12 SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
THE “WESTERN FEVER” — MOVING. 
“I wiih I had never left Georgia.” 
Dsar Editors: — I took the “ Western Fever” twenty- 
eight years ago, and took it as naturally as I ever did the 
“chills,” and not without some little exposure, I suppose. 
Yet, I got through it ; and though I often thought, I ad- 
lait, *'! wish I had never left Georgia,” yet I “never told it’’ 
—I had too much pride to admit it. Yet, dear friend, though 
we poor mortals oft times have our clouds, we have our 
stinshines. Are there not even now many who regret 
leaving their “fader land,” the “ dear auld country,” “ my 
bonny hame,” even in the “ granite State,” or the land of 
(jsiions, and where nutmegs are said to be grown out of 
the tree, or pumpkin seed from the sycamore — yet, is this 
’ 19 ’orth thinking about. The question is, have not the 
g^eat mass benefitted themselves and their children '? 1 
had troubles, some little richness, hard fare and bad 
water. Had I remained where the wind was eternally 
moaning through the pine leaves, I may not have had 
some of the discomforts, but I never could have hoped 
for my present comforts, I know in the West, hundreds, 
it may be thousands, who have moved from the North, 
the East, the South, and from Georgia, too, who would 
aot now exchange the glorious West for their old homes, 
with a large “boot.” The time was v/hen I had to send 
over 20 miles to a Postoffice, when the corn had to go miles 
before it was made into meal, and v/hen, supperless, I 
had to go to bed, or eat boiled or parched corn. This, 
many of us had to pass through ; not so now. We now 
have our comforts — floors carpeted, in lieu of puncheon 
floors; plastered and p? 'lered walls in lieu of logs, and 
cracks large enough to p tch a wild cat through; we have 
our silver forks and ma. ogany in lieu of fingers and a 
puncheon stuck in a cr--, '<-, for a table. I have had a 
wagon out of work, going to town, now I can go by rail- 
road, do my trading and sleej. at home on a hair mattrass. 
I had, 25 years, ago, 2 pieces o; split wood, with four holes 
bored in, and 4 legs put in each— carpenters call them 
trussels — upon which oak boards or puncheons were laid 
and my travelling mattress d thereon, upon which I 
slept most sweetly, and when it snowed had to cover 
^head and ears.” Now I sleep, not half so sweetly either, 
on a Rosewood French bedstead, worth $200. 
So you see, a little, yes, a very little stint — hard fare — 
puts us of the Great West in the way of doing better. I 
eame here a poor man 23 years old, with a wife and one 
child. Come from a town, too, my wife educated in one 
of the best schools in the South, it was hard on her, she 
was raised so delicately, too, but her father and mother 
were working folks when she was born ; her mother 
Mary played as well on the spinning wheel as ray Mary 
did on the piano; but she, as lovely a girl as ever left 
“Georgia,” took to the drudgery of plantation life, while 
she attended to our little cooking and washing, I attended 
to the “more weighty matters” of the field ; I came here 
with gloves, silk stockings and ruffle shirts, and did not 
mind half so much my blistered hands, as I did the sweet 
smile she gave me when she put on the pine table, that 
cost $1 50, what she had cooked. Oh, I thought that she 
thought, “had I married John I would not 
have come to this.” But it is all over now. Her daughter 
Mary is as comfortably fixed as my Mary is, and much 
better than the 1st Mary — my Mary’s mother was. Thus, 
ray friend, we are not to look at the present. Where 
there is industry, energy, economy, a will-to-do, and a 
determination never to flinch, the West is the country 
We want more others here. We want boys and girls to 
meet any crisis, and their parents must have the game to 
make the right young ones. Never mourn for westerra 
emigrants, the few who deserve it, would fail at home. 
Yours, &c., LIU. 
December, 1858. 
IN-AND-IN BREEDING. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — I am gratified to sec 
you have the nerve to print the article on page 363 of the 
Cultivator for 1858, in spite of the known opposition of 
the whole mass of planters, and stock raisers generally 
throughout the entire South. I say the whole, because I 
only hear one sentiment — oppposition. I know friends, 
of more mind than I dare lay claim to, who would breed 
an animal to one known to be inferior, rather than to the 
best if a near of kin. Whilst I object not to your Legis- 
lature, wisely prohibiting inter- marriage with cousins — 
in-and-in breeding in the human family — yet I would 
not have such a law, or such a pedigree as to stock. 
Could man have the permission from our Master to make 
selections as to mind and body in the human family I do 
not doubt, but what mind, might not be and the body fcer- 
tainly) improved, but as the law and the gospel forbid, we 
would not discuss that. 
In the article on pages 363 and 364, we have testimony 
from the practice of the Earl of Leicester, in the Bakewell 
sheep, in that of the Brothers Colling, in the lordly Dur- 
ham, and we can adduce the Bekrshire, the Essex, the 
Suffolk hogs, pass on to the race horse and show the best 
stock have often a double or treble dip from one source. 
To Robert Bakewell — known as Lord Durham or the 
Earl of Leicester — is due much of correct principle in 
breeding. He was never known to have used any cross 
in his famous Bakewell sheep, and the fact that when he 
first rented out his rams he only recived 16 shillings, say 
$4 per year, yet he soon farmed out a number at 25 
guineas, or $125 per year. 
The Codings beginning in the same v.’ay, improving 
Durham cattle — beginning from 1 cow, I think, in 30 
years sold 47 head ; 12 under 1 year old, at $35,000. 
Count, the choice bull, commanded 1000 guineas. 
Who would breed a No. 1 Suffolk sow, to a land pike, 
rather than to her brother or sire 1 If such there be, then 
he deserves not so fine a hog. Who would breed a No. 1 
Patton stock Devon cow to a piney-woods Carolina bull, 
in preference to a No. 1 bull — her full brother'? If such 
there be, a law should be passed to appoint him a guar- 
dian. I have known a flock of sheep without any cross for 
25 years, and they were not, worth over $1 to $1 50 each, 
but the sheep were never worth more, and never any selec- 
tion ; a ram was turned out, as many do a bull or a boar, 
the first or the last or just as the person thought at the 
time, and, no doubt, forgotten at times to leave one. No 
doubt but what the most worthless stock can be improved 
by feed and selecting breeders ; but would it pay 1 is th® 
question. 
I have only desired to allude to this so that your readers 
will not pass that article by without a thought. Many 
notions exist as to Agricultural and Stock breeding mat- 
ters which would soon fall below the investigating mind, 
and it is only necessary to get the attention of mind to th« 
matter. The great prejudice to in-and-in breeding would 
vanish before investigation. 
Yours, with best wishes, 
M. W. Philips. 
Edwards, Miss., Dec., 1858. 
1^" A French writer says that “to dream gloriously,” 
you must act gloriously while you are awake ; and to 
bring angels down to converse with you in your sleep, 
you must labor in the cause of virtue during the day. 
