THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
45 
lish security and good order on the plantation, 
is that of constituting a watch at night, con- 
sisting ol two or Tuore men. They are answer- 
able for all trespasses committed during their 
watch, unless they produce the offender or give 
immediate alarm. When the protection of a 
plantation is left to the negroes generally, you 
at once perceive the truth of the maxim, “that 
what is every one’s business, is no one’s busi- 
ness.” But when a regular watch is established, 
each in turn performs his tour of duty, so that the 
most careless is at limes made to be observant 
and watchful. The very act of organizing a 
watch bespeaks a care and attention on the part 
of a master, which has a due influence on the 
negro. 
Southern Sndependeiice. 
Mr. Camak: — By last mail some unknown 
hand forwarded to Messrs. Cooper &Stroop a 
number of the Chronicle Sentinel, containing 
an extract from yourpapei, in which is copied 
a notice taken from a Wetumpka (Ala.) paper, 
of certain very superior castings about then 
said to be delivering in Wetumpka, from Mr. 
Moors’s Foundry in Alabama, staling also 
what he was doing, and how much, &c., after 
which, you express a desire to know what 
Cooper & Stroup are doing, and you appeal to 
me individually to inform you. 
Having at all times had a pleasant as w'eli as 
profitable intercourse with you, 1 cheerfully 
avail myself of the first opportunity to •■'espond. 
First, we have too much to do, to talk much 
or write much except on business. 
W'e are blowing two good furnaces v.dth a 
capacity for 6 to 7 tons metal per day, producing 
from twenty to twenty-five tons per week; — su- 
perior metal in the form of machinery, agri- 
cultural implements, hollow ware, pig metal 
and wrought iron. In machinery, we make all 
kinds of gearing for cotten mills, grist andsaw 
mills, cotton gins and horse powers, threshers, 
wheat fans, plows, &c. Cast machinery for cot- 
ton factories, fir looms, spindles, throstles 
and cards, are made by us equal to any in the 
Union, pronounced so by the machinists at the 
Coweta Fails Manufacturing Company’s works 
at Columbus, Geo. These men are recently 
from Low-ell, Mass. 
We are sending hollow ware to almost every 
part of Georgia, and selling it at from ‘3i to 4^ 
cents. We have a depot at Newton & Lu- 
cas’s, Athens, where it ma}^ be bought by 
w.’holesale at factory prices. Ten tons of it are 
now on the wmy there. 
About the time specified in your extract from 
the Wetumpka paper, we delivered and sold 
at Wetumpka a ton and a half of hollow ware 
as good as ever went to that market, the quan- 
tity and character of which we hope will not 
disparage that of our neighbor. We can send 
more. 
We have a depot in Augusta and Columbus, 
and hope soon to have in Macon. In strength 
and durability our wares and machinery have 
an advantage over most that comes to Georgia. 
We are making about a half ton of mallea- 
ble iron per day when operating, and have on 
hand a stock of thirty tons bar iron and plow 
moulds lor market. 
We have a fi wir mill that can grind eight to 
ten bushels per hour per run, and makes good 
fljuf; two corn grists, one of which only is now 
operating, and grinds 50 to GO bushels per day. 
There is a popul.iiion of about 400 depend- 
ant on our operations for daily subsistence, of 
whom, probably, two hundred are women and 
children, without work, who might be employed 
in cotton and wool factories at nom.nal prices. 
We have water power without limit, in two 
miles and a half of the Rail Road to Charleston 
and Savannah. We consume annually about 
25.000 bushels ot corn, 3 to 500 barrels of flour, 
100.000 lbs. pork, besides other minor articles; 
from 10 to 20 sacks cotfre per month, besides 
sugar, s:ilt, molasses, etc. 
This, sir, is a part of what we'are doing . — 
We are building a Merchant Mill (of stone,) 
capable ol manufacturing 3 to 500 barrels flour 
per day. W-e are putting up a wool cardingmill 
for Mr. Buchanan, to which is to be added ma- 
chinefy for coarse woollens. 
We have the foundaiioii of a Rolling Mill 
laid, and expect to start it by December next. 
We have filty tons ol pig metal on the way to 
Boston, Providence, Charleston, Savannah and 
Augusta, and ought to suppiv every foundry in 
Georgia it they know their interest. 
We have the power ot the Etowah river five 
limes over in three miles, and where one mil- 
lion of dollars might now be profitably invested. 
Having hastily answ’ered your question so 
pointedly referring to my affairs, excuse me if I 
in turn a-«’ir one of you, to wit: 
What w'ill you and your neighbors do with 
your idle capital ? Can’t you apply it so as to 
put idle people to work? 
Re.‘<pectfully, your friend, &c., 
Mark A. Cooper. 
Iron Works, Cass Co., Ga., Feb. 2, 1846. 
Experiment in Subsoiling. 
jMe. Camak; — About a year ago I came into 
possession of a farm of fifty acres, that I had 
bought a few months previously, more than two- 
thirds of which had been long cleared and badly 
worn. After the trade was closed, I asked the 
gentleman (and he merits the title) of whom I 
bought, how muc’n corn per acre might he ex- 
pected under good tillage and favorable sea-sons? 
He said, a barrel and a half. The reply startled 
me, for I supposed he spoke from experience, 
and he being a man of education, unusual intel- 
ligence, wealth, and experience, his opinions 
were entitled to respect. For it was but reason- 
able to conclude, he knew what to do, how to do, 
and when to do, and having the hands to exe- 
cute or carry out the dictates of his judgment, it 
was presumable that he did it to the fullest ex- 
tei.t. I thought if this reasoning was fair, my 
prospect for bread was very unfair. I knew, how- 
ever, from ample experience, that manure would 
bring good corn out of bad land. But, being a 
new-comer in these parts, I ha I not a load to be- 
stow Oil my poverty-stricken premises ; and the 
agricultural papers having made people as covet- 
ous of manure as of money, I knew it would be 
a waste of wind and walking, to go about beg- 
ging it. And then to think of teingrecompe.nsed, 
for my toil and sweat, with seven bushels and a 
half of corn per acre, did sorely vex my quiet 
spirit. But I will not trouble you or your readers 
with the horrors I endured io view of such a crop. 
Unfortunately its effects are too manifest in the 
jank sides, prominent bones, and reeling walk, of 
nearly every horse, hog, cow, and dog, in this 
part of I’ne State. Suffice it to say, I had read of 
subsoiling, and the Southern Cultivator kept it 
prominently before my eyes. Having nothing 
to hope from any other quarter, I determined to 
try it. In addition to the reasons usually ad- 
vanced in support of this mode of plowing, I 
found out another; (fori am keen in investiga- 
tions and shrewd in argumentations, although 
few have ever found it out. But their want of 
discernment is no fault of mine, you know.) IMy 
discovery is this : that if earth be stirred that had 
never been stirred before, something may be got 
out of it that had never been got out before ; and 
the result proved my philosophy profound and 
my reasoning conclusive. 
Last spring I concluded to plant twenty acres 
in corn and let n y other field ri st. I broke it up 
with a scooter, (i'- not being convenient then to 
break with a couUer as I v/ould have preferr, d 
doing,) laid ofFat five feet distance for piantirg 
in drills, run a furrow with a coulter in each 
scooter drill as deep as it could be sent, dropped 
the corn, covered with a scooter furrow on each 
side, (making a list,) then plunged a coulter 
into each of these furrows as deep as possible, 
and, finally, broke up the balks v. ifh a coulter 
away down in a region where plowshares had 
never scraped acquaintance before — certainly not 
by sight, if, peradvenlure, by sound. The culti- 
vation consisted in two hoeingsand three super- 
ficial plowings with a common shovel. 
Now fur the result; but 1 must first s’ate the 
drought was excessive. It seemed, from the in- 
tervals between showers and the lightness of 
them when they did come, that nothing could 
be made. But strange to say, my corn, though 
small, seemed to be in good heart, (as the phrase 
goes,) but I was not. The bottom blades even, 
over the greater part of the field, continued green 
until fodder time, when I saved six common 
single stacks of fodder, and in due time thereaf- 
ter, 36 two horse wagon loads of corn, each load 
containing at least two barrels according to my 
judgment and the judgment of others; or, in all, 
72 barrels, something over 31 barrels to the acre. 
This is a small yield I know, abstractly consid- 
ered — but think of the quality of the land and 
the droug-ht, to Avhich add the fact made known 
to me yesterday by an intelligent farmer who 
saw my crop growing, and who pronounced it 
the best that the land had yielded for the last 
ten years, with one exception, and I t'nink all 
must admit that my old field did marvelously 
well, and I don’t know what to attribute it to 
but the subsoiling, for it did not receive a shovel 
of manure. Under common managem.ent my 
field would have yielded 30 barrels of corn, sea- 
sons and tillage being good, but b 3 ^ one proper 
plowing I made 42 barrels more than that, in a 
very dry year. Well paid for my labor I think ; 
for these 42 barrels would command for me now 
S210. Let me give the total value of my crop 
on the 20 acres of old field : 
360 bushels of corn at §1 per bushel 6-360 00 
3,000 lbs. fodder at 75 cents 22 50 
Dry peas, (green do. and corn used from thefield) 10 00 
Total *392 50 
Mr. Editor, the foregoing facts may be impli- 
citly relied on; fori know my neighbors and 
friends Avifl bear me out in sajung “ I am not the 
man to misrepresent when it is not to my inte- 
rest to do so,” and my little farm is not for sale. 
Therefore, commend me to the credence of your 
readers, and the forbearance of some of your 
pleasantly pugnacious correspondents, so that I 
escape criticism. I Avish the especial faA'orof 
my excellent Iriend, your correspondent, John 
W. Pitts, Avho is very intolerant of Bermuda 
Grass and a great persecutor of Eerkshlres. I 
hope he will favor your readers with more of his 
spicy articles. I bespeak too, the fat'or of friend 
Cunningham, who hurled a dart at met..r ap- 
pearing in your paper under a fictitious signa- 
ture. I will appease him noA'.', and pay a debt of 
gratitude to a tanning implement, so lar coming 
out from my concealment as to subsciibe my- 
self, very respectful!}’, Long Coulter. 
O.vjbrd, Ga., February, 1S46. 
Subsoil Plowing. 
Mr. Camak ; — Having read much in the agri- 
cultural papers upon the benefit oi subsoil 
plowing, I determined last Avinter to try, lor 
my own satisfaction, an experiment to ascertain 
whether subsoiling would benefit cotton. 
In a piece ol land containing about thirty 
acres, there \vas a strip poorer than the rest 
which I Avished to manure. The land had been 
cleared and planted ten years ; the soil light and 
fine, Aviih a moderately stiff clayey subsoil, 12 
inches irom the surlace . 
I. had been in corn in 1344 and made about 
124 bushels to the acre,- without ujanur^ It 
was broken up as deep as possible wi.h one 
horse and a comuron turnins (Allen) plow, in 
the last pan of Jaruary. In March i iaid it off 
as usual, 34 le t, except loity rows through the 
poorest part of the field, vA’hich v.-ere laid off 4 
leet wide. These forty rows woje laid off v.'iih 
a turning plow as deep as it could be wi h o:;e 
horse; into the boiiora ol this furrow! runa 
plow made for the purpose, twelve inches long 
by six wide, in the shaped an ordinary scco er, 
as deep as it could be dn'A’en with one horse to 
pull it. Into this furrow 1 put oi coarse ma- 
nure, made of the scrapings ol the sui face cl 
the woods, stable dung, leached ashes, parially 
rotted shucks, &c., at" the rate of three hundred 
and filiy bu.shels to the acre. I’lie manure was 
put in wet, and distributed (rom iho cart as it 
was hauled into the field. Upon the manure I 
turned a fuirow from each side, so as to make 
what is called a “list;” into the bottom ol each 
of these luiTows I run the long .scooter .as before 
I'he balance of the field was laid (4l with a 
scooter, and li>ted with the turning pluw with- 
out the subsoil furrow. 
The field was planted on the 7ih and 8.1; of 
