24 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR, 
®:l)e 0outl)ern Cultioafor. 
AUGUSTA, GA. 
SATURDAY, UAKY 1 , 1845. 
To OUR Exchanges. — Those Agricultural 
Journals with which we exchange will confer 
a favor by addressing to us at Athens in future. 
FRIENDS AND PATRONS! 
The publishers beg leave to say a word to you, 
to induceyou to make an effort to increase the cir- 
culation of the " Southern Cultivator.” The 
work is devoted to the interests of the planter, and 
looks alone to them forsupport. Whatshall we, 
what can we say, to induce you to make an exer- 
tion in its behalf? Shall we tell yoUjthat notwith- 
standing we h&v.e incurred the expense of enga- 
ging the services of one of the ablest agricultural 
writers in the South as its editor,andthat although 
one month of the year has expired, we have not as 
yet received a sufficient amount from subscrip- 
tions to cover one-half the expense of setting the 
type? We might tell you this, and tell you the 
truth! Are you willing, Planters of the South, 
that our efforts in your behalf shall be thus re- 
warded? Ifyou are not, it is time that you be- 
stir yourselves; fur we assure you the work 
cannot be sustained, without an immense sacri- 
fice on our part, unless you exert yourselves to 
extend its circulation. We will not now say 
more— w'e could not in justice to you or our- 
selves have said less. The Publishers. 
Acknowledgements. — We are indebted to 
the editor of the Albany Cultivator for a copy 
of his Agricultural Almanac, for 1845; to R. 
Peters, j.r., Esij., of Augusta, for the 1st No. of 
Colman’s European Agriculture; to Judge 
hjillyer, for a copy of the letter of Richard Rush, 
Secretarjy of the Treasury of the United States, 
on the growth and manufacture of Silk ; and to 
the Hon. A. H. Stephens; fqr s specimen No. 
of the Ohio Cultivator. 
We are under particular obligations to those 
editors of the political press in the South, who 
have published our prospectus, and commended 
our enterprise to the public, in their editorial 
columns. 
Hemp. — Those w'ho think of trying to raise 
hemp, are referred to the article on another page, 
by Mr. Clay. It contains everything necessary 
to a lull understanding oflhe whole process: in- 
deedj it js a complete treatise in itself, strongly 
marked by the true characteristics of genius — 
clearness aud simplicity. It is, alone, worth 
ten whole jears’ subscription to the Cultivator. 
In our next number, we intend to republish 
the treatise on the culture and water-rotting of 
hemp, by David Myerle, addressed to the farm- 
ers of Missouri, the great hemp region of the 
west. 
With these sources ol intormalion, and their 
rich lands, if our friends in northwestern Geor- 
gia, don’t succeed in making money by hemp, 
they ought to be condemned never again to 
know what the jingle of silver is. 
Keeping Cattle Warm. — This number of 
the Cultivator contains an article on keeping 
cattle warm, to which the reader’s attention is 
especially directed With southern planters, 
neglect in this matter is by far too prevalent. 
Even in our mild climate it is idle waste of time 
and money to attempt any effectual improve- 
ment in our stock, until our negligent habits in 
this respecLshall have been corrected ; and sure, 
ly they will be corrected as-soon as it is under- 
stood how much our interest suffers Irom indul- 
gence in them. If proof is wanted how deeply 
the planter’s stock of winter provender is affect- 
ed by every cold rain during winter and spring, 
for the want of close, warm houses for his stock 
of every description, he has only to turn to the 
statements in the article referred to: and if he 
would understand fully the philosophy of the 
whole matter, he has only to attend carelully to 
what Liebig says on the general subject of ani- 
mal heat. It is, by the way; one of the most 
beautiful philosophical disquisitions in the 
wholeofhis Organic Chemistry. And though the 
reasoning employed has reference, chiefly., to 
the human body, yet, the whole animal creation 
obeying very nearly the same general laws, as 
regards nutrition and the sustenance of life, it 
may be regarded as true in reieience to the cat- 
tle-yard as well as to the parlor. 
“In different climates,” says Liebig, “the 
quantity of oxygen introduced into the system 
of respiration, as has been already shown, va- 
ries according to the temperature of the external 
air; the quantity ot inspired oxygen increases 
with the loss of heat by external cooling, and 
the quantity of carbon or hydrogen necessary to 
combine with this oxygen must be increased in 
the same ratio. 
“ It is evident that the supply of the heat lost 
by cooling is effected by the mutual action ol 
the elements oflhe food and the inspired oxy- 
gen, which combine together. To make use ot 
a familiar, but not on that account a less just il- 
lustration, the animal body acts, in this respeqt, 
as a furnace, which we supply with fuel. It 
signifies nothing what intermediate forms food 
may assume, what changes it may undergo in 
the body, the last change is uniformly the con- 
version of its carbon into carbonic acid, and ot 
Us hydrogen into water; the unassimilated ni- 
trogen ol lire food, along with the unburoed or 
unoxidised carbon, is expelled in the urine or in 
the solid excrements. In order to keep up in 
the furnace a constant temperature, we must 
vary the supply of fuel according to the external 
temperature, that is, according to the supply 
of oxygen, 
“ In the animal body the food is the fuel ; with 
a proper supply of oxygen we obtain tbe heat 
given out during its oxidation or combustion. 
In wintef, when we take exercise in a cold at- 
mosphere, and when consequently the amount 
of inspired oxygen increases, the necessity for 
food containing carbon and hydrogen increases 
m the sa.me yatfo; and py graiilying the appe- 
tite thus excited, we obtain the most eflicieut 
protection against the most piercing cold. A 
starving man is soon frozen to death; and every' 
one knows that the animals of prey in the arctic 
regions far exceed in voracity those of the torrid 
Zone. ***** 
“ Our clothing is merely an equivalent for a 
certain amount of food. The more warmly we 
are clothed, the less urgent becomes the appe- 
tite for food ; because the loss of heal by cooling, 
and consequentlv the amount ol heat to be sup- 
plied by the food, is diminished. 
“If we were to go naked like certain savage 
tribes, or if, in hunting or fishing, we were ex- 
posed to the same degree of cold as the Samoy- 
edes, we should be able, with ease, to consume 
ten pounds of flesh, and perhaps a dozen tallow 
candles into the bargain, daily, as warmly clad 
travellers have related with astonishment of 
these people. We should then also be able to 
take the same quantity of brandy or train oil with- 
out bad effects, because the carbon and hydrogen 
of these substances would only suffice to keep up 
the equilibrium between the external tempera- 
ture and that ol our bodies. 
“According to the preceding expositions, the 
quantity of food is regulated by the number of 
respirations, by the temperature of the air, and 
by the amount of heat given off to the surround- 
ing medium. ♦ ♦ * * 
“ The cooling ol the body, by whatever cause 
it may be produced, increases the amount of 
food necessary. The mere exposure to the 
open air, in a carriage or on the deck of a ship, 
by increasing radiation and vaporaiion, increa- 
ses tbe loss of heaj, and compels us to eat more 
than usual.” * * * * 
Lindley’s Outline. — We have commenced 
in this number the publication of a very impor- 
tant woik, viz: Prof. Lindley’s Outline of the 
Fiist Principles of Horticulture, Though, 
from its title, it would at firstappear to be not very 
intimately connected with the scope and design 
of this work, yet, when it is remembered that 
the term Horticulture properly means that 
branch of knowledge which relates to the culti- 
vation, ffiultiplicaiion and amelioration of the 
Vegetable Kingdom, its intimate conneclioB 
with the business ol the planter is at once mani- 
fest, 
The character of Prof. Lindley is- a sufficient 
guarantee of the accuracy of anything laid 
down by him as a first principle. We can,, 
therefore, confidently recommend to ourreaders* 
not merely an attentive perusal, but a carelul 
study of liis Outline, as it shall appear in ihe 
successive numbers of the Cultivator. “ It is, 
at once, remarkably simplp, and highly philo- 
sophical; free from supeifluous technicalities, 
and, at the same time, truly scientific. With- 
out entering into tedious subordinate details, it 
offers a lucid explanation of the general nature 
of vegetable actions, and ol the important prin- 
ciples which lie at tbe foundation of all the 
operations of Horticulture.” 
HA knowledge of these leading principles aj 
once invests with new and peculiar interest even 
ihe most mechanical, and apparently umeaning 
and irksome details ot art. With what increa- 
sed satisfaction are the common processes of 
manuring or transplanting carried on, to say 
