302 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
THE FARMER’S QUESTIONS TO CANDIDATES 
for the Eegislature. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — A farmer meets a 
candidate who solicits his vote. The farmer replies : “I 
ama plain man. I don’t understand United States poli- 
tics, but there are some things about home here that I do 
understand, and I want to know your vievrs about them 
before I vote for you. We know that in Georgia there is 
gold, silver, copper, lead, coal and marl, perhaps plaster 
of Paris and salt. But we don’t know how to look for 
them or follow the veins. There are probably men now 
owners of treasures who are ignorant of it. Will you 
vote for the appointment of men of science to make an ex- 
amination of the State ? 
“The Western & Atlantic Railroad was built for the 
good of all Georgia. That which Georgia most needs is 
the improvement of her soil, which is pretty near worn 
out. Will you vote to make the State Road bring up 
Guano, Super- Phosphate, &c., and carry down Lime at 
the lowest possible rates, and to make regular arrange- 
ments for the cheap transportation of all manures'? 
“Will you vote for the establishment of a farm for agri- 
cultural experiments'? so that in the large sums of money 
which are spent for stock, seeds and manures, we may 
be able, each for himself, to spend this money to the best 
advantage. 
“I expect my son to be a farmer. I want him to be an 
educated farmer. If I send him to a College, he will learn 
chiefly Latin and Greek, and will also learn to turn up his 
nose at the plow and the manure pile. Will you vote 
for the establishment of a school, where my son and the 
sons of my brother farmers can be educated so as to fit 
them for the business they are going to follow '? 
“There are a great many poor young men in the State 
who are very anxious for an education and can’t get it. 
As the good book says, “they thirst for knowledge.” 
Will you help to quench that thirst, by voting for one or 
more schools in which such young men, by their work, 
can support themselves and get an education without ask- 
ing charity from any body '? 
“The lawyers and doctors and preachers, and store- 
keepers, and Railroads get their living out of the farmers, 
and it’s about time that the farmers should get some help, 
to put them in a way of supporting this large family with 
a little more comfort and profit to themselves. We are 
going to get into a -state of great excitement about politics. 
It will all end in somebody being made Governor, some- 
body going to Congress and a whole lot to the Legisla- 
ture. We are told that the country is going to be ruined. 
But it’s been a longtime getting ruined. Somehow, in 
the ruination process, somebody always gets elected 
Governor or Congressman. The worst ruin that I see is 
our land getting worn out end our people moving to the 
West. Will you vote to help the farmers in improving 
their lands and getting their sons educated for their busi- 
ness! If you will, I will vote for you; if you wont, I 
must hunt up somebody else. We farmers have been 
pushed to the wall long enough. It is full time that we 
had our rights. We pay nearly all the taxes. We send 
men to Milledgeville and support them while they are 
there, and after they get there what do they talk about '? 
How they shall make Georgia a great State ! How they 
shall stir up the people to be more industrious ? How 
they shall bring in improvements, that in other countries 
have made the man who owns a few acres of land a rich 
man '? Not a bit of it. The talk is, who shall be Presi- 
dent — who shall go Congress — how shall we help the 
party ! Now, I don’t believe it’s worth the money that 
our Legislature costs us every year just to fix up to elect 
any one man or any set of men to office. I, for one, am 
going to keep my eye on this next Legislature. If there 
is a man there who stands up like a man for old Georgia, 
for her land and schools, and for the general wellfare oi 
her people, and sticks to that text, I am going to mark 
him and, when I get a chance, to honor him. And if my 
brother farmers will do the same and we all club together, 
in a little while we will get the trading politicians out of 
the way and the right sort of men in their places. And 
then the good time wont be coming, but it will be come. 
So, my friend, you know now what sort of a man I am 
going to vote for. Farmer. 
September, 1859. 
THE WEATHER AND CROPS IN GENERAEj 
Including tlie Grape, Apple, Pear, «Scc. 
Editors Southern Cultivator— In this vicinity the 
Corn crop is good — the long spell of wet weather has re- 
tarded the gathering of, and somewhat injured the fodder. 
The Cotton crop on red land had not received any injury 
up to near the close of August — how the last heavy rains 
will affect it, is not certain. The flat pine lands will be 
more liable to injury by rust. Some complaints of this 
nature have reached us from Southwestern Georgia. The 
breadth < f land cultivated in cotton this year being much 
greater than at any previous time, it will require some 
considerable damage from rot, rust, or any other disease, 
to reduce the crop below the figures of four million bales. 
The fruit crop is nearly a failure hereabouts. Most of 
the Peaches were unsound. The Apples are generally 
punctured and knotty. The Pears are very few — only 
one tree in my orchard has borne anything like a tolerable 
crop — the Due de Bourdeaux, on Quince, had some 
seventy or eighty splendid Pears. Mr. ’Lewis, President 
of Georgia Agricultural Society, was present at the gather- 
ing, and pronounced the sight better than any article or 
speech on Pomology. The Grapes bore a fine appear- 
ance to the middle of July ; subsequently the wet weather 
and the ravages of the birds destroyed all the finer sorts — 
Devereux, Warren, Black Florida, &c. — some few of the 
Isabellas and Catawbas escaped, merely for table use. 
The Scuppernong is safe, with a full crop. D. P. 
Mount Zion, Ga., Sept., 1859. 
POULTRY CHOLERA. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — Can you suggest a 
remedy in the Cultivator for a disease among Poultry, 
which has recently ravaged the farm yards of most of the 
planters on the Little Ogeechee. The birds, apparently 
in full health and life, are suddenly seized with paralysis in 
the legs, sink down, droop over (droop, literally, for the 
turn upon the side is slow and deliberate, followed by no 
convulsive effort whatever) and die without any visible 
suffering. The healthiest are, in every instance, attacked, 
and I have known only one case which did not end 
fatally. I have lost nearly all my poultry — sometimes 
twenty odd would die in a day — turkeys, ducks, guinea 
fowls and the ordinary barn yard fowl— all of them in the 
manner above described. They were well sheltered and 
fed, carefully tended, and ranged in a large enclosure, 
thoroughly shaded with oaks. Some of my neighbors 
have suffered severely. I have tried various remedies sug- 
gested, but none which, in any way, reached the evil. 
Yours truly, A. 
[We have, like our correspondent, yet to find an effec- 
tual remedy for this disease among fowls. Assafoetida 
and oak bark in the water trough, and a clean yard to 
run on are among the best preventives ; but we do not 
know of a good and sure remedy, when the fowl is once 
attacked badly. We shall be glad to hear from any cor- 
respondent who can furnish a cure. — Eds.] 
