84 
SOUTHEBN CULTIVATOR 
ed in iron ways, locomotives, passenger and freight 
cars, would yield twice the income by fostering the gener- 
al use of lime, and a better system of tillage than is now 
practiced. At present the State loses many of its best 
citizens by emigration, and the loss of capital by the same 
means amounts to some millions a year. Nothing short 
of an increase of fertility, and the lessening of the cost of 
making good crops will correct the evil.” 
The fact is, with the short-sighted pslicy exhibited by 
every line of railway in the State, of charging enormous 
freights upon the article of lime^ which they could well 
afford to transport during all the summer months, for a 
merely nominal sum, to pay for loading cars; and the 
murderous policy of the farmers in the State, of cutting 
down, wearing out, and allowing the washing away of 
the soil, with no other calculation than to leave the coun- 
try ; and over and above this, the want of the right sort 
of law-makers in our Legislature- weTt of patriotic hearts, 
who love “their own, their native land;” men ofenlai’ged 
and educated minds, who can forget their party for the 
best interests of the whole country ; men who can rise 
above “log-rolling caucuses,” “slangwhanging buncombe 
speeches” and all such stuff and “fiddle-faddle,” instead 
of such as are now sent, who, in a majority of cases, are 
as ignorant of “law-making” as a Feejee Islander; and 
who, from being Militia captains, have arrived at the dig- 
nified position of Legislators, {in a horn !) by the tricks 
which are fixed up so often by men who possess cunning 
and nothing else ! So long as the, farmers of Georgia sub- 
mit to these evils — create these evils themselves — we can 
hardly hope for better things ! Glorify the “Empire State 
of the South” as much as stump orators and trading poli- 
ticians will and may ; so long as the masses are groveling 
in ignorance — the chartered monopolies are grinding and 
squeezing the life and the blood out of the lands each 
year — and so grasping as to look only to the present — 
and our law-makers are “log-rolling” and “scheming,’’ 
can we hope for better things I No man can look at this 
state of things and not wonder that the Railway men of 
Georgia, who are all directly or indirectly interested in 
the culture of the earth, should pursue so doggedly the 
short-sighted policy you indicate. They certainly have 
“eyes but they see not,” that for every bushel of lime 
brought to Middle and Northeastern Georgia, with which 
the “old red hills” can be rejuvenated, will they be doub- 
ly, trebly remunerated in the increased number of bales 
of cotton, bushels of corn, wheat, &c., for transportation? 
Our lands in Wilkes, Lincoln, Oglethorpe, Elbert, Colum- 
bia, &c., from being once the garden spot of Georgia, have 
become worn out, and need lime to recuperate their lost 
energies ! Will our solons in Milledgeville instruct the 
Governor to transport lime for agricultural purposes, on 
the State Road, free, or at a nominal price ? and will they 
recommend to the other Roads a like policy ? If they 
would, I have no doubt the farmers in all the counties 
^\\\j.orgive all the sins of omission by their Representa- 
t.ves this session ! My own land needs lime, but I can- 
not pay the prices asked for it and freights to our depot. 
I am not alone. Thousands of bushels would be used in 
^ this county were it cheaper. As it is, but little is used, 
but that little pays its progressive user well ! Agitate the 
subject, gentlemen ; let all the advocates for improvement 
be heard. we must have ; for “old Mother Earth,” 
hereabout, cries aloud for it. R. 
Oglethorpe County, January, 1856. 
REPORT or THE COMMITTEE ON GRASSES, 
Read Before the Pendleton {S. C.) Farmers' Society, at its 
Fourth Anniversary, October \“ith, 1855. 
The Committee on Grasses have requested their Chair- 
man to present, in lieu of any report from them, a state- 
ment of his experiment in the raising of hay. The Chair- 
man of said Committee is, himself, quite sensible of his in- 
competency to instruct such a body as this, in regard to 
any branch of Agriculture. I can, however, tell my short 
experience in hay-making and I can give my impressions 
of the value of hay in a section of country like ours. And 
this I will do as briefly as possible. 
That some kind of “roughness” is an indispensable 
part of the food of every horse and cow, we all know well. 
In this part of South Carolina we rely mainly on Fodder 
and Shucks to supply this indispensable requisite. Three 
years ago I was travelling in Tennessee, just across the 
North Carolina line. I visited the farm of an old gentle- 
man whom I found busy cutting his beautiful meadows. 
He looked at me with curiosity as being from South Caro- 
lina. “So you live in South Carolina,” said he, “the 
country taAere they pull fodder." The question is, can we 
produce anything better than that which we have been 
accustomed to ? Will our climate and our soil enable us 
to do anything better than pulling fodder? My limited 
experience leads me to believe that by diverting a portion 
of our bottom-lands from the culture of corn, we can, in 
this part of South Carolina, produce good hay, and that it 
will pay better than pulling fodder, with corn and cow-peas 
thrown into the bargain. 
1. I will not stop to inquire whether stripping off the 
fodder does or does not injure the corn. Farmers are di- 
vided on this, as they are on an hundred other matters 
which would seem easy to settle, and so, although follow- 
ing the oldest trade in the world, appeared to have as 
many open questions among them as disturb the peace 
of either of the learned professions. I will just remark, 
however, that in the case of hay vs. fodder, the defendent, 
fodder, comes into this court with a serious doubt resting 
upon his character, by reason of a pretty wide-spread and 
perhaps agrowing conviction in the minds of farmers that 
he has done much damage to their corn. But to pass this 
by, I suppose I may allege, without fear of contradiction, 
as a second objection to fodder pulling, that 
(2 ) It is unwholesome work, making it necessary for 
the hands to be wet frequently to the skin in the early morn- 
ing, after which their clothes must dry upon them under 
our hot sun. 
3. The chief advantage of hay over other fodder is in the 
yield. This year I pulled fodder for about four weeks, 
and cut hay from my meadow for about six weeks, with 
the same number of hands. The results were about 
20,000 lbs. fodder to about 90,000 weight of hay. The 
season, moreover, had been very unfavorable from con- 
stant rain to the cutting of hay, but contrarywise, the 
weather in fodder pulling was as fine as possible. Now 
reckon both hay and fodder worth 50 cents per 100 lbs., 
and the fodder crop, of 20,000 lbs., is worth $100, while 
4 weeks’ cutting of hay, or 60,000 lbs,, would be worth 
$300, 
4. But another advantage of hay, is its superior quali- 
ties for nourishment. It is said that good hay is half as 
good as corn. If fodder is worth 50 cents, hay is surely 
