THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
99 
Maj. R.. /*'. Stmpsoiis Riirnii — ^Tliis farm is 
the only one exauiineJ by the Gommittee that 
is exclusive! V of upland. And althou'^h iicoo'- 
tains lar^e bodies of creek and brancli bottoms 
of great fertility, as yet some tenor fifteen acres 
have been impe.fecily dried, but which, not- 
withstanding the unfavorable circumstances ol 
the experiment, made lyaite a satisfactory yield. 
This farm, when it came into the hands of 
the proprietor, some seven or eight years since, 
though once very fertile and productive, had 
been materially injured by the bad management 
of a succession of overseers, whose known rule 
of operations is to make the greatest possible 
yield to th.e hand, without the slightest regard 
to the preservation of the land. 
For this reason the proprietor found it to be 
his first duty, as it was his best policy, to set at 
once ab;iut the important business of repairing 
injuries imposed upon him by the improvidence 
ot others. 
In pursuance ol this policy, and stimulated 
by the necessities of his position. Major Simp- 
son enabarkedat once in the business of guard 
drains, as a work of paramount importance, 
and has continued his operations in this respect 
until they occupy a position in every field on 
his farm. 
Underthis management, a considerable por- 
tion ot the old lands on this farm have improv- 
ed, and promise ere long to be restored to their 
original fertility. 
The corn crop on this farm was very good, 
considering the drought, which is commonly 
most injurious on upland. The cotton crop was 
also very good, and no doubts were entertained 
by the Committee, but that both corn and cotton 
crops had been well cultivated. 
The negro and farm houses on this farm 
were sufficiently numerous and comfortable. — 
The horses were in good condition. The hogs 
and cattle, though not generally an improved 
breed, were good specimens ot the native stock. 
Col. John E. Calhoun's Farm . — As the last 
of their official duties, the Committee proceed- 
ed to inspect the farm of Col. John E Calhoun, 
consisting of an immense body of upland, and 
ot several hund.'’ed acres ot lo w grounds, at the 
confluence of the Keowee and Twelve Mile 
Rivers. The.se lands possess, in the opinion of 
the Committee, a greater depth of soil, and high- 
er productive powers, than any they have ex- 
amined. And this, together with its superior 
improvements in buildings, of every kind, from 
the dwelling house down to the stables and farm 
houses, make this one of the most valuable 
farms in the upper country. 
Such being the advantages of Col, Calhoun, 
the Committee have been at a loss in assigning 
him his position, and defining his merits as a 
farmer, because it involved the necessity of dis- 
criminating between what was due to nature, 
and what to art. 
A good crop, with most planters, is only look- 
ed for as a compensation of much toil, and pre- 
Sirainary preparation. But a good crop, with 
Mr. Calhoun’s advantages, is the almost certain 
consequence of simply planting the land, and 
cultivating it in the ordinary way. 
The condition of this gentleman, (and the re- 
mark applies with nearly equal force to the oth- 
er river planters,) is similar to that ot an exec- 
utive or judicial office.r with a fat salary for life. 
The certainty of an annual stipend beyond the 
reach of contingencies, is apt to abate to some 
extent that zeal in the discharge of their official 
duties so well se ured under a difierent policy 
by the exercise of the elective franchise. 
' It is true their lands are rich, and produce an- 
nually very abundant crops, bet possessed as 
they are of the most a-stonishing recuperative 
powers, and producing as they do, the so called 
clover of the south, with unsurpassed luxurian- 
cy, it is a matter of some astonishment to the 
Committee, that these low lands have not been 
improved, even beyond their present productive 
powers. It is a governing maxim with many, 
to “ be content with doing well.” But although 
it contains a moral of a highly conservative 
character, in reference to most of our opera- 
tions, yet it is wholly inapplicable to agricultu- 
ral enterprises. It is true there may be a point 
beyond which the power, of production cannot 
be e.xtei.ded, but that furnishs’s no ex-cuse, even 
I on the .score fd' personal interest, wliv ail due | 
I efforts should not he made to reach a.s near that | 
j maxi num point as possible, alleast by means j 
so cheap and available as those alluded to. j 
The crop of both corn and cution on Colonel i 
Calhoun's farm was superior throughout, and 
had evidently been well cultivated. 
In respect to guard drains, now so generally 
esteemed of indispensable importance, Colonel 
Calhoun has not yet engaged. But in the busi- 
ness of horizontal or grade plowing, he has dis- 
played a management that has been most flatter- 
ingly signalized by success. He exhibited 
large fields of hilly land, which, though they 
had been long in cultivation, showed but slight 
traces of those destructive evils attendant upon 
a neglect of this salutary precaution. 
The Committee, as has been before observ- 
ed, regard the farm houses, stables, and other 
out buildings on this farm, as decidedly superi- 
or to any they have witnessed. And the stock 
of hogs, horses, and cattle, as far as seen by 
them, of good quality, and, with few excep- 
tions, in good condition. 
In addition to the common farm horses, the. 
Committee had the pleasure of examining Col. 
Calhoun’s stock of blooded horses, which claim 
their genealogy from the most renowned cham- 
pions of the turf, both in England and the U. 
States. 
In conclusion, the Committee beg leave to 
state, that actuated by no motive but that of a 
zealous wish to do their duty, and to gain all the 
information in their power in respect to the po- 
licy of our best planters, with the view of lay- 
ing the same before our fellow-citizens, that it 
might become the common properly, and there- 
by add to the general prosperity of the commu- 
nity at large; they have not only visited the 
farms ot all the competitor.s, but have closely 
scrutinized their plans, practical operations, and 
genera! management, with but slight and una- 
voidable omissions. And after an attentive 
survev of the whole ground, we honestly be- 
lieve that we live in the midst of an agricultu- 
ral commu.nity, whose pretensions would not be 
disparaged by a contrast with any, even the 
most improved sections of the Slate. And al- 
though our present progress, compared with 
what it should be, is but as the dawn that pre- 
cedes the meridian sun, yet, unless the Com- 
mittee have been completely deceived by the 
evidences before them, there is a spirit of im- 
provement abroad in the land, owing in a great 
degree to the zeal and efficiency of the presiding 
officer of the Society, which, directed by the 
lights that modern science has thrown upon our 
pathways, cannot fail in due timeto reclaim the 
declining fortunes of our country, and counter- 
act the downward tendency ot those destructive 
measures which have so long disgraced our ag- 
ricultural operations. 
In approaching the last act assigned to the 
Committee by the Society, that ot awarding 
certain specified premiums, to the proprietors of 
the first, second and third best managed farms, 
the Committee beg Fave to he discharged from 
the performance of that very delicate and re- 
sponsible duty. The reasons which have lea 
them to this conclusion, are based upon the fact, 
that the claims of some three or lour of the 
most prominent competiiors are so nearly bal- 
anced, that a discrimination in favor of either 
would be wholly gratuitous and inconclusive. 
And secondly, that notwithstanding the visiting 
Committee, as appointed by the President, 
numbered six besides its Chairman, the services 
of only three have been made available in visit- 
ing all the farms. A ciromnstance which has 
thrown the responsibility of deciding this deli- 
cate question on a much smaller number than 
was intended. 
The Committee, as their last, but In no wise 
least duty, feel them.selves called upon to express 
their unfeigned admiration of the superior man- 
age.ment of those departments of the homestead 
proper, over which our kind hostesses, the farm- 
ers’ wives, have undivided control. For ai- 
tbongh the farmers themselves have filled their 
barns and granaries to repletion, and crowded 
their Slock pens with Durham cattle and Berk- 
shire hog.s, they have only furnished the raw 
material. And to their better halves belongs the 
surpassing credit of those matchless culinary 
preparations, and horticultural operations, which 
have so amply compensated the toils of the 
Committee, and established for themselves the 
most undoubted claims to the credit of superior 
dome.«tic management. AUi which is respect- 
fully submitted to the consideration of the So- 
ciety. O'. R. Broyles, 
R. A. Maxwell, 
Thos. M. Sloan, 
Andrew F, Lewis. 
R. F. Simpson. 
ADDRESS OF COI.. McDONAED. 
Before the Agricultural Society of Barbour county, Ala. 
Gentlemen: — In considering the subject of- 
Agiiculture, we find that so much has-been writ- 
ten of late years, that every point seems occu- 
pied; that the whole ground has been so taken 
up by the first agriculturists of the country, and 
the greatest statesmen of the age, such as Buei, 
Colman, Seabrook, O’Neal, Webster, McDuffie 
and Rives, who have all appeared before the A me - 
rican people as the advocates of agriculture, with 
a host of others, that we may well despair of 
bringing before you much that will be new or in- 
teresting. It however becomes ourduty to press 
home the subject, to give line upon line, and pre- 
cept upon precept, however conseiem-s we may be 
that many of our suggestions will fall still-born 
from our lips. The earth every where abounds 
with the elements of human happiness and com- 
fort, To man has been consigned by hi.s Creator 
the capacity and duty of cultivating the earth; 
and it has been wisely ordained, that in the pro- 
portion as he discharges his duty, in that propor- 
tion is be prosperous, happy and comfortable. — 
I The cultivation of the earth was the first em- 
ployment of man. It is still the great business 
of all civilized nations, and particularly so in our 
country. It must ever remain so. It is alike 
necessary to our health, our comforts, our wants 
and our happiness. All other arts and employ- 
ments arc dependent upon and have grown out of 
agriculture. They arc necessarily dependent 
upon it for support and existence. 
If agriculture svere to cease) all other arts and 
trades would fail. The face af the earth would 
again become a wilderness and man a savage. 
A survey of the present condition of the globe 
will show us, that nations are enlightened and 
prosperous, in proportion to the improved or ne» 
I glected state ol agriculture, and that other arts 
of useful industry prosper or decline, as this pa- 
rent art is productive or unproductive. Spain, 
Italy, Asia Minor and Egypt, have in turn been 
the granaries, in a measure, of the civilized 
world. While their agriculture flourished, thev 
were prosperous and powerful; but as the agricul- 
ture of those countries declined, their energies 
were broken down, and their population have be- 
come poor, miserable objects of pity. Farmers 
and mechanics form the great body of our popu- 
lation. Their labors constitute the principal 
source of the xvealth of this country; consequent- 
ly all and every thing that can be done to lender 
their labor more profitable, is adding to the amount 
of human happiness. The illustrious Franklin, 
who sustained towards his country the honorable 
appellation of mechanic, patriot, statesman and 
philosopher, has pronounced agriculture the most 
honorable of all employments, being the most 
independent. The farmer, says he, “ has no 
need of popular favor, nor of the favor of the 
great, the success of his crops depending only 
on the blessing ot God and his own industry.” 
In speaking of the farmer, we mean all who 
cultivate the soil. Whether he be called planter 
or farmer, we look upon them as belonging to 
the same class: we regard them as brothers, 
though geographically separated from each other ; 
and no matter if one should raise rice and cotton, 
another corn, another wheat, another sugar, an- 
other tobacco, they are all agriculturists — all 
equally dependent upon the bounty and goodness 
of their Creator. Gentlemen, we have every in- 
Lceraent to exert all our energies in the (?ause 
