SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
235 
I liOVE THIS GROWING SOUTHERN CLIME. 
BY FRANK MYRTLE. 
I love this glowing Southern clime, 
With skies so mildly bright ; 
Where reigns one constant sweet spring time, 
So full of fond delight ; 
Where flowers are blooming all the year. 
As beautifully fair. 
As if the floral queen had made 
Her fragrant palace there. 
I love the Southern songster’s note. 
The balmy zephyr’s breath, 
Where perfumed strains of music float, 
From out the forest’s depth ; 
Where blithesome hearts are warm and true 
As ever breathed a prayer, 
And where enchanted pleasures woo 
The soul to linger there. 
1 love the Southern twilight hour. 
It breathes a holy spell, 
While musing ’neath the orange bower. 
Or in some fairy dell ; 
I love its starry heavens by night, 
Its dewy moonlit eves, 
Where Luna’s silvery beams of light. 
Gleam through the orange leaves. 
You speak to me of happy homes. 
Far in the snowy North ; 
I know the heart where’er it roams. 
Will love its native hearth ; 
But say, is not this Southern clime. 
So beautifully fair. 
More lovely in its sweet spring time 
Than aught you cherish there I 
{Mejnphis Eagle (f* Enquirer. 
HILL LANDS vs. SWAMP LANDS, &c. 
Editors Southern Cultivator— I have just received 
a letter from a planter in the hills, asking my opinion as 
to whether it would pay him to sell his hill place and buy 
land in the “swamp,” or low lands of Mississippi or 
Louisiana. This is a subject upon which I have been re- 
flecting for some time past ; and since the imprisoned 
waters of the Mississippi river have determined to be free 
and spread itself over this fine country, I have determined 
to give you an article on the subject. 
The lamented S. S. Prentice said that the Maker of 
heaven and earth had given known laws to everything 
but the Mississippi river, and he just created that and told 
it to rip. We may doubt the remark of Prentice, but 
there is one thing about which there can be no doubt, and 
that is, that the Mississppi river will not be governed by 
the le'^e laws. Every time that the river gets to within a 
foot of its present height it bursts through the levee some- 
where, and the country is flooded. 
The levee system may, at some future time, be elFective, 
but nothing is more plain than the fact that has not 
■answered the purpose in the past. The present flood will 
sweep away from Madison Parish, La , enough money 
to make the same area of land in the hills a garden spot. 
And, to say nothing of the ’’mmense loss by overflows in 
this country, every low land plantation in the Mississippi 
\ alley requires enough money and labor expended upon 
it to make it fit to cultivate, in the way of ditching and 
leveeing, to make a hill place of the same size, with a soil 
•of ordinary capacity, if put upon it, in the way of com- 
posting, suhsoiling. hill-aide ditching and horizontalizing 
to make it a 1, 1() hale U) the Tiavjl place. I speak 
from practical experience, but who will believe it ? “Ho, 
westward,” and “still they come,” will be the cry until 
the last oak in the western forest will fall before the ruthless 
axe. The gullied hills on'one side, and the “fresh lands” 
on the other will keep the tide of emigration afloat until 
the South becomes a desert waste. And then, and not 
until then will our children’s children commence, alas I 
commence !l to study agricultural science, and to improve 
the old, red hills, in order to live. There is neither poetry 
or romance in this. It is the truth and nothing but the 
truth. Look at what has been done, and you will see 
what will be done. Ask a planter who advertises his hill 
place for sale, why he wishes to sell and the reply will be, 
“oh, jny hills are washing away, and my land is wearing 
out and I want to get to a fresh country.” 
Yes, to wear that out. As if there was no way to save 
his hills and improve his land. The prevailing opinion is 
and has been, that it would pay to improve the hills; and 
such people never get convinced that they are wrong un- 
til they sell the old place for a song, leave their father’s 
grave in the hands of strangers, part with old friends for- 
ever, and childhood’s happy walks, leave the cool spring 
of water and the old orchard, and take up their line of 
march for the far off west to live amongst strangers, drink 
bad water, improve a new home, and wear it out, of 
course. Then the “scales fall from their eyes.” 
Now, my dear friends, your inquiry is answered. You 
have my opinion for what it is worth. 
Yours, &c., G. D. Harmon. 
MiUiken's Bend, La., Jane, 
RENOVATION OF LAND — PEAS, &c. 
Editors Southern Cultivator- After hearing and read- 
ing so much about the exhaustion of land by improper 
cultivation, I have concluded to “take time by the fore- 
lock” and not allow my new land to be worn out and 
then apply a system of renovation, but apply it ah initio 
and continue the application yearly, in consequence of 
which my new land instead of diminishing every year, 
will improve. 
This season I intend to plant regularly in every row, 
in some old land, the common pea, and my object now in 
writing is to ascertain the most expedient plan of appro- 
priating the pea to the land. 
The following method is, I think, a good one, notwith- 
standing I would like to see your views on the subject, 
and without you convince me of. its inutility I will try it. 
1 intend first to plant the peas simultaneously with the 
last plowing of the corn. Immediately after the corn is 
harvested I will turn in my hogs and let them remain 
about two weeks, for two reasons, viz: 
1st. They will, in search of the corn and peas lefl in the 
field, loosen the pea vines and tear them sufficiently to 
enable the plow to pass easily through them and cover 
them entirely with two furrows. Thus everything grow- 
ing in the field, before vegetation is checked by the frost, 
is turned under and thrown in a state of decomposition for 
the renovation of the soil. 
2nd. The hogs are very much benefited by the peas and 
corn left in the field, and without doing any detriment to 
the land during the short time of two weeks. 
R. N. Y. Newport. 
Jane, 1859. 
[The plan of our correspondent is a good one; but if 
the peas were sown thickly broadcast— sprinkled with 
lime or plaster, just at the period of blooming, and then 
turned deeply under, the benefit to the land would be 
much greater. Still, if all will only do as he proposes, 
there will soon be a marked improvement in cultivated 
lands throughout the South. — Eds.] 
