174 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
plow pen-trated perhaps six inches,' all the soil was stUTed 
to the depth of only three inches. Hence, in place of mov 
3ng 600 tons of loosened earth per acre, the planter really 
stirs only half that quantity. Shallow plowing has the eflfect 
to harden the ground just below the surface, so as to prevent 
the descent of rain water, when there is an excess, to be 
stored up in the earth wh< re it is needed in dry weather, 
and equally prevent the ascent of water from the deep sub- 
soil when plants suflFer most fn»ra the want of it. In shcrt, 
shallow tillage with a grooving plow operates to collect 
surface water into all low places that it may run off down 
any declivity in a volume sufficient to cut deep and ugly 
gullies through a cultivated field. That the practice of this 
s>stem of cultivation has been fol lowed by the results 
named, will not be denied, and that a remedy is a matter of 
^--at importance, is equally undeniable. 
Hiding over the plantation of one of the most enterpris'ng 
and successlul planters in Georgia, who cultivates a thou- 
sand acres of corn this year, I was forcibly impressed with 
the clearness and soundness of his views on the subject of 
. tillage, as shown by the use of the most perfect cast steel 
turning plows, each drawn by four heavy inu'es, which 
broke up and turned over hundred tons of earth to 
the acre. This is stirring the ground to a degree which indi- 
cates that the cultivator is really in earnest in the pursuit 
of his noble calling; and although [rarely bring any gent 1 
cman’s name before the public in print without my first ob- 
taining his consent, I shall i- rtify my remarks in this instance 
fey saying that Mr. W illiam J. Eve, of Augusta, is the plan 
ter referred to, that others may see his f lows and plowing, if 
they wi h. Good tillage, however, implies something more 
than fiist rate plowing. Where much land is gone over, 
some will be broken when the ground is too wet, and some 
Tsrhen it is too dry. 
In either case, clay soils break into lumps, which need to 
fee crushed. Mr. E. had three rollers m operation, two 
drawn by two mules attached loe ch, and one by f .ur 
mules, which evidently hid the best work, being more 
weighty than the others. The suiface of a ph'wed field may 
fee too open for the best condition of g owing p'ants ; a 
defect wh'ch is best removed by the aid ot a roller, as well as 
the ci tt-ihing oficlods and lumps. In preparing seed beds fi.r 
■wheat, the best larmers in Gre .t Britain, Canada and the 
northern States, make great ui'e of the harrow. Rightly 
made and opperated, no other impl ement of tillage equals it 
for impartiuga ^ne tilth to the soil alter it has ueeu pro- 
perly plowed. Mr Eve bad seven or eight at -woik, each 
drawn by two muUs or horses ; and while he is in auvanc - 
of most planters in the extent and thori ughness with which 
he harrows his fields, his shortcomings iu tins part oicultivatou 
would strike a Geunessee wheat grower as quite remarkable. 
My attention and thoughts at the time were too much engaged 
in considering what would be gai» ei by under-draii.ing 
and irrigation on his inaguificeut esta e, and how expertly 
corn was dropped, guanced and covered, to criticise either 
his harrows or harrowing, as I am now inclined to do to m- 
augerate a better system of agricu ture. 
The function of a harrow is somewhat peculiar, and to 
render the percussion of its many tines most effective in pul 
venzing the soil, it should move at a more rapid pace than 
the plow. It needs no handle like those of Mr. E. to move it, 
as the team, properly guided, will take it ev r to the rig it 
places. According to the practice of the best cultivators 
clsjwhere, his field near tne Savannah river should hav’e 
been harrowed two or three times more than it was, to attain 
the hifc-hest profit. On clayey laud, long experience has de- 
monstrated the sound economy of working three horses 
a-breast instead of two, that the mechanical power maybe 
fully * qial to the attainment of tne end sought; and at the 
same time the haiTow should lap one half or two ihn ds on the 
ground already gone over by its iron teeth. In this way 
can any seed have prepared for it a thoroughly tilled 
bed, m wh'ch to expand the myriads of tender r<K tlets that 
nature seeks to develop from its germ. To i lustrnte the 
eouudiiess of the ptineiple for which 1 contend, the reader’s 
attention is respectfully atkedto a few facts. 
In no part of the Island of Great Brittain is there solar 
heat enough to mature a crop of Indian corn; and in Scot- 
iand all elevated districts are too cold to mature wheat. ■ 
The soil of the latter is nearly as unpromising as its cli- 
mate ; and yet such is the skill of Scotch farmeis near Edin- 
burgh, that a few of them pay from twenty to thiity' five 
pounds per acre per annum for the use of land on which to 
grow grass, hay, and other forage, consumed by cows whose 
milk is sold at two and a half pence per quart. The rent of 
land, however, well irrigated and manured by the proprietor 
at $lUt) to $i75 per acre, appears incredible ; but that one can 
pay such a rent, adll produce milk at five cents a quart, is 
stall more extraordinary. I have the most reliable authority 
or the truth of both statements. The land in question has 
yielded 100 tons per acre of green Italian rye grass in 12 
months, equal to 25 tons of the best Northern hay sold in 
Augusta. Twenty five tons of Northern hay, at the present 
market price ($1.50 per 100 lbs ) would bring $750 ! 
So far as milk and vegetables are concerned, one can sup- 
port a ^family fur half the money in Edinburgh which it 
costs in Augusta This arises, not from any superiority of 
the sunshine wf Scotland over Georgia, but from the ua 
deniable facts that the citizens of Edinburgh have wisely 
cultivated and patron’sed agricultural and horticultural learu- 
irg for the last fifty years ; while all such knowledge has 
been unw sely neglected by most of the citizens of Augusta 
and of the South generally. The feeding of plants, and the 
feeding of persons are inseparably blended in the economy 
of nature. It is unwise in the people of any city to throw 
sand upon their own bread and butter. There is not an acre 
of land in the valley of the Savannah which is not capable of 
'yielding at le st ten tons of good hay iu a year if properly 
imgated. Why then should its citizens be /orcet/- depend- 
ent on the North for so weighty an article of aiin«ist univ^ersaL 
consumption? Why should so many families be so poorly 
supplied with milk, cream and butter, wbi'e .^orneof the best 
farming lands adjoining the corporation limits of Augusta 
are rented at four dollars per acre ? 
The same neglect, to study tillage os, a profession, has ren- 
dered house-keeping in all southern cities unnecessarily ex- 
pensive, and entailed on the State of Georgia the temporaiy 
blight of sixteen million acres of gullied old fields. But 
thanks to such planters as Mr. Eve, Mr. Miller, and others 
that I might name, a^thorough reform is in progress. 
THE COTTON CROP AND THE COURSE OF 
Exchange. 
The financial editor of the New York Day Book is tell- 
ing the Merchants of that great city some very wholesome 
truths. In a late issue, he says: 
Nothing more illustrates the dependence of the financial 
institutions of the Noiih upon the great Cotton crop ot the 
South, than theconditien of exchanges and ir deat this 
season of the year, which is the perioJ between the ces- 
sation of exports of the old crop of cotton, and the com- 
mencement of the exports of the new in September and 
October. 
Tlie cotton bales are the chief basis of foreign exchange, 
They supply bills to the dry goods importers, "with which 
to pay their debts in Europe. The cotton growers are 
credited by the importers and jobbers, and they, again, by 
the foreign merchants To enable joltbers to extend their 
cridits at the South, they have to get credit with the New 
York banks to pay importers. 
The moment the exports of cotton draw to a close 
for the season, sterling exchange advances to a 
specie standani, and specie begins to leawe the banks for 
Europe, at which the said banks become alarmed, and a 
tight tnoney market and tall in stocks are the cry. But as 
soon as new cotton begins to be exported in the full, bills 
of exch.inge become plenty and cheaper; the banks agairi 
discount more freely, and the cry is that money is cheap 
and plenty. 
Now suppose the dissolution of the Union could be ac- 
complished h»r a sing'e year, the financial business, grow 
itigout of cotton exports should, with the dismembermeut 
occur in August, and cotton bales should cease for once, 
to form a basis of exchange for only a brief period, and 
the New York importers would have no resource left but 
to do now, and between cotton crops, that is, send out 
specie, how long do you suppose it would be before the 
bunks would be compelled to suspend specie payments 
and call in their loans to the last dollar if possible ! Where 
then would stand the occupants of marble stores ? Where 
would then be the prices of stocks and of real estate ! 
General bankruptcy — worse than that of 1835, '37 — 
would occur. Where would those thousands and tensol 
thousands of laborers in New York depending upon their 
hands, find their oread and clothing 1 Would not hunger 
and suffering Imm cold lead or riots, require military 
force to put them down ? Yet we find five doily neiys- 
