340 
SOUTHEKN CULTIVATOR. 
in working the crop. An nnlncky cut of the hoe across 
tlie bed, or a little cai e'f\s«:ness on tjte prrt of the plowman, 
may .suut a break even 'rt iiiae uie mjv, s ..le ^leitccily hori- 
zontal. 
But while my experience proves that ditclies are un 
necessary in some (■asc':', T do not advise anyone to dis- 
pense with them on stiff clay lands, or even on lighter 
lands, where the hill side is steep. 
In the field where 1 have been compelled to cut ditches, 
I do not find it difficult to keep them in order. As the 
rows are level, or nearly so, only the hardest rains (such 
as rarely occur) cause vt'ater to flow across the beds. In 
the ordinary showers, these ditches do not discharge water 
at all. They have a fall of only one inch to twelve feet. 
With such inclination, ditches will never be transformed 
into gullies; and should a few years’ trial prove them to 
be unnecessary in any field, they can be abandoned. 
Col. Cannon’s views have been severely criticised in 
the agricultural papers and generally condemned — per- 
haps by those who have never tried his plan. Were it 
possible to have all the rows perfectly level, and keep 
them so, very high beds would not be needed to prevent 
washes, even on steep hill sides, without ditches. And 
an approximation to this perfection will answer in many 
eases. 
If, instead of leaving this whole matter in the hands of 
overseers, planters would give to it the thought and per- 
sonal attention which its importance demands, it would 
not be difficult for each one to ascertain the plan best 
adapted to his particular locality. B. F. W., Jr. 
Prairie- View, Madison, Co., Fla:, July, 1856. 
[Very true! Please send us your plan for permanent 
borders of garden walks, as you (privately) proposed. — 
Eds.] 
SEA ISLAND COTTON-PROSPECT OF THE CROP. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — Having seen in your 
September number a request for information as regards 
Sea Island Cotton, I send a statement of facts as they now 
appear, on the 31st of August, after three successive days 
of rain. There came on about sundown a very high wind 
from the southeast, which continued at that quarter until 
about 11 o’clock, when it shifted to the southwest, bringing 
with it much rain, the wind continued its violence until 
next morning about breakfast hour. The cotton is very 
much broken, much of the young fruit and some of 
the hard being threshed off, with the prospect of 
our losing much more; the roots from all of the 
south side of the plant being necessarily either much 
torn or bruised, consequently depriving the pods not ma- 
tured of a large portion of their propur nutriment. I pre 
sume that as in the case of the last storm in 1854, the 
full extent of the injury will not be known in less than 
three weeks. My own crop was quite a fair one before 
the storm. My loss will probably be about one-fifth. The 
crops on this island could hardly before the storm have 
reached the average. I have seen but one very fine crop 
of cotton. I have understood that on Edisto Island, 
where the finest varieties are cultivated, the cotton was 
mostly ruined by the immense rains in July, We culti- 
vate in this locality almost entirely with the hoe, except 
a very few young planters. We plant about four acres of 
cotton and one and a half of corn to the hand. When the 
yield of cotton is good it is as much as we can gather in 
with care. Yours respectfully, 
Wm. S. W*****. 
John's Island, S. C., S^pL, 1856. 
• 
Pleasant. — To dream you are worth a million of dol- 
lars and wake up to find yourself to be an editor of a 
newspaper. 
BERMUDA GRASS— ITS VALUE TO THE SOUTH. 
EDiTnR.s Soxitiirun Cui/nvATOR — I have ppen a sub- 
scriber to your valuable journal for several years, and 
have derived great advantage horn the informatiem which 
1 have monthly gleaned from its paees. I have never 
troubled you wiili communications, being more anxious 
to learn than to teach; nor should I now, were it not 
that I noticed an article in your August number, over the 
signature of “F. Hodges,” headed “Bermuda Grass,” 
which is calculated to have a deleterious effect upon the 
interest of the Southern Planter. For many years I have 
used the Bermuda for pasturage, for meadow and for a 
lawn grass. 
For pasturage, I consider it far superior to any other 
summer grass in the South. I have between sixty and 
a hundred acres of it in my pastures, and I am satisfied 
that it' affords more feed to the acre than any grass I ever 
saw. My cattle, sheep, hogs, &c , are fat enough for the 
butcher all summer. I have some fine Suffolk hogs that 
run in a Bermuda grass lot, so fat that they can hardly 
walk. 
For meadow it may be cut three times a year, and on 
good land an acre well set in Bermuda grass, will yield at 
each cutting, one ton of as good hay as ever came dosvn the 
Mississippi. 
This is the grass that should make us independent of 
the North in the matter of hay. 
For lawns it is, as every one may see, admirably 
adapted, forming a very thick, even growth at the bot- 
tom, of a beautiful dark green color. It is not liable to 
die out on their poor land like many grasses, but succeeds 
finely in all situations in the South where exposed to the 
rays of the sun. Of course, like other grass, it grows 
most luxuriant on good soil. 
As to its being difficult to eradicate, Mr. H. must, as 
you suggest, have mistaken the Black Coco for Bermuda 
grass. 
I am cultivating a piece of bottom land this year in corn 
that five years ago was thickly set with Bermuda Grass, 
and now there is not a hatful on an acre; any one who 
knows anything of Bermuda Grsss should be aware of the 
fact that it can stand neither shade or frost. Therefore, if 
it is on land that i.s wanted for planting field crops give it 
shade by planting some crops that will shade the ground. 
If is wished to destroy it from a piece of ground for any 
other purpose, just plow up the ground late in the fall 
and expose the roots to the actions of the frosts of winter 
and there v/ill be no cause to complain of the tenacity of 
life in Bermuda Grass. 
M. H. says: “it spreads by the root and the seed.” I 
have never seen a perfect seed of it, and do not think it 
matures seed in this climate. 
It is probable that upon the banks of the Aile and the 
Plains of India where it i.s indigenous, it does so; here it 
certainly does not. It forms a pericarp but nothing more. 
I have frequently thought your really valuable journal 
and Bermuda Grass resembled each other in one particu- 
lar at least, and that is in both being necessary for the 
Southern Planter ; for a planter that underatands his own 
interest will not be without either. 
Yours respectfully, C. B. Swasev. 
Yazoo City, Miss., Sept., iS.'ff). 
I^^Meditation on deatn gives a grand and mellow tint 
to our habits of thinking ; as a great ocean exposed to the 
rising sun, borrows, from its edge to the farthest bound of 
waters, a celestial glow of light. 
" 
A Beautiful Thooght. — Someone has said of those 
who die young, that they are like the lambs which the 
Alpine shepherds bear in their arms to higher, greener 
pastures, that the flocks riiay follow. 
