74 COTTON PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



ditching and horizontaling, and your rotations, &c , &c., are 

 conditions actually essential to the improvement of our agri- 

 culture ; but, say they, like every other country, this beau- 

 tiful forest must be felled by the ruthless hand of Mr. Carenot, 

 all this maiden and fertile soil must first be exhausted and 

 washed into the branches, gurgling in pure and limpid water 

 from the hand of nature, and the fields defaced by gullies and 

 poverty-grass, and not till then can we give in to a complete 

 and perfect system of improvement. 



I beg to be distinctly understood here, as alluding to the great 

 principles of improvement, and not to any individual practice 

 under it. In my own practice and system of rotation, which 

 I have had in successful operation here at La Place since 1846, 

 I am not immovably confident that I have hit upon that ar- 

 rangement under the principle that is to accomplish the best 

 results. So sanguine am I, however, that it is worthy of 

 general adoption in its main features, that I feel no hesitation 

 in commending it to the consideration of those planters who 

 have determined to begin the good work of improvement. 

 As a matter of course, the circumstances of locality will, to 

 some more or less extent, modify the practice; but the prin- 

 ciple remains the same. 



Having thus disposed of the Experiments, I shall, in several 

 subsequent numbers, treat the subject as a matured system 

 of plantation economy ; showing, as I think, and, as my prac- 

 tice clearly proves, the eminent advantage of a proper rotation, 

 even in cotton planting. In doing this, I shall respond to 

 your various inquiries of stock, stock-feeding and manure- 

 making, &c., as they come in place. 



DB. CLOUD. 



