132 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
It is a native of this and many other coun- 
tries— found both in a wild state, and also culti- 
vated in many gardens for its healthful quali- 
ties, It is perennial, very hardy, the crop sure, 
the growth luxuriant, the produce abundant, 
while the labor it requires is very small. In 
1841, I obtained of two years’ growth of roots, 
on soil of moderately good tilth, after the caps 
of the roots were taken off to replant, when tho- 
roughly dried and ground, at the rate of 24,200 
pounds of flour to the acre. In 1842, 1 obtained 
on the same soil, from the herb of the second 
years’ growth, at two cuttings, at the rate of 
11,616 pounds of well-made good hay to the 
acre. It requires no other tilling or attention 
than digging the crop of roots in April, once in 
two or three years, and planting as you dig, 
about? or 8 inches apart both ways; and cut- 
ting and haying the herbs, once the first year, 
and twice a year afterwards. 
When ground in a coffee or corn mill, rhe 
root flour may then be used like other articles 
of food, according to the requisitions of health, 
convenience or fancy, in various breads, gruels, 
puddings, griddles, soups, pastry and custards, 
and in such proportions as may be found agree- 
able. It is (like arrowroot, sage and oatmeal,) 
very mucilaginous, nutritious, and easy of di- 
gestion. It operates well for the lungs. It has 
restored a lost voice, and is one of the best re- 
medies for habitual coughs and incipient con- 
sumptions, It nourishes the feeble and suits 
well a dyspeptic stomach, when no other food 
can be kept down; and it sets all right in the 
bowels, I think it one of the best articles for 
sustenance and health ever made for man, and 
that on almost every account. But let others 
cultivate and try it lor themselves, and it will 
probably, with them as with me, be constantly 
growing in their estimation. 
Ezekiel Rich. 
From the South Carolinian. 
Talking vs. Doing— Remarks on the Past*- 
Hints for the Future. 
No argument like matter of fact is, 
And we are best of all men led to 
Men’s principles, by what they do. — Hudil/ras. 
Assem Hacchem, in his celebrated letters to 
Mustapha Rub-a-dub Keli-Khan, was right 
when he said we were a nation of talkers — a 
body politic of slang-whangers. And we of the 
South, good men and true as we may be, and 
right sore upon this subject as we are, must con- 
fess the fact, that we are a wondrous people, 
for raising a tempest in a tea-pot. A few years 
ago when cotton fell from $18 to S8, what a 
sensation was produced by it. The country 
was ruined, all cried aloud. Nobody could 
stand it — to grow cotton at 8 cents was ruinous 
to the planters. It was sheer nonsense to talk of 
competing with the West on our worn out lands. 
Emigration was all the rage, and thousands 
moved westward and buried their fortunes. 
Others staid at home and talked of Reform, 
Economy and Patriotism, 
Agricultural Societies sprang up everywhere. 
Newspapers teemed with Agricultural essays. 
Speeches were made — committees appointed, 
and premiums offered ; and now it was as plain 
as the nose on a man’s face, that cotton could 
not be grown on our exhausted lands at 8 cents. 
We must reform — we must improve our soil — 
we must sow grains and grasses, and raise our 
own slock. This immense drain of ourcapital 
by the West must be stopped. And, like Alad- 
din’s lamp, all these things were to be done like 
magic, it was to be done in a moment. We 
could never wait for each reform to be eflected 
gradually — it must be “ Presto— change,” or 
not at all. 
Short horns and Ayrshires, Berkshires, Wo- 
burns and Graziers were in great demand — you 
could hear of nothing else. And our Yankee 
and Western brethren, who are always on the 
watch, to pick up suckers - threw out their bait, 
and we were “ cotcht.” The Northern papers 
were filled with the wonderful properties of 
different breeds of animals, the Southern papers 
echoed the story- the people ran mad — bit, and 
were bitten. If would be a sore subject now to 
many of us to speak of the prices which we paid 
in those days for the “improved breeds.” 
It seems inevitable that we are to be taxed for 
our experience as well as for our wares and 
merchandize. It is our own fault. 
Then we began to make manure lots upon 
the poorest, bleakest places we could find, where- 
in our cattle, poor things, were to be penned up 
during winter, resting upon piles of wet litter 
without a shelter to shut out wind or rain. 
Manure, such as it was, was made, carted out, 
and the work seemed fairly begun, so far as 
talk and the newspapers could go, the problem 
was solved — we were made a people, every body 
was surprised, that everybody did’nt ^e it 
long ago. A few years have passed away, and 
it is all over. You hear people saying now, 
manure won’t do. We can’t make enough of 
it, and it won’t give the results of the newspa- 
per writers. We must have fresh land. Dur- 
hams don’t suit ourcountry — they are not adapt- 
ed to our system of grazing— bless me, what is? 
That Berkshires and Woburns and Graziers 
are all humbugs! That if every man makes 
corn, nobody can sell it, and when one does sell 
it, the money comes in “ dribbles” and does a 
man no good. He spends it as fast as he gets 
it — pray, whose fault is that? 
Thus they talk, and everybody has gone back 
to cotton at 4 and 5 cents per pound, and puts 
in just as much as he can tend, making quanti- 
ty answer his purpose. The receipts in our 
markets go plainly to show that there is no fall- 
ing off in the quantity produced on our exhaust- 
ed iands, and but for the extremely unfavorable 
spring, we have no doubt as much would have 
been put in on an average as ever. It is a 
strange thing, really, that at a lime when the 
country was comparatively out of debt, our 
staple at a low price, and our lands exhausted, 
that the planters should steadily refuse to carry 
out a reform, which would work out incalcula- 
ble advantages to the country. 
The truth of the matter is, w’e all w’ant to be 
big folks. We want to roll our cotton down to 
market and get the money all in one big lump. 
W e have got into that way of doing things and 
we can’t bear the idea of this piddling business 
in dollars and cents. We know nothing of the 
old adage, “ a brisk penny is belter that a slow 
shilling.” We are in too great a hurry to wait 
for the end. In truth, we are always in too 
great a hurry — it must come at once or never. 
We are the creatures of impulse, which may 
do very well for sentiment, but belongs not to 
larming, stock raising and manu.re heaps — eve- 
rything therein must go its regular course. 
We have reformed but indifferently — we 
must reform altogether. No half way point is 
there in this matter — there must be a regular 
system to be adopted and worked out to the end 
without any shrinking from the purpose. 
Manure lots should not be built anywhere on 
the side of a hill, or in the depth of a valley. 
They should be constructed as ifthey were to 
be therefor one’s posterity. It is the fatal error 
with us, that we do everything in a hurry, and 
as it were ‘‘pro tempore." And when manure is 
applied to the earth it should be in such a man- 
ner as to tell its own story. It is far better to ma- 
nure a small field well, than a large one badly. 
Cattle and hogs of improved breeds should 
not be introduced before w'e are ready for them. 
Recollect that we have none of the convenien- 
ces lor raising such things ; treatment that 
might answer very well for our brindled cattle 
and razor backed hogs would soon kill an “ im- 
proved” animal. We must not expect to pro- 
duce like from like, unless it be by like treat- 
ment, that’s certain. 
We must begin by degrees and not jump in 
medias res at the first bounce — nonsense all this. 
With the same pen of shucks we expect to 
keep up the same oid stock, and the improved 
breed into the bargain. Belter had it been for 
us if we had kept our old slock and improved by 
judicious selection and feeding until we learned 
from experience the benefits of such a system 
— then we would be prepared to introduce your 
Durhams, Devons, et ceteras. We do veril” 
believe that it would be an absolute saving to 
most of our planters, and a manliest impiove- 
ment upon their stock, if they would knock in 
the head and skin one-halt their live stock at 
the beginning of every winter. 
To succeed, we must be fixed forsuch things. 
Meadows cannot be made in a day, nor will old 
sedge fields answer all the purposes of grazing. 
Old habits like ours cannot be changed in a 
moment — all these things must be the work of 
lime, labor, perseverance, energy and economy. 
It will be a long time before you can teach a 
cotton growing people such a doctrine — yea, 
we fear it will never be done, till every stick of 
timber is destroyed, and every corner filled with 
an inhabitant. Nondescript, 
The Grape and Wine Making. 
From the Alabama Planter. 
We had placed in our hands a private letter, 
not intended lor the use we are permitted to 
make of it, which contains some valuable hints 
on the cultivation of the native grape and wine 
making. The writer has lor many years taken 
a lively interest in the agricultural improve- 
ments of our Slate, and bestowed no little pains 
by ckseand patient experiments, in develop- 
ing her resources. He has done more perhaps 
than any other man in ascertaining what pro- 
ducts will succeed and amply reward the culti- 
vator for his labor. Therefore, we have entire 
confidence in what he says in regard to the na- 
tive grape. If, however, other evidence were 
wanting of his knowledge and skill — of the su- 
perior quality of his grapes, and his ability to 
extract from them a nectar that the gods might 
sip with delight, we have it in a sample of wine 
of his own vintage. 
W hether or not this w’orthy gentleman’s ad- 
mirable system of farming and domestic econo- 
my is ever adopted generally by our people, he 
will enjoy the satisfaction of having done all 
in his power, both by precept and example, in 
pointing out the true road to prosperity and hap- 
piness. 
Ten or twelve years ago the same gentleman 
published through the Alabama State Intelli- 
gencer, conducted at Tuscaloosa by the wri- 
ter of this article, a series of interesting pa- 
pers, designed to impress upon planters the pol- 
icy of a mote varied system of culture. As a 
proof ol their merit, they were very generally 
copied by the Southern press, although put forth 
at a time when cotton was more exclusively 
culiivaied than at the present. Recently he has 
written for the Register of this city a number of 
communications of a highly practical charac- 
ter; and, devoted as that paper is, mainly to 
commercial affairs, they have been promptly 
published and received with approbation by a 
large number of its readers. This certainly 
may betaken as gratifying evidence that al- 
ready a deep iniere&t is awakened on the sub- 
ject of Agriculture. We trust the future num- 
bers of the Alabama Planter will be graced by 
contributions Irom the same source, 
Buttothe letter: 
“I make annually for my own use and to 
scatter amongst friends, from 75 to 100 gallons 
of wine. I prefer it for a summer drink, using 
no spirits. The red wine was made from our 
native uncultivated grape, which abounds 
through this section of country, some of the fi- 
nest varieties of which I am cultivating, pre- 
viously having determined«their qualities as re- 
gards producing a good wine. 
There is an astonishing variety in the pro- 
duct of our native grape, all of which are culti- 
vated w’ith great ease, and exhibiton cultivating 
an improvement hardly credible. 
Among other properties possessed by our na- 
tive grape, the quantity of vinous matter they 
possess is most remarkable. A bushel of 
bunches as pulled from the vine will give three 
gallons of the wine I sent you ; and after under- 
going a second operaiion, about one gallon 
more of a lighter but most agreeab'e wine. It 
would take a third pressure to produce the mea- 
