THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
153 
counts of the experience of others. Then we 
want, also, that every farmer should make some 
definite ex periment this year, which may put to 
the test some theory of science, or perhaps lead 
to some discovery that will prove of advantage 
to the farming community, when the results are 
made known. 
“This may be done in a multitude of ways:— we 
have published numerous articles on the use of 
difierent kinds of manures and fertilizing agents, 
as lime, ashes, plaster, charcoal, &c. : now let 
each farmer who can obtain any of these sub- 
stances try experiments with them, by dressing 
one portion of the field and leaving the other un- 
dressed. The same may be done with numerous 
other kinds of manure and substances to be found 
about the farm or neighborhood. Then, too, in the 
mode of tilling or preparing the land, there is un- 
limited scope for experiments; plow a little deep- 
er than ever before, and if you can buy or borrow 
a subsoil plow, try that on heavy soils, and be 
sure in all cases to leave a portion of the field un- 
der ordinary tillage, so as to enable you to per- 
ceive the difference, if any. 
“ In the time and manner of sowing, and the 
kind of seed, there is also room for a multitude of 
important experiments, which will suggest them- 
selves to the mind of every farmer : let them all 
be tried and the results published next summer 
in the Ohio [Southern] Cultivator, and the infor- 
mation thus obtained may be the means of add- 
ing millions to the wheat crop of Ohio [Georgia] 
for years to come, and bringing prosperity and 
happiness to the farmers themselves.” 
Breaking up Prairie Liauds. 
Col. A. McDonald, ofEufaula, Alabama, writ- 
ing from Illinois, thus describes the farm of his 
relative and the manner of breaking up new 
ground in that State : 
“ Mr. A. McDonald was one of the early set- 
tlers of the country. He had an opportunity of 
selecting a choice place, and he made good use 
of the advantage he enjoyed; for certainly a more 
desirable farm than Elm Grove cannot be found 
in any country. There is about a section of the 
richest land, one-half timbered with black wal- 
nut, elm, cherry, the sugar maple; and the other 
half the richest prairie, finely watered. The man- 
ner of breaking up the prairie lands of this coun- 
try interested me much. They hitch seven yoke 
of steers to one of their large plows — the steers, 
plow, and all, managed by one man, turning over 
from one and an half to two acres per day, which 
costs from $1.50 to $2 per acre. This work is per - 
formed in the finest style, the plow fixed to run 
on wheels.” 
Just think of such plowing as that, ye who 
never thought of going deeper than about four 
inches! — Seven yoke of oxen to oneplow, and the 
plow attached to a pair of wheels very much 
like what is known among us as a carry-log ! 
And then to pay TWO dollars per acre for this 
first plowing — a sum equal to what a great deal 
pf our land would sell for even when new ! Is 
there anything wonderful in the crops that are 
gathered from such ground, thus prepared for the 
reception o f the seed ? 
Mr. Meriwether’s Address. 
Ever since we received a copy of Mr. Meriwe- 
ther’s speech before the Agricultural Society of 
Putnam county, we have been trying to find room 
for it in the Cultivator. The speech is quite 
too good to be spoiled by cutting it up into ex- 
tracts, and rather too long for a paper like ours. 
Thoitgh there is no dangei of its being spoiled by 
keeping, yet we will see if we can’t get it in the 
next number of the Cultivator. 
Decrease of Population— Study of Agri- 
culture. 
They are complaining about the decrease of 
population in the interior of the State of New 
York. And it is asserted, that unless something 
is done hy the Legislature, to aid in improving the 
soil, half the rural population will go to the West, 
where land needs no improvement, for the pre- 
sent, at least. Wheat, the great staple of western 
New York, is now brought to Buffalo, from Illi- 
nois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin, at five 
cents per bushel. In this state of things, it is 
confidently asserted, that, without the aid of sci- 
ence, the wheat growers of New York will have 
to give up the contest. Their condition is said 
to be still worse, who make wool, pork, butter, or 
cheese, according to the old system, on account 
of competition from the West. 
Under all these discouragements, however, 
there is this to cheer us. It is said, that in 
spite of the prolific production of western soils, 
and the cheapness of freights on the lakes, there 
are still some farmers in New York who make 
money~and they do this, because they are ena- 
bled, by the lights of modern science, to give a 
triple value to every muscular movement, in 
whatever work they set their hands about. That 
is, their one head and pair of hands, can accom- 
plish more in the same time, than the three heads 
and three pair of hands of those who work by 
the old rule, which, rejecting altogether the es- 
sence of brain, seeks to accomplish every thing 
by the use of mere elbow grease. 
If these things are happening in the state of 
New York, from western competition in the 
growth of wheat, what may we not expect to 
happen in the production of cotton, when the 
rich and extensive cotton fields of Texas shall be 
brought into full cultivation, and into active com- 
petition with us who shall remain in the old 
Southern States'? With our exhausted soils, and 
the markets of the world well-nigh glutted — not 
from over-production of cotton, but because the 
consumption oi it is checked and restrained every- 
where by despotic laws — the prospect of such 
competition would be appalling indeed, did we 
not know, that by setting our shoulders to the 
wheel, and calling upon science for aid, we may 
withstand it, successfully. We must study our 
profession carefully. We must bring all the light 
of science to bear on every process we engage in. 
“ Why should not” — asks Dr. Lee, of the 
Genesee Farmer, in an admirable article— “a 
person study the profession which he is to fol- 
low through life ? Is the skilful cultivation of 
the earth, a pursuit not sufficiently honorable to 
be regarded us a. profession? or is agriculture of 
too small importance to be studied as a science, 
as well as pracfi'sec? as an art? Why this reso- 
lute, this protracted, this hitherto successful op- 
position to the study of rural economy ? We can 
not comprehend it. 
“ Is t.here really danger that the rising genera- 
tion will know too much about the nature and 
properties of the things which must ever form all 
their annual crops ? Are we apprehensive that, 
if they study and understand the unerring laws 
of Nature, so far as they relate to ihe improve- 
ment of the soil, and the production of human 
food, we shall have an over supply of the neces- 
saries and comforts of life ? Perhaps it is thought 
that nothing can be learned about the things that 
unite to form the 20 bushels of “increase,” from 
one of seed, that God gives to reward the well 
directed toil of the husbandman. If this is the 
stumbling block, let us see if we can not remove 
it out of the way. 
“ A farmer sows one bushel of wheat, and har- 
vests twenty. From what source does he derive 
the nineteen, to say nothing of the straw that 
supports the whole crop ? Unless the whole in- 
crease is an entire new creation of matter, of 
course it must all come from somewhere. Now, 
it is obvious, that it would be of no consequence 
whatever, where this matter came from, or what 
it v/as composed of, provided God -gave an “in- 
crease” precisely according to the amount of la- 
bor bestowed, irrespective of the folly, ignorance, 
or misapplication that mighc direct the same. 
But all experience confirms the truth of the re- 
mark, that Heaven does not so reward the labor 
of the farmer. The Author of our being inter- 
feres by no special providence to save the erring 
children of men from hunger, disease and death, 
provided they violate the laws of Nature. If an 
innocent child places its finger in a burning lamp, 
neither its innocence, nor its ignorance of the 
properties of fire, will save it from the full injury 
and pain of a burn. 
“ God has conferred upon talking man, not only 
a sense ot just accountability to his Maker, and 
his fellow man, but reasoning faculties, memory, 
and other powers, which, when fully developed, 
will understand all the natural laws that concern 
his subsistence and happiness. These moral 
and intellectual faculties seem to be created to no 
purpose, unless they are awakened into life and 
usefulness, by the physical and mental wants of 
humanity. As a stimulus to rural industry, our 
Maker has created a necessity for man to “eat 
bread in the sweat of his face.” This necessity 
is, moreover, “the mother of invention,” and the 
parent of knowledge. Man’s necessities arising 
from hunger, cold and nakedness, led him to the 
use of fire, and to make a thousand discoveries 
in the arts. These necessities still exist in full 
force. Undoubtedly the Creator could easily 
have formed every acre of land, so that the most 
ignorant man alive, might plow and sow it, and 
reap 100 bushels of wheat on the same, year af- 
ter year for his whole life time, without impairing 
its fertility. But such abundance would have 
beenan enduring bounty on ignorance, if not on 
vice and crime. Knowledge is necessary to reno- 
vate any large tract of country, which has been 
much injured by unwise tillage; and this know- 
ledge can be best acquired by uniting the study, 
with the practice oi agriculture. 
“ The study of agricultural science, implies no 
more nor less than the investigation of the laws 
of our own being, as social, physical, moral and 
rational creatures. It is only a question of time, 
when we shall begin to learn what it is that forms 
good bread, milk, butter, cheese, potatoes, beans, 
peas, lean meat, wool, and bone. We can not go 
on forever, increasing hungiy mouths to be fed 
three times every day, and wasting to the tune of 
untold millions, the constituents ol our daily 
food, ani not pay for our folly. 
♦ + »****♦ 
“Ever}' body knows that there would be some 
difTerence in a loaf of bread, whether it was made 
out of a pound of good wheat flour, or a pound 
of oat straw! We are wonderful nice about our 
own food, but we expect our wheat plants to ela- 
borate fat, muscle, brain and bone for us, and use 
materials as foreign from human flesh and blood, 
as copper, arsenic, and lead ! We are all exceed- 
ingly fond of good bread, milk, and potatoes, 
