252 
mr. Robinson’s tour—no. 8. 
space, if the front be made circular, or form a i 
straight line across the corner. Advantage should I 
not be taken of this position to supply two horses 
from the same rack, on either side of two adjoin¬ 
ing stalls. Each animal should have his own al¬ 
lowance of forage in his own dish,, and be in no 
manner dependent upon his neighbor. The food 
is thus always under th) control of the groom. 
But when fed from above, one aperture may serve 
for throwing down the hay into two, which are 
separated only by a thin board. When thus fed 
from above, a trap door should close the aperture 
tightly, to prevent the ascent of foul air from the 
stable, to impregnate and injure the hay. But 
where there are many animals together, unless the 
floor overhead is perfectly tight and well aired, it is 
better to have the hay on an adjoining floor; and 
it can be rolled compactly together and thrown 
over the top of the rack from the stall. A prong¬ 
ed hook will serve to draw to the floor above, any 
superfluous hay; or a door at the back, or if of 
iron, a small door in front, may be opened for this 
purpose. 
Many persons prefer feeding cut hay, straw, or 
chaff, mixed with their oats or other provender, in 
which case, the rack is entirely superfluous. It 
must be confessed, that where arrangements are 
properly made, and not at loose ends, as in some 
badly-managed stables, the latter method is by far 
the better and more economical. In this case the 
manger requires to be placed breast high and suffi¬ 
ciently deep and wide to. contain ample feed. This 
must be either of hard, smooth wood, or iron, tight, 
and firmly secured. Where the rack is used in one 
corner, a box for the horses’ grain should occupy 
the opposite one, unless it be attached to the base 
of the racks. 
Water may be brought into the stable when per¬ 
fectly convenient, but this is not essential. If in¬ 
troduced, however, it should be entirely under the 
control of the groom, pnd let in or turned off at 
pleasure. It should flow only into a stone or iron 
basin, unless a trustworthy groom is employed, who 
will keep such as may be made of wood in a per¬ 
fectly clean condition. There is, no doubt, an advan¬ 
tage in having water before the horse that he may 
drink as he requires it. 
Salt is a preventive of many maladies, a correc¬ 
tive of the stomach, and should be supplied to the 
horse as he needs it. The most convenient mode 
of giving it, is by placing a lump of the rock or 
mineral salt in his manger, where he can lick it at 
his pleasure. 
Profits of Orange-County Farming. —Mr. 
Jesse Owen, of Warwick, Orange county, N. Y., 
on a farm of 136 acres, made, in 1847, from six 
cows, 1,080 lbs. of butter, which, together with 
six calves and seven spring pigs, that were fed 
from the refuse of the dairy, sold for $255, or $42 
50 cents to each cow. In 1848, the same number 
of cows, netted, in calves and pigs, $43.50 each. 
This year, (1849,) he has sold, from the same 
number of cows, six calves, at the age of four 
weeks, for $38.55. The other stock of this farm 
consists of two horses, seventeen steers and oxen, 
two calves, ten hogs, and eighteen pigs. The 
amount of hay cut per annum, is about 50 tons. 
MR. ROBINSON’S TOUR.—No. 8. 
Louisiana .—On my way down the coast, to-day, 
from Algiers, opposite New Orleans, I first saw 
cane planting. The ground, which had corn upon 
it last summer, was broken up with four yoke of 
oxen, and thrown into beds eight feet from centre 
to centre, and a furrow opened in these with a 
double plow, followed by a triangular block of 
wood, to press out all the lumps, and make a wide, 
smooth furrow, into which the canes were carefully 
laid in double rows, and lightly covered with hoes. 
A great abundance of cuttings are used to insure 
a good .stand. It requires one acre of growing 
cane to plant five acres. 
J. P. Benjamin, Esq., 18 miles below the city, 
has yet forty acres of cane to grind. He has a 
complete Relieux apparatus, and all the appurte¬ 
nances for making refined loaf sugar, direct from 
the cane. The refinery is under the direction of 
his brother, who is very successful in the business, 
and is making as good an article as ever need be 
called for. The expense of the refining apparatus 
was $33,000. By this process, the sugar is not 
only increased in value, but five sixths of the mo¬ 
lasses is used up ; the remainder, that will not 
granulate, is .sold as “ sugarhouse molasses,” 
which, though very thick and apparently good, is 
really the poorest molasses in market. The mass 
of it is the glucose of the cane, with just saccha¬ 
rine enough to sweeten it. I saw here, in opera¬ 
tion, one of Bogardus’ eccentric mills, to grind 
sugar, and another to grind corn ; and both giving 
much satisfaction. . 
Mr. Stephen D. McCutchon plows his land with 
three mules, planting 6§ feet apart, and opens the 
planting furrow with a “fluke,” instead of a three- 
cornered block. The fluke is a very large double 
moldboard, iron plow, drawn by two good mules. 
The moldboards are made of boiler iron, 3| feet 
long. He cuts his cane for planting, all in pieces, 
two feet in length, being careful to strip off all 
leaves. He has, this year, manured 40 acres as 
an experiment. But he hauls his bagasse out upon 
the levee, and throws it away. 
Myrtle Grove, the next plantation below, owned 
by Messrs. Trufant and White, use about half of 
their bagasse for fuel. Mr. Trufant told me he 
could make steam with bagasse easier than with 
wood or coal. This plantation has no timber land. 
All back of the narrow strip in cultivation, is wet 
prairie, and would be very rich, if drained. They 
have a canal twenty-two feet wide, three feet deep, 
and three miles long, to lead water away from 
their steam-draining machine, by which only can 
the back part of the land, now in cultivation, be 
kept free from water, by an engine of 10-horse 
power. The water is lifted from two to four feet 
by a paddle wheel twenty feet in diameter. This 
works only one day a week, burning a cord and a 
half of wood, except in uncommon wet weather. 
The water, in the meantime, accumulates in the 
large leading ditch, on the back side of cultivated 
lands, two and a half miles long. Outside of these 
ditches, cattle are pastured on coarse prairie grass. 
The wood for this place has to be caught or 
bought, and is worth from $2.50 to $3 a cord. 
Coal is worth 20 cents per bushel. The cattle that 
run upon this prairie land, become almost amphi- 
