138 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
of a thrifty farmer— and he has a ten acre lot of 
corn, upon which he has bestowed extra labor and 
attention, with the view of obtaining the premi- 
um. Then there are his fine blooded cattle, 
sheep and horses, apportioned off into lots, ac- 
cording to age, and the use and purposes for 
which they are designed. Imleed, there is no 
spot in or about his residence or farm, that will 
not furnish evidence of his being a thrifty, pro- 
fitable, and practical farmer. True it is, that I 
had read and heard much of Mr. Clay as the 
“Farmer of Ashland,” but I regarded him as 
what is termed a “gentleman farmer” — as one 
who had a farm, but knew little and cared less 
how it was cultivated. But let any one walk with 
Mr. Clay over his broad acres — notice his inti- 
mate knowledge of every thing pertaining to farm- 
ing — hear him relate how he prepares and im- 
proves his lands, changes his crops, improves his 
stock, and yearly renders more and more produc- 
tive and profitable his extensive plantation — and 
he will then see with his own eyes, that one of 
the best practical and most useful farmers in this 
or any other country, is Henry Clay, the Farmer 
of Ashland; and he will also see and learn that 
the best butter and cheese in the Lexington mar- 
ket are made by Mrs. Clay, the wife of the Farmer 
of Ashland. 
Mr. Clay grows large quantities of hemp, and 
is connected with a son in a hemp manufactory. 
Such is a brief descriptive outline of Ashland, 
as it was last April. 
Mr. Clay’s house is a handsome and substan- 
tial edifice, the main body about 40 feet by 50, 
with wings of proportionate dimensions. It 
stands in the midst of a profusion of venerable 
forest trees, evergreens, and shrubbery, upon a 
gentle elevation in the center of a lot containing 
about 50 acres, and is some 40 rods from the road. 
A serpentine carriage way leads through the 
grove to the house, and numerous pathways, 
tastefully arranged, studiously preserved and im- 
proved, beautify his extensive grounds. His 
house is plainly but well furnished, containing 
many choice and valuable evidences of the re- 
spect and affection of his countrymen. Then 
there is a stone cheese-house and stone butter- 
house, Ashland being celebrated for the quantity 
of the butter and cheese made thereat. His 
chicken-house, dove-house, stables, barn and 
sheds, are all in perfect repair, spacious, neat, and 
in order. His fruit and vegetable garden contains 
about four acres, and in its arrangement and cul- 
tivation I saw 111 rs. Clay giving personal direc- 
tions. There is also a large green-house filled 
with choice plants and beautiful flowers. — Cleve- 
land Herald. 
Horticulture. — The accomplished Editress 
of the Boston Transcript, recently confined to a 
sick room, in relating some incidtnts connected 
with a visit to the Horticultural Hall opened in 
Boston on Saturday, says: 
“It was a day of delight to us, although pain 
would have kept us rivetted as in iron. The 
floral chain however was the conqueror, and the 
aroma of ‘nature’s jewels,’ was like the ‘inlal- 
lible pain extractor’ advertised as a wonder in 
all the newspapers. One of our New York 
contemporaries the other day lound a business 
friend m Woll-slreet {!) happy in contemplation 
of some Iresh flowers he was placing in a tum- 
bler, and on expressing his astonishment, the 
merchant calmly looked up to his visiter, with 
this salutation : “Ah, how d’ye do? lam try- 
ing to forget for a moment the turmoil around 
me, and enjoy these beautiful creations of an 
Almighty hand. Have you ever observed that 
the pleasure derived from perfumes and music 
is of all our physical enjoyments the most per- 
fect 1 If enjoyment is heightened in proportion 
as we approach the spiritual, what must be the 
blessedness of the good, when the physical is 
shaken off entirely, and this mortal puts on im- 
mortality !’” 
A glorious thought amidst the trials of busi- 
ness! The merchant was right, ax\& we would 
rather enjoy the after-blessings of such thoughts, 
than to inherit all the gold of Ophir, which is too 
apt to buy the soul and keep it wedded to mortality. 
Insects have great powers of smell, and most 
of the essential oils of plants are ofensive to 
them, and may thus bp used to exterminate them. 
©riginal OTommumcations. 
Bermuda Grass. 
Mr. Editor: — Is it not astonishing how doc- 
tors wiZ? differ? There is not much danger, 
however, of their killing the patient, in this in- 
stance, it we may judge from the experience of 
one of your correspondents. One would think 
that a covering of green pine brush waist deep, 
a growth of briars so dense he could not stick a 
butcher’s knite into it, or a closely jointed plank 
floor over it, would destroy anything, even bit- 
ter coco 1 
But there must be some mistake here. On 
reading the article in question, the first time, 
and finding the writer speaking of Bermuda 
grass growing luxuriantly in a dense thicket, 
standing “Irom knee to waist high, and as thick 
as grass gets to be,” I felt really pleased at the 
thought, that here was a grassthai would prove 
of greater value to the South than even the Ber- 
muda; but when I found him speak of stock 
eating broom sedge in preference to it I that was 
a damper. The gentleman can never have 
seen what we here call Bermuda grass. It cov- 
ers the commons of this town and Natchez, 
both of considerable extent; of course, there are 
pans ofthecommon set in other grasses — broom 
sedge and Natchez grass, which is almost as 
rough and coarse, being the most common. 
The Bermuda sod is always, and under all cir- 
Lumstances, unless, perhaps, where it has had a 
rank growth, encouraged by the wash from a 
sewer, stable yard or such place, closely grazed, 
whilst the other growth is comparatively un- 
touched. And it is a notorious fact, that wher- 
ever there are moderately good ranges of Ber- 
muda pasture, Z/^e stock is uniformly fat. As a 
hay-producing grass, it cannot be equalled. 
My little meadow here, though from situation 
and other circumstances, in a rather rough 
slate, is at this time a sight that would gratify 
any intelligent farmer. It cannot yield me less, 
rough though it be, than an average cut of three 
tons per acre of dry hay at this second cutting, 
and much of it will give me at the rate of over 
five tons, and I will get yet a third cutting. 
That it is a nuisance in a cotton field in 
which cotton has been grown for seventeen 
years in succession, as is not at all uncommon, 
no one can deny; but that it can be kept under 
perfect check by “ sowing the ground in small 
grain lor several years in succession, (this, 
alone, I never recommended,) or by cultivating 
{he p omA in any other way” is moZ a “notion 
founded on inexperience, ’’notwithstandingyour 
correspondent’s couteous assertion I 
How opposite is the experience of Mr. Fel- 
ton given in the next article headed “ Bermuda 
Grass.” The grass he speaks of must be what 
we call Bermuda here. I look with interest for 
answers to P.’s inquiries. Had I leisure at pre- 
sent, which 1 have not, I could give him some 
information in answer, but must, for the pre- 
sent, defer it. 
Let every man try this grass on a small scale 
and test the matter for himself; three or four 
years will do it thoroughly, and an eighth of an 
acre be scope enough, and that might be in some 
nook or corner whence it could not readily 
spread. As to its “ ruining the country,” there 
is but little danger of that. At the very icorst \i 
is not as troublesome as crab grass and tie vines 
combined ! For my part, 1 would gladly run 
the'risk of having it spread even to an uncon- 
trollable extent if I were the owner of a worn, 
washed, hii’l plantation, with a comfortable 
house and improvements on it. That it im- 
proves the land is certain— that stock give it a 
preference and thrive and fatten on it is equally 
certain ; it preserves the land from washing and 
makes it give a return in mutton, wool, butter, 
beef, pork, young mules, &c., such as it never 
gave in cotton or corn. Your readers may rely 
upon it, that I would be very unwilling to re- 
commend the introduction of anything likely to 
prove injurious. And I would here repeat the 
caution I have often given, not to trust to any 
man’s say sc, but try every new thing in a mode- 
rate way. Take a piece of poor hill land and 
get a good covering of Bermuda grass upon it 
and try it there. Most of the planters of the 
South let all of theirhill lands thatwill, and that 
ton the cream of them, find its way to the ocean 
without making an effort to prevent it. They 
might surely risk a few acres of such in trying 
a grass that others have found so valuable. 
One of the very best farmers in Mississippi, a 
farmer and cotton grower of thirty years’ expe- 
rience, told me that when Bermuda grass first 
got on one of his plantations, he found it so 
troublesome that he thought his place ruined, 
but that he quickly found he could keep it un- 
der sufficient check by the use of oats, peas and 
pumpkins, to grow full crops of cotton without 
extra labor, and now he considers it invalua- 
ble, and has beautiful pastures of it. 
Do not cease urging upon your readers the 
necessity of horizontal or side hill ditches. Pro- 
cure and publish all the information you can, 
lor and against, for I have no doubt you will 
find a difference of opinion and even of expe- 
rience there too. If imperfectly and improperly 
done, they arc much worse than useless, and had 
better be undone. Yours, &c. 
Thomas Affleck. 
Ingleside, Miss., July 15, 1845. 
Bermuda Grass. 
Mr. Camak I see in your valuable Culti- 
vator a great many inquiries on the subject of 
Bermuda Grass, and well there may be. Some 
wish to know whether it is a profitable grass or 
not; others wish to find out the cheapest plan to 
get clear of it. Mr. Cunningham says in the 
May number, “I consider information on this 
subject of more importance to the agricultural 
interest of our State than any other, and if it 
can be given satisfactorily, the man who does it 
will deserve not only the silver cup, but the 
thanks and gratitude of our whole community.” 
He says again, “ I would as soon try to drown 
a fish by throwing him in the water, as to kill 
Bermuda Grass by never so much working in 
the sun.” 
I must beg leave, Mr. Editor, to differ WM'th 
him entirely, and say that in my humble opin- 
ion planting hoed crops is the surest and the 
only way to destroy it. 
I had a field of about twenty acres spotted 
over with it, and I determined to destroy it. I 
planted it in cotton six years in succession, and 
worked it so frequently that the land was injur- 
ed, but the Bermuda was killed. I have a field 
of fifty acres or more that was matted over 
with it, and thrown out in consequence of it. 1 
cleared a field by the side of this Bermuda field, 
and to have a straight fence, I took in three or 
four acres of the Bermuda with the new clear- 
ing. Some of my friends told me that I would 
scatter the Bermuda over the new ground and 
ruin it. I took the precaution, however, to 
cultivate it by itself. This was in the winter of 
’41 and ’42. i planted it in cotton three years, 
and now I cannot find a sprig of the grass in it. 
In the winter of ’43 and ’44, I took in twelve 
acres of the old field, a solid turf except about 
half an acre. Last year I planted cotton on it 
and made a good crop. I have it in cotton this 
year, and I will venture to say there is not a 
handful ot Bermuda on the twelve acres. 
What remains may be found around the small 
stumps, which I expect to exterminate by the 
time I am done working it. 
1 look in thirty acres more this year which 
were entirely covered with Bermuda except two 
or three small spots, about an acre and a half 
in all. I planted it in cotton, and as I have had 
such a favorable spring for killing it, 1 think I 
shall succeed in destroying it almost entirely 
this year. 
I will now detail my plan for destroying Ber- 
muda Grass. I commence about the first of 
December, for that is as soon as we can get the 
top killed by the frost in this part of the country 
— set fire to it and burn off clear so as to have 
as little stubble to contend with as possible. I 
then break it up broadcast with a turning plow, 
