THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



91 



aitacked, and a larore, poriion of th.ise !^o attacked 

 died, as I have been inlbrmcii. Ii was foiuul to 

 be liijxiily conla<!;ious. With ilu; suiinncr, I be- 

 lieve It ccast'd, at leaut I heard nuiliinijcul it. But 

 it a>raiii n)ado iis apjiearaiice ihi.< winter, in the 

 city, and in the hvery siabies. Some of n)y friends 

 wlio unlbriunateiy carried their horsea there, ^oi 

 them inlecied, and liave lost several. The dis- 

 ease has spread into the conniry, producing much 

 uneasiness, and loss, in the services of the anitnals, 

 and in many cases tlie loss of tiie animals them- 

 eelves. My ol^ject \n addressinir this note to you 

 is, to request inlbrmation as to t!ie ori<fiii, nature, 

 and cure of the disease. Will either you or some 

 oC your correspondents (urnish the inlbrmation re- 

 quested above '^ Yours, truly, G. A. 



Remarks of the Editor. — We can furnish our 

 correspondent with but, little information on the 

 subject, but hope that some of our readers will do 

 60. The name of the (ieorgia fever, we under- 

 stand, was given to this disease here, because it 

 was first observed among some horses brought 

 from that state. The disease appears to be highly 

 inflammatory. The first symptoms are a droop- 

 ing of the head, a loss of appetite, and of course of 

 spirit, a running of the eyes and nose. As the 

 disease progresses the leet and limb^ become 

 swollen. The remedy, which, as we have been 

 inlbrmed, has been found most efficacious, has 

 been to bleed copiously as soon as the symptoms 

 are noticed. This is said to be almost a certain 

 cure. We have had two horses laboring under 

 this disease, both were bled copiously, (from 4 to 

 6 quarts,) and fed lightly on bran and oats. They 

 are now both well, and were sick very little more 

 than a week. No medicine was given. In fact, 

 we are informed by one who has had considerable 

 experience, that all medicine proves decidedly in- 

 jurious, and that he iiad not seen a single instance 

 in which it was administered, that the horse did 

 not die. If the first bleeding should not prove 

 sufficient, a second is resorted to, but this is rarely 

 necessary. When the legs begin to swell, the 

 disease is said to be on the decline. We have 

 given these imperfect answers to the queries 

 of our correspondent, with the hope that the re- 

 medy which has been so efficacious in our hands, 

 may be /bund equally so in that of our friends, 

 should they be so unlbrtunate as to have occasion 

 for it. We request, however, that some of our 

 readers will reply to them more liilly than we have 

 been able to do.— Ed. So. Agr. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE ANNIVERSARY ORA- 

 TION OF THE STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCI- 

 ETY OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 



By Gen. George McDuffie ; read before the society on 

 the 26th of November, 1840, at their annual meet- 

 ing in the Hall of the House of Representatives. 



The greatest, most prevailing, and most perni- 

 cious of all the practices which distinguish and 

 deform the agriculture of this and the other cotton 

 planting states, is the almost exclusive direction of 

 the whole available labor of the plantation, to the 

 production of our greatest market staple, and the 



consequent neglect of all the other commodities 

 which ihe soil is capable of producing or sustain- 

 ing, anil which are essential to supply the wants 

 of the establishment. No scheine of relbrm or 

 improvetnrnt can f)roduce any iricat and salutary 

 results, which dues not lay the axe to the root of 

 this radical vice in our husbandry. 



It should be, therefore, an inviolable rule in Ihe 

 economy of every plantation, to produce an abun- 

 dant supply of every species ol'grain, and of every 

 s|)ecies of live stock, recjiiired Ibr its own con- 

 sumption. 1 am aware, that in peculiar localiiies, 

 when the;price of cotton has been hiyh, examples 

 inay be Ibund of successful planting wiiere this 

 rule has been disregarded. 



But this serves only to prove, that even a bad 

 system prosecuted with great energy and under 

 favorable circumstances, may be crowned with a 

 considerable share of the success which would 

 more certainly have rewarded a good one. Such 

 examples, if they con^tiiule.jan exception to the 

 rule I have laid down, by no means impair its 

 Ibrce or disprove its general expediency. The 

 economy ol a plantation should be founded, not 

 upon temporary and mutable expedients, but 

 upon general and permanent rules, adapted to all 

 the probable vicissitudes of trade and of the sea- 

 sons, and all the probable fluctuations of prices 

 and of the currency. We have surely seen 

 enough of these fluctuations, and sufficiently wit- 

 nessed, if not experieficed, their disastrous influ- 

 ence, to warn us against the liital policy of yield- 

 ing up the lessons of experience to the tem[)tations 

 of high prices and prosperous seasons, li is, in- 

 deed, one of the greatest which these fluctuations 

 habitually produce among us, that we are but too 

 successfully tempted, by the temporary allure- 

 ment of high prices, to abandon all the maxims of 

 wisdom and all the rules of sound econoujy, which 

 have been imposed upon us by painful experience, 

 in periods ol depression and adversity. Let us, 

 then, each one for the sake of his own interest, 

 and all for the common welfare of South Carolina, 

 solemnly and deliberately resolve, that we will 

 never again, under any temptation, inciv the just 

 reproach which must attach to our character aa 

 planters, if we should be induced to rely upon dis- 

 tant communities for those essential supplies, 

 which our own plantations are so capable of pro- 

 ducing. And to the end that this high resolve 

 may be more firmly adopted and perseveringly 

 maintained, I shall endeavor to show, that it is 

 the dictate, not less of an enlightened self-interest, 

 than of an enlarged public spirit. 



We are, then, to consider and decide upon the 

 comparative cheapness and economy of producing 

 ourselves on the one hand, and of purchasing from 

 abroad on the other, the hogs, horses, mules, and 

 other live stock, required for the use and consump- 

 tion of our plantations, during an average series of 

 years. A stranger to our wretched habits of eco- 

 nomy would be startled at the mere propounding 

 of such an inquiry. He could not comprehend 

 the economy of importing fi-om Kentucky, what 

 our own soil and climate are so eminently adapted 

 to produce. However plausible, it is most assur- 

 edly by a false eccnomy, fbunded upon false rea- 

 soning. A man who will assume that our hogs 

 and horses mu&t be raised exclusively upon corn, 

 and gravely sit down to calculate the cost of so 



