FARMERS' REGISTER— IMPROVEMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



363 



of cattle; but all reasoning, however plausible il 

 may seem at first view, must be rejected as falla- 

 cious and unsound, which leads to results diamet- 

 rically opposite to those desired by every judicious 

 farmer. The manure of a drove of cattle is a 

 small consideration when placed as an offset 

 a^'iinst the evils of grazing; for after all he has 

 only a part of the herbage transferred from one 

 part of the farm to the other. The same reason- 

 ing will apply to winter as well as summer. The 

 requisite quantity of provender fur keeping a stock 

 of cattle as they should be, would amount to more 

 manure, if sjiread on the land, than if eaten and 

 trod during the winter. If this reasoning be just, 

 and if we will keep more cattle than our interest 

 dictates, for one I must look on the distemper which 

 has taken off such numbers of cattle in the south, 

 not as it is generally viewed, but as a remedy for 

 one of the sorest evils Avhich has befallen our ag- 

 riculture. When the distemper comes and takes 

 half of our cows, (and it generally takes a larger 

 proportion) more ample provision can be made for 

 those that are left, and less injury will be inflicted 

 by grazing, while at the same time the profits in 

 butter, mifk, &c. will be more ample from the few, 

 than from the many. 



With these unconnected reflections, I leave this 

 part of the subject, and pass on to one of equal 

 importance — that of ploughing. I lay it down as 

 a maxim, the truth of which will not be question- 

 ed by any one who makes just pretentions to skill 

 in any business, that whatever is worth doing at 

 all, is worth doing well. If this be the case in 

 other matters, it nmst apply with increased weight 

 when brought to bear on the subject of farming — 

 an occupation which gives prosperity and support 

 to all others — the main-spring of all trades and 

 professions. Judging Irom the manner in which 

 most of our operations on the farm are performed, 

 we conclude that this rule is not respected as it 

 Ehould be, even by those who acknowledge its 

 correctness. Of this class (and a numerous one 

 I am pained to say it is) are those who plough up 

 and down hill. Reason with people on the impro- 

 priety of such a practice, and they will tell you 

 they hav'nt time to turn at short rows — that theirs 

 is the "good old way" — as if their lands wouldnot 

 wash, and as if a gulley formed in the day, it 

 would close up in the succeedmg night. After all 

 that has been written on the advantages of hori- 

 zontal ploughing, all that has been seen of its 

 good effects in improving the lands, and after 

 years of experience of evils on the opposite side 

 they will still persist. This is Avhat I call Thom- 

 sonianism (in other words quackery) in farming; 

 and the effects of the one on the soil will work its 

 own cure eventually, though as certainly as the 

 other has burned and steamed itself to death in 

 many infatuated communities of our country. 

 Thousands of acres of land are now to be seen, 

 once valuable and highly productive, now not 

 worth the taxes. I think we should profit by the 

 experience of such farmers, and that the day has 

 come when we should have a better reason for do- 

 ings things as some of us do than the one which 

 actuated the young Dutchman when he preferred 

 the old road up to the axletree at every step with 

 fitiff mud — "my fader did drive dis way, and I 

 drive dis way too." 



In old Prince Edward many are disposed to 

 thiuk this the garden spot of creation in a moral 



and intellectual point of view. As to the truth of 

 this remark I shall not undertake to sj;eak; this 

 must be done by some one better qualified to do it 

 with impartiality than the writer; — but will those 

 who value those things as ihey should, together 

 with a healthy climate and good market, go on 

 with a s}stem which has inflicted so heavy a 

 curse on this part of Virginia, and if not forsaken 

 will eventually render the rest a "howling wilder- 

 ness.'" If we should stop even at this late day and 

 adopt a system of unyielding improvement, our 

 country which in many places has grown gray in 

 youth, might again, by plaster and clover, be 

 made to smile in all the beauty and freshness of 

 the "Old Dominion." Then we should feel strong 

 inducements to stay in Virginia, much stronger 

 than some feel to seek a home in the uncultivated 

 wilds of the West. Should not every considera- 

 tion induce us to do it? Our own private interests, 

 those of our children and of our country, conspire 

 in a loud and united call lor thorough and instan- 

 taneous reform. 



A. A. L. 



jiuir. 20. 1834. 



COTTOIV ITS INTRODUCTION, AND PROGHESS 



OF ITS CULTURE, IN THE UNITED STATES. 



From the Southern Planter. 



Gossypium or Cotton, a genus of the polyandria 

 order, belonging to the monodelphia class of plants, 

 and in the natural method ranking under the 37th 

 order, Column ilera. The cal3^x is double, the ex- 

 terior one tripid, the capsule (luadrilocular, the 

 seeds wrapt in cotton wool. There are four spe- 

 cies, aU of them natives of warm climates — 1st. 

 Herbaceum or common herbaceous cotton, has an 

 herbaceous smooth stalk, two feet high, branching 

 upward, five lobed, smooth leaves, and yellow 

 flowers from the end of the branches, succeeded 

 by roundish capsules full of seeds and cotton. — 2d. 

 The Hirsutum or hairy American cotton, hath 

 hairy stalks branching laterally two or three feet 

 high, palmated three and five lobed hairy leaves, 

 and yellow flowers succeeded by large oval pods 

 furnished with seeds and cotton. 3d. The Bar- 

 badense or Barbadoes shrubby cotton, hath a 

 shrubby stalk branching four and five feet high, 

 three lobed ^ooth leaves gladulous underneath, 

 and yellow flowers succeeded by oval pods con- 

 taining seeds and cotton. 4th. I'he Arboreum 

 or tree cotton, hath an upright woody perennial 

 stalk branching six or eight feet high, palmated 

 four or five lobed, smooth leaves, and yellow flow- 

 ers succeeded by Lirge pods filled with seeds and 

 cotton. — Encyclopedia Britannia, vol. 8, p. 21. 



The above extract will more satisfactorily give 

 the classification or order in which the cotton plant 

 stands in the vegetable world than I could do, and 

 I have the more'readily adopted it, because it dis- 

 tinctly embraces all the cottons that are extensive- 

 ly cultivated in the United States, and little need 

 be added except that the seeds of the first and se- 

 cond varieties, besides the cotton wool that covers 

 them, have the seeds in whole in the second varie- 

 ty, and in part in the first, covered Avhh a close 

 short fur very analagous to the under fur of an 

 animal; and in the United States all the cottons 

 seem to have an increasing propensity to the pro- 

 duction of the fur or down. It increases the diffi- 



