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B' A K M K K S U E G i S r K R 



broad cast over Bome of these fields about twenty 

 j)ounds of Italian or common rye graes to ibe acre. 

 Another field should be devoted to the cultivation 

 of the common Guinea gras?, which, although it 

 comes rather late in spring, is very pioductive, 

 and lasts till killed by the hosts of autumn. A 

 small bed left lor seed, covered during winter with 

 straw, will produce an abundance of plants, which 

 should be set out in rows eighteen inches apart 

 and the plant standing eight or ten inches in the 

 row. Another field set out in the same manner 

 with Ei^yplian millet, (penaisctum typhoidcam,) 

 one of the most productive grasses in the world, 

 growing easily from the seed, and is thoroughly 

 naturalized to our climate. Other fields 1 would 

 Jiave successively planted in vegetables, not lor 

 the market, but !br the cows. These roots should 

 be composed of turnips, ruta baga, kohl rabbi, 

 sugar beets, carrots, &c. Thus an abundance of 

 ^vZcn Ibod and vegetables would be successively 

 furnished lor every month in the year. 



Oa this farm I would build extensive and airy, 

 but not expensive stables, to secure the cattle 

 against the cold of winter — and what is lar more 

 injurious, the heat of summer. The buildings 

 should be so arranged that in summer the air may 

 liave a free circulation. Let forty or fifty cows 

 umong the best of the common breeds of Carolina 

 be purchased ; these may average about forty dol- 

 laia per head. Keep amojig them a young bull of 

 the superior English breeds. A stock may thus 

 be provided in a few years adapted to our climate. 

 Importations ofgrown cattle Ibr our lower country 

 are' not advisable, as not one out of five survives 

 livo years, whereas thooe raised here do not seem 

 to degenerate, and are as well adapted to our cli- 

 mate as the conimon variety. 



Let the cows be housed all the year, and only 

 .be allowed to go out occasionally for exercise. 

 Let their food be carriei^ to (hem as in most parts 

 if England, Belgium and Holland. They will 

 le cooler in the stables than when exposed to the 

 not sun; our cows kept in confinement in Charles- 

 ion thrive better than those that are turned out. 



The manure and litter from the stables will, after 

 the first year, go far to keep the land enriched. 



Let careful attendants be provided fljr the cattle, 

 and li'Tfht carls used to convey the milk or fresh 

 bu'ier to market morning and evening. It is not 

 my intention to estimate the profits of such an es- 

 tablishment, yet 1 cannot but think that it would 

 be infinitely greater than (hat produced by any 

 farmer in the vicinity of our city who has not in- 

 vested a larger capital. 



Should the above be regarded as a visionary 

 scheme I would only ask not to be condemned be- 

 jore the experiment has been tried and failed. 



2. Grasses to be cultivated by the planter in the 

 rotation of crops. — My own experience will not 

 allow roe to pronounce positively on the best kind 

 of grasses fur hay or pasturage adapted to our 

 southern climate as renovators of the soil. 



The old method of cultivating the same field 

 with cotton for a succession of years, and another 

 with corn, until the lands are worn out, has been 

 long tried, and the result has been destructive to 

 the best interests of the planter. His lands are 

 nearly worn out, and he has the prospect of leav- 

 ing to his posterity a ruinous liirm house, decayed 

 fences, meager cattle, and a barren soil, ll is a 

 murderous system against which the earth cries 



aloud for forbearance, and which the voice of 

 experience unhesitatingly condemns. Balaam's 

 ass stopped to remonstrate when he was over- 

 worked. It is treating our kind and teeming 

 mother with ingratitude and cruelty — demanding, 

 like the Egyptian task masiers, bricks without 

 straw — labor without rest. We have been expe- 

 rimenting on the liible of the golden egg, and are 

 now realizing the (ruit of greedy desires. Oh ! for 

 another Mantuan bard to awaken us from indo- 

 lence and error — who would instruct us with that 

 gifted lather of agriculture, — 



" Alternla idem tonsas cessare novales, 

 Et segnein patiere situ durescere campum." 



Whilst we are furnished with such large plan- 

 tations, it seems hard that our poor cattle should 

 be en fie red to pickup a scanty subsistence and 

 waste their manure in the woods. We liave a 

 sufficient number of productions already in cultiva- 

 tion to enable us to alternate our ero[)s : cotton, 

 corn, sweet and Irish potatoes, rye, wheat, bar- 

 ley, oals, ground-nuts, guinea corn, &c. — 1 need 

 not speak of rice — the heavens have it in charge, 

 and a thousand rills carry to it the drainings of the 

 richest valleys. Even in this particular a benefit 

 has, in some instances, been Ibund in either suHer- 

 ing the rice land to rest (or a year, or alternating 

 the crop. A highly intelligent and successful 

 planter of Waccamaw informed me, that he had 

 two years ago not planted a portion of his land in 

 rice, but. suffered the volunteer, or red rice, to 

 spriiiiT up. It was ploughed under; a portion of 

 the find was cultivated in oats — the remainder was 

 kept as a pasture Ibr cattle. In this way Ids land 

 was in a measure freed from red rice — he was 

 boutuifully supplied with milk and butter, and the 

 product of his rice-field was on the succeeiling 

 year one-tburth more productive than formerly. 



We have in Carolina several species of native 

 grasses, that have already been brought into cul- 

 tivation, especially the crab and crow loot. These, 

 however, are annuals, and the ground requires to 

 be every year cultivated and manured. The fox- 

 tail grass, clymas or lime grass, and manj' species 

 of poa, (estuca, and panicum, are the native pro- 

 ducts of our fields. From some of these, and 

 many others diat I have not enumerated, a selec- 

 tion might be made as an experiment, which, in 

 the end, could scarcely fail of success. 



But I would prefer making use of those grasses 

 that have been already found to be successtul in 

 agriculture. The clover and timothy i have 

 reason to fear, are not adapted to our dry, sandy 

 soil. On the various species of grasses cultivated 

 in Europe, which I have already enumerated, es- 

 pecially those of the south of France and Austria, 

 as well as Italy, no experiment has been made. 

 I doubt whether the Italian rye grass has ever 

 been seen in the southern states and scarcely in 

 America, although I have a liiint recollection of 

 seeing a few plants, some years ago, on the larm 

 of Judge Buel, near Albany in New- York. A 

 crop of oats, or rye, after the c»rn or cotton, would 

 afford a sufficient shade Ibr the grasses to vege- 

 tate, and after the spring grain was removed, 

 would not only afford hay or pasturage Ibr cattle, 

 but renovate the soil and prepare it Ibr Ihe pro- 

 duction of our staple articles. By this means our 

 land and our stock of cattle would be improved — 

 we would be less dependent on s'rangcrs for oujr 



