490 FARMERS' REGISTER— GRAZING— PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE. 



He gave a portion of it to several persons, all of 

 Avliom put it into the ^round, and it grew well ; 

 but before it was well ripe, many of Ihem were 

 impatient for the produce ; and, as they expected 

 to find the grain at the roots of tiie stems, similar 

 to their potatoes, they examined them, and finding 

 no wheat under the ground, all except one pulled 

 it up and burned it. 



The chiefs ridiculed Duaterra about the wheat, 

 and all he urged would not convince them that 

 wheat would make bread. II is own crops and 

 that of his uncle, who had allowed the grain to re- 

 main, came in time to pcriection, and were reaped 

 and tlirashed ; and, tiiough the natives were much 

 astonished to find tiiat the grain was produced at 

 the top, and not at the bottom of the stem, yet still 

 they could not be persuaded that bread could be 

 made of it. 



A friend afterwards sent Duaterra a steel mill 

 to grind his wiieat, which he received witli no little 

 joy. He soon set to work before his countrymen, 

 ground some wheat, and they danced and shouted 

 Avith delight when they saw the meal. He after- 

 Avards made a cake, and baked it in a frying pan, 

 and gave it to the people to eat, which fully satis- 

 fied them of the assertions. From this time there 

 was of course no difficulty in making the culture 

 a fashionable one. 



As I am situated, I have to keep three fields, of 

 one hundred and fifty acres each, in clover tor 

 pasture, and they are fallowed alternately. One 

 more field of the same size is divided, upon which 

 I make corn. U]jon those two fields I put the 

 greater part of my manure, and they are necessa- 

 rily divided by a ^ood fence, as I feed my cattle 

 for the most part in the field. Now sir, look at 

 the difference in expense and results between me 

 and Mr. Selden. He cultivates under a single 

 enclosure three fourths of his land, and I, by vir- 

 tue of the act of General Assembly, two hundred 

 and twenty five of wheat on fallow and corn land, 

 and seventy five in corn, with the very heavy 

 charge of four division fences; — out of four hun- 

 dred acres, he derives profit from three hundred, 

 and out of six hundred, I can only have the same, 

 for whicli I am indebted to the concentrated wis- 

 dom of the state. If it be true that tlie strength 

 and virtue of an agricultural community depend 

 upon its agricultural abundance, why legislate 

 land into common? why is one half of our land 

 under civilized rule, and the other half entirely 

 savage or Indian.'' To provide against unwise and 

 evil legislation, I am constrained to use one hun- 

 dred and fifty acres of land for pasture, or enter 

 my own domains in common with those who would 

 mark and appropriate every thing fat as their own. 



JEREMIAH. 



THE RIGHT OF GRAZING IN C03IBI0N. 



To the Editor of ihe Farmers' Register. 



If I were able, I would send your Register into 

 every county in the state. Your correspondents 

 are numerous, and they delight me ; their spirit 

 augurs well — f(:)r if wrong, pride and perseverance 

 will soon jHit them right, the more especially as 

 they put their proper names to their communica- 

 tions. Poor Jeremiah has no nerve for this : he 

 must be permitted to speak as from his grave, and 

 having said what he believes from experience, and 

 poured his mite into the general treasury, let his 

 remarks })ass, with those concerned, for what they 

 are worth. Men seeking profit, care not from 

 whom it is derived, nor stop to ask for names; — 

 rest assured of one thing — that what he states as 

 fact, he will always be ready to prove before a 

 court of record. 



I tender my acknowledgments to many of your 

 correspondents; but to Mr. Selden I am a great 

 debtor. In 36 years of watching and toil, I have 

 seen nothing, heard nor imagined of nothing, like 

 his practice. If I were an emperor, his practice, 

 like the cut of a Chinese coat, should be fixed and 

 unchanged for one thousand years ; for sir, if in 

 the sap and green tree it is thus productive, what 

 will it it not do in time.' Like the queen of Sheba, 

 I must pack up and regale my senses with the 

 practical wisdom of Mr. Selden. My arrange- 

 ments from necessity must materially differ from 

 his. The right of common created by the General 

 Assembly, and so long enjoyed by the good people 

 of this state, puts it out of the power of any far- 

 mer in this county to enclose a standing pasture. 

 His servants are not lawful witnesses, and the 

 whole profits of an ordinary fiirin Avould not em- 

 ploy a sufficient number of competent witnesses 

 to protect a fence enclosing three or four hundred 

 acres of land. I may therefore, with strict pro- 

 priety, charge the General Assembly with spoiling 

 my estate full one thousand dollars per annum. 



PLANTING IN GEORGIA. 



Putnam County, ^ Geo. I2lh Nov. 1833. 



From the limited examination I have been ena- 

 bled to give to my numbers of your work, I am 

 highly pleased with it. I tliink it will be highly 

 beneficial to the farming interests of your state. 

 It is designed and better ad-^jited to the mode and 

 manner of Virginia farming than that of Georgia. 

 The difference of climate in the two states, the 

 difference in the articles cultivated, render it a 

 more useful paper to your farmers than to ours — 

 though we can draw many valuable lessons from 

 it, that will be immensely profitable to us if we 

 will put them to practical use. 



Farming, as a science, is in a bad condition in 

 this state. We appear to have but one rule — that 

 is, to make as much cotton as we can, and wear 

 out as nmch land as we can. We have not yet 

 learned how to redeem land, or to improve it by 

 any system of manuring. We have always (till 

 now) had a fresh country on our border to which 

 the farmer could retreat when he found his lands 

 any way failing in their usual productions, with- 

 out the aid of manure. Hence in riding through 

 our state, waste plantations, fields turned out and 

 grown up in broom sedge, every where meet the 

 eye. We have most prodigally and carelessly 

 used and abused one of the finest countiies for soil 

 and climate in the world — a soil that paid better for 

 the labor bestowed upon it than any north of the 

 Mississippi river. 



This state of things is fast changing with us. 

 The opportunities of a fresh country will present- 

 ly cease — our whole system of agriculture Avill 

 have to undergo a change ; — we are obliged to re- 

 main where we are, and make the best we can of 

 our lands. They are exhausted ; lands that once 

 proiluced one thousand pounds of cotton to the 



