CULTIVATION OF THE CROP. 41 



ton seed scattered in the drill, and then beds made thereupon, 

 and always with a favorable result. 



It is, I admit, a tedious process to haul out three or four 

 hundred bushels of stable manure ; but not less so is it to 

 clear, fence, and break up new ground nor more tedious than 

 pulling up stakes, severing all the tender endearments of 

 " mine own, my native land," to seek, at a heavy cost of time 

 and money, a home in the western wilds, there to suffer from 

 the combined attacks of mosquitoes and fever and ague ! I have 

 been on this spot for nineteen years settled within twenty- 

 five feet from where I now write, January, 1831 and have 

 had some experience with bread from a steel mill, rolling logs, 

 shaking with the ague, lost in a cane brake, and lying by the 

 side of a log all night. I only say, to all dissatisfied with the 

 old farmstead go to work honestly, save all manures, plough 

 deep, sow down peas, rest your land, and be a part of that 

 land. 



Another adjunct alluded to in the preceding paragraph 

 deep ploughing, and really breaking up the entire surface, not 

 leaving any unbroken earth. Remember the mine that was 

 left to a son, in his father's field ! The youth thought that 

 gold had been buried he went to work with the spade, and 

 dug up every inch, but no gold ! He had to eat, and there- 

 fore planted the product amazed him he continued, and 

 found the treasure industry and good culture ! 



If the labor bestowed in California, with pickaxes, spades, 

 &c., &c., was made available in the slaveholding States, I 

 believe the mines of Golconda and the wealth of Croesus, 

 would fail to give an idea of the result. 



And I fully believe that frequent, deep, and effectual 

 ploughing, before planting, will do great good. One of the 

 most successful planters in Hinds County, Miss., always bed- 

 ded up and reversed his beds before planting. 



