SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
113 
Society, for the year, by paying into the treasury the sum 
of ; or may become a life member by paying at one 
time the sum of . 
Art. 10. — This Constitution may bealtered or amended 
by a vote of two- thirds of all the members present at any 
Annual Meeting of the Society. 
GENERAL REGULATIONS. 
I. Life and annual members of the Society, and all 
others who shall pay into the treasury, will be 
furnished with badges entitling them to compete for pre- 
miums, and admission with the bona fide members oftheir 
family, with carriages, to the Show Grounds, and all de- 
partments of the Exhibition, during its continuance. 
II. Stock and Articles must be entered in the name of 
the bona fide owners, and Grain, Fruit, Vegetables, Dairy 
Products and Domestic Manufactures, must have been 
raised and made by the exhibitors thereof 
III. Animals and Articles that have taken premiums at 
previous Exhibitions will not be allowed to compete, ex- 
cept for a higher premium. In c^se they are adjudged 
best, after having received the highest premium, a certifi- 
cate of the fact will be awarded. No Animal or Article 
can compete but for a single premium. 
IV. Premiums will not be paid on Animals or Articles 
of inferior merit, although there may be no competition. 
No premium shall be paid on any Animal or Article 
owned by a firm, unless each member of said firm is a 
member of the Society. 
V. No person shall act as a judge for awarding premi- 
ums, for which he is any way a competitor. 
VI. Any person who shall knowingly violate the regu- 
lations of the Society, or who shall seek to obtain a 
premium by false pretences, or by improper interference 
with the judges, shall be excluded from competition. 
VII. Premiums awarded and not called for at or before 
the Annual Meeting in — , will be considered as do- 
nations to the Society. 
VIII. Competition, on all articles, is open to the State. 
EEPOST ON THE CULTURE OF FLAX, AND ITS 
PREPARATION FOE USE. 
From the CommUtce ap pointed by the Newberry Agricul- 
tural Society. 
The Committee to whom this subject was referred have 
no estimate of the quantity of flax raised in our country, 
yet considerable attention is paid to it, not only for the 
sake of the fibre as a material for thread and linen, but like- 
wise for the seed on account of its oil, of which there is a 
large quantity manafactured, which always affords a 
ready sale. In the Northern States many farmers make a 
business of it to raise considerable quantities of flax 
Some counties have as much as (»0 to 8U thousand bushels 
of seed to sell, which, with the Flax and TowLinen manu- 
factured by them, is eagerly sought after by the consumers 
Nothing affords readier or quicker sale than the Linen and 
seed for oil. 
Your Committee, therefore, recommend the culture of 
flax to the attention of Southern Planters, as the up-coun- 
try they think is well adapted to raising it, and would af- 
ford, no doubt, a profit, and improve the land. 
MODE OF CULTURE. 
Break up your land well with a scooter or coulter and 
prepare it the same as you would a turnip patch, manure 
it well if poor soil. It will grow well on soil even if it is 
not heavily manured. Too richly manured would make 
it grow rank and lodge; you will be particular and have 
your ground well broken up, (just like your turnip patch) 
well pulverized and clods broken. In South Carolina it 
ought to be sowed about the first of March, half bushel to 
the acre. When the seed is ripe and the stalk changing 
its color, have a flax pulling, and bind it up in binds about 
4 inches in diameter and shock it up in rows without caps 
on it, and leave it out for four or five days, when it will be 
dry and not mould. Open your binds and spread it on 
your meadow or any short pasture, in rows, pretty thin 
and the rain or dew will rot it soon. As soon as the 
stalk will break and the fibre separate, rake it and bind 
itup; keep it under shelter dry. Any person can make 
a flax brake. Kiln dry it as you break it. Make scutch- 
ing paddle and stock and you will find your negroes fond- 
er of a scutching frolic than anything you can put them 
at. You then hackle the flax and make your Linen 
cloth and sewing and shoe thread, and not be beholding 
to your northern neighbors, all of which is done, com- 
paratively speaking, in a very short time. 
Respectfully submitted. 
' William Philson, Chairman. 
{Newberry (S'. C.) Mirror. 
September, \lth, 1855. 
RAIN WATER CISTERNS. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — As I am writing, per- 
mit me to give you a plan by which the purest and most 
healthy water that ever slaked the thirst of man may be 
had in any climate on the globe where rain descends^ 
with but little expense. I wish to put an end to that 
eternal inquiry, with those who contemplate leaving their 
native home, and their “Father’s Spring,” to look out a 
ocation in the “Far West,” viz . “Is the water good I” 
and the reply not unfrequently is, “No sir; very bad.” 
If you want good water, construct a cistern in the fol- 
lowing way: 
Dig it round ; any depth and width you wish it (I have 
just put on the first coat of cement on one 12 by 20 feet) 
and piaster it with mortar made as follows : — Procure 
good white sand; put, for the first coat, 3 parts of sand and 
1 of hydraulic lime ; for the second coat 2 parts of sand 
and one of lime, and the third coat 1 part of sand and 1 of 
lime. After you have plastered it, side and bottom, turn 
an arch of good brick over the top, and “grout” it well 
on top and plaster underneath; then insert a good pump, 
and you have good water anywhere, all the while, by 
conveying rain water from the gutters into the cistern. 
The above receipt for making mortar I obtained a short 
time since, from Dr. M. W. Philips, who knows some- 
thing of everything pertaining to plantation economy. 
Yours, &c., G. D. Harmon. 
Utica, Miss., 1856. 
THE TRUE POLICY OF THE SOUTH. 
[The sentiments we expressed in our last issue, as in 
former numbers, are powerfully sustained by the follow- 
ing extract from the Austin (Texas) State Gazette, and 
which is copied into DeBow’s Review. We cannot see 
how the South can be ignorant of their possibilities, or 
knowing them, neglect them much longer. — Ed. Plow, 
Loom & Anvil : 
“In our issue of the past two weeks we endeavored to 
show that the population and wealth of the Northern 
States have resulted from their manufactures and internal 
improvements, and tliat the comparative weakness of the 
South has resulted from the want of them. We believe 
that our readers who have read those articles have come 
to our conclusions upon the subject. Who believes that 
the State of Massachusetts would have, on the small extent 
of 7,500 square miles, 1,000,0U0 of population; that her 
real estate would, in 1850, have been valued at S‘34‘J,129,- 
932, but for her manufactures, which, at that time, gave 
employment to 162,928 of her people, and her railroads 
