My object was not so much to see what 
amount 1 could raise from one acre, but to 
make the most 1 could of my manure by spread- 
ing it upon fiye acres. J planted the Texan 
buri*'or bunch cotton, CAtYiN Le-arv. 
Houston Co., Feb. 10, 1845. , 
For the Southern Cultivator. 
Manure. 
Mr. Camak:— I am but comparatively a new 
farmer, and as my readings have not been much 
agricultural, 1 am a novice in husbandry: ne- 
verthele.ss, 1 shall go by the best knowledge I 
possess of this primitive and lundamental sci- 
ence and profession. 
Every lartner, by strictly reflecting and medi- 
tating on his business, lully as much so as the 
lawyer on his tomes, the doctor on his pharmacy, 
and the mechanic on the ivLprovabihty of his 
machinery and structures, cannot tail to become 
somewhat ol a Kliyogg, a peasant in Switzer- 
land, who renovated exhausted hill-lands, and 
rendered himself and household thereby affluent. 
He was caded the rural Socrates, 
But in general every body is attentive to his 
business but the farmer. Having an extensive 
Western country, a Texas, a Florida, and even 
an Oregon and a California, to settle; living 
contiguous to gold mines, &c. &c. &c., the 
American farmer, especially around about this 
section, appears to be the last man that will at- 
tend properly as he ought to his occupation ! As 
necessity is not only the mother ol invention, 
but also ot careful and assiduous enterprise, 
never, I lear, until our spare regions ol luxuri- 
ant tracts of land be surcharged with a redun- 
dant population, will the Georgia farmer begin 
to imitate the Yankee, or the English and French 
agriculturist. Still something may be done by 
those who are determined to abide and die on 
the soil of their native State, 
The first and almost the only necessity here, is 
with regard to manure. My maxim is: take 
care of your fences and the crop will take care of 
itself; and a consecutive addition is, and no less 
cogent: take care to provide abundant and loell 
preserved manure and your cribs will always have 
enough, not only, to subsist upon, but to sell. 
In a hilly region, so subject to washingduring 
every heavy rain, whereby the rich soils oi new- 
ly cleared grounds, no longer supported by the 
natural growths and leaves, are carried oli in, 
and even in opposition to, the plow ridges — 
leaving nothing but red clay to meet the contem- 
plation of the planter, giving growth, mainly, 
£o broom straw, it is virtually impossible lor any 
one to thrive without manures — and yet how lew 
ol our people ever think ol manuring such 
wastes, good alone lor brick-making. The cry 
is Westward Ho!— and fields are cleared and 
then exhausted, apd the .inhabitants are, at the 
erack of the wagon whip, moving for Alabama, 
Mississippi, &c. 
Soon Alabama and Mississippi will be re- 
duced to the same extremity; and if the emi- 
gration be for Texas, in spite of its alluvial de- 
posits, the same thriftless culture will make 
that bountiful country too a waste ! Not to use 
manure is too improvident tor Providence to 
bless. Resource there is none, whatever, it 
men do not mnmure and improve their hills, ex- 
cept cheating or stealing. And I have no doubt, 
many in the calendar of crimes owe the origin 
ol their folly to inattention, at the outset, to ag- 
riculture — at the time of clearing land to keep 
it always rich — hence want, &c. 
Manure is the grand consideration: without 
that at the basis cf every project, jou may talk 
aslongaslyou please about planting, plowing, 
harrowing, &c., nothing else would do. The 
best invention of ingenuity as to plantation 
tools, the best horses and mules, are of a verv 
inconsiderable yalue. And he must be “ moon 
struck,” or “have eaten ot the insane root,” 
who relies on the latter without the former. 
_ Luckily tor us, who live on these old red gul- 
lied hills, sometimes nearlv precipitous, all is a 
compact day, apd vyjll not slide Hire sandy oi 
loamy grounds; and being thus so tenacious, 
manure, deposited and well covered or plowed 
in, loiti be retained for yeans by the stiff clay, and 
repay fertilely the labors of the farmer. If a 
plentiful supply of this vital property of our 
fields could be obtained, the wastes around us 
would bloom like a garden. 
But It “ cannot be obtained f' Ol course then 
the argument drops to the ground. It cannot, 
indeed, be obtained by inadt ertenl ignorance. 
It can ba made, however, and accumulated by 
industrious wisdom; for the deriving and pre- 
servation of manure is an art and a science, no 
less than chemistry itself— one quality ol which 
it is. 
Guided by the advice ol Sir Humphrey Davy, 
that heat and dryness evaporate the fertilizing 
properties of manure unless limed or gypsum- 
ed ; and by that of Dr. Justus Liebig, that wa- 
ter is veiy decomposing; and decomposed ma- 
nure, otherwise than in the ground, covered for 
cultivating vegetation, looses its strength— the 
sal ammoniac, which is the living principle of 
all vegetables — the wise and sedulous farmer 
would collect all the manure he can at his sta- 
ble, barn, and in his yard, on a wet day, and de- 
posit them all under some good booth or shed, 
fit lor use when the planting season arrives. 
They would then be free from drying, and ex- 
empt from extraneous water, and retain their 
own radical moisture. 
An improvement on this plan would b^, to 
apply some bushels ol lime, gypsum, or plaster 
of Paris, to the heap, just as it is shovelled out 
of the wagon. This I intend to do so soon as I 
can command money that 1 can call my own, 
by virtue of owing no man any thing but love, 
and a good example, wherewith to purchase 
these indispensable articles. Yours, 
J. J. Flournoy. 
Wellington Farm, Jackson co., Feb., 1845. 
Agricultural .Meeting iu Putnam. 
FIeld, March 18, 1845. 
At a meeting held by the citizens ol Put- 
nam county in Eatonton, in accordance with 
previous notice, to form an Agricultural Socie- 
ty, and also to appoint delegates to represent 
this Society in the contemplated Agricultural 
Meeting o b-e held tn Milledgeville on the lifih 
Monday in this month— upon motion, Samuel 
Pearson, Esq, was. called to the Chair, and C. 
S. Credille reqaesied to act as Secretary. 
Alter sorns appropriate remarks, W m. Turn- 
er, Esq., submitted the following resolutions, 
which were adopted, to wit: 
Resolved, That this meeting form it.sell into 
an Agricultural Society, and proceed to the 
election of President, a Vice-President and Se- 
cretary ; the latter of whom shall be Treasurer. 
Resolved, That the Society forth wuth appoint 
one delegate frorn each disuici m the county, 
to represent this Society in the proposed Agri- 
cultural Meeting to be held in Alilledgeville on 
the fifth .Monday in this month. 
Resolved, That a commiite be appointed to 
draft a constitution lor the government of this 
Society, to be reported for consideration at our 
next meeting. 
The Society then proceeded to the election of 
officers, in accordance with the first resolution ; 
whereupon, Samuel Pearsoc, Esq., was elected 
President, John Farrar, Vice-President, and C. 
S. Credille, Secretary. 
They also appointed the following delegation 
to the contemplated Agricultural Meeting in 
Milledgeville — Win. McKinley, Wm. B. Ter- 
rell, Win. Turner, Samuel Pearson, Alexander 
B. Harrison, Robert Ladd, Wm. Garrett, Plea- 
sant J. Mullens, Lewis H. Llinch, Win. Far- 
rar^ Alexander C. Maddux, W^m. Hearn, John 
Copeland, Irby Scott, John A. Cogburn and 
Nathan Bass. 
On motion, the Chair appointed a committee 
of five, vig:— Win. Turner. Esq , A. D. Gate- 
wood, B. W. Johnston, Thomas Turner, jr., 
and Nathan Bass, to draft a constitution. 
On motion, the first Tuesday in next month 
was appointed lor our next meeting. 
The list was then opened lor the reception of 
members, and a large and very respectable num- 
ber had their names enrolled. 
E.esolved, cn motion, that our proceedings be 
published in the Milledgeville papers and the 
Southern Cultivator. 
The Society then adjourned. 
Samuel Pearson, Pres’t. 
C. £. Credille, Sec’y. 
Butter. — There arefew departments ol rural 
industry, in which there is so much room for 
improvement, as in the business of converting 
milk into butler! This will be admitted, readi- 
ly, by all who reflect, on the very small propor- 
tion, which really pure, well-flavored butter 
bears, to the whoje quantity exposed lor sale in 
the common market, or to that which is produc- 
ed in the countrjn 
The defective quality of butter arises no less 
from want cf care or skill in the management of 
the milk — probably much more from that cause 
— than from any effect upon the milk, resulting 
from the diflerence in the pasture and food of the 
cow; although the latter has^ doubtless, a pow- 
erful influence So sensible are they ol this iti- 
fluence in Seotland, that we observe among oth- 
er curious objects, never thought of in this 
country, a premium has been oflered there for 
the best essay 071 fAc ivfluence of food on milk 
amd butler. We cannot but.suppo.se, that the 
superiority of the butter in the Philadelphia 
market, arises, in a great degree, from, the na- 
ture of the pasturage ; consisting of long estab- 
lished “ English grass” meadows. He who 
will take the trouble to make the calculation, will 
be struck with the increase of national wealth 
which would accrue from an fm prove men t in 
the quality of our butter, I’-om whatever cause, 
that .‘hould add a few cents to its selling price, 
withoutsaying any thing about the increase of 
the quantity which could be easily obtained, by 
more careful nsilking, and a better system of 
dairy management. — N. ¥. Albion. 
Winter Butter.— Mr. Judge Kimbail, of 
Lindon, Vt., ha.s shown vjs some excellent but- 
ter made in December last. It is yellow as most 
of the tubs that are made in June. 
Mr. K. tells us he scalds his milk before set- 
ting it for cream ; and his mode of scalding is 
to heat a quantity of water in his boiler and set 
the milk pail in ihe hot water— not boilitig— till 
the milk has become thoroughly warm. It is 
then set in pans in a dairy where the heat is kept 
uniform at about sixty degiees. 
We think this is a better n-ode of making win- 
ter butter than scalding or freezing the cream. 
— Masso-chusel ts Plough ma n. 
A Good Compost for Sa.ndy Land — Take 
10 loads of stable or barn-yard manure, 5 loads 
of clay, 10 bushels of ashes, and 20 bushels of 
lime, mix the whole well together, let it remain 
in pile a few days, turn it over, when it will be 
■fit to apply to the land. 
The above quantity will make a better dress- 
ing for an acre of sand than twenty, or e.en 
twenty-five loads of stable or barn-yard manure 
alone, and will last lunger. Let any oiie who 
may doubt, trv it, and they will be convinced of 
the truth ot what we sav. 
Egyptian Corn. — Robert W. Williams, of 
Tallahassee, Florida, in a letter to the editor of 
the American Agriculturist, dated Nov iSdi, 
1844, savs; “One n-ord about Egyptian corn. 
It is now green, with a crop ol from five to eight 
heads from each root more than half matured. 
This, should it mature, will be the fourth ripe 
seed that has been gathered from one planting. 
From the manner it continues to send un shoe. is 
from the old root, I am induced to try if it will 
not rattoon next spring, by protecting it this 
winter. 
“ The low price of the great southern staple is 
having the happy effect of causing proprieiors 
to give more of tlieir personal attention to their 
plantations; and, as a natural consequence, pro- 
ducing a taste for the science ol thc'r profession, 
and a demand lor agricultural publications and 
improved implements.” 
