SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
237 
by every one here, I cannot but regret that its so earnest 
enforcement, and so positive connection with running the I 
rows twenty miles, if so long, without any— the smallest | 
fraction of an inch— fall, did not prevent your radicalmis- ! 
understanding of the subject and save me from occupying | 
the awkward position of advocating the truly Utopian idea ^ 
of digging down hills and filling up hollows, not of “60 ; 
feet” but even of 60 hairs breadths either in height or 
depth. ; 
Time fails me, nor do I see the necessity to say more at ' 
this time, especially as I have been recpiested by our So- ' 
oiety to read them an Essay, embracing the details of the ' 
system and the modus operandl of accomplishing them; [ 
and if, in my great desire to condense, I have again failed | 
to make myself understood, I will, with pleasure, furnish 
you a copy of said Essay, when prepared. 
Very respectfully yours, 
H. J. Cannon, 
Tenn, June, 1856. 
SHADE AHD PEA VINES—THEIS ASSISTAHCS TO | 
AGEIGULTiniE ILLUSTRATED. j 
Editors Southern Cultivator— In the May number j 
ofyour journal, over the signature of “P.” on page 149, I j 
had an article headed “Shade in Agriculture and its Ef- j 
fects;” and in June number of the same journal, page 138, 
“Is the Field Pea a Fertilizer I” over the signature of “G. 
D. Harmon.” 
Both of these seekers after knowledge are of my State, 
and, although not personally acquainted with either, would 
deem it an honor so to be. They show an energetic 
spirit and true indications of progressive husbandry. “P.” 
tries to trace the cause, “rising through Nature up to 
Nature's God.”' It was such a spirit that roused the im- 
mortal Newton to lift the veil of nature and peep beyond, 
which the ken of man to his day had never seen and scarce- 
ly dared to think of 
Plants, by nature, are endowed with inherent power to 
carry on a process of disintegratiou to a considerable ex- 
tent. It will, however, be appropriate here to remark 
that this soil should not be turned over or plov/ed until it 
is to be planted, until it is sufficiently coated with litter to 
render material assistance towards the improvement of the 
land ; for in this case it would subject it to the erosive ac- 
tion of rains greater than it would be if suffered to rest 
idle. 
When peas are planted with corn on poor soil for im- 
provement of the land, the corn should be gathered at the 
earliest period it will admit of, and the remaining litter 
along with the pea vines turned under to be submitted to 
decomposition and render further aid to disintegration by 
the generation of carbonic acid. The term applied to 
shading land to protect it against the influence of solar 
heat would be “etiolation.” 
Let no man infer from reading the above that I intend to 
convey the idea that pea vines improve his soil. I con- 
tend only that it disintegrates and assimilates food for his 
next crop to feed on v/ithout the usual means it would 
I have had to resort to without it. It is the generally con- 
ceived opinion that pea crops gather from other sources 
j or have within themselves the power of adding to their 
I land in the same manner as they would cart muck from 
1 the swamps, but this doctrine is unsound and must fall be- 
fore the scrutinizing glance of chemical research. Let 
fa.rmers on poor lands and lands of ordinary texture carry 
out this mode of cropping and add to their soils additional- 
ly the excrement of stock and animals and guard against 
washing off of their soils, and the growing WestTrom which, 
we hear such mighty tales, will no longer drav/ the dream- 
er to its solitary abodes.. The “distance which lends en- 
chantment,” will have vanished save to the “ Young 
America,” who cannot get foot-hold enough among us. 
Pomona. 
Columbus, Miss., June, 1856, 
RED CLGYEE AND PASTURAGE. 
assimilate food differing from each other — to subsist upon i 
this and carry to perfection the end for which nature in- 
tended them. Peas do not need essentially the same soil 
nor do they require for their development and perfect ma- 
turity what our wheat and corn crops would demand to 
bring about this end. By the proper management ol soils 
the fanner can carry out a double system of economy. 
By planting peas with his corn he will be able to crop 
lull harvests, and at the same time carry out what is term- 
ed in European countries “fallow” (not to its extent but 
ihe same result). 
Too carry out this end in the most profitable manner, 
the pea crop should be put in (planted) at the period at 
which it can be best done to insure a good growth. “P.” 
reasons, that shade has its beneficial effects, but cannot ac- 
count for the cause. Shade in our latitude is essential — 
not that the solar heat carries off or changes in any man- 
ner the constituents in the soil necessary for the growth 
of plants, but from the fact that it suspends the cause that 
would act and carry out this desired object. W e read that the 
cutting down of vast forests dries up springs, and in some 
instances streams af sufficient magnitude to propel machin- 
ery for manufacturing purposes have been similarly cut 
off and the cause traced to this so accurately that legisla- 
tion has interfered in the matter. II', then, we trace this 
failure in streams to the want of shade (I mean what I say) 
we rnu-st join “P.” and reason, that without shade rnois- 
wouid be absent, to a certain degree, beyond which shade 
would induce ; that without moisture disintegration would 
cease to be carried on. 
Now, shade a piece of land and moisture meets with no 
solar rays, or if it does will probably be feeble and the car- 
bon and oxygen of the atmosphere uniting with it forms 
carbonic acid in watery solution of sufficient quantity to 
Dr. Ct.ouD — Dear Sir : — lam more and more an enthu- 
iast on the subject of Red Clover and pasturage. As such, 
ray earnest wish is to convert every Southern planter to 
my views. Every effect which I can make in this direc- 
tion, is a labor of love. So confident am I that thus may 
the exigencies of the South be met, and its independence 
and prosperity promoted. 
To confirm my position, allow me to give you anextrac t 
from a letter recently received from our highly esteemed 
friend. Col. Richard Peters, of Atlanta, who is confessedly 
one of the most sagacious, practical and successful agri- 
culturists of the “Empire State of the South.” 
Col. Peters says, “I am under obligation to you for the 
hints you gave me on Red Ciover and Hogs. I have 
proved every word to the letter, I back all you have or 
can say in praise of red clover. 
“I turned out 75 shoatslast November to ‘root hog or 
die,’ locking up my corn crib, and thus I am a corn seller. 
“On the first of March these hogs were mere shadows; 
they then got the run of a forty acre clover field and are 
far ahead of any corn-fed lot of hogs raised on my farm in 
previous years. 
“I give up corn in future until my hogs are put up to 
fatten, and arranged for ciover summer and winter. 1 
acts like a charm. 
“I have on my farm 300 acres of clover and grasses ; 
shall sow down 100 acres more this year,' and by 1857 
will be prepared for a clover rotation. I shall then turn 
under the clover in September when 'it is knee high, for 
wheat to be sown in October, then follow with corn, sow 
winter oats between the corn rows for the third year, then 
sow clover for the fourth year, and let it remain in clover 
three or four years.” 
Here is a Southern example worthy of praise and imi- 
