LETTER TO HON. J. C. CALHOUN. 29 



dition thereto procure an occasional fresh article from the 

 favored region of the cotton plant. 



I commence my cotton planting operations by breaking 

 down with clubs the cotton stalks of the past year : if they be 

 large, the limbs are threshed down first so as to break up, 

 then the stalk broken off as near the earth as possible. Of 

 course this is done when cotton succeeds cotton. I then run 

 off my rows, at such distances as the fertility and age of land 

 as well as the variety of seed demand. The fresher the land, 

 and richer it is, the greater the distance ; the Mexican seed 

 requiring more distance than the cotton I have seen, which is 

 called in a part of Mississippi, the Hogan seed a few I have 

 received as a present and these still more than the Sugar Loaf, 

 another variety from Mississippi, which in some localities in 

 the Gulf States has proved very productive. I have not had 

 occasion to give a greater distance than five and a-half feet, 

 and am inclined to think though you claim to be at the 

 northern extremity of the cotton region that upon rich and 

 fresh land the cotton stalk may be as large or larger than 

 some eighty or ninety miles south, on similar lands. 



I make it a point to plough out all land as deep as I can, 

 and without any ridge being left under the ploughed land. My 

 rows are always laid off by stakes, with a shovel-plough, and 

 then two furrows turned to it, one from each side, with an 

 efficient turned plough ; this is performed as early in March as 

 I can, endeavoring to postpone my spring ploughing until after 

 the heavy rains. Understand, I have a clay subsoil, with 

 silicious matter so fine, that no grit is perceived by rubbing 

 with the fingers. 



Using due diligence in my early ploughing, and planting 

 of corn, I am enabled to have all cotton land with three fur- 

 rows thrown up, before time to plant cotton. When the time 

 has arrived which time should not be before the seed will 



