818 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No, 



ty years, the value of soil, of crops, and of labor, 

 thereby saved to the cultivators, would have been 

 worth millions of dollars. 



A very intelligent farmer of this state, who had 

 learned and profited by this practice, settled a cotton 

 plantation in the hilly region of Alabama. Though 

 on new and, as yet, rich soil, he resolved to prevent its 

 waste and destruction ; and to that end, forthwith, 

 commenced a general system of hill-side ditches. 

 Their useful operation was soon manifest to every ob- 

 server; and an older settler, (who probably despised 

 book-farming as heartily as our correspondent's neigh- 

 bors,) pronounced the practice to be the greatest im- 

 provement ever introduced, and that the introducer was 

 a public benefactor, whose services to that country 

 would prove to be beyond estimation. We fully con- 

 cur in this opinion. But if the new settler had ob- 

 tained his knowledge of this improvement from the 

 Farmers' Register, as he might have done, and as 

 every hill cultivator in the south and west might now 

 easily do, would it not have been " book-farming'''^ 

 Even if the still farther fertilizing of rich virgin soil 

 is not required, the preservation of existing fertility 

 surely is desirable; and especially if it is cheaper to 

 preserve than to waste the richness of the land. And 

 even if neither of these important objects is cared for, 

 still it is as important to the cultivators of the lands of 

 the most exuberant fertility, no less than to others less 

 happily situated, to be apprised of agricultural news, 

 and of the advances of agricultural knowledge — and 

 thereby be enabled to learn every new value of agricul- 

 tural labor and products — and eveiy means of mak- 

 ing labor cheaper and more effective, by better im- 

 plements and stock, and better management.] 



Montgomery county, Ala.^ ) 

 March \Uh, 1838. \ 



I am a planter of but little experience, and re- 

 gret much that your work, with the aid of which 

 one may profit so much from the experience of 

 others, is not better calculated for my latitude. 

 Hundreds of planters here, like myself, require to 

 be taught much that might appear common-place 

 to the experienced; and if your work contained 

 the desired information, I am pursuaded its circu- 

 lation would be greatly extended in the south- 

 west. The difficulty of procuring well written es- 

 says and valuable papers upon our peculiar soils, 

 staple and mode of culture, I am aware, must be 

 very great to a distant editor. But this is a diffi- 

 culty which it vvould be much to your interest to 

 overcome. Southern cotton-planters are gene- 

 rally educated, intelligent, reading men; and the 

 Register vvould be very popular among them, if it 

 taught them their true policy and interest, with 

 half the skill and accuracy, which it has hitherto 

 displayed in relation to the farming interest of the 

 "Old Dominion." Virginia must be well-nigh 

 ready to graduate under your instruction; turn then 

 to the " destitute south-west" and give us the be- 

 nefit of a few lectures. 



[We lament that our journal has not more southern 

 communications. But we deny that we have been re- 



miss in endeavoring to obtain them. The fault is in 

 all those, like our correspondent, who can write and 

 instruct, and will not do so. We have throughout 

 paid especial attention to the agriculture of the more 

 southern states; and never fail to publish every valua- 

 ble article found in other prints, as we have published 

 every original communication sent directly from the 

 south to this work. And without counting any of the 

 articles exclusively useful for the south, and though we 

 have never been south of Raleigh, nor west of Virginia, 

 we dare to assert that the observations on the prairie 

 soils of the south and west, taken in connexion with 

 the doctrines on the nature of soils in general, as pre- 

 sented in these volumes, offeras much of useful and pro- 

 fitable, and practical instruction to the people of the 

 south and west, as might have contented them in a work 

 printed among them, and designed exclusively for their 

 patronage. Yet we must confess, with feelings of dis- 

 appointment and mortification, that these available ser- 

 vices seem not to have been there appreciated, and in- 

 deed are scarcely known. We have not withheld our 

 "lectures" from the "destitute south-west," and are 

 ready to deliver them as long as they are desired. But 

 not for the reason that they are not still very much 

 wanted, (though but little in demand, in mercantile 

 language,) at home.] 



Clarke county, Va. 22d April, 1838. 



I received with my first No. of the Register, your 

 "Essay on the causes of the formation of Prai- 

 ries, &c.," which I read with much interest, and 

 with entire acquiescence in the soundness of its 

 views. I do not know whether you are aware of 

 the fact, that this part of the valley — including a 

 large portion of JefTerson and Clarke, and a less 

 one of Berkeley counties, was, when first settled, 

 and until about 80 years since, a perfect prairie. It 

 is a highly calcareous region, and its geological 

 character generally corresponds, I believe, with 

 that of the "great west." It is now covered with 

 a lofly growth of trees — though the forests are 

 more open and sparse than in the argillaceous soils 

 — and without any undergrowth except grape- 

 vines. I believe, however, that the trees here 

 are short-lived — having always observed that a 

 portion of them, in the midst of their apparently 

 vigorous and rapid growth, die annually, without 

 any extraneous or obvious cause. These facts 

 corroborate your theory, that soils which contain a 

 large portion of calcareous matter are unfavora- 

 ble to the growth or perpetuity of trees; and that 

 the luxuriant crops of grass which they produce, 

 and the abundant supply of dead wood, where 

 wood ever did exist, afforded sufficient food to the 

 annual fires, which swept over these plains and 

 destroyed their feeble efforts to throw up a woody 

 growth; and hence the formation of prairies^ 

 wherever they exist. 



Mobile, June 23. 

 I am pleased to see the zeal and ability with 

 which your: paper is conducted, and think it the 



