THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
11 
profitable in a vineyard; though it is well, for 
the sake of variety and contrast, to try all good 
grapes you can proctire {n our country. I say 
our country, for foreign kinds 1 find not worth 
cultivating ; or, as well as some iiatives, will 
■only tantalize your hopes by rotting ere they 
mature. 
I add here, that the Scuppernong will not suc- 
ceed from cuttings. But to propagate, layers 
are to be rooted from parent vines, and thence 
put into the nursery, and afterwards into the 
vineyard. Trimming in summer, young vines; 
the old, never. In haste, yours, &c., 
Sidney Weller. 
■Brinkleyville, Halifax county, N. C., Nov. 29, 1845. 
Practice of Agriculture. 
Mr. Camak Having promised my brother 
farmers who read th’ Cultivator, some account 
of my farming operations, I w'ill now give 
them, through the columns of that invaluable 
'work, a sketch of such matters as I can em- 
brace in a letter. Now this is complying w’ilh 
your views. At page 72 of the present volume 
will be found your request, that the farmers on 
the Savannah river set down and compare 
notes with the farmers on the Chattahoochee, 
and vice versa. In the same piece you request- 
ed them not to get cn stilts and get the dictiona- 
ry and go to hunting for big w’ords, but to take 
their pen and pm down on paper precisely 
W'hat they would say, tvere they telling over 
their operations when they met. Now, Mr. 
Editor, I consider the advice so good, that I, fur 
one, will try to take it : and permit me here to 
say, that 1 am astonished to find so few farmers 
•came forward in the columns of theCuLTiVATOR 
with their own operaiions, for, as you very pro- 
perly say, it is by comparing n-otes tnac we are 
enabled to know what each one is doing, and 
also learn many important and useful things 
that would forever lie buried. But I promised 
you some account of my farm, though indeed it 
is hardly worth talking about; but, such as it is, it 
is the best I have gut, and it becomes me to 
make the best of it l ean. My farm embraces 
360 acres of poor pine land, lying on both sides 
of the Barbour creek, four miles from the beau- 
tiful town of Eufauln, The creek about di- 
vides the farm. One side of the creek the land 
is extremely broken, the other side perfectly le- 
vel. 
It is olten profitable to compare years in agri- 
culture. This can only be done by keeping a 
farming memorandum or diary. I will there- 
fore eive you a shor' account of the operations 
of 1844 and 1845, taken from my farming book 
or diary, to wit ; 
ON THE isT PAGE FOR 1844. 
Say, SCO acres poor pine land at $6 per acre. . .$‘2,160 00 
13 hands, mostly boys and women, counted at 
10 good hands 5,800 00 
Five mules 375 00 
‘One yoke of steers 50 00 
Carts, tools, &c 11500 
Capital invested $8,500 00 
I find the interest at 8 per cent $680 00 
'Overseer’s wages, including board.... 300 00 
Bagging and rope.. 100 00 
Various other expenses 100 00"1,I80 00 
The following is tie division of the farm for 
1844, as to cultivation : say, in 
'Corn acres TOO j Polaloes, rice, &c. acres 6 
'Coilofi TOO 
Oals 50 I Total acres 255 
The following is the production : 
‘Corn and meat on the farm sufficient for the farm as 
well as for the family in town. 59 bales cotton made 
averaging about 500 pounds to the bale. 
The gross sale of 47 bales sold in the city of 
New York $‘2,119 63 
Expenses on 47 bales to New York. .271 74— $1,837 89 
12 bales of inferior cotton sold in Apa- 
lachicola $‘232 80 
Expenses on 12 bales 20 00 $212 50 
Total ,..$2,050 69 
Deduct entire expenses for 1844. 500 00 
Leaving a profit of $1,550 69 
The above calculation, taken from my farm- 
ing memorandum, 1 think is about correct. A 
large portion of my cotton sokl in New York, 
brought over 10 cents per lb. The manner of 
preparing my cotton lor market will be found 
at page 145 of the second volume of the South- 
ern Cultivator. It will be seen by the above 
calculation, the interest made on my farm and 
the amount invested in it. 
OPERATIONS FOR 1845. 
The value of properly set down on the first day of 
.lanuaty, 1845. the same as the first day of January, 
1844, viz:........- $8,500 00 
The following alteration as to land cultiva- 
ted, to wit: No. acres in 
Corn acres 120 I Potatoes, rice, &c. acres 8 
Cotton 80 
Oats 50 I Total acres .258 
The corn crop has been considerably increas- 
ed over 1844. There will be considerable fail- 
ing off in the cotion crop. I see on page 30 of 
this year’s farming memorandum, that we haul- 
ed out 275 cart loads of compost manure, pre- 
pared with the blue mail of this region, and 
pine straw, about equal parts, and the treading 
of cattle. But the severe drouth of July and 
August, so severe always on pine or sandy 
"and, caused the cotton to cast its squares and 
young bolls, and instead of fifty bales, which 
was the crop I planted for, I will not make more 
than thirty-five. We will this year have no in- 
ferior cotton, as our cotton was all made early 
in the season and picked out early ; indeed, we 
have picked out no cotton this year in October, 
our small crop having been picked out before 
last of 'September, as we picked it out as it 
opened; and now takmg the pains with it that 
we are, having so little to manage, we are 
making a fancy article, and expect to obtain 12 
cents per pound for it ; for, it is generally known 
that where a farmer keeps entirely out of debt, 
and is not conipelled to force his cotton on the 
market, and makes an extra fine article, he can 
generally put his own price on it, and nine times 
out of ten, he will get it. I priced, last year, 
all my extra fine cotton at 10 cents per lb., when 
most of the cotton was going at 5 cents, and 26 
bales of it brought in July IO4 cents. The cot- 
ton of the present year is altogether superior to 
the cotton of last year, for the reason, that we 
have hfd it in our power to bestow much more 
labor and pains on its preparation, and we ob- 
tained a seed that produces a longer and finer 
staple. Hence, we now price it at 12 cents. 
There are other advantages growing out of a 
short crop. I find, at page 180 of this year’s 
farming memorandum, that up to Saturday, 
the 8th of this month, we had been 38 days haul- 
ing marl into our lot — that to make our com- 
post manure, the marl being within fifty steps 
of the lot, we hauled with two hands and a yoke 
of steers, 30 loads per day, averaging ten bu- 
shels to the load. 
We set down the labor of two men and a cart 
and steers at $2 per day $76 CO 
I find at the above page that we had been 24 days 
hauling pine straw into the above lot where 
tv-e prepare on- compost. There being five 
hands engaged in collecting and hauling Ihe 
straw, we set it down at $3 per day 72 00 
$118 00 
We propose continuing until the close of 
the year hauling in the blue marl and the straw 
in the lot where our cattle, to the number of 
forty, are penned every night. I would here 
remark that our manure lot is dug in the centre 
and raised all round, so that the urine of the 
cattle and all is saved. 
Now, I have said soniethmg of the advan- 
tages of a short crop. 
1 find at page 162 of our diary, that up to 
Saturday, the 18th ol October, we bad finish- 
ed sowing our oats; for in this climate we 
can .sow oats with safely in the fall, as they 
will stand the winter. 
I find on page 167, that up to Saturday, the 
25lh of October, we had rolled our logs on 
the stubble land, and had it turned over for a 
crop of corn lor 1846. Thus, by turning the 
gr“en grass completely under, it will rot and be 
much better prepared to make a crop the ensu- 
ing year. We hope to make two thousand cart 
loads of compost manure. Should we succeed, 
we will be able to manure all our level land. 
As the making a compost manure out of the 
blue marl and pine straw is rather an experi- 
ment, I will, if spared, give the result at a fu- 
ture time. 
Now, Mr. Editor, in conclusion, I have only 
to say, that I was delighted to find that the Go- 
vernor of Georgia, in his message to the Le- 
gislature of my native State, had so earnestly 
recommended to the Legislature to make a 
move in favor of agriculture. Your friend, 
Alexander McDonald. 
Eufaula, Barhour Co., Ala., Nov. 15, 1845. 
The True Policy for Georgia. 
Mr. Camak: — The cacoethes scribendi is not 
upon me in the agricultural line, and alter this 
rnoniiion to my countrymen, 1 would take leave 
for some lime of a train of reasoning, where 
theories accumulate like blackberries and prac- 
tice has so little to do ; especially as f have seen, 
hy the rejection of certain arlioles, that the 
Southern Cultivator will not indulge ideas 
peculiar with me ortoially original. The great 
question with the plantation Georgians is not 
so much how to cultivate, or what to rear, as 
what is the viost frugal or economical plan cf 
living] and you will please let me talk as I 
please, though my expressions may be neoteric 
or novel. 
A writer in the last Southern Cultivator, 
N.,” holds this language : “Trivial experi- 
ments in ti i vial farmingAos been the dead weight 
which has overburthened almost every agricul- 
tural paper and eventually created a disrelish 
which has condemned them to failure.” How 
unphilosophic I “ N.” certainly madethisp‘r>- 
fonnd calculation w'whoxxi i\\s hos\.\ lor the de- 
ductions 1 drew from Socrates’ reasoning u'ere 
worthy of the gravest contemplation. But ex- 
amine with me, “ N,” \.\\e philosophy of the mat- 
ter contained in periodical publications on 
farming. Everything that may be wrilien, based 
upon actual experiment, with answering re- 
sults, if not hitherto conceived, is valuable to 
the inexperienced, and the enterprising is aided 
by each successive light; provided, alw'ays, Ac 
experiment' on them in faithful succession. The 
chief difficulty with this kind of periodicals, i.s, 
that they contain so many novel directions, and 
ever accumulate new, u’hile the first practice 
on either be not put in motion; and without any 
operation men grow weary of reading theories, 
and then abandon the paper: and thus 
it fails — not from trivial suggestions, for they 
cannot be “ trivial,” but from lethargy, when 
those suggestions, however trifling, have never 
once been practiced upon by the rejectors. 
If “N.” had been well read in metaphysics — 
a deep drinker of that Pierian touni — he would 
easily see the absurdity of hisAiZ against agri- 
cultural papers, in this view; that atoms ulti- 
mately firm the mountain, drops of water the 
river, and rills ihe ocean ; hence, trivial sugges- 
tions for trilling experiments, in the aggregate, 
comprise the inestimable value of agricultural 
operations. Thus, hisendo-rsement of ihearticle 
of Jethro — a first-rate one — on sheep raising, 
would, before shepherds with theii thousand 
flocks can fill our land, ha ve to descend lo much 
of that he ha ughtily condemns. The 
sheep-tender must have his irivial directions 
about ihe diseases peculiar to his flock and their 
healments — he must have a trifling di.'i-sertation 
on dogs — a homily on iheAoo/ diseasel and other 
minute particularities that compose the library 
of the best sheep raisers and wool growers in 
other lands. 
I do not believe \\\\s generalizing majesty as 
exhibited by “N.” is good for the South just 
now. Far from it, Georgians are too full of 
it already, and hence, deeming the policy of the 
thrifty Yankees — their pains-taking minutiee — 
their rigid frugality, e\.c.~trivinl, they never 
advance one step in the career of beneficial in- 
novation. 
Even this trumpet-soundingraising of sheep, 
is sillier than the animal itself, so long as this 
