44 



FARMERS" REGISTER. 



[No. 1. 



cents per bushel. "We may be mistaken in the 

 provisions, as we have not been able to see the 

 bill as amended. Now, brother liirniers, what 

 say you to this! You can' never complain that 

 the titate has done nolhino- ibr you. That cry, 

 however just it may liave been heretofore, is now 

 silenced ; and if you do not now exert every nerve 

 to lift the statp. from her dependence upon the 

 millers of New York, you ought to pine in penury 

 and want. There is no excuse. You have been 

 better dealt by than you ever dared to hope, and 

 if you have the least spark of state pride or grati- 

 tude, it behooves you to show it by responding 

 with an energy and action commensurate with the 

 boon proffered you. The legislature believed 

 that Maine can raise her own bread, and you 

 ought to say that she shall, and there can be no 

 doubt but that she will. 



It is true that the bounty is much larger than 

 the committee asked for, and we are not sure that 

 it is not larger than would be necessary to accom- 

 plish the object. It is also true thai it will draw 

 no small sum from the treasury, but when we 

 consider that by tlie payment of six cents bounty 

 every extra bushel, raised by consequence of this 

 sum, will save the price of it within the state, or 

 in other words, by p.aying six cents, we prevent a 

 dollar or perhaps two dollars being sent out of our 

 borders for wheat or flour, who will not say thai 

 it is a great and an important gain? When we 

 look about us and see the abundance of our re- 

 sources — our lumber — our granite — our lime — our 

 hay — our beef and our wool, and when we look 

 upon the extent of our territory, and the variety 

 as well as fertility of our soil, when we consider 

 all these, and then reflect what we might become 

 did we support ourselves fro.m our own liirms, and 

 save the money which our exports produce, instead 

 of eating it up, we cannot refrain from saying that 

 almost any honest course is justifiable, which shall 

 tend to bring about a revolution in these things, 

 and render us independent. The more we think 

 of these things, the more do we grieve that Maine 

 has been so long blind to her own interesis and 

 not placed herself in that elevated rank, which the 

 Almighty, by blessing her with so many resources, 

 evidently designed that she should take. 



[It is so rare that any legislative body in this country 

 attempts to aid the improvement, or to promote the in- 

 terests of agriculture, that we feel reluctance to con- 

 demn any such etfbrt. But, nevertheless, we must 

 dissent from the approbatory opinion of Judge Holmes, 

 the enlightened and zealous editor of the Maine Farmer, 

 as expressed in the foregoing editorial article in the 

 last number of that paper. 



The bounty of six cents a bushel on wheat, and ten 

 cents the bushel for parcels of 20 bushels, though it 

 may prove to be a heavy expense to the treasury, will 

 operate but slightly as encounigement to increased 

 product. Without regarding such great and disastrous 

 fluctuations of price as have occurred in the price of 

 wheat since last harvest, (which have been as great as 

 $1 the bushel, between the highest and lowest prices,) 

 the ordinary fluctuations of price, between any two 

 consecutive years, and often within two weeks of the 

 same year, present much greater ditferences in price, 

 than the bounty of the legislature of Maine will make 



between previous and future prices. Therefore it is 

 not to be supposed that the bounty will have much 

 operation in increasing the general crop oi wheat 

 throughout the state of Maine. 



But we believe that there is an indirect, yet a far 

 more efficient as well as far cheaper mode of reaching 

 the end proposed. This would be by giving bounties 

 or rewards for experiments, (scientific and practical,) 

 calculated to discover whether there is net some radi- 

 cal defect in the soils of Maine, that unfits them lor 

 profitable wheat culture ; and thence to arrive at the 

 knowledge of the proper remedy wanting. We fully 

 believe that such a defect exists — that it could be as- 

 certained, beyond all question — and tlie remedy as 

 clearly pointed out. 



The lands of the New England states in general, 

 (excepting only alluvial river bottoms and other good 

 soils, rarely met with, and but in smad quantities,) are 

 very unfavorable to the growth of wheat — and its pro- 

 duct appears, from the verj' general complaint niade, 

 to decrease as the country is longi^r and better tilled, 

 and as, in general, other products are thereby increased. 

 The soil, generally, on account of its geological for- 

 mation, is very slightly provided b}' nature with lime, 

 an ingredient necessary lor every vegetable product, 

 but particularly so, and in large proportion, for wheat. 

 We have never seen any of the lands of Maine — but 

 have no doubt as to the truth of this opinion as to their 

 natural constitution — and also, that to give lime to the 

 land is all that is wanting to make them bring good 

 wheat. It is to the shame of both Maine and Virginia, 

 that so much lime is annually brought Ifom the Ibrmer 

 to the latter. If Virginia made her own lime from her 

 own abundant materials, and Maine used much of her 

 lime to manure her lands, it would be better for both 

 countries. 



FruLii tlie Southern Agriculturist. 



ON THE CUr^TlVATION OF SEA-ISLAKD OR LOKG 

 STAPLE COTTON, IK SOUTH-CAROLINA. 



Mr. Editor — A writer in your last number, un- 

 der the signature of O. P. Q., asks, how is it, that, 

 we of iheisland manage 1o make such large crops 

 of cotton, and what is our system of cidtivation. 

 Allhouah 'his question has been repeatedly an- 

 swered in the pages of your journal, I shall, at the 

 risk of being tedious, give my notions upon the sub- 

 ject of inquiry. 



In cultivating the long staple cotton, the follow- 

 ino- items are lo be considered: 



1. Soil. 



H. Manures. 



HI. Tillage. 



I. The Soil for the long staple cotton, should 

 be judiciously selected. If may be laid down as a 

 general rule, that a damp soil will never produce 

 certain crops of this staple. A light, dry and loose 

 soil, should, if possible, be chosen; the sub-soil of 

 which should be of a sandy or gravelly nature. 

 Such a soil will seldom need drains; though, in 

 mj^ opinion, the highest and dryest soil cannot be 

 injured by draining. 



"Many lands in our slate have a high, and appa- 

 rently a dry soil ; but then, the sub-soil is clay, or 



