\i6B 



FARMERS* REGISTER— SOUTHWESTERN PRAIRIES. 



The red ami grey uplands lay very level and do 

 not wash, are easy (o work, and free from the ca- 

 sualties of tlie river, and tlic disagreeaMcncss of a 

 residence on the Prairie, and make the handsomest 

 plantations. Tliey do not produce as much per 

 acre as the swamp or the Prairie, and they suffer 

 more from drought, and I think they are not as du- 

 rable ; but tlieir conveniences are so great, and you 

 are sure of a pretty good crop, and your lands lay 

 together so handsomely that they also stand very 

 liigh, and I think are more in request than any 

 other lands by the residents. They are more heal- 

 thy than the river lands, but less so than the Prai- 

 rie. The grey lands are lighter and bear drought 

 better, but are not generally as productive. To 

 contrast these lands with each otlier, I should say, 

 the red lands make the handsomest plantations, 

 and the most comfortable residences, and are lia- 

 ble to the fewest casualties and diseases, but their 

 general crops not as large as cither of the others. 

 The river lands have the most substantial conveni- 

 ences, make large crops, and have a great advantage 

 in the navigation, but are less healthy than the 

 others. The Prairies make the largest crops and 

 have most health, but make very unpleasant re- 

 sidences and bad roads, and are liable to the rust, 

 a disease uncertain in the extent of its injury, or 

 to what kinds of Prairie it may extend. 



With these advantages aiid disadvantages before 

 him, of the different kinds of land, a settler will 

 try so to locate his plantation as to avoid the pro- 

 minent objection to each. If you select a river or 

 a red-land plantation, the same rules that would 

 guide you in wh.at lands yf>'i would plant if here, 

 ought to guide you there : I shall, therefore, say no- 

 thing about them. If a Prairie plantation is se- 

 lected, and I could recommend one settled at dou- 

 ble the price of one all in the Vvoods as cheaper, I 

 would advise, that the bald Prairie, part of the old 

 land, should be put in corn, because it rusts the 

 cotton, and tlic wood-land, both old and new, and 

 the bald, if new, to be put in cotton, because the 

 bald is very little liable to rust cotton till it has 

 been planted three years. The only difiiculty of 

 making a crop on the bald Prairie the first year is, 

 that tlie land is so much bound in a close mat of 

 coarse grass roots, that it cannot produce, without 

 it is ploughed up sulTiciently early for the frosts of 

 winter to strike through it and moulder it down. 

 One of our broom-straw old fields will give you 

 some idea of a bald Prairie, both as to the appear- 

 ance of its growth and the situation of the soil as 

 affected by its roots. Newly cleared land gives a 

 more certain rise of cotton and a surer crop than 

 old land, and requires for its preparation the .same 

 treatment from hoe and j)lough as here. The ge- 

 neral preparation for the crop should be as it is here 

 among good planters: though it is certainly true, 

 that fine crops are made under a preparation of tiie 

 soil, and a cultivation of them entirely too slovenly 

 to be called husbandry, or to give the planter any 

 credit for it, as it all belongs to the soil and the 

 season. 



It is an object of first consequence to clear land 

 for cultivation; therefore, after fixing your negroes 

 in comfortable buildings, and a good pen for your 

 mules, you should push yur clearings, and put 

 your plantation under one fence. The most expe- 

 ditious mode of clearing, is to grub nothing, but to 

 cut with the axe the bushes even with the ground, 

 and to cut down the small growth under four or 



five inches in diameter, and all the rest to girdle of 

 ring by cutting through the bark and a little into 

 the sap-wood all round the tree, and to do so little 

 of the cutting dov/n as to enalde each laborer to 

 go over from one-third to one-half acre per day. 

 Where the stump of the tree stands, you cannot 

 ])lant, and the body may as well stand above it, 

 for at any rate the first and second years. Ano- 

 ther kind of girdling is to cut in with tiie axe in 

 single chops, following each other in the circle, 

 without taking the chip out; this mode is about 

 four times as fast as the other, and yet, perhaps, not 

 to be preferred, because as you have no present 

 means of knowing whether the communication of 

 the sap has been cut off, you are very liable to be 

 imposed upon with bad work. Where you wish 

 to make certain of the trees dying the same year, 

 you must girdle deep enough to go through the sap- 

 wood. I have seen large oaks in the spring and au- 

 tumn wilt on the same day they were girdled deep, 

 that is into the red wood. The trees easiest killed 

 are the ash, the maple, the pine, the various kinds of 

 oak and the cotton; the trees most difficult are the 

 scycamore, the gums, the beach, the elm, the waw- 

 hoo, and the lyn. You will of course pile your brush 

 and burn about such trees, and leave the others to 

 the stroke of the axe. Where the undergrowth is 

 principally cane, and a thick growth of it, you cut 

 down and girdle nothing, but cut down the cane, 

 which when seasoned, you put the fire to and it does 

 all the rest of the cleaning for you ; but the cane must 

 be close so as to make a strong fire. Where it is 

 sparse, you will have to clear as above described. 

 When you are clearing have all the stuff suitable 

 for your buildings cut and hauled to the spots on 

 w hich they are to be erected, because after the crop 

 is laid bv, you cannot haul out of the cultivated 

 fields, and your teams will not be in a suitable con- 

 dition after making a crop. In ordinary years you 

 may calculate on taking off a large portion of your 

 men from the middle of June till the middle of 

 August or first of September, to go to work on 

 your buildings ; you should have a strong team of 

 oxen. 



I believe I have given you a faithful account of 

 the lands and the various matters that are to be 

 taken into consideration, in making choice of a 

 plantation, with some of the steps preparatory to 

 commencing a crop. The liest mode of attend- 

 ing a crop, and the quantity that may be attended 

 to the hand, are matters I do not feel competent to 

 advise upon, and would therefore recommend the 

 practice of the best planters of your neighborhood. 

 The usual mode of cultivation is different from 

 <jurs, and possesses much advantage over it in its 

 greater expedition — they neither bed nor draw 

 earth to the cotton with the hoe, their almost ex- 

 clusive object is to draw the grass and weeds from 

 the plant, and leave the rest to the exertions of the 

 fine soil. The broad skim plough is very much 

 used. 



The want of room on my paper admonishes me 

 it is time to conclude this long letter. It contains 

 so little matter of general interest to your readers, 

 that I send it with hesitation, assuring you it is en- 

 tirely at your discretion, either io put it in ^iout 

 columns, or into the fire. 



Your's, &c. 



A FLANTEtt. 



July 20, 1833. 



