124 
SOUTHERN FARMING. 
the popular and mistaken notions of the day on 
that subject. He might, like others who fancied 
they had some agricultural taste, have had his own 
country house and farm, got up at great expense ; 
and been pestered with worthless servants, and 
dishonest managers, who only pillaged and wor- 
ried him ; and after a brief and unsatisfactory trial, 
abandoned it in disgust, like hundreds of his friends 
and neighbors, never dreaming that his farming 
got on quite as well as his law or his trade would 
have done, with the same amount of his own per- 
sonal attention ! That, and the drudgery of the 
ordinary farmer, who tilled his own scanty acres 
in his immediate neighborhood, and whose asso- 
ciation, as ignorant and degrading, he had scorned, 
were the only experience he had known, on which 
to make up his opinions • and, as a matter of 
course, he only knew agriculture to condemn it. 
" But, had agriculture her proper institutions, 
where his children could have been taught its 
necessary education and practice, and exerted its 
E roper influence among the pursuits of the day, 
ow readily would he have embraced the advan- 
tages it offered to his family, and eagerly bestowed 
the best talents of his sons to its rewards! Thus 
prepared to enjoy it, how many thousands of men, 
rich in the acquirement of proper knowledge, and 
fortified in the possession of wholesome estates, 
would be shining examples of thrift and improve- 
ment in our midst ! Ample domains, with broad 
cultivated fields — spreading pastures, dotted Avith 
the lively spectacle of flocks and herds— meadows, 
waving under the burthen of their luxuriant grass- 
es — and graced with comfortable mansions and 
bending orchards — and peopled throughout the 
year with those who really felt the dignity of their 
calling, would spread along your noble rivers, and 
look abroad from your lofty hills, and line in 
beautiful relief your canals and thoroughfares — 
spectacles of home-bred comfort and independence, 
illustrative of true American character. But, in- 
stead of these, are seen the fantastic villas and 
ephemeral erections, which perk up in ambitious 
pretension on the elevated knolls of your noble 
Hudson, the summer abodes of 'fancy farming,' 
only to be abandoned after a few brief occupations 
in a round of ennui-killing pastimes, and voted — 
a bore. Such empty essay at agricultural life, 
usually ends in the squander of what would, if 
judiciously invested in a useful farm, have been a 
handsome estate, and is sold, perhaps, under the 
hammer, at a tithe of its cost, to some man of bet- 
ter sense, who pulls down the bauble, or changes 
it into an appearance of propriety, and appropriates 
the soil to useful purposes. 
" It may be said that these pictures are of ex- 
treme cases. So they are. And, also, that they 
are subject to many proper exceptions. Very 
true. But they do exist, and that in far too great 
numbers ; and scarce one of us but knows an in- 
stance of their just application. Still there is a 
great class left — the substantial middle class of our 
farmers, who require for their sons, destined to 
follow in their own steady course, that necessary 
kind of education at present unattainable in our 
oountry, and which can only be properly given in 
agricultural schools. The young farmer painfully 
feels the want of advantages which these would 
confer, and the aid of which he vainly seeks else- 
where ; and the question, how are we to accom- 
plish the object, remains to be answered." 
The question above suggested, is answered by 
recommending the establishment of agricultural 
schools and colleges, by liberal grants, properly 
guarded, from the legislature of our state, which, 
we hope, they will intelligently consider, wisely 
organize and establish, and liberally endow, in 
such manner, and on such principles, as will not 
fail to secure the long-neglected rights of our 
farming interests. 
SOUTHERN FARMING. 
An excellent friend of ours, who is very judi- 
ciously and spiritedly improving a fine large estate 
of his in Georgia, after giving a good account of 
the fine stock, implements, and seeds we sent him, 
proceeds to say : — "I have looked through the Agri- 
culturist, but find no mention of the probable bene- 
fit or proper application of plaster of Paris to corn . 
0) 
" Would you advise me to soak my seed corn 
eight hours in saltpetre, then roll in plaster? (6) 
"I intend to try, this season, fifty acres broken 
up last September with the large plow, but shall 
use the cultivator only in tending the crop. I think 
the deep close plowing among corn adopted in this 
region, does as much injury as good, as the plow 
breaks the young roots and prevents their spread- 
ing, (c) 
" Can you give me a plan, and furnish me with 
all machinery complete for a strong, stationary 
horse power, to be used for a thresher and also foi 
a corn and cob crushe r 1 (d) 
u I got no clover from 30 acres sowed last March ; 
and of 40 acres sowed last November, only a small 
portion looks well now, although it came up finely. 
I shall try 40 acres with oats this spring, but if it 
fails, I will then lime and plaster the land where 
the clover shows above the ground." (Y) 
(a) Farmers at the north occasionally apply about 
a gill of plaster around each hill of corn, at the 
first or second hoeing, the same as with ashes. 
Some say that it is very beneficial to their crop, 
while others contend that it does little or no good. 
We know, however, that the application of 
plaster is sooner or later beneficial to the land, 
and to every kind of crop ; as it is consistent with 
acknowledged principles that it should be so ; be- 
sides, it is more advantageous to some soils and 
crops than to others, the light sandy or gravelly 
soil for instance, and the clover and other legumin- 
ous crops. But we think our correspondent would 
derive more benefit from his corn, from the applica- 
tion of wood ashes, oyster-shell lime, fish, or 
crushed bones, as these substances contain more of 
the elements necessary for the growth of corn than 
plaster. It is affirmed that plaster attracts ammonia 
and moisture from the atmosphere, as well as from 
rain water and snow, which would alone make its ap- 
plication to the soil and crop beneficial, even if it 
contained, (as it does,) no fertilizing property 
within itself. It also assists to fix the ammonia in 
