SOUTHERN OULTIVATOE. 
359 
the music of the wheels. 
Our correspondent, “A. K. E.,” (see October number, 
page 336) who prefers the music of the spinning jenny to 
that of the piano- forte, wili, doubtless, be pleased to read 
the following tribute to his favorite instrument, from the 
pen of Mrs. D G. Foss, in xhtBcston Cidtivalor 
In ectasy let others praise. 
The organ’s lofty peal; — 
To me there is no music like 
The dear old spinning- v/heel. 
Its gentle buzzing greets my ear 
With a soft, lulling sound. 
Like the faint echoes of the woods 
Where waterfalls resound. 
How many memories of the past, 
Clust’ring around it cling. 
And make it to my throbbing heart 
A dear, time-honored thing ! 
Our mother, ere the household band 
Had left the household hearth. 
Mingled the music of the wheel 
With many an evening’s mirth. 
And later, in her green old age, 
She rung out many a chime — 
Rising and falling with each step, 
Her cap-border beat time ! 
She taught us that our lives might be 
Like the uneven thread ; 
Peace to her ashes ! for she sleeps 
Now with the silent dead. 
And soon the spinning-wheel will pass, 
Its music soon be o’er — 
Oh ! -who’ll appreciate its worth 
One generation more'? 
COTTON GINS — COTTON SEED FOR HOGS. 
Editors Southern Cultivator— In your number for 
June I observe one cf your correspondents inquires of 
you the test make of cotton gins. I have used, for the 
ginning of my last crop, the Roller Gin, ana find it infin- 
itely superior to any gin I have ever tried. They are 
made in the city of New York. D. McCombs, of 
phis, T nn , is ihe agent. Using this gin it makes no 
difference whether you pick the cotmn clean or with the 
bolls and fragments of the lint intermixed, as the teeth 
only take hold of the cotton and do not even scratch the 
boll. I have thrown into the gin breast a handful of nails 
(when there was no cotton in the breast) and at the or- 
dinary speed of the machinery, after fifteen minutes test, 
there was no scratch on the nails, nor were the teeth of 
gill at all injured. 
My gin was used in the Mississippi bottom throughout 
the last seasoR and, although I ginned wet and rotten cot- 
ton, it did not nap at all, and my cotton was increased in 
value at least one cent per pound by ti e use of this gin, 
as compared to any one of the Carver gins. With a 12 
foot cog whee and 8 foot band wheel this gin will gin 
out four bales of cotton per day, and will require four 
mules to pull the machinery. Cost, S360, 
I have been in the habit of feeding cotton seed to my 
hogs for years, and have never lost one. My theory is 
(and my practice has confirmed me in my opinion) that it 
is not the lint or the hull of the cotton seed that kills the 
liogs, but an overdose of cotton seed oil. Every planter 
is aware that if a lot of hogs has access to a pile of cot- 
ton seed and, also, access to a grass lot, that they m.ay feed 
on the seed with impunity, but they will certainly die 
if they eat the seed alone. Watch a hog at a seed pile 
and you will see that he chews the seed, swallows the oil 
and rejects the hulls and lint. 
He fills his stomach with oil and a very little of the 
suVstance of the cotton seed, and dies as any ani- 
mal wmuld if he were fed alone on oil of any kind; but 
give him grass or other food to distend the stomach and he 
I lives. My stock feeder is directed to take, as nearas he can 
I guess at it, a handful of seed to each hog, and instead of 
! throwing the whole mass into a pile, he throws the seed 
I handful by handful with some force against ‘he ground, 
1 which causes the seed to scatter and separate the one 
! from the other. The hogs, consequently, are forced 
I to take it up seed by seed, as they do corn, and they 
I chew and swallow hulls, lint and all. They have a bulk 
of food duly proportioned to the oil 
I have fed my hogs in this way, occasionally a feed of 
corn by way of variety, for several years, and I am satis- 
I fied I have never lost one by it ; but, on the contrary, my 
I stock has always thriven remarkably w^ell. 
j Respectfully yours, H, 
I Woodford., Panola county, Miss., Aug., 1859. 
I SAVING STVEET POTATOES. 
j Editors Southern Cultivator — “J. A, A.’s plan of 
j saving sweet Potatoes” is so different from ours, that I 
i have thought it would be interesting to you and profit- 
I able to your readers to give you a mere sketch of our 
! method. 
I We never dig our potatoes until a light frost has singed 
! the leaves, then we run a plow on each side of the bed, 
; draw down the ridge thus formed in the alley, and throw- 
I ing all the potatoes from both beds or rows mto the cen- 
I tral alley ; collect them without bruising, and take them 
! in a two ox cart to the potato yard, when they are banked 
j on high, dry lanu ; scraping the circular basis of each 
i bank or pile, clear of mud qr trash, emptying the potatoes 
! in these clean circles, and piling them up un‘il no more 
will stand in a coniform shape ; cover them round with 
corn stalks, like a thatched conical roof, so thick and 
close as not only to exclude the air, but he earth, where 
they remain until used; one or more hills or banks, con- 
taining precisely a week ” allowance, thickly covered 
with earth patted with the hoe In spring, these banks 
which have been kept for the table during summer, are 
opened and, if sprouted, the sprouts are carefully nipped 
off and the potatoes removed to a dry cellar or loft, spread 
with dry pine leaves, or any other kind of dry straw, 
where they will become candied when baked, and far 
m^'re delicious than v/hen first dug. 
I have heard that planting the whole slip potato for 
seed without cutting is an improvement. I tried it, but 
could observe no visible benefit or improvement in com- 
ing up, vigorous growth or productiveness. 
A Planter. 
Glynn County, Ga., October, 1859. 
N. B. — I have tried to save the green vines by collect- 
ing them be'^ore a irost and banking them like the potato, 
but they all rotted; and by running a furrow or. each side 
of the bed they are covered up in the alley where they 
become a rich mould, so they are not, ultimately, lost, out 
go to restore to the land the pabulum which has been ex- 
tracted from it, as you know potato vines contain a large 
portion of saccharine matter and oxalic acid, which is 
very fattening to hogs and stock, when fed to them freely 
while green. 
|^“The Postage on the Cultivator, pre-paid, is 18 
cents per year. 
