SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
147 
SOUTHEllN Kl KAE EITERATT RE— PAST A^D 
Pi-eseiit. 
Dr. Daniel Lee — Dear Sir:---\ have been taking 
the Southern Cultivator ever since it was first published, 
and have never wrote an article for it, but have been soli- 
cited frequently. I am no writer for the press, being a re- 
served, domestic, unostentatious sort of a man, with more 
practice than theory ; but I regret the change it has under- 
gone since you have been Editor. Your first editorial 
articles suited me finely, and I think ought to suit the 
whole South, if they would study their interest closely. 
When you v/as first Editor, you lectured your readers on 
domestic economy strictly ; particularly, on cows, milk, 
cheese, butter, beef, sheep, wool and everything that ap- 
pertains to good living and living as independent of other 
people and nations as possible. Then you was on the 
right traclc] and I often said you was the greatest bene- 
factor of the age in Georgia, But now, I see you have 
diverged, or run into the popular breeze, or cotton mania, 
which all old farmers know has ruined Middle Georgia. 
Messrs. Editoi’s, I will tell you what makes times so hard : 
the spirit of speculation is too strong; white folks have 
got too lazy to work here in Middle and Southern Georgia, 
and they do not want to raise but two or three articles on 
their farms, with which to buy the rest — they don’t want 
to be at the trouble to manufacture anything. We are too 
lazy a set of people and have five times too many profes- 
sional vultures and loafers and loungers among us. 
Writers call this the Empire State of the South!. Why, 
this is one of the most dependent of the States, consider- 
ing its locality. We raise but one article to buy 
salt, iron, sugar, coffee, rice, molasses and 100 other 
things!! The sugar, syrup, and rice we can raise; 
the salt might be made on our own sea coast, and in con- 
sequence, the supplies would be better and the present 
enormous prices would come down. Do you call 
this living independent of other nations % I call it a state 
of vassalage. The Empire State of the South, indeed ! ! ! 
it is all a humbug. Georgia ought to he, from her local- 
ity, the Empire State of the South; but there istoogreata 
spirit here for Railroads. Messrs. Editors, the facilities 
here for carrying off the raw material to enrich foreign 
nations at our expense, ai’e too great now. Why not em- 
ploy all the political, loafing, dram-selling partisans in the 
manufacture of something to eat and wear and get rid of 
these pests to society at once '? I repeat it, Mr. Editor, all 
this speculation is based on laziness, and a lazy man has 
got no conscience, and he will he in a speculation, to live 
without labor. 
I hops, dear- Doctor, you will lecture us on your 
first impressions, when you came to Augusta, and not be 
such a full-blooded cotton writer, for I believe you have 
the interest of the South at heart, and that your motives 
are good ; but you are subject to a little cotton contagion. 
The reason there is so much more money wanted now is, 
that it is a gieat deal easier for some people to buy a living 
than to make it, if tliey only can get the money. Do lec- 
ture the South on making something to eat and wear and 
living more independent of the North and Europe ; fori 
think more of you than any Northern man 1 ever saw. 
Respectfully, L. J. S. 
Remarks. — The writer of the above has our thanks for 
his good opinion, and his first lecture on editorial duties, 
and Southern economy. It will do better for a man born 
and unbearable. The lamented John S. Skinner gave to 
the pages of The Plovj, Loom omd Anvil the best matured 
thoughts of a long and active life, devoted to the advance- 
ment of American agriculture; and yet he often complain- 
ed to the writer that his journal paid him nothing for his 
services ; while the Genessee Farmer (which said nothing 
of the Loom and the Anvil) had forty thousand subscribers. 
All needful reforms in society are eflfected by slow de- 
I grees, and often more by appearing to sail with the popu- 
j lar current than to be forever toiling against it. Nothing 
is easier than to say with L. J. S. “Why not employ all 
the political, loafing, lounging, dram-selling partizans in 
the manufacture of something to eat and wear, and get rid 
of these pests to society at once V' Such a wholesale and 
speedy extinction of Evil reminds us of a green legislator, 
who introduced a bill to “abolish all adultery in the State 
as though a legislative enactment would extinguish a grave 
sin forever ! 
Our friend ought not to have waited till the SenUhern 
Cultivator had reached its fifteenth volume before he 
wrote a single line for it, to encourage that system of 
farm-economy which he deems so impoitant to the South. 
His silence, with that of many others, naturally led us to 
; believe Public Opinion was strongly against raising the 
mules, horses, wool, hay, butter and cheese consumed in 
the planting States, within their limits ; and if the popular 
sentiment be not opposed to these and all kindred indus- 
trial arts, why are they so generally avoided as some- 
; thing discreditable '? Unquestionably popular sentiment 
i is wrong in this matter, although only a very few care to 
I interest themselves to right the wrong, 
i That there are too many professional men, and too few 
I educated farmers and planters at the South, will hardly be 
I denied ; while not one in a thousand of those who speak 
^ warmly against what they denominate “professional vul- 
I tures,” will join in a common effort to build up an Agri- 
I cultural College in Georgia that might be more flourishing 
j and useful than the medical institution in Augusta. So 
j long as the owners ofihesoil do nothing themselves to in- 
j.augurate a better system of tillage, of genuine husbandry, 
' and of wise economy in all things, it can profit but little 
■ to complain of an humble editor for seeming to get off “the 
j right track.” His paper must go on the same track with 
its readers; and not only so, but at the same speed and 
in the same coaches, or the paper will soon be without 
j readers. Such is human nature, that man willingly pays 
! more for what Htdibras calls “ the vlcasv.re of being 
cheated,” than for any other amusement. The people buy 
humbugs because they love them, if they did not love 
them, they would not patronize them so extensively, nor 
receive their nostrums as a free gift. True science :s no 
humbug, and, therefore, it is not sought alter by the mil- 
I lions. That they reject it, is no good reason why it 
• should not be cultivated at the South. Planters have pe- 
and reared at the South to talk of the “laziness” of his 
culiar interests which science will protect and advance, 
follow-citizens than for one coming from the icy North. |^when popular political theories, like those of demegogues, 
Nor should the fact be overlooked that no people care to ■ would destroy them. Science goes back to the, sure 
be always reminded of their errors and short-comings in foundation of things. It rejects all vain imaginings, all 
a spirit of fault-finding, which soon becomes wearisome phraseology, to dwell forever with simple 
