SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR 
213 
FARMING INTERESTS IN EAST FEORIBA. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — If a stream were to 
gush out of the ground, the first things borne on its bo- 
som would be trash and all light substances; but as it | 
swells and strengthens, the heavier bodies are washed up j 
and borne off. The declivity is first sought, the meandeiv | 
ings of the stream laid off and its bed smoothed, and thus I 
the heavy bodies float along unobstructed. It is to this I 
would compare the tide of emigration. When a new 
country is opened and its advantages made known, it is 
the floating population— the wayward, the dissatisfied, 
and the reckless and often wortliless— who first settle in 
it. They are mere adventurers, and do not consider it to 
their interest to improve, but simply to destroy. They 
build shanties, cut down a few trees, make their corn, 
and trust to their rifles for meat. They are light floating 
bodies, and pave the way and make, as it were, starting 
points for better citizens. 1 consider them only a degree 
above the savage. The buffalo is the harbinger of the 
savage, the savage of the honey bee, the bee of the 
pioneer, and the pioneer of the better citizen. When 
herds of buffalo were seen winding their way westward, 
the Indian in the wake, the bee next made its virgin 
honey on the banks of the Mississippi, the axe of the 
pioneer sounded near behind, and soon the hum of the 
loom, the ring of the anvil and the click of the mill joined 
together in raising a new song, and opening a new era. 
Every thing in nature performs its respective part. 
The vapors of the Ocean, after watering innumerable 
fields, return to it through a thousand channels. Though 
a part is absorbed by the flowers, a part drank by count- 
less plants, yet it all returns at last to the bosom of its 
mother. It benefits every thing it touches, and every 
thing it touches benefits something else. We should not 
do evil that good may come, yet such is the case some- 
times. The ihoui^htless boy may pluck a bud from a 
plant, and cause it to put forth a dozen more. The 
pioneers though they cut down and destroy and injure 
land, yet they mark the richest spots of a country, the 
places where the best water is found, and make trails that 
will do to cut roads by. 
Such is the condition at present of many parts of East 
Florida. The way has been cleared, good farmers are 
moving in, and it is time to introduce system and im- 
provement. We see very little in this part of the ^-’tate, | 
(Columbia county,) except corn and cotton. Every one, I | 
suppose, makes his own sugar. The soil, mostly lime, j 
will produce almost anything. Where there is such a 
great number of indigenous plants, it is only plau.sible to ! 
suppose that almost anything will grow. It is probable 
that small grain cannot be cultivated for market to ad- 
vantage; but each farmer can make enough for his own 
use, and it is cheeper to mane than to buy. The farmers 
that have been here some time are loath to believe that 
there is room for improvement. They have farmed the 
same way so long that it has become merely mechanical, 
and you cannot convince them that a change would be 
for the belter. These old fogies are found in more places 
than in Florida — they ate found all over the South. 1 am 
not a full believer in “ Y'oung America,” but as the soil is 
somewhat ditTcrent to what it was when my father 
plowed it, 1 see fit to plow it in a ditTerent manner. 1 
would just as soon wear my futiier's old blue snad-tail 
I was tr.ivelling in iNoi lh Carolina last fall, and noticed a 
very poor, teeule horse altadied to tlie stage with a very 
fine one. 1 remarked to tiie driver that that was bad 
policy. “ Humph,” said he, “ two poor ones couldn’t pull 
the stage; besiues it is the custom.” 
Panning nosv occupies the highest position, and he 
who only raises one or two things should not be classed 
among farmers. The idea is, to take a given quantity of 
land and cultivate it to the best advantaije, with an eye 
single to economy of time and labor. I can not be con- 
vinced to plant cotton alone, and buy necessaries. To 
the farmer is given the seed of everything that grows, 
and he should cultivate them accordingly. As a man is 
expected to cultivate the faculties of his mind, and he is 
the most perfect who keeps them best in equilibrium, 
thus the farmer should cultivate all that is given him, and 
he IS the best farmer who cultivates most to advantage. 
*-rom the field to the orchard. After looking at the 
variety in the field, corn and cotton and cotton and corn, 
we go to the orchard and find a variety of peach trees and 
trees-peach. Tliough the peaches are scarce, yet they 
are the largest and best flavored I have ever seen. A little 
attention alone is needed, and why, when bilious attacks 
are so common, is it not bestowed! Apples are not 
known. The same family, persimmons, haws, &c., grow 
here, and why not they ! Oranges cannot be cultivated 
to advantage in this county — most of them were killed 
last winter — but we can have a few for ornament. The 
.pommegranate and the fig grow finely ; the pear I have 
not seen tried. « 
Now, from the orchard to the vineyard ! It is no where 
to be found. I think the whole class of Pentandria Mo- 
nogynia will grow here. There are vines of every de- • 
scripiion. I am from North Carolina, the native spot of 
the Scuppermong, and how I miss them! 
All those things should be attended to, for a farm cannot 
smile without them. It adds infinitely to appearance, to 
say nothing of the luxury. In a Southern latitude like 
this, almost tropical, what is better for health than an 
abundance of fruits 1 
Every thing about a farm should be pretty and neat. 
1 regard economy as a moral obligation. What is more 
instructive to children than neatness and economy ! It 
trains their minds, it gives them good wholesome ideas, 
and fits them for after life. They are taught to abhor 
carelessness and disorder, and I might say that the former 
— carelessness — leads to dishonesty ; its ally is negligence, 
and its greatest enemy frugality. 
Nothing is more attractive than a highlj’’ embellished 
yard. It causes one to love home and linger there; 
There is an association with every tree and plant. The 
old shade trees, yielding at last to mutability, bnt un- 
changed for a long time, — how pleasant it is to wander 
back to the home of our childhood, and view those speak- 
ing monuments of the past. How many recollections ! 
Oh ! how fondly we think of youth and its young dreams. 
The ivy creeping on the chimneys — the terraces around 
the old oaks — the multiflora hanging on the poplar — all 
have their associations, and call to mind events long since 
forgotten, emotions that no other objects could excite. 
I conclude this rambling letter by asking for informa- 
tion. Will you, or some of your correspondents, be so 
kind as to give an elaborate treatise on the cultivation of 
Sea Island Cotton and Sugar Cane! lean find nothing 
in the Patent Office Reports, and know not where I can 
get information. A kind of agricultural and meteorolo- 
gical treatise, I would think necessary. We have no 
State geologist; a grand mistake, and we only know 
that we have a lime soil The climate is somewhat pe- 
culiar, as might be expected in a Peninsula. The Gulf 
Stream must have its, influence, the salt breezes have their 
(-fleet, and “ when it rains, it pours,” and Limt Maury 
niiiiht infer something from the quantity ( f eh-ctriciiy in 
the thunder storms. I thing an interesting article might 
be written. VVtio in Florida will write it ! R. R. 
LUile Ritter, E Fiorhia, Maj , l8.)7. 
swarm of bees, it is said, contains from 10,000 
to 20,00 J in a natural state, and from 30,000 to 40,000 in a 
hivo. 
