SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
83 
The culti’.’ator I prctar is eiiher the double shovel, 
moulds- about b inches wide, twisted like h turn plow, or 
three shovels to a light sto^k, small shoveT. 
I always count upon a Doctor makiii" a good planter 
or I’armer if he will devote himself to it. Your beginning 
is good. Levy coiitributions, “black mail” on every 
source to get infor.mation, if meanness characterize the 
possessor, iet-liim go and try. somewhere else. 
My ambition is to be useful. Whenever and wherever 
1 can serve, you oblige me by conimanding the services of 
Yours truly, M. W. Philips. 
^ NIM A I i J [ A N 17 RE S^— SU B S O I L I N G . 
Editor.s SpuTHBRX CULTIVATOR — "As the grave yard is 
located in a grove of trees, the roots of which, we found, 
had left their usual horizontal position near the surface of 
the ground and had gone down perpendicularly to the 
bottoms of these two old graves where they had rioted for 
unknown years on the remains, perchance, of some sturdy 
yeoman or maiden fair.” 
The above extract is from Mr. J. Van Buren’s article in 
the December riSali] number of tha Southern Cultivator, 
in which I do not think he has given the whole cause of 
the “roots leaving their horizontal position near the sur- 
face of the ground, " and going to the bottom ofthe graves. 
They may have gone, in- part, in search of the “lamented 
dead,” "out the main cause was that the earth where they 
went down had been spaded and pulverized, or, in other 
words, svMnilcd. His discovery, therefore, is not only in 
favor of depositing dead animals as food for fruit trees, but 
is also a powerful argument in favor of subsoiling. No 
one supposes that the roots of those trees would have left 
their horizontal position and went down to the remains of 
the departed, if the ground had been as hard there as else- 
where. Just so in corn and cotton culture, if we plow 
de«p we give the roots of plants liberty to hide themselves 
from the scorching sun and roam at pleasure and with 
ease in search of the food which they need. 
Yours, &c., G. D. Harmom. 
Uiicc, Mlsi , Jan., 1857. 
EEVI'L CIRTTJRE — HORIZONTAEIZING, &e. 
Editors SouTHER.v Cultivator — I have just had the 
pleasure to read Col. H. J. Cannon’s communication in 
the January number of your invaluable journal, and as 
he has had much to do with me in his remarks, and in 
some instances seems to misunderstand me, I feel called 
upon to set my.self right. I read the Col fs article with no 
ordinary pleasure, and feel myself much benefitted by its 
perusal. 
To keep land from washing has long been my favorite 
.study, feeling as I did and do and shall, that it is the fun- 
damental ground work of all Agricultural improvement. 
And any system from whatever quarter, which had for 
its object that result, has ever received from me the most 
respectful consideration. And I am proud that this sub- 
ject occupies such a prominent position in this depart- 
ment of “Plantation Economy” in your paper. 
Col. Cannon’s system of “leveling” land seems to be 
ideniicnl with my own, the only difference being found 
in the fact that T find it necessary to locate in addition to 
“leveling,” hill .side ditches. 
And if Col C. had read my article as carefully as I did 
his, he would have found that my ditches gave me no 
more “short rows” and turns than he has without them, 
as my row.s cross the ditches as they come to them, the 
plows, in cultivating the crop crossing them also, paying 
no attention whatever to them — the hoe hands being re- 
quired to dead out any dirt that the plows may leave in 
the ditches. 
My system of “leveling” land being the same as Col. 
Cannon’.s, and he having saved his land by that system, 
and I having failed, it follows, therefore, that something 
more than leveling is required in this country, and that 
something is nothing more nor less than hill side ditching; 
and here the controversy between ue on this point ends. 
Still, however, I intend to run on -a. perfect level every foot 
of every row in one field in which there is no ditches, and 
report the result; and that report, I am sati.sfied will, be 
washed, badly washed!! — would have been saved by 
ditches. And here permit me to say to those who have 
contemplated ditching and “leveling,” not to be deterred 
by Col. Cannon’s success in the “cleaner corners ofTen- 
nessee,” for his .system will just as certainly fail in this 
country as that the thermometer, in Hinds county, this 
morning, was at 14'^ Fah. 
But the most remarkable feature of Co'J. C.’s article, to 
my mind, is the fact that he “regrets that I located him in 
the mountains,” as if that word carried v/ith it something 
reproachful. 
Now, if Col. C. thinks that I have done "him and his 
country injustice because, to illustrate an agricultural 
truth, I said he cultivated the stiff lands of Tennessee, 
similar to that in the mountains, what sort of justice does 
he suppose his expression ot unutterable contempt for 
mountain life has done hi.s brethren of his ov/n State, who 
live in the fertile valleys, amongst the mountains, which 
is to be found in every division of the State — East, Middle 
and West. Last fall was a year ago, I was in every di- 
vision of Tennessee, and I found the people quite as in- 
telligent and the lands quite as good for the purpo.se3 for 
which It v/as used, in Middle Tennessee and in the East- 
ern portion of the State as that in Col. C.’s “cleaner cor- 
ner.” 
At “Mont Vale Springs,” in the Eastern portion of the 
State, 28 miles from Knoxville, in the mountains of 
Blount county, I was cured of that “demon of human suf- 
fering,” Dyspep.<=ia, and I shall always, I trust, look back 
to that spot — to the “sparkling waters of Mont Vale” — to 
the mountain scenery that around it everywhere meets the 
eye, and to the pure invigorating mountain air, which 
bears up the drooping spirit, with the fondest recollections. 
I shall always remember the feelings inspired when tra- 
velling on the cars from Chattanooga to Nashville. The 
train was thundering along the railway with lightning 
speed, and, looking out the eye rested upon mountain 
rising in majestic grandeur above mountain, and in a 
line about the same distance from the summit, were huge 
craggy rocks, thrown wildly upon every mountain, pre- 
senting the appearance of innumerable white villages in 
the distance. 
Unlike Col. Cannon, to my mind that word “Moun- 
tain,” is associated with ideas solemn and sublime. It 
brings to the mind salutary and consolatory reflection. 
Our Savior often retired to the mountains and prayed 
where no eye but his Farther’s could see. He was “trans- 
figured upon a high mountain,” in the presence of Peter, 
James aud John. He wept over Jerusalem, the Holy 
City of God, which was located in the mountain, or 
“surrounded by mountains,” He atoned for the sins 
of the world upon the mountain. Our Heavenly Father 
selected a mountain for the Ark and the first family of the 
new world to rest upon. Moses, the man of God was 
interred upon a mountain, Ho.mer, the immortal poet, 
sung in the most mountainous country in the world. The 
mountains have produced the world’s great men. Still 
Col. Cannon had as soon “take a tree” as to go to a 
mountain. 
But this article is already too long. Adieu. 
Yours, &c., G. D. Hahmom*, 
Utica, Miss., 1857. 
