206 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
The Old Romans carried on a system of husbandry 
greatly distinguished by its practical skill and bounteous 
results : but no Roman farmer ever thought himself able 
produce crops without the benefit of his stercorary. It 
was deemed indispensible, because he most reasonably 
concludes that he might as well expect to fatten his bul- 
locks or support his family without providing necessary 
food. In that day, the lights of modern science had not 
dawned, but by long experience and vigilant attention, 
husbandry, in all its departments, attained a perfection 
scarcely inferior to that of Scotland, England or Belgium 
in this age, Roman fields, like ours were chiefly culti- 
vated by slaves ; the climate, too, was much like ours, 
and why cannot we, with the benefits of theirs and the ex- 
ample of others, and the supei'added advantages derivable 
from chemistry, geology and botany, become their rivals 
in the great art of arts, the art of crop-making 1 There is 
but one reason, the want of will and effort. Let us then 
throw off the incubus of our backwoods prejudices, stub- 
bornly and stupidly adhering as they do, to a blind faith 
in new ground. 
Having made a beginning, I intend, during the current 
year to prepare a stercorary, or receptacle for manures, 
perhaps more than one, from which I hope to carry out 
annually, many tons of such composted matter as will 
treble the crops I have heretofore made on the same fields. 
Should such an improvement of our plantations be reso- 
lutely undertaken and generally carried out, it is scarcely 
possible to estimate the augmented wealth of the country 
Thousands of plantations in the older counties of Georgia 
as well as in the Carolinas and Virginia can be purchased 
from three to ten dollars an acre ; but lands of the same 
geological formation in the Northern and Eastern States, 
under an atmosphere far less propitious to crops, readily 
sell for from forty to eighty dollars, and much more in 
the vicinity of market towns. 
On thelower side ©f the lots on which my live stock are 
fed, I purpose to excavate a pit in the ground, somefour or 
five feet deep, eight or ten wide and long enough to hold 
all the leaves that can be seasonably hauled from the 
woods, and all the waste fodder, shucks, strav/, &c., and 
to receive the entire offal from the stable— solid and fluid. 
On all wet and other days when my laboring force cannot 
be employed in cultivating or harvesting corn and other 
crops, they shall be busy in collecting and depositing these 
putrescent matters in the stercorary. Indeed, I may deem 
it advisable to detail a fourth of my hands the year round 
to the labor of manure making on the plan here suggested. 
Any planter whose fields have been sterilized by a vicious 
course of cropping, might and probably would find his in- 
come greatly increased by the labor of threefourths of his 
hands on manured fields— to say nothing of the pride and 
pleasure he would derive from contemplating the beauty 
and success of his own achievements. To raise the pro- 
doction of his plantation to two or threefold its present 
amount, and its intrinsic value from three to twenty dol- 
lars per acre would abundantly remunerate all the labor 
he might expend on each improvement. 
In conclusion, I would invoke the aid of our more ex- 
perienced husbandmen, in furtherance of this most im- 
portant, but much neglected branch of Southern agricul- 
ture— especially on account of such contrivances and 
practices as would secure the largest quantity of putres- 
cent manures. J. C. 
Blakely, May, 1857. 
Blind Staggers in Rorszs— E ditors Southern Culti- 
va.tor — At the request of one of your correspondents I 
lend you a recipe for the cure of Blind Staggers. 
As soon as the disease is discovered, bleed the animal 
from the neck copiously and then have cold water teemed 
profusely on his head till relieved. Try it. 
Recipe eor Scratches in Horses. — 1. Bleed and take 
2 quarts of blood from the neck of the horse. 
2. Wash the feet affected with strong soap suds till per- 
fectly clean ; let them dry; then wash each affected part 
with a solution of corrosive sublimate. Two or three ap- 
plications will effect a cure. 
It is prepared thus: — Take a quarter of an ounce of 
corrosive sublimate and dissolve it in one pint of strong' 
spirituous liquors, and it is then ready for use. 
Doctor, 
May, 1857. 
I.EVEI. CUETURE, ONCE 3IORE ! 
Editors Southern Cultivator — 1 have to-day read 
your always welcome journal. It has now almost become 
a necessity. 
I find in your March number an article in reply to one 
of mine, published in your January number, from youT 
Utica correspondent, Mr. G. D Harmon, of Mississippi. 
I feel gratified that, after the smoke of the contest has- 
somewhat cleared away, I find Mr. Harmon and I are so 
nearly agreed. We both agree as to the deep — foundation 
— agricultural importance of the best plan to save our soil 
from washing away from us. We agree, in order to do 
this every row should be run upon a dead level. And w-e 
do not really differ as to the necessity for Side Hill Ditch- 
es, for that is a point I leave to the good sense and discre- 
tion of the planter, to be determined, everyvjhere — each 
one for himself 
The only seeming point, then, of disagreement between 
us now is as to i\\e fall he gives them. And never having 
used the ditches myself I have always said my objec- 
tions were theoretical, and . his plowing across, without 
turning, thus not increasing the number of short rows, 
obviates the strongest objections I urged against them. So 
far so well. 
In closing this contest, then, I feel it so strongly on my 
own part, thatl think lean safely assert it on his, that our 
only object has been to av)aken thought, beget action and 
elicit truth on this all important subject; and, often this 
friendly tilt of ideas and experiences we have saved a 
single slice of Southern soil from washing away from us, 
we are content and amply compensated for whatever of 
labor the controversy has imposed upon us. 
It affords mepleasui’etoaddjthatfrom the high estimate 
I entertain of Mr. Harmon’s practical good sense and his 
enlarged experience, were I now to become his neigh- 
bor I should hesitate long before I would discard his Side 
Hill Ditches, and canvass very closely before I would even, 
change the direction he gives them. 
One word at parting, as to the ‘ Mountains.” In defin- 
ing my position, geographically, as I was forced to do, 
and correcting his mistake in locating me among “the 
Heaven kissing hills,” either of Middle or East Tennessee, 
he mistakes me much in thinking, even for one moment, 
that I designed to speak “reproachfully,” much h ss “con- 
temptuously” of “Mountain life.” No! no! That I could 
not do. For I yield to no one in feeling sensitively alive 
to all the healtful, ennobling and inspiring influences of 
mountain air and mountain life. And I have sometimes 
felt thatl enjoyed as positive an appreciation of mountain 
scenery and sublimity as was propeily accorded to man. 
I bow with reverence at the base of Ararat, Sinai and 
Calvary and regard their names even as sacred. But 
Noah remained not upon Ararat. He and is family des- 
cended from that lofty “resting place,” going forth in- 
creasing and multiplying, until they come plain of 
Shiner. Thence they were scattered abroad to people 
this earth. 
