FARMERS' REGISTER— MOBILE PAVED WITH SHELLS, &c. 



270 



sale. A reasonably good planter on a good plan- 

 tation ought to average from 1500 to 2000 pounds 

 of clean cotton to the laborer each year, with 

 provisions to raise hogs enough to kill one for 

 each laborer, and some to spare. Your lands 

 will yield you from eight hundred to twelve hun- 

 dred pounds of seed cotton per acre, and from thir- 

 ty to forty bushels of corn, and on an improved 

 l)lantation, Avill cost you about ten dollars an acre. 

 I think tlie Prairie, incomparably, the finest corn 

 and small grain upland in the South; and the bald, 

 which sometimes rusts the cotton too nmch for 

 profitable planting, never produces the less corn 

 on that account ; if, therefore, in selecting a wood- 

 ed Prairie plantation, you are compelled to take 

 only as much bald Prairie with it asiuaybe need- 

 ed for your corn and small grain crop, and it lays 

 in such a maniier that it can be so used, it ought 

 to deduct but little from the value of the jdace. 



It remains for me last to say something about 

 the rust in cotton, but of which I really know no- 

 thing. Some suppose it to proceed from the caus- 

 ticness of the lime from its deficiency in vegetable 

 matter, and if so, it will be likely to increase and 

 attack the wooded Prairies so soon as successive 

 crops shall have exhausted the vegetable matter in 

 them. This may be postponed for as long a time 

 as most lands would last, by the thrifty mode of 

 listing so generally practised in this State. Others 

 suppose it to arise from the extreme looseness of 

 the soil, and its disposition to granulate rather than 

 pulverize, and not hold in so closely about the 

 small roots of the plant; and that a remedy will be 

 found in not breaking the surface of the beds too 

 near the plant, and not stirring too deep and too 

 near with the plough. We have the same disease 

 here, which has been increasing for the last two 

 years, and is within the last few days shewing it- 

 self: it neither proceeds from lime nor the deficien- 

 cy of vegetable matter, for we have none of the 

 former, and it is generally worst in our newest 

 lands, where, of course, there is the most vegeta- 

 ble matter. 



This letter has been spun out to a very unrea- 

 sonable length, and yet I could not be shorter, and 

 give man)" of the particulars that I believed one 

 would wish to know, tliat might liave thoughts of 

 settling in the West. To change your home and 

 sever the many dear and tender ties tliat bind you 

 to the friends, and the society in which you have 

 long lived, requires you to reflect well, and be 

 sure that the advantages preponderate much. If 

 you are doing well, you had better remain, is the 

 advice of a planter. 



Jam 28, 1833. 



THE FORBIER UNHEAIvTIIIlVESS OF MOBILE, 

 AND THE BENEFICIAL CHANGE CAUSED BY 

 PAVING THE STREETS WITH SHELLS. 



[The following letter, as well as the one preceding, 

 was sent to us to serve as materials in the investigation 

 of a very important subject, and not for publication. — 

 We have ventured to disobey the directions of our much 

 valued correspondent, by giving his facts to our readers, 

 directly from his own pen. There is nothing wanting 

 in their form, nor is there any other reason whatever, 

 why these letters should not so appear ; and upon our 

 confidence in that opinion being entertained by every 



reader, we place our claim to the pardon of the writer. 

 In withholding the name attached to these letters, which 

 would have still added to their value, we unwillingly 

 comply with our rule of using no correspondent's name, 

 without his consent, however desirable may be its inser- 

 tion. 



We are much gratified to be thus enabled to present 

 important facts from various sources, which concur in 

 supporting the opinions maintained in the Supplementary 

 Chapter, &c. But liowever anxious we may be that these 

 opinions may be established, and be acted on through 

 our southern country, still, tndh, and not the establish- 

 ment of a particular theory, is our object — and we re- 

 quest of our readers to aid in the discussion of this sub- 

 ject, by bringing forward any existmg reasons or facts 

 wliicii may either oppose, or support, the effect of calca- 

 reous earth in preventing disease.] — Ed. Farm. Reg. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



3fobile, Aug. 28, 1833. _ 

 Agreeably to my promise, I proceed to detail 

 to you some j^articulars about the former situation 

 and present condition of this place, in regaril to its 

 health, as connected with the system of shelling 

 the streets, and in support of the position assumed 

 in a ' Supplementary Chapter to an Essay on Calca- 

 reous Manures' recommending calcareous earths 

 as promotive of health and cleanliness in cities and 

 towns — (p. 76, Farmers' Register, No. 2.) 



I settled in Mobile in 1819, and have resided here 

 ever since. Mobile is situated at the head of Mo- 

 bile bay, just where the river of the saine name en- 

 ters it. The plain on which the city stands extends 

 back five miles, and is covered by a pine forest. 

 The region of hilly pine woods then sets in, and 

 affords ifine healthy summer retreats. Summer re- 

 treats have been formed over the plain, quite from 

 the city to the hill latid ; and they prove to be heal- 

 thy. In" 1819, ]Mobile was a small wooden built 

 toAvn — the streets narrow and deep with light sand, 

 except under the bluff, (which was eight to twelve 

 feet above the level of the river,) where the streets 

 were muddy — the tide ebbing and flowing over a 

 margin of marsh from 4 to 600 feet w ide, the edge 

 of the marsh next the bluff at all times wet spring 

 land. The rapidly increasing trade of the place, 

 early drew those engaged in it towards the river, 

 and soon covered the flat with store-houses, Iniilt 

 on lots so badly filled up, that water stood under all 

 of them, without exception — under some 6 inches, 

 some 1 to 2 feet : and encroachments were made 

 quite into the water, by laying timbers horizon- 

 tally, to give sufficient elevation. High tides 

 brought in floating logs — marsh grass — and all 

 small substances that were borne on the waves, 

 depositing them in the streets and over the flat. 

 There were only one or two streets at all filled in 

 this fiat, and they were very partially done. My 

 first visit was in July, 1819, about the middle of 

 the month: then it was healthy. About the last 

 of that month, a violent S. E. storm cast an im- 

 mense quantity of trash and filth over the flat, 

 and a long drought, followed with prevailing north 

 winds, which kept the water of the bay unusually 

 low. The place that summer was visited with the 

 yellow fever, to the extent of a pestilence. In 

 1820, there was no prevailing ei)idemic, though 

 the place could not be said to be healthy ; perhaps 

 there were sorae cases of yellow, fever. I was ab- 



