SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR 
17a 
those persons. He is evidently a gentleman of great in- 
telligence and energy, (heretofore, we may add, well 
known to the scientific public, especi«lly as the author of an 
approved work on the subject of Siujar Culture,) and we 
are gratified to learn from himself that there exists no re- 
striction or impediment to the exertion of his influence in 
presenting to the whole country every facility requisite to 
the cultivation of this invaluable plant and the manulac- 
ture of its products. — Pewn$\ilvnnian. 
.'ON FEEDING HORSES IN TKAVEEEING. 
The follov/ing communication v/as written by J. B. C. 
'Gazzo, oi Gazzoton, Lafourche Parish, La., for the Albany 
Country Gentleman : 
I have been travelling on horseback for more than 17 
years, within the pirishes of Louisiana. As regards the 
face of the State of Louisiana is presents a great diversity 
<jf roads, and bayous, some part of the country being slop- 
ing vallt-ys, others flat ridges or coteaux, the upper part of 
swamps; otheis, su h as the roads along side of the banks 
of the bayous, and furthermore in the southwest part of 
the State, Aitukapas and Opelousas, are very extensive 
prairie roads As a physician tiavelling on horseback 
•for that space of time, I have lost only one horse upon a 
journey during that perioi. He was travelled within this 
■warm climate of8G° on a summer day , between bO and 55 
miles without eating. The day previous he was fed with 
many others in the same stable; the mess of corn for all 
the horses was thrown into a large trough, and they were 
•all loose, and had free access to the whole. I have al- 
ways believed that his death was owing to riding him too 
long without eating; and even after this long travel 1 
have no doubt he would have done well if he had been in 
a separate stable, and been re.stricted to his portion alone 
as formeily. 1 have tried two modes of travelling. 1 have 
waited in winter for breakLst and then rode until night, 
.and have alwiiys found myself and horse very much worn 
down at the end of the day’s journey. My usual mode i^ 
to start two or three hours after day light, and travel 
about five miles an hour until 11 or 12 o'clock, depending 
in some measure upon the distance o( the stand or placn 
that I wish to reach. In the winter season we generally 
rest from one to two hours, and can make our stopping 
place for the night in good time, averaging 45 to 5U miles 
per day. In the summer, I start at daylight, and ride till 
11 or 12 and rest till 2 or b o’clock. My horse is as fresli 
in the afternoon as in the forenoon and 1 can travel from 
50 to 55 miles a day without much distress to myself oi 
horse. 1 give my horse as much food as he will eat dur- 
.ing the night, but nothing in the morning in the way of 
meat, but always as much good water as he will drink. 
I have travelled as fast and as far in the same time as a.nv 
othei physician in America, and I do not now recoiled 
ever to have injured a horse except the one mentioned 
above; and 1 am well satisfied that the latter mode of 
travelling is greatly preferattle to both horse and rider. 
Application of Manuke. — To get the greatest benefit 
from manure, it must be intimately mixed with tiie soil 
It makes a much greater difltrence than most farmers 
suppose, whether ihe manure is buried in lumps and 
dons, or whether it is carelully spread and intermixed 
with the soil, as tar as may be by plowing and harrowing. 
The richest feitihzer is of no use to a plant unless filled 
for plant food— so intermixed with ihe soil as to invite ihe 
roots, and so porous to moisture as to become soluble, 
that the roots may take it up. Hundreds of expeiimenis 
have shown that a small quantity of manure, thoroughly 
mixed wiih the soil— so as, in tact, to become a part of ilie 
soil Itself— will produce an imraediale and asiomslung re- 
sult . — linrul Nev; Yotker. 
A FEW THOUGHTS ON TIEEAGE. 
There are many deeply interested in agriculture who 
read newspapers, but not agricultural journals. To reach, 
such persons, we have been in the habit, for the last 
twenty five years, of writing short, and as far as we were 
able, pointed articles, at once commending any good 
cultivation that we had chanced to see, and criticising de- 
fects common in the community. In this way, many are 
made to think, and finally to act, more in accordance with 
sound philosophy, as cultivators of the soil, than they 
would if no such suggestions, promotive of improvement 
had been placed belore them. Our conviction is clear and 
abiding that Tillage ought to be carefully studied by 
every planter, farmer and gardener ; becau.^e it is the foun- 
dation of all prosperity in agriculture, and of prosperity 
in all other industrial pursuits. Although we do not 
touch on the science of tillage in the following article, 
copied from the Chronicle tf* Sentinel^ yet it will serve as 
an introduction to something more on the subject in the 
Cultivator : 
Athens, April 26, 1857. 
Mr. Editor : — "Witb your permission, I desire to a\ ai’ my- 
self of tbe laige eireulalion of your weekly paper amoug 
planters, to offer a few suggestions, having for tl eir ol ject 
the general practice of an improved sj s’em of 1 1 aee. 
Ail tillage has the effect to break up, and more or less com- 
minute the earthy matter and vegetable mot Id that lie at 
and near thesurtaee of the ground. Fertility is increased by 
ihe loosening and commingling of tie various substances 
wh ch constitute a soil, in a wa\ , and to a degree not suffici- 
ently understood by most cultivators. It no change were 
wrought in the constitu^-nts ot the soil by cultivation, it is 
obvious that little or no benefit could ai erue from the mere 
stirring of the earth by the plow or hoe. It is known, how- 
ever, that important changes are efi'ected by all the various 
prccesses of ii lage ; and if the nature of these changes were 
known not to a lew, but to ail planters, it would lead at 
once to very great improvements in this most impirtant 
department of Southern agriculture. But, without taking 
the time, and occupyirg the space necessary to explain how 
a commixture of clay, sand and mi uld. greatly benefits eadi 
and all for tbe growth of planes, and how the tree circulat oa 
of air and water through the tilled earth also proino'cs vege- 
tation, I will state the alu ost self-evinent fact tin t the value 
of stirnng the ground at all depends on Xha thuronshness 
with wh eh the work is done. 1 am confident tl at th< rough 
i,ill«ge alone, if genet ally practiccO, w < uld lead lo the speei-y 
re euch sure of all the Mud once cultivated, but now turned 
out, and temporarily abandoned, in the planting htates. 
The bare fact that '-ueh lauds have bt-en for years under the 
plow is proof positive that the earth, even where the soil 
IS washed s way, or coneumeu by the chemical action of tillage 
and the giowth of agricultural plant-*, contains t. e elements 
of fertility in a latent state. It is every way desirable that 
the public b‘> able to develop these latent sources of agri- 
eulluial wealth, and thereby render the South as dis- 
tinguished for its general beauty and fruitiuluess as for the 
skill and tconomy with uhich its happy labor is conducted. 
To impart definite ideas on this eu ject, it is indispensable 
that I deal somewhat in weights and uea^ures; for an acre 
of Bur ace, a pound of colt* n, a bushel of corn or wheat, are 
detinue quRUtilies, as are also the cubic leet of eaitb m a 0 
acre within twelve int hes of the surface, and t e number <f 
ounces, drachms, and grains in each cubic fool of the things 
which make the crop grow, therein and tl ere >u. 
la other woid.-i, nature never torn s a plant from nothing, 
but always of elemeiits which may be weighed and measured.. 
There may be stmie doubt how much of any given plant ia 
composed of ingrediet.ts drawn from water and tlie atmos- 
phere, and bow much from the substance of the soil; but ex- 
pieiiments and anal^^tical chemis ry have thrown contidtr- 
able iiglit on this inU resting point in rural science. 
Knowing the numt’er of square teet in an acre, and the 
Weight of a cubic foot of emmou earth, we are able to state 
the quai ti') of soil stirred in plowing an acre at any givtm 
depth; each inch being « qual to ILU tons Qwii g to de- 
tec s in the form of plows, u u ten baupe s that the gn und 
is less broken at the boitoui than at the surface, leaviog it in 
a gruuvtd condition ; so that while the narrow point of th@ 
