THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
125 
the hay down Irom between these poles, which 
were placed, by the height of the forks, so as 
to admit the cattle freely to walk under the frame, 
as 1 will call it. On this frame I stacked my 
hay. 
I stacked wheat straw in the same way, gene- 
rally on the poorest spots in the field. My cat- 
tle were turned in and permitted to feed them- 
selves, and at pleasure, to use the stacks as shel- 
ter, j)f which they soon learned the advantages. 
I found my cattle would use the stacks of hay 
as shelter, but would not eat any ol the hay, so 
long as the straw lasted, which proved to me, 
it they had proper taste, that the straw was more 
valuable than the hay. 
My horses and mules were furnished with 
hay alone, in the stable, on which they showed 
health, and usual thrift. This experiment for 
some years was observed, and regularly this 
preference was shown lor the straw by the cat- 
tie; and they improved and looked better while 
enjoying the teed on straw, than when they w'ere 
confined to hay alone, which was as soon as 
the straw was consumed. 
I have never tried to feed the straw alone to 
horses, but 1 would not hesitate to say, it is 
worth more than fodder. 1 ry it; save your 
own straw; it will feed and sustain cattle, horses 
and mules, and ultimately make manure more 
valuable than by the slovenly process of throw- 
ing out to rot. D , .Rkinharpt. 
Greenville, S. C., June, 1845. 
Hints to Advertisers. 
Mr. Camak : — It has occurred to me that a few 
hints to your advertising friends. Hazard, Dens- 
low & Webster, might not be amiss. The pro- 
priety of a purchase frequently depends upon the 
price of the article desired. I wish to procure a 
light subsoil plow, and 1 have heard one of my 
neighbors also express such a desire. Nov.' if the 
furrow sUce, the depth, and the price of each 
plow were stated I could easily determine which 
I should prefei". All this might be added without 
materially enlarging their advertisement. I 
would further remark, that a knowledge of the 
cost of transportation for such articles might fa- 
cilitate their introduction into the country. 
T doubt not that the above named gentlemen 
would profit by sending a few samples of their 
plows into the up country. A few such deposit- 
ed at some suitable place in your town, during 
the week of your approaching Commencement, 
would be formidable competitors for a place 
among the lions of the town. A friend could not 
' be wanting in your flourishing place, who would 
cheerfully take the trouble to act as “ historian 
to the” lions, and sell them when curiosity was 
satisfied. If authority was given to make a pub- 
lic trial of them it would be still better. 
Your friend, Mr. B. H. Warren, of Augusta, 
might also have sold several Leicester bucks, if he 
had stated his price for them. 
Greene B. Haygood. 
Casulon, Clark county, June, ld45. 
Mixing Soils — Inquiries. 
Mr. Camak: — I live in the piny woods and 
the soil is light and sandy. 
Would clay taken from the ponds or rivet- 
swamp, and put broadcast over a soil of that sort, 
and plowed in, have any effect to fertilize it or to 
make it produce good crops'! 
How would swamp mud do'? That, however, 
is difficult to obtain in lame quantities ; for di- 
rectly you get through the mud and come to the 
clay. 
•And also, what effect would lime have — say 
Thomaston lime, such. as we can get in Savan- 
nah — by putting a spoonful or two in the hill every 
■ year at the time of planting "I 
Re.spectful!y yours, N. Ashley. 
Ocmidgeeville, Telfair county, June, 1845. 
The Fairs — A Suggestion. 
Mr. Editor: — I see by the advertisement in 
your paper, that the fair of the “ Planters’ Club 
of Hancock County,” and of the “Agricultural 
Society of Bowling Green,” will take place on 
the same day. This certainly is in bad taste, as 
it will render it impossible for one man to exhi- 1 
bit stock at both places. One I know, and there 
.may be others, who would like to exhibit at both 
fairs. Can you not recommend the Bowling 
Green Society to make some alteration in the 
time of holding their fair so as to avoid this 
clashing 7 They are the youngest cl ub and ought 
to yield if either should. Respectfully, 
A Friend to the Cause. 
Woodville, Greene county, July, 1845. 
ESSAY 
READ TO THE BURKE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SO- 
CIETY, at its first meeting, according to appointment. 
BY PAUL DAVIDSON. 
On the importance of our pursuit I shall not 
dwell for a moment. We all feel it. All ac- 
knowledge its use, for not only the welfare, but 
the very existence of a civilized community de- 
pends upon it. Of the necessity of our improv- 
ing in this our vocation, we ourselves must be 
the judges. That this necessity exists, you have 
all acknowledged by subscribing to our constitu- 
tion. 
If there is any one thing more than another, 
which is cheering to the heart of the true patriot 
and philanthropist, the real lover of his countrv 
and her interest, it is the spirit of inquiry, and 
improvement in agricultural pursuits, which now 
seems to pervade.almost the whole land. This is 
truly encouraging, and, in my opinion, is a pres- 
age of better things and happier times. If in- 
deed there is any one v/ho does not acknowledge 
the necessity of improvement in our system of 
agriculture, he certainly. cannot be aware of the 
position he holds in comparison with agricultu- 
rists of a different section of our own country, 
much less with the more advanced state oi the 
ait in certain other countries. 
Even if we shduld admit that we have arrived 
at the greatest degree o^ perfection in the culti- 
vation of cotton, it would be but an unprofitable 
admission, and would prove at once the neces- 
sity of our diversilying our pursuits in other 
branches of agricultural industry, whereby, if vre 
derive no greater profits, we shall become more 
independent than is possible while we depend 
upon .a single staple for our income, and a for- 
eign market for our necessaries and convenien 
cies, many of which we can make much cheaper 
than those can who supply us. 
But before we attempt to strike out a new 
course of pur.suit, it wil; be necessary, to insure 
success, that we should obtain all the informa- 
tion in our powerin regard to the diff’erentbranch- 
es intended to be pursued. Then, with all the 
lights and guides which ancient experience and 
modern research have thrown in our way, we 
may “go ahead” with a good assurance of suc- 
cess. But without this we shall as certainly 
fail; for we are, many of us, in the condition of 
a mariner who has been all his life navigating a 
single sea, and sailing back and forth upon a 
single track, until want of trade compelled him 
to navigate other seas, and seek other ports to 
supply his -cargoes. Now, in order to insure 
safety and success, 4ie must get all the informa- 
tion extant, a^id procure all the maps and charts 
which relate to the course of his new route. — 
Without these precautions he will be in constant 
danger of being wrecked upon hidden leefs and 
quicksands. Now the planter who does not take 
all these precautions, upon commencing a new 
pursuit, will be in danger of meeting the most 
disastrous consequences, until the loss of seve- 
ral Clops, and the expense of a vast deal of la- 
bor shall have taught him, by experience, what 
he c&uld have learned for a few dollars, or per- 
•haps shillings. 
Heretofore, experience has been the only mode 
of obtaining information upon agricultural sub- 
jects. But this, though a sure, is a slow and of- 
ten expensive mode of arriving at the same re- 
sults, which the application of analysis will often 
lead to at once with equal certainty. Modern 
science and research have taught us that, by 
means of chemical analysis, we can at once as- 
certain not only the elements entering into the 
composition of the plant, but their quantity, and 
the kind of soil best adapted to its growth and 
the perfect development of its fruit; and als ) 
the kind of manure best adapted to the plant and 
soil. 
Now the fads developed by chemical research 
always accord with those ascertained by experi- 
ence — for facts never controvert each other ; 
and to prove this, it is only necessary to cite a 
case or two which are familiar to all. We all 
know that wood ashes lorm the very best ma- 
nure for a crop of cotton. Now chemical analy- 
sis shows us that the cotton plant and its fimit 
contain potash and lime, the lormer to a large 
amount. We further know that the soils best 
adapted to the raising of cotton, are those which 
have originally produced a growth of timber in- 
dicating that there was a large amount of potash 
and lime present in the soil, us oak, hickory, dog- 
wood, &c. And on the contrary, pine lands are 
far less suitable for the perfect development of 
that plant, and that though upon pine lands can 
be grown a stem of sufficient size, the fruit is al- 
ways wanting in a greater or less degree. 
We know, from every day’s observation, that 
bard wood timber produces a much greater 
amount of ashes than the softer woods: — for 
example, the beech and post oak, than the pine; 
and also, that their ashes are much richer in the 
alkalies. Now there are certain other circum- 
stances necessary lor a proper soil, yet the pre- 
sence of a sufficient quantity of the above named 
materials is absolutely essential. Nor does the 
fact that some rare spots of pine land are found 
that produce very good crops of eotton, contro 
vert, in the least, the general rule that cotton 
grows best on oak and hickory land. For al- 
though oak and hickory require a particular soil 
for their development, yet there is noihing in a 
8 il adapted to their growth, which would prevent 
the long leafed pine from growing, as it sometimes 
does on such soils, very luxuriantly, until it is 
gradually displaced by the oak. Yet the contra- 
ry is not true, for oaks can never be produced in 
perfection upon soils which may be capable of 
producing a fair growth of pines. In ■folio wing 
out this train of observation, w e find that when a 
soil has become exhausted of the proper materials 
for producing cotton, it vrill not produce the ori- 
ginal growth of oak and hickory ; for w'hen an 
exhausted field is turned out, it shoots up a 
growth of ('Id field pines, which, you all know, 
are very deficient in alkalies a. d earthy matters, 
and therefore best suited to a soil exhausted of 
these principles. In fact the oki field pine re- 
quires so little of potash and lime for its growth, 
that an old field, after having sustained a crop of 
that growth for a series of years, accumulates 
sufficient of these principles, partly by absorp- 
tion, but msinly, I think, from the liberation of 
these salts from their insoluble combinations, 
through the action of the atmosphere and other 
causes, to render it again comparatively fertile 
for a few years, when it is again exhausted and 
again renewed in the same manner. 
This theory also explains why soils producing 
originally difierent varieties of the eanie plant, 
oak for exsmple, does not produce cotton and oth- 
er crops equally; for every experienced cotton 
planter in selecting his lands for that staple, will 
prefer the soil which has originally produced a 
growth of post oak rather than any other. Now 
the post oak contains the alkalies and alkaline 
earth before mentioned in larger proportions 
than any other speeies, and therefore indicates a 
soil rich in these elements of fertility ; while lands 
producing'the Spanish red oak are seldom fertile 
. any great length of time. Now any old lady in 
the country, accustomed to making soap, can tell 
the difference in these two varieties of oak, as 
regards the quantity of ashes produced ujion 
burning them. The latter yields a much smaller 
quantity than the former, and therefore indicates 
a soil much poorer in these elements. j\ow 
what is true in relation to one plant, is true also 
w'ith all, according to their varieties, and the ele- 
ments entering into their composition. Wheat 
and most grains contain, among their component 
parts, various salts, as the phosphates of lime, 
(which is the solid part of all bones,) mavnesia 
and soda, or potash. Now it matters not how 
rich a soil is in vegetable matter and every other 
substance, if it is deficient in any of these salts it 
M'ill not produce a perfect development. Nor is 
the quantity of an element contained in the grain 
or plant a criterion of its necessity, for although 
it may enter into the mass as but a very small 
part of the whole substance, yet it is not the 
less necessary that it should be present. When 
we survey the work of the mason and observe 
the small quantity of lime which he uses in pro- 
portion to the mass of the whole fabric, it would 
almost seem that it could be dispensed with; yet 
the building would be far from perfect without it. 
. It is just so with plants, and though the inor- 
ganic constifutents enter into their composition 
