THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
79 
country, and yet there are many who cannot 
make within one third of what they did ten 
years ago, whilst this farm is certainly impro- 
ving. My reliance has been the cowpea; true, 
I use cotton seed, stable, cow-lot and hog pen 
manure, but what are all these to 100 acres in 
cow peas? 
I have reserved all my cotton seed this season 
to use in the drill for cotton. I have 40 acres in- 
tended for an orchard, the most of it planted; I 
wish to improve the land and think by planting 
in the drill that I can manure the 40 acres year- 
ly and thus keep it all up — and no doubt but 
what f will increase the yield somewhat. My 
orchard lot is the oldest cleared land here. I did 
gather in 1833, not 900 lbs per acre — this last 
year I gathered over J 500 lbs, from a part, and 
50 bushels of corn from another part. This done 
principally with cotton seed sown broadcast, 
and sweet potatoes planted two years in one 
place. 
I have been plantingsince January, ’31— you 
are an older planter— I cannot give you any in- 
formation, but would like to have your experi- 
ence. 
If convenient and agreeable, I would ask of 
you an answer, and I would add, a permission to 
use any thing you may deem worthy of your 
time in writing me. Which permission I cheer- 
fully grant you may use any thing herein, that 
you may deem worth your attention. 
I am, dear sir, very respectfully yours, 
M. W. Phillips, 
Hinds Co.. Miss., Feb., 1846, 
M. W. Phillips, Esq. — 
Dear Sir— Your very interesting letter of the 
20th ult, came to hand by the last mail ' Will 
you here permit me to thank you fordoing what 
1 feel I should have long since done, to wit — 
the brerkingthrough the ice, and, at once com- 
mencing a correspondence on the highly impor- 
tant subject embraced in your letter. It is no 
flattery, because it is true, to say that I have for 
the last three years been instructed, and I hope 
benefitted, by the many able productions from 
your pen which I have found in the Tennessee 
Agriculturist, as v/ell as other Agricultural pa- 
pers I take, I have twenty limes had a mind 
to sit down and write you,- but have as often ne- 
glected to do so. Thus you can readily form 
an opinion of the pleasure your letter afforded 
me. In giving an account of yourself, you have 
drawn a very correct picture of the individual 
you address, with the exception that 14 addition- 
al years have marked my appearance. Still, I 
consider myself much your junior in the highly 
importantand interesting subject of Husbandly, 
lam with yourself, a Southerner, by birth and 
education — I never lived any where, except in 
the State of Georgia, until I settled in this town 
nine years past. 
I find you are mistaken as to the location of 
my residence. The beautiful town ofEufaula 
lies on the bank of the Chattahoochee river, in 
latitude 31|. My small farm (much of it bro- 
ken and all of it poor pine land,) lies within 4-J 
miles of the town. It is about equally divided 
by the Barbour creek, which runs directly 
through it. On one side of the creek the land is 
level, and is what we call, in this section, pine 
flats; there is no timber, except the long leaf 
pine, w'ith an occasional oak and hickory. The 
other side of the creek is very broken and poor. 
This broken land is the land I planted in corn 6 
by 2 feet with peas in the centre. 1 plant it in 
drills, on the horizontal system. It is my inten- 
tion to abandon the cultivation o( this broken 
land as soon as I can, (and think I will be able 
if spared, to effect my object,) and bring up the 
level land to 50 bushels of corn and 2000 lbs of 
cotton per acre. I am, at this time, making an 
effort to accomplish this object. I have hauled 
out, since the first of January, with a team of 
mules, two carts and steers, 35,000 bushels of 
conapost manure, and have yet much to haul. — 
This compost is prepared by hauling into a lot, 
(previously arranged for its reception, by sink- 
ing it in the centre and raising it round theouter 
edge,) equal parts or nearly so, of blue marl. 
which abounds iu this section of the country, 
and the long leaf pine straw, raked up in the 
woods, with the treading of cattle, which are 
regularly penned, to the number of forty, every 
night in the lot; I have also hauled in the lot, 
quantities of cotton stalks, which are trodden to 
pieces by the cattle. As l his system of manuring 
is, entirely an experiment, I would thank you 
for your opinion of my plan of manuring. But 
first, I will give you the manner I have adopted 
iu placing the compost on the land. I first 
spread it broadcast, turning it under with the 
turning plow as deep as possible with one 
mule — we then lay off the rows lour feet, with 
a wide shovel plow as deep as we can, filling 
this furrow and bedding on it. You will find 
the analysis ofthe blue marl, at page 167 of the 
2dvol. ofthe Southern Cultivator. 
1 wouldthankyou foryouropinion ofthe Ber- 
muda grass for pasturage. Will it do well in 
this climate on poor land? 
I am well acquainted with one of the gentle- 
men you mention — H. W. Hilliard — he repre- 
sents this district in Congress. He has recent- 
ly sent me some seeds from the Patent office. — 
I have taken the liberty, as 1 find he takes an in- 
terest in agriculture, of urging him, (should he 
take the same view ofthe subject I do,) to in- 
terest himself in the passage of a law by Con- 
gress, to appropriate the Smithsonian Bequest 
for the establishment of a model farm, to be lo- 
cated in some central point in the United States. 
Such an eslablishmert as this, would be ofin- 
finite importance to the American people. The 
operation of different kinds of manure on dif- 
ferent soils, the trial of the various kinds of Ag- 
ricultural implements, the comparison and va- 
lue of the different kinds of stock, could all be 
tested, together with many other highly valua- 
ble experiments. Indeed, there is no telling the 
great value that such an establishment would 
be to American Agriculture. 
With the greatest respect, &c., 
Alexander McDonald. 
Enfaula, Barbour Co,, Ala., Feb. 12, 1846. 
From the American (Griffin, Ga.) Whig. 
Deep Plowing. 
Various experiments have been made in this 
part of Georgia, by plowing deep, and those 
who have tried it with the kind of plow in 
common use, so far as we are informed, re- 
port against the experiment. We had a con- 
versation some lime since with a friend on this 
subject, who stated that the theory of deep 
plowing, and the arguments used by many in fa- 
vor of that mode of culture, had induced him 
to try it on a piece of ground of several acres, 
which he described as being what we call 
hickory flat,” which before it was cleared was 
covered with a growth of post-oak, and red 
oak and hickory, and most of the undergrowth 
were of hickory, with large “stool grubs.” This 
kind of growth our farmers know is generally 
considered as indicative of a free productive 
soil, and amongst the best of our uplands. Our 
informant slated that the piece on which his 
experiment was tried, had been cleared about 
two years, and was in preparation for the third 
crop. The plow used was the common turning 
plow, by the use of which ail the earth loos- 
ened by plowing was turned bottom up, and 
the effect w'asthat the ground failed to produce 
as well as the surrounding fields for several 
years afterwards. 
We have known of another experiment upon 
stubble land that had been cleared a number of 
years. After the crop of small grain had been cut 
off in the summer the srass and weeds were left 
to grow till late in the fall, when a turning 
plow was used for the purpose of covering up 
all vegetable matter on the ground. This, like 
the other, proved an injuiy from w^hich the land 
did not recover under two or three years. Ex- 
periments like these have deterred our farmers 
in this section of the country, from adopting the 
system of plowing deep, so advantageously 
used in other parts of the United States, That 
plowing deep w'ith a turning plow, in some 
places, has been done to advantage, none 
can deny, w'ho are at all disposed to believe 
what they read; but that the same mode 
of culture will prove advantageous in all 
kinds of lands, is a theory that our reason 
will not permit us to admit as true. As well 
might we expect to cure all kinds of diseases of 
the human system with the same medicine, as 
to use the same mode of culture, in preparing 
the different kinds of earth for production, with 
success. That a great deal can be done in pre- 
paring ground for cultivation, reason would 
teach us is true; but, that such preparation 
should be according to the formation and 
nature of the soil, is equally true. We have 
read and reflected a great deal upon the expe- 
rience of others; and when we read of a certain 
mode of culture having proved successful, our 
mind, as by instinct, seems to inquire, on what 
kind of soil the experiment was tried. Prom 
the experiments we have read of, in all the dif- 
ferent kinds of soil, w'e have come to Ihe delib- 
erate conclusion, which seems to be well sup- 
ported by reason, that all lands, of whatever 
kind, should be plowed deep, in order to produce 
to the best advantage. Lands which have a deep 
soil, may be plowed to advantage with a turn- 
ing plow; but the clay, or the strata of earth 
which usually lies immediately under the soil, 
should never be turned on lop. If, therefore, 
Ihe soil is deep enough to admit the plow as 
deep as may be desired, without reaching below 
it, a turning plow is perhaps the best ; but such 
land as we usually cultivate in this part of the 
country, has a soil too thin to use such plows 
with a (good effect. We should therefore adopt 
the sub-soil plow, or one that will pulverize 
and loosen the earth to a considerable depth, 
without turning the soil underneath. Ourred 
lands have been found, by experience, to show 
the effect of drought sooner ; and the crops grow- 
ing on them to suffer more severely, than a light 
gray soil. And the reason is obviously this: 
It will be found from examination that in all our 
red lands the clay comes very near the top of 
the ground, and is generally very close and 
compact, so that without a great deal of ic. in, it 
never gets thoroughly wet. The loose soil on 
the top ofthe clay, which is usually stirred with 
the plow, receives the water when it rains un- 
til it is properly wet, and would impart it to 
the clay beneath, were it in a situation to re- 
ceive it; but the clay being so firm and close, 
the water is forced to remain above it, which, af- 
ter properly saturating the loose earth, stands in 
puddles on the top of the grounds, from whence 
it is soon evaporated by the air and the rays of 
the sun. And so soon as the heat of the sum- 
mer’s sun penetrates to the depth that the earth 
is loosened by the plow, and by its evapora- 
ting influence extracts the waterabove the day, 
the crops begin to suffer for the want of more 
rain. In such lands, if the clay could be pro- 
perly broken and pulverised to a considerable 
depth, by means of a sub-soil plow, without 
turning it on top of the ground, and put in a 
condition to receive and retain' moisture from 
the falling of rain, and to such a depth that the 
drying influence of the sun and air would have 
but little impression on it, the moisture thus se- 
cured would be naturally imparted to the loose 
earth above, where the roots of vegetation 
would receive their support from it. 
Soutlieru Folly. 
From the Southern .Miscellany. 
Mr. Editor: —I promised, in ray former com- 
munication, to point out in this some means byr 
which, in my humble opinion, our general pros- 
perity, as a people, might be advanced, by a 
change in some of the habits and occupations 
followed and pursued to make gain. I do not 
war in feeling with the common pursu its of 
our planters, whose ways and means in their 
regular settled policy has become to them a kind 
of second nature ; they are doing as they have 
been taught by their ancestors, and whether 
right or wrong they are not so much to blame. 
They are generally striving very hard, and are 
