106 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVAl'OR 
(Original (Eommunications. 
Overseers. 
Ma. Camak I read with much interest the 
articles in your paper, so judiciously selected, in 
reference to the various improvements in pro- 
gress in the art of Agriculture. But there are 
some views of deep moment to the Planting In- 
terest of this section— the eastern part of Georgia 
and South Carolina — which I have not seen ex- 
actly expressed, and which, with your permission, 
I will suggest to our planters. 
Formerly, when lands were fresh and cotton 
high, planters had very little difficulty in getting 
along, and with the least industry and economy, 
accumulated property rapidly. A man had only 
to buy a plantation, put a bunch of hands on it, 
employ almost any one to oversee them, and he 
might go about his pleasure, hunt, horse-race, or 
go to Congress. Twenty centsapoundfor cotton 
cured all defects in management, and kept the 
sheriff at bay; but six cents a pound for cotton is 
quite another thing. The profits of agriculture 
have now taken rank with those of other occu- 
pations, and it requires as thorough management 
in every particular for a planter to make lawful 
interest on his investment as for a merchant, 
mechanic, manufacture), lawyer or doctor to do 
so— a momentous fact of which very few of them 
seem to be at all convinced. Merchants, me- 
chanics, lawyers, &c., require years of laborious 
training t. fit them for their callings, and so long 
as they pursue them, indefatigable industry, the 
strictest personal attention, and consummate 
skill are indisnensable to even reasonable success. 
If they are deficient in any of these particulars 
they fail at once. But any body thinks he can 
be a planter. In fact, Banks, whose officers 
scarcely know a jdowfrom a hoe, and individuals 
of all c’asses. equally ignorant, boldly undertake 
to grow corn and cotton, and expect to do it 
profitably. A stripling of 18 years of age who, 
it may be, has divided his time between the 
fox-chase and the plow, offers his services to 
conduct the business and is accepted. Such ad- 
venturers not only ruin themselves, but by add- 
ing, though at a cost fatal to themselves, to the 
amount of the crop, in j ure the whole planting in- 
terest. My object, however, is not to denounce 
them, but 10 speak of more serious evils which 
beset the best inlormed and most judicious cul- 
tivators of the soil. 
Small planters, who live on their planta- 
tions and manage themselves, even though not in 
the best manner in the world, may, with some 
comfort, accommodate themselves to the great 
change in the price of our staple. They can still 
provide their own h^ g and hominy, and aflord to 
buy sugar and coffee and other little necessaries. 
When they are skilful and industrious, read agri- 
cultural papers and books, and keep up with Ihe 
improvements of the age, they may make fair 
interest on their capital and accumulate by 
rigid economy, as those in other branches of 
business do. ' But what is to become of our large 
planters? That is the question — important to 
them, and vastly important to the country. In 
general, theycannct live on their plantations, 
because large plantations, even in healthy re- 
gions, are mote or less unhealthy, and can rarely 
be obtained but in the more sickly parts of the 
cou'itrv. F.ven when they can live within a few 
miles of their places and visit them every day, it 
is impossible for them to examine closely into 
every operation that is going on, to see every 
sick nesro in due season, to watch over the 
health of those that are well, to see their stock 
and work animals attended to, their wagons and 
gear and plantation implements keot in proper 
order and preserved, to give daily, and as is some- 
times required, hourly direc'ions about the work 
to be performed, and to inspect it afterwards in 
.due season to prevent the serious consequences 
’' 0 ^ not having it done as it should be. Ifone 
were^jre most skilful, the most industrious plan- 
ter in. the world, and with a constitution of iron, 
he cannot, unless he lives right on the spot, at- 
tend to- all these things, do the reading he mast 
do to le^m what he must learn of the progress 
of his s^^flnd conduct the improvements necessary 
to enable him to produce as much and sell as 
cheap as those with whom he has to compete, and 
make just interest on his capital, if he works a 
force of 30, 50. or 100 hands. The obvious sug- 
gestion is, let him get an overseer. There is the 
rub. He must trust all these things to agents.— 
Now, if he could get the best possible agents, he 
would at least have to pay them, and to this ex- 
tent would be at a disadvantage in comparison 
with the small planter who employs none. And 
let it not be supposed'it is a trifling one. Be- 
sides the money paid the overseer, his family, 
however large, is to be supported, his horse fed, 
with servants to wait on all. There are few 
overseers who do not consume wages and all the 
produce of 6 to 10 hands, thus absorbing at once 
6 to 10 per cent of the labor, when there are even 
100 hundred hands. Is this easily made up in 
these times, even when the overseer is a good 
manager and perfectly supplies the place of the 
owner? But where are such overseers to be 
found ? Can they be picked up at grog shops, 
muster fields, and political barbecues, where the 
young men destined to be the planters’ agents 
are trained to a sufficient opinion of their abilities, 
and especially to their vast privileges as “free, 
independent and equal citizens” of this republic, 
who are rot to stoop to be any “ man’s man,” or 
to do any man's business even when paid for it, 
unless allowed to do it after their own fashion? 
If such overseers are to be obtained, I do not, for 
one, know where to look for them. If there are 
any young men reared among us, destitute of 
capital, but of industrious, steady habits, and 
likely to make carefu', intelligent and energetic 
planters, they almost all of them seek the western 
country at an early age, where it is sup[iosed 
there is a better field for enterprise. The few of 
that sort who remain usually put so high an es- 
timate on their services that they are unattaina- 
ble, or, led by false notions of independence, seek 
other employments. The melancholy fact is 
that our region is nearly entirely destitute of even 
tolerably good overseers. And what is worse, 
they seem to be growing scarcer ev.ry year. In 
all other countries agents in whose qualifications 
ent re reliance m-ay be placed, are abundant, seek- 
ing employment in every branch of business, 
treading on one another’s heels and ever ready 
to fill a vacancy. In most occupations it is the 
case to some extent here. Ypung men are 
trained for clerkships, for superintendents in fac- 
tories, as master workmen in all trades, to be 
junior partners in all professions. But no one is 
brought up to be an overseer. Very few will 
take that employment who can get any other. — 
If, then, large planters are compelled to incur 
heavy expenses for managers, and if when ob- 
tained, the)’, as is usually the case, prove to be 
his greatest trouble insteadof his assistant, how, 
I ask, are they, at present prices, to sustain them- 
selves ? They cannot, for the most part, dis- 
pense with overseers, yet, with all that they can 
do, these agents mismanage, neglect and abuse 
their property, resist and thwart improvenients, 
refuse to follow, or if they pretsnd to follow di- 
rections, do it in such a way as to insure failure. 
1 ask the question, how are they to sustain them- 
selves at present prices? It is one of the deepest 
moment ; I wish some one would answer it — I 
eannot. Being one of that class of planters my- 
self, and one who has thus far kept out of debt, I 
have come to the painful conclusion that, as 
things are, no one can plant largely in this region. 
If the price of cotton should rise — of which I see 
no hope, they may go on, otherwise they must 
sell out here and quit planiing or go west. They 
cannot, having to incur the expense of mana- 
gers, and with such managers as can be pro- 
cured among us, compete with the cotton 
planters of the west, or with their neighbors 
at home, owning small places and able to look 
after business themselves. The class of large 
planters must by one means or another pass 
away from our section. In the long run it may 
be better for the country that our lands should 
be cut up into small farms owned and cultivated 
by a race of sturdy yeomanry. But time must 
elapse before this change can be efiected,and in the 
meanwhile the most painful individual sufi'ering 
and the most serious losses to the community 
at large, must be endured. 
It is melancholy to think of these things; and 
if all that I have said be true, it may be asked. 
Why indicate evils for which no remedy is sug- 
gested, and anticipate inevitable sorrows? The 
question may be pertinent. But others may see 
remedies which I do not, and perhaps it is right 
and profitable also to state facts, deduce truths, 
and force reflection on them, however painful it 
may be. Agricola. 
South Carolina, June, 1846, 
Subsoil Plowing. 
Mr. Camak — If you can find room in the Cul- 
tivator for the enclosed letter, it will, I am con- 
fident, promote the “conscientious point” in 
Agriculture, which I find to be the main point. 
For, so soon as one planter can be induced to 
read Agricultural works, the impulse is given to 
mind, thence to matter, and the work is half 
done. 
This letter from VI. R. Ross, so well known as 
one of the best planters in South Alabama, to 
Dr. William Cunningham, likewise one of the 
most successful cotton planters in Monroe coun- 
ty, will have the effect of opening the eyes of 
their numerous acquaintances ; and of dispelling 
the prejudice that is so strong against book farm- 
ing. It will likewise bring into more general cir- 
culation the best agricultural paper now pub- 
lished— I mean the one best adapted for those be- 
ginning the business of reclaiming their worn 
out and tired soils — and if every intelligent sub- 
scriber to the Southern Cultivator would 
boldly speak the truth about it, and exert his in- 
fluence to extend its circulation, we should hear 
no more complaints of want of patronage. 
A Subscriber. 
Burntsorn^ May 15, 1846, 
Mr. William Cunningham — Dear Sir : Your 
favor of the 2d inst. is at hand, and in reply to 
your inquiry, I will say that 1 am a subscriber to 
the Albany Cnllivaler, published at Albany, N. 
Y., also the Southern Planter, published at Rich- 
mond, Va., and also the Southern Cultivator, 
published at Augusta, Ga. These I consider 
best calculated and suitable for a Cotton planter, 
because the people of Georgia seem, as it were 
by magic, to have aroused up from their lethar- 
gic state of insensibility to their true interest ; 
forming societies, holding meetings and making 
experiments, all of which are reported in the 
Southern Cultivator ; whether successful or 
not — also their modes of manuring and cultiva- 
ting— all of which T think very important. 
While I speak in favor of the Southern Culti- 
vator as best suited to a cotton planter, I must 
say, also, there is much useful information in the 
Albany Cultivator. Although they do nnt culti- 
vate Cotton, yet their mode of manuring and 
plowing I consider very important items in any 
cultivation. That of subsoiling I deem very im- 
portant Neither of the works cost over one 
dollar a year, but writing for one now you 
will get all the back numbers, beginning with 
January, for the year. Your region of coun- 
try has been in cultivation from the earliest set- 
tlement in the country, and has become, in a 
great degree exhausted. Large portions of the 
gasses in the surface soil have been taken up by 
the sun and air ; and a portion of the minerals 
from which the different plants receive a portion 
of nourishment has descended into the subsoil, 
which has become so close and compact from the 
frequent shallow plowings and treading of stock, 
that the roots of neither corn or coiton can 
penetrate to any depth, consequently must be de- 
prived of much of the original fertility ot the soil. 
In order to give room and space for the roots to 
penetiate in search of food, as well as to secure 
from the dry spells of weather that our climate 
is much subject to in the growing season, we 
must have recourse to subsoil plowing, at the 
time all are preparing our lands for a crop in 
winter or very early in the .spring. You will 
find it also of much advantage in preparing your 
land to break it fine, to pulverize it as much as 
possible. 
If I mistake not, your section of country is 
somewhat broken or rolling; this being the case, 
we are compelled to have recourse to guard 
drains or hill-side ditching, as also horizontal 
plowing. This, I consider of the utmost im- 
portance. This season I have put up all my cot- 
ton and corn beds with ten furrows, that is’ five 
surface furrows and five subsoil, in the same fur- 
rows, For the want of a subsoil plow’, I use the 
common scooter, following the surface plow in 
the same furrow. 
Should our friend McDonald be sojourning 
through the country this season and should visit 
this section of country, and you could make it 
convenient to come with him, you would see my 
mode of working, though I have but just com- 
menced, yet you might learn the beginning point. 
My plantation has been in cultivation from 
1817 ; has been very much worn, the last sea- 
