your correspondent consider this while his fowls 

 are yet in the corn crib. Geoffrey Crayon, 

 learned in hencraft, told us the other day at Sunny- 

 side, that his opinion of the Shanghai was not at 

 all in favor of that bird over the better class of his 

 American ' cotemporaries.' " 



MONTGOMERY'S WHEAT FAN. 



(See advertisement in another column.) 



The farmer's success, in a large degree, depends 

 upon observation. 



