42 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



about 600 lbs., iho' 900 and 1000 lbs. have at times i 

 been produced, which usually sells at five and six 

 dollars per hundred. Nothinij; requires more care 

 in ihe preparation of the <j;round before sovvin>jj. 

 Its subsequent management of pulling and brea- 

 king reijuires very heavy labor ; none but our 

 strong able negro men can handle it to advantage. 

 Very little is exported, being mostly manulactured 

 in the state into bale rope and bagging. It is not 

 considered an exhausting crop; Irum ten to filteen 

 crops in succession have been taken ofi' the same 

 ground without any material variation in its pro- 

 duction. It is of rapid growth, and soon protects 

 the ground from the infiuencc of the sun, that 

 connected with the superior order in which the 

 ground is prepared lor sowing, and the care 

 taken in preventing all stock from trampling in 

 winter, would keep our best lands in good condi- 

 tion for hemp fifteen years without the aid of ma- 

 nures. Its culture and manufacture may be con- 

 sidered disagreeable but not unhealthy, unless 

 from the quantity of dust arising from it, persons 

 inclined to consumption may be more exposed, 

 than when engaged at other occupations. 



Coriiii our gieat staple, upon it we depend to 

 fatten our horses, mules, cattle and hogs, as well 

 as for bread in our lamilies. In our best lands, a 

 good hand will tend 30 acres after the ground is 

 prepared in the spring, and the corn planted. 

 Eight to ten barrels may be considered the ave- 

 raire crop, and i^l.50 to $2 per barrel the average 

 price. The quantity sold, however, bears but a 

 small proportion to ihat consumed by the farmer 

 in Ihe feeding of stock. 



Upon all our large stock farms the corn is cut 

 up in the fail, stacked in shocks of 16 hills square, 

 and led out to stock in the winter and spring, in 

 lots provided lor the purpose, or upon our blue 

 gra^s pastures. 



Our system of feeding and grazing cattle and 

 hogs requires less labor to the quantity of ground oc- 

 cupied than any other mode in which we can use 

 labor. Some of our large farms containing 1000 

 to 1500 acres, all in grass and cultivation, anti 

 I'eeding 200 to 300 head of catllc, and as many 

 hogs, requiring only about ten good hands to do 

 all the work. 



Cottle in all our rich counties form an impor- 

 tant item in our system of husbandry — the num- 

 ber 1(3(1 lor the butcher annually being very great ; 

 probably in no one item has greater improvements 

 been made than in our cattle. In their neatness of 

 appearance, aptitude to fatten at an early age, and 

 greater weight of carcass, they have been greatly 

 improved. 



The breeding and feeding cattle are similar to 

 to that of mules. Calves are raised until two and 

 three years old by the sm;ill farmers, when they 

 are sold to the grazier, v.ho winiers them the first 

 year on fodder, and the next v.'inter and spring 

 ihey are led for the butcher. 



< hir stock now consists priticipallj' of the full 

 Itlood Durham short-horns, with all the interme- 

 diate grades, crossed upon our common cattle, 

 ■with a kw Herelbrds and Lona-horns. I can 

 form no idea of the number of improved Dur- 

 hams ol'pure blood. The number is now trreal and 

 increa-inif rapidly. Very lew less than 100 have 

 been brought into the state the i)reseni year, mostly 

 imported. The prices given in the last 4 or 5 3'ears 

 have caused a rapid demand for them. Our own 



state is not yet fully su|)plied, and the new stales 

 must rely upon us lor their supply whenever they 

 are prepared with grass to breed them. 



The pedigrees ol' our imported rattle and their 

 descendants are preserved and published with 

 izreat care ; with but lew excepiions, the Franklin 

 Farmer contains ihe pedigrees of our be-st stock. 

 We are also preparing to publish a Herd Book, 

 similar to that of England, in which great eare 

 has been taken to give correct and laithful pedi- 

 grees. 



Our principal markets for beef cattle are Louis- 

 ville, Cincinnati, New ^Orleans, Baltimore and 

 South Carolina. H. BiiAkton. 



KIDNEY-SEED COTTON. 



To the Editor of tlie Farmers' Register. 



Indian Key, T. F., 15th July, 1839. 

 The notices in your periodical of new varieties 

 of cotlon remind me that I also have a new spe- 

 cies, which has been growing at Cape Florida 

 since 1833, and ai Indian Key since 1837. I al- 

 lude to ihe species called kidney seed cotlon m 

 Yucatan, of which 1 forwarded seeds to many 

 parts of the United States every year since 1827, 

 but I have never received any history of their 

 failure or success. Fearing that even those sent 

 to Cape Florida in the spring of 1833 might have 

 perished by neglect, on my departure from Cam- 

 peachy in January, 1837, I packed up a small 

 quaniityuith ihe other seeds to be carried by 

 myself to Florida; but owing to the delays and 

 difficulties of getting even from New Orleans to 

 Key West, I had finally to pass via Havanna to 

 the Florida Reef, and hence did not reach this 

 islet until the 20th of July. In August of that 

 year one mass of the conglomerated seed was- 

 planted in a box containing a cubic fool of tho 

 soil which here consists solely of calcareous pow- 

 der colored by vegetable mould. On my arrival 

 here with my family the 25th of December last, 

 1 found that the box contained six shrubs about 3 

 feet high, with stems as thick as my thumb, and 

 branches to correspond. In I'^ebruary last the 

 first bolls began lo open, and they continued to 

 ripen during the ensuing months of March and 

 April; and the shrubs were ihen transplanted on 

 Matacumba. The seeds collected from these bolls 

 I am sowing at intervals in the most unpromising 

 sites and surfaces on that island — e. g. on ihe dry 

 shell bank which rises a lew leet above high wa- 

 ter mark of the sea, and on the rocky jirairie, 

 behind which is covered with water by every 

 heavy shower. My confidence that this shrub 

 will domesticate ilself in the worst sites sind sur- 

 faces of these calcareous keys is lound in the fol-- 

 lowing liicis. 1st. It grows spontaneously on 

 similar sites and surfaces near the sea at Cam- 

 peachy ; 2ndly. it has flourished the last six years 

 near Cape Florida; 3rd. a wild species of shrub- 

 cotton is indigenous to the rocky wastes of these- 

 islands; 4ih. the sea island cotton planted by C. 

 Howe at Duck Key 8 j'ears ago continues lo grow 

 and bear cotlon ; 5th. on the lOtli May last at Key 

 Vacas, I picked cotton Irom a shrub which Mr. 

 Piinl, an old resident, assured mc was planted 

 there in the year 1823 — 16 years ago. The trreat 

 im[)orlance of this new slai)le lo the Florida Keys 

 may be estimated from the following considera- 



