THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
89 
crops, and care to apply it properly to their 
nourishment, and assiduity to prevent tie waste 
of it, in this region ot heavy summer showers ol 
lain, we are liable to have the result of our la- 
bors swept away in an hour. How prevent 
this catastrophe! Subsoil plowing is unim- 
portant preventive, as it increases the absorbent 
powers of the earth wonderfully, and thus pre- 
vents, in all ordinary showers, every thing like 
the washing away of the soil from cur hill- 
sides, But to guard against disaster from the 
extraordinary showers that often fall, subsoiling 
alone won’t do. It would, in most cases, only 
serve to make the ruin more complete. Hill- 
side ditches judiciously arranged, and these 
alone, after subsoiling, will effectually protect 
us. These, wherever they have been tried, and 
have been properly constructed, have afforded 
perfect security. That they would do so was 
confidently asserted by theory; that theory was 
right in this instance, has been proved by prac- 
tice. Mr, John Cunningham, of G-reene coun- 
ty, will tell you so, if you ask him. Men have 
come from great distances to see his system of 
ditching. Mr, Hardwick, of Hancock, gives 
his experience on the subject, in an article in 
another part of this paper, which we cannot 
commend too strongly to the reader’s attention. 
Mr. Affieck, of Mississippi, gives the weight of 
his name in favor of hill-side ditches, in an in- 
cidental remark in his article on Bermuda 
grass, in this number of the Cultivator, And 
the committee that recently examined and re- 
ported on the condition of the farm of the Hon, 
J. C. Calhoun say, they “ were both gratified 
and instructed by the extraordinary management 
of Mr. Calhoun, by which, through the instru- 
mentality of guard drains on all his upland 
fi.elds, placed at such distances apart, and grad- 
ed in such strict conformity to hydrostatic prin- 
ciples, that his upland fields, even those of the 
greatest declivity, have su-stained almost as lit- 
tle injury from the heaviest falls of rains, as the 
rich low lands at their base.” We might add 
the testimony of many others to the same effect. 
Let this suffice for the present. 
A Suggestion. 
In connection with the fairs of our Agricul- 
tural Societies, we beg leave to make a sugges- 
tion which occurs to us as having a good deal 
of importance. At most of fhese fairs, premi- 
ums to a considerable amount, in silver cups 
or cash, are awarded. The object ot these as- 
sociations is to advance the interest, and elevate 
the character of those who are engaged in the 
great business of making bread, meat and clo- 
thing, out of earth, air and water; and one of 
the means of accomplishing this end is the dis- 
tribution of premiums to those who shall excel 
in this business. Now would not this object be 
more surely accomplished by investing the 
funds intended for premiums in agricultural 
books, and distributing them instead of the mo- 
ney 1 The Planters’ Club of Hancock County, 
will, at their fair in November next, distribute 
premiums to the amount of two hundred and 
fifty-six dollars. This sum, if invested in books 
on agriculture, would throw into that communi- 
ty an amount of information that would be very 
important, and the influence of which would be 
felt for generations to come. Two hundred and 
fifty six volumes of our best agricultural pa- 
pers might, with this money, be put into the 
hands of the planters of that county. 
We would particularly object to the use o^ 
silver cups as premiums, because they are aot 
made by our own mechanics; and the money 
used to purchase them, therefore, has to go 
North, thus adding to the drain upon our re- 
sources and industry that has brought the South 
to what it is. If books will not suit, better by 
far give the money that the cups would cost, un- 
til we can have cups made at home. 
Tlie Agricultural Press. 
The American Farmer, the oldest agricultu- 
ral paper in the United States, heretofore pub- 
lished in quarto, weekly, at Baltimore, at S’2 50 
per annum, after the close of the present volume, 
is to be published monthly, in a large octavo 
form, each number to contain 32 double col- 
umn pages, and be embellished with engrav- 
ings — the price is to be reduced to one dollar a 
year. 
Mr. Skinner, the father of agricultural litera- 
ture in the United States, having been turned 
out of the office of Assistant Post Master Gen- 
eral, for opinion’s sake, has been engaged by 
Greeley & McEftath, to editfor them a monthly 
journal of agriculture. It is to consist of two 
parts: First, The Farmers' Library; and se- 
cond, The Monthly Journal of Agriculture . — 
Each part will contain about 50 pages every 
month, and the price of the whole will be fi.ve 
dollars per annum. 
Eluglisli Laborers. 
lathe fifth letter of D. S. Mitchell to the edi- 
tor of the Albany Cultivator, speaking of la- 
bo.'ers in England, he says: “In the barn, two 
laborers were threshing wheat upon a slate 
floor, with flails similar to those in use with us. 
Before f left, the threshers suspended labor for 
dinner; and what was it! Half a barley loaf, 
and a bit of cheese !— this eaten squat upon the 
straw, and moistened with a jug ot water, and 
cut in pieces with their pocket clasp knives. — 
This is no joke; it was their and yet a 
stone’s throwaway, lay the three hundred acre 
park for old oaks to fatten on, and herds of deer 
to dance over, and scores ot hares to trip about, 
and breed, and die upon. Let our farmers and 
farm laborers thank Heaven that they are not 
set down within the range of such odious con- 
trasts. And yet, and it is a shame to every 
man in America, who has a spot of land and a 
soul — these same laborers, dining on barley 
bread, will save enough of time and means, to 
put out the sweet brier at their cottage window, 
to train the ivy up their chimney side, and to 
keep the grass green and velvety at their door.” 
Errors. — In the last number of the Cultivator 
there were three errors that require correction. 
1. In the last two lines of the article on “ The Agri- 
cultural Press,” “ extend the like amount of patronage 
o?t the Southern Cultivator,” for on read fo. 2. In the 
two last lines of the article preceding the extract from 
Mr. Gregg’s Essay, page 72, in the words, “who oirght 
to be scourged Jrom folty,” for Jrom, read Jbr our. 3. 
In the list of premiums of the Bowling Green Agricul- 
tural Society’s Fair, the President’s name is p'rinled 
Moadt. It should be Moody. 
Broom Corn— Bones-- Whip Handles, &c. 
The Ohio Cultivator gives us an account of 
three brothers, named Eaton, who have engaged 
in the production of broom corn, and the manu- 
facture of brooms, on a scale that will astonish 
many persons whose attention has been directed 
to the production of cotton exclusive!}'. One of 
the brothers resides near Columbus, Ohio, and 
is, this year, engaged in planting between five 
and six hundred acres of the rich land of the 
Scioto Valley in broom corn. Another brother 
resides at Circleville, twenty-fiv'e miles farther 
down the Scioto Valley, and is planting four or 
five hundred acres — making together about one 
thousand acres!! Besides this they have nu- 
merous contracts with small farmers in the sur- 
rounding country for as much as they can raise. 
All is, when gathered and properly prepared, 
sent over the Atlantic to London, where the 
third brother resides, and carries on a very ex- 
tensive manulactory of brooms. The demand 
for these brooms in England, is said to be un- 
limited: and the prospect is that these three 
brothers, by their enterprise, energy and indus- 
try, will soon make handsome fortunes— larger, 
perhaps, than will soon be made by planting 
cotton and selling at present prices. 
We add hereunto an article from a Cincin- 
nati paper, tor the purpose of giving our read- 
ers an idea of some ot the thousand and one 
ways there are in this world ot making, not on- 
ly a living, but a fortune too, besides planting 
cotton, or broom corn, or even packing and ship- 
ping sausage skins ; and ot showing how other 
people thrive by turning to account such things 
as we throw away as worthless. 
From the Cincinnati Chronicle. 
Bones— Whip-Handles — Ivory Black- 
Hoofs — Prussian Blue — Offal, &c.— I'his 
is a motley h“ading, but is exactly adapted to 
what we have to say. A tew days since we 
took a ramble up Deer Creek. We were not 
walking lor pleasure, although the atmosphere 
that encompassed us was fragrant with 
that we will tell by and by. "We hope that the 
word will not be driven from the English voca- 
bulary by this too tree use of it. The creek 
shore, above Ninth-street, is measurably lined, 
and in one instance, we believe, covered by 
slaughter-houses- sotne devoted to disposing of 
hogs, and others of cattle— tanneries, bone-mill, 
grease-irying establishments, and similar odo- 
riferous vocations; and in the winter season 
the stream should be known as Bloody run, for 
such it literally is, its color being nearly scarlet. 
A brewery adds its mite, as well as a steam lard 
and tallow manufactory, to the general aggre- 
gate of which the creek is the depository. 
But however undesirable is the brink ot this 
murmuring stream, the vale through which it 
runs is nevertheless a fountain of wealth. A- 
mong the establishments there is one which is a 
common receiver of nearly all the offal of the 
city slaughter-houses. From it is turned ont an 
immense amount of grease and inferior lard. 
A large proportion oi the daily market beef- 
legs and shanks are purchased by the proprietor, 
and after the marrow and grease are extracted, 
the bones are sold for the various purposes ot 
button-making, whip-handle finishing, the man- 
ufacture of China-ware, or porcelain, and also 
ivory black. Ol the latter, large quantities are 
used in the manufacture of shoe-blacking; and 
a mill in this noted vale is expressly appropria- 
ted to the grinding of bone, pith of horns,‘&c., 
for the manufacture of black. 
Of the small bone used for black and porce- 
lain, this house ships to foreign ports, mostly 
