ROT IN COTTON. 179 



of starch, sugar, oil, and the so-called protean compounds; 

 therefore let wood ashes be applied to the " sandy land " where 

 cotton rots. 



It is an unwise, a bad system of cultivation, that makes so 

 many old and deserted fields in the cotton-growing States. 

 Nature never gets tired of growing crops of forest trees, even 

 on the very poorest lauds of the South. This fact is full of 

 instruction. Man wantonly violates her laws, and disease, in 

 a thousand forms, is sent to chastise him into better conduct. 

 How far Providence will punish the impoverishment of arable 

 lands, we have all yet to learn. It will, however, be sufficient 

 to compel a reform in our present system of tillage and hus- 

 bandry. If one degree of rot, of " murrain," or other calamity, 

 is insufficient to bring us back to the straight and narrow path 

 of agricultural duty, another, and still another degree of chas- 

 tisement will be added, until, penitent and willing to obey the 

 laws of his Creator, man will properly feed the land that both 

 feeds and clothes him. L. 



SECTION XI. ROT IN COTTON. 



We copy the following from the Liberty (Miss.) Advocate, 

 of a recent date : 



MR. FORSYTHE : In a former communication, I alluded 

 to the rot in cotton, which when properly considered, deserves 

 more than a passing notice. Millions of inhabitants are de- 

 pendent upon the culture and manufacture of the great south- 

 ern staple for employment. The disease does not affect the 

 northern producers, when they can obtain enormous prices for 

 their produce, or the manufacturer, when they can buy our 

 staple for a mere song which is not warranted by the proper 



