140 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
It aopeared lo nie to be sowed rather than plant- 
ed. * In this Stale the wheat is somewhat later, 
and the farmers will be able to save it much better 
than those in Indiana, as the weather is pleasant 
at this time anddr3^ And notwithstanding the 
lands are so rich, you see but little appearance 
of prosperity ; so true is it that where the Al- 
migh y does much for man, he is inclined to do 
but little for himself. 
I visited, a few days past, the extensive nur- 
sery of Mr. Curtis of this neighborhood. This 
gentleman employs ten hands in his nursery, 
sells yearly sixty thousand apple trees, all grafts 
of the finest kind of apples, and other fruits. 
He is making arrangements for raising shrub- 
bery and flowers. 
I visited a Col. Blackburn, of this neighbor- 
hood, and was highly pleased with his farm. 
He employs some 8 or lO hands. His nieado tv 
land presented a beautiful appearance. He 
raises 2^ tons ol hay per acre. He has 80 acres 
of this meadow set in timothy and clover mixed. 
It requires but one sowing in ten years. The 
stock of this gentleman is of the finest kind, all 
his cattle being the short horned Durham. 
They are fully equal to the cattle of Tennessee. 
1 have found two Agricultural works here. 
The Indiana Cultivator is a work lately started 
at Evansville. From what I have seen of In- 
diana, there is the greatest want of Agricultural 
wmrks. The Prairie Farmer, published at Chi- 
cago, has entered its fifth volume and appears to 
be an excellent work, well adapted lo this lati- 
tude, Irom what I have seen of it. There is such 
a diversity of soil and climate between thiscoun- 
try and the south that a volume might be written. 
From what I have seen of Indiana and Illinois, 
although they have such immense bodies of 
rich lands, that can be bought at low prices, I 
would prefer the sunny South as a home, by far. 
Thus, my dear sir, 1 have attempted to throw 
together a few scattered thoughts that you are 
at liberty to throw under your table or publish, 
as in your judgment may be most proper. 
Your friend, Alexander McDonald, 
Paris, Edgar County, Illinois, July, 184.5. 
Mr. Burke’s Letter. 
Mr. Camak: — I hand you enclosed, the letter 
to which I referred, when in Athens. By calling 
the attention of your subscribers in this district 
lo the subject, and requesting them to furnish 
me with the information sought for, by Mr. 
Burke, we shall render important aid lo him in 
the preparation of his report. I am very res- 
pectfully, your obedient servant, 
Monroe, August 19, 1315. HoWELL CoBB. 
Hon. Howell Cobb, Athens, Ga. ; 
Sir:— W ill you have the Uiiidness to furnish me 
with the estimate of the crops for the present season 
in your district, either personally or by the aid of 
others, with the causes of increase or diminution, and 
such other remarks as you may judge proper for the 
Agricultural Report for 1845. 
Wheat, as compared with the More. Less. 
crop of 1344, per ct. per ct. 
Barley, “ “ “ “ “ 
Oats, “ “ “ “ “ 
Rye, “ “ “ “ “ 
Buckwheat, “ “ “ “ “ 
Indian Corn, “ “ “ *' “ 
Potatoes, “ “ “ “ “ 
Hay, “ “ “ “ “ 
Hemp, “ “ “ “ “ 
Tobacco, “ “ “ “ 
Cotton, “ “ “ “ “ 
Rice, “ “ “ “ “ 
Silk, “ “ “ “ » 
Sugar, “ “ ‘‘ “ “ 
The per centage on the crop of the preceding year 
with as much accuracy as your information will admit. 
Also, please state the average daily and monthly wa- 
ges of labor (exclusive of board,) of husbandmen, and 
persons employed in the different mechanic trades, in 
your neighborhood, 
N. B. Please return this by the 1st of December next. 
Specimens of rare seeds will be most acceptable for 
distribution , I have the honor to be, respectfully, yours. 
Patent Office, May Vi, 1845. Edmund Burke. 
Eggs are exported from Cincinnati in great 
quantities. It is estimated that an aggregate of 
2,176,333 dozens, or 26,115,996 eggs have been 
exported from or consumed there the past year. 
AB5I>aES§ OF 051. PHILLIPS, 
Delivered before the Agricultural Society of Habersham. 
Dr. Geo. D. Phillips : — Dear Sir — In obedience lo 
a resolution of the Agricultural Society of Habersham, 
we request of you a copy of your Address delivered 
before the Society on this day, for publication, hoping 
that others may enjoy the same pleasure in reading it 
that we did in listening to it. Yours, &c., 
Wm. B. Wofford, ) 
.1. W. H. Underwood, > Committee. 
James R. Wyly, ) 
Clarkesville, Ga., August 5th, 1845. 
Gentlemen: — Your note, as the organ of the Agri- 
cultural Society, requesting a copy of the remarks I 
offered to the Society at its last meeting, would have 
been replied to sooner if it had been in my power. 
From an injury- of the wrist, I have not been able to 
write, and but for its unreasonable length, should have 
sent you the original manuscript some days ago, but I 
could not think Mr. Camak would give it a place in the 
Cultivator. In attempting to curtail its dimensions, 
I am sensible of having lopped off some of its most 
valuable limbs, and have some misgivings about send- 
ing it into the world in its mutilated form. Do with 
it, however, as you think pimper, and accept my best 
wishes. Geo. D. Phillips. 
To Maj. J. W. H. Underwood, Gen. J. R. Wyly, and 
Gen. Wofford. 
ADDRESS. 
Mr. President: — As I flatter myself our So- 
ciety is destined to a long life, and as I may from 
time to time desire to say something on the va- 
rious subjects connected with agriculture, 1 will, 
on the present occasion, commence at what I 
consider the true starting point, and begin at the 
beginning. 
I lay it down as a proposition, sir, that cannot 
be successfully controverted, that any and every 
system of farming is defective, unless it is found- 
ed on a correct appreciation of the nature, the 
character, and the constituents of the soil. I 
use the term soil, as synonymous with earth, and 
not in its common meaning as applied to one or 
two inche.s of the earth’s surface. 
The soil or earth of the United States, indeed 
of the whole globe, might with propriety be di- 
vided into classes, corresponding to the primi- 
tive, transition, and tertiaiy divisions of our 
globe, and would be found to contain more or 
less of those salts and alkalies peculiar to each. 
We are here, sir, located in a primitive region, 
and our soil or earth is made up of the debris oi 
disintegration of granite, gneiss, mica slate, 
sienite, argilite, and the numerous combinations 
of these. Our soil contains only a trace of cal- 
careous matter, and so small a proportion of ve- 
getable extract that it must be regarded as a poor 
soil. I am aware that we have it from high au- 
thoiity, recently sanctioned by two of our emi- 
nent citizens before this community, that the 
upper part of Georgia, embracing Habersham 
county, is, all things considered, one of the most 
desirable portions of the United States. Sir, I 
have travelled from the Niagara to the Trinity, 
and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. I have 
noted the character of the soil and its minerals 
wherever I have travelled. I have made com- 
parative estimates of the advantages and disad- 
vantages of districts, sections and States, and I 
do candidly think the upper portion of Georgia 
deserves to rank as one of the poorest. If man, 
sir, could have all his animal wants supplied by 
a salubrious air and pure water, then indeed 
would the region in which we live be a most en- 
viable one; but, as we require food to recruit 
the waste of strength, and covering to protect 
and adorn our bodies, we could not, even if we 
desired to do so, disregard the injunction of Hea- 
ven, that man shall live by the sweat of his face. 
In pronouncing our soil poor, Mr. President, I 
desire to be understood as saying, it is deficient 
in what some writers call humus, some geine, 
and others vegetable extract; and likewise defi- 
cient in lime, and every other calcareous matter. 
Let these be supplied in sufficient quantity, and 
I believe the rolling lands of Habersham county 
would be equal to any, at least of granite forma- 
tion, in the world. Now, the indispensable re- 
quisites of a good soil, sir, are, clay, sand and sili- 
ca. The two first in about equal proportions, 
with from ten to twenty per cent, of the last. 
Such a combination makes alight, friable soil, 
sufficiently retentive of moisture, not liable to 
bake, and easily penetrated by the roots of plants ; 
and it is in the power of every man, even those 
who know nothing of chemistry, to examine, 
and so far analyze his soil as to be able to decide 
correctly, if it possesses the requisite proportions 
of clay, sand and silica. This he can do by simply 
washing, boiling and weighing. The vegetable 
mould of our uplands is not more than from one 
to tivo inches deep. Let that be removed, ana 
by means of a hoe or spade take from bene th 
any given quantity, say one pound of earth, put 
it into a pan and carefully wash it as we pan out 
gold. After all the clay (which is soluble in wa- 
ter,) and the fine silica is removed, the coarse 
sand will be left, carefully weigh this and note 
the quantity ; then boil the water in which you 
washed out the clay, until it leaves in the vessel 
a mush -like paste, add more water, and after 
stirring up well pan out again more carefully 
than at first, and you will find in the pan perhaps 
neither gold nor coarse sand, but a fine brownish 
white powder or sand called silica, without 
which neither straw nor cornstalks can be rais- 
ed; now carefully weigh the silica, and if you 
find you have 40 parts of clay, 40 of sand, and 20 
of silica in the 100, you have a good soil, perhaps 
the best that nature or art has ever made, and 
every deviation from those proportions, showing 
either an increase of clay or sand, will make your 
soil less valuable and productive. It is, there- 
fore, a matter of the first importance, that every 
farmer should examine his soil and ascertain its 
actual proportions of these indispensable mate- 
rials. If he finds an excess of clay let him add 
sand, if of sand, let him add clay ; either, alone, 
is unproductive, but blend them together in pro- 
per proportions, and by the aid of manure you 
have the finest soil in the world. I will now, 
Mr. President, offer a few views in support of 
this broad assertion. 
Clay is necessary to the fertility of all land, by 
its attraction for water and the adhesion with 
which it holds it. This is so great that during 
the most intense drought, such as w'e now have, 
clay preserves that humidity which is indispen- 
sable to the nourishment and life of plants ; and 
although the earth may be scorched wdth heat, 
and apparently dry as powder, yet the clay is 
still capable of transferring to plants some mois- 
ture, without w’hich they could not live. Clay 
affords to the roots of plants a substantial sup- 
port, and by its resistance prevents those roots 
from extending too far, thereby obliging them to 
throw out tufts of short fibrous roots, by which 
means each plant seeks its nourishment in a 
more circumscribed boundary, and consequently 
does not encroach upon the feeding grounds of 
its neighbor. Clay has a powerful attraction for 
oxygen, a material indispensable to the forma- 
tion of carbonic acid ; and lastly, it attracts ni- 
trogen, one of the great nourishers of plants. 
These, sir, are some of the most valuable proper- 
ties of clay, without which there could be no 
productive soil. But valuable as it is, it must not 
be in excess, as that would be highly injurious, 
from what I have said in detailing its good qual- 
ities. Forinstance, in periods of wet w'eather it 
becomes saturated v.dth w'ater which it retains too 
long, neither suffering it to percolate nor evapo- 
rate. In dry weather it becomes too hard and 
offers too great a resistance to the roots of plants. 
In frosty weather, owdng to the quantity of wa- 
ter it holds, and W’hich becomes converted into 
ice, it heaves, or, to use a common expression, 
it spews up so as to throw out or expose the 
roots of plants; and lastly, from its inherent 
qualities, it incorporates itself with the active 
qualities of manures and cannot be made to part 
with them so readily as the lighter soils do ; and 
hence the fact well known to most farmers, that 
it takes a great quantity of manure to make clay 
land rich, but when rich, it holds it a long time. 
Nor should 1 omit here to say a few words rela- 
tive to the difficulty and labor of cultivating a 
stiff'clay soil. In wet weather you can neither 
plow, hoe, nor harrow it, whilst in dry weather 
it contracts and becomes so hard that it is with 
difficulty plowed, and is then broken up in clots 
so as to require a roller or a long exposure to 
rains and other atmospherical influences before 
it becomes pulverized, which often does not hap- 
pen until the season is far advanced. 
Sand is injurious too, when it enters too large- 
ly into the composition of soil, because it is not 
sufficiently retentive ol water, but allows it to eva- 
porate and drain away, carrying off with it the 
fertilizing qualities of the manure. Nor will 
sand, to any extent, combine with the humus or 
vegetable extracts, or absorb carbonic acid or ni- 
trogen from the atmospheric air. Neither will 
sandy soils bear frequent cultivation, as it 
destroys all coherence and thereby impoverishes. 
And lastly, by being a good conductor of heat, 
