8 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
®l)e 0outl)ern (HultiDator. 
august^cTa. 
WEDNESDAY, JAiIMJAKY 1, 1845. 
Those Agricultural ioMtmXs with which 
we exchange will oblige us by directing to us 
at Athens in luture. 
Together with the gratulations appropriate 
to the season, we present to our friends the first 
number of the third volume of the Southern 
Cultivator. The tavor with which the two pre- 
ceding volumes have been regarded, encourage 
us to entertain high hopes for the future, that our 
efforts ir aid ol Southern Agriculture may have 
some agency in redeeming il from the reproach- 
es it has had to submit to, in times past, and in 
awakening those engaged in it to a sense of 
their true interests. 
Why do Southern fields and Southern rural 
dwellings so generally wear the aspect of e.x- 
haustion and dilapidation? The cause is to be 
sought for, certainly, neither in our climate nor 
our soil. For the climate of the Southern 
States — of Georgia, especially— is, beyond all 
question, the most delightful, in every respect, 
in the world. Travellers who have visited the 
south of France and Italy bear testimony to its 
superiority to the climates of those couni ries. 
Scientific gentlemen have recorded their obser- 
vations in proof of the same fact. The late 
Professor Nicollet, had, in the service of the 
French Government, before he came to Geor- 
gia, visited nearly all the climates of the earth. 
He had no hesitation in declaring his prefe- 
rence ol the climate of Middle Georgia to all 
others he knew anything of. And M. Valney, 
many years ago, stated without qualification that 
die climate of the United States, on the 35th de- 
gree of N. latitude, was, according to his experi- 
ence, Lhe best in the world. To all this may be 
added the uniferm testimony of every Southern 
man who goes abroad, and, from personal ob- 
servation, makes a comparison between other 
climes and our own. 
And what a soil originally I Leave out of 
the comparison the alluvions of the Mississippi 
valley, and the Southern States, as regards na- 
tive soil, were not surpassed by any other coun- 
try:— and even now, after years of butchery, by 
careless and unskilful hands, in the means of 
improvement, and the facility of their applica- 
tion, and the certainty of success, the South is 
surpassed by few other lands under the sun. 
No one need hesitate one moment about the re- 
suscitation of his soil. The means are at hand, 
it he will but make an intelligent search for 
them. The marl of the tide-water region, the 
clay and green sand of the middle country, the 
lime and plaster of the mountain district, and 
the luxuriant vegetation so peculiar to Southern 
climes, supply the means of improvement in 
ample abundance. 
What country is there that can boast of so 
great a variety of useful and valuable pro- 
ductions in the same extent of territory. In 
Georgia, for instance, we have rice and sea is- 
land cotton and sugar on the sea coast; cotton 
and wheat, tobacco and silk, if we choose, in 
the middle country; wheat, gold, iron, coal, 
lime, plaster, and marble among the mountains ; 
corn everywhere. On the whole earth, can this 
be equalled? 
And how have these signal advantages been 
improved by our people? Let our worn-out 
fields and deserted homesteads answer, proving 
too conclusively that where nature is overboun- 
tiful, man is sure to be a spoiled child. The 
time has come, and now is, w'hen the old prac- 
tices which have led to this state of things must 
cease. Our planters must put in practice anew 
system of domestic economy. The present rales 
of profit on capital invested ia agriculture will 
not allow of indulgences for the future like those 
we have enjoyed in times past. Comparative 
exemption from care, trusting to agents, buying 
luxuries and even food from abroad, unskilful 
and slovenly cultivation, clearing new land and 
wearing it out— all these things must have an 
end. Planters who intend to bid defiance to the 
sheriff, and expect to be able to look poverty in 
the face without dismay, must look closely alter 
their own affairs, depending on their own skill 
and energy in the management of them; must 
dispense with mere luxuries; must make at 
heme their own food and clothing; must apply 
themselves to collecting all the information they 
can get about the best modes of reclaiming and 
cultivating land; and to putting into rigid prac- 
tice what they shall thus learn. Depend upon 
it, this change has to be made, and the sooner it 
is begun by all, the better will it be for all. And 
when it shall have been accomplished — when 
our planters shall properly esteem the impor- 
tance of their pursuit, remembering the estimate 
that one thousand millions of men depend on it 
for sustenance, that nine-tenths of the fixed capi- 
tal ol the civilized world is vested in it, and that 
they are a part of the twohundred millions ol men 
whose daily toil is spent in its operations; — when 
they shall adopt and act on the idea that plants 
are living bodies, requiring food for their sus- 
tenance and proper development, just as much 
as animals do : — when they shall distinctly un- 
derstand that, the problem they have to soh'e, 
is, how to get the greatest possible amount ol 
produce from an acre of ground, with the least 
possible outlay of labor, and the least possible 
amount of injury to the soil: — when our plan- 
ters shall understand all this, shall steadily pur- 
sue the course that is forced upon them by this 
understanding, and by the present state of the 
agricultural markets of the world, and shall 
have put into practice the system of domestic 
economy suited to the new condition in which 
they are finding themselves placed, the sun 
will not shine on a more productive soil, nor 
on a happier or more thrifty people. 
There is everything to encourage our plan- 
ters in undertaking this reformation. No prin- 
ciple is better established, than that a soil ori- 
ginally fertile, though exhausted, may be easily, 
not only restored to its original fertility, but 
may be even pushed far beyond that point. It 
is true in theory, and is also true in practice. The 
success of the Flemish system ol husbandry, 
both at home and in the county of Norfolk, Eng- 
land, and the experiments of Von Voght in 
Germany, prove what may be done even with 
barren soil. In England, every thirty-four acres 
of land has now to produce food for twenty peo- 
ple; yet Mr. Smith, of Deanston, a practical 
man, the inventor of the subsoil plow, says, “it 
is not at all improbable that Britain may be- 
come an exporting country in grain, in the 
course of the next twenty years.” And we have 
the authority ot Alison for saying that the in- 
troduction of the garden culture of Flanders, and 
the terraced culture of Tuscany throughout En- 
gland, would at once double the already enor- 
mous production of her soil. In Virginia, the 
emigrants from New York are rapidly reviving 
the poorest worn-out lands of some of the poor- 
est counties. Already some of our planters in 
Georgia are making ten bales of cotton to the 
hand on lands that had been exhausted. Nine- 
ty-six and a quarter bushels of corn have been 
gathered irom one acre in Hancock county. In- 
deed, no man has yet attempted to prescribe a 
limit to the productive powers of the soil. Add 
to this, the fact that agriculture is rich in the 
trophies science has conquered for it, during the 
last lew years. In nothing is the present age 
more remarkable, than in the improvements 
science has made in the commonest implements, 
and the light it has thrown around the common- 
est processes. For instance, how best to stock 
a plow— the best shape for the share and mould- 
board — [he direction of the line of draught from 
the collar— the angle a hoe should make with 
its handle — why wheat will not thrive best 
on food that suits corn—the comparative value 
of food for cattle, in reference to the products of 
milk, cheese, butter, or iat — the nature of rust 
in wheat. There was a time when such things 
were thought to be beneath the di,gnity of sci- 
ence. But that time is past. Science is now 
beginning to be esteemed, by the tillers ol the 
ground, as it really is— the refinement of com- 
mon sense, guided by enlightened experience. 
And the time is rapidly approaching when it 
will accomplish for agriculture as much as it 
has done for commerce and manufactures, 
through its most wonderful agent the steam en- 
gine. 
To aid, as far as may be in its power, in 
bringing about this most desirable state of 
things, will be the constant endeavor of the Cul- 
tivator. How far we shall succeed depends, in 
a good degree, on those to whose service our 
exertions are to be devoted. No man likes to 
work for thankless employers: neither will any 
man worK for nothing, if he can help it. We 
don’t plead exemption, in this respect, from the 
common feeling. If, therefore, the planters of 
the South expect to derive full benefit from 
this publication, they must sustain it zealousl}' 
by both word and deed. We will do our duty 
faithfully, to the best of our ability, trusting 
confidently that the reciprocal duty of the pub- 
lic will be as faithfully discharged. 
