122 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
or two ot oxen and a boy to drop seed, wil in a 
week ensure a laiger crop than the labor o* five 
men, and horses to match, protracted through 
six or ei ht weeks, in the lattei ; in one case the 
labor is to p ant and harves' ; in the other the 
labor is in cultivation — hoeing, hoeing, hoeing ! 
“ Here, too. is to be seen the triun phs oi 
"bookjarming;" systematic drains, which a ci- 
vil engineer might be proud of; judicious ma- 
nures, making the land produce what nature 
never knew she was capable of; select orcliards 
elegantly pruned and cleaned ; convenient barns; 
blooded stock, and cleanly, spacious dairies 
The traveller sees in the road no live stock to 
turn it into a cattle yard, rendetin ir it a path pe- 
rilous to a pedestrian ; no swine to run over, 
whi'e it’ many places h is surprised to see high 
cultivation in fields totally without fenees. There 
seems to be two ways of protecting a farm ; one 
to enclose the fields and theothitr to fence in the 
catt e, and I would susrgest to western farmers, 
whether it w’ould not take fewer rails to do the 
latter than are now used to enclose their mile- 
square larms?” 
©riginal Commnnications. 
Figs and Wiiie» 
Mr. Camak — Dear Sir ; From some observa- 
tions you made on drting figs in the South, and 
the odious quality of the imported, an t about fo- 
reign wines, I am induced to expatiate a little in 
the vein opened thus in respective Nos. of the 
Southern ('ultivator. 
The sandy Si.il of our sea coast and alluvial 
piny woods, are bounti'utly fitted for the fig cul- 
ture. Not .‘'myrna has better adaptations. If 
but a solitary p anter cou'd. in Chatham, or Liber- 
ty, or flamden, be induced to forego Cotton, and 
turn hi? attention to groves of fig trees, and to 
their ul i uate manufacture (in drums) for home 
consumption or exportation. <h.e reputa'i m of 
Georgia figs mav rival o-r .surpass those of the 
Ottoman — ( specialty as more care and cleanli- 
ness may chaiacteiise the mai ipulations of the 
American. But the attention of the planter 
must be exclusively devoted to the fig. Hating 
“ too many irons in the fire,” with alternate ope- 
rations on either, does not promise success, and 
always ultimately throws the Agriculturist back 
upon his standard — cotton. 1 consider the fail- 
ure of this State, in promoting the si k culture, 
that of the sugar cane, and which might u ti- 
mately befall the fig, as it now does the wine — 
as super-induced by the tenac ty wi h which a 
hold is livettcd on cotton. That plant is never 
entirely abandoned by customary enterprise in 
our region, and so long as it interferes wiih novel 
introductions to our soil by sharing the super- 
visir>n of the operaiive, it always in the end ab- 
sorbs domination and remains alone i 
The fact appears 1 1 a scrutinizing observer to 
be thus— that while cotton, from its long and re- 
gular ru’tivation, makes a steady revenue, the 
experiment on more novel plants promise so lit- 
tle, side bv side with that stapleofourcommeree, 
that the enterprise is soon abandoned as com- 
paratively hopeless, or a losing business — forget- 
ting that thrih and wealth cannot be introduced 
at once, as bv a Lamp of Aladdin that lime, care 
and perseverance, under disappointments and 
discouragements, mu-st have progress upon the 
fig, the grape, or the muiberry. When these 
plants can be matured by constant application of 
time and labor, so as to be placed beyond contin- 
gency, abundant wealth, or rather a sure compe- 
tence, may all at once reward the industrious 
and the provident. Until .-ome such persever- 
ance as this, and abandonment of every other 
culture be carried upon the tide of experiment, 
it would be vain to loak for any radical or lutida- 
ment.al introduction of any thing into any fami- 
ly, superceding cotton. 
Go back a centurv, to the time when mankind 
on this comment began to plant cottan. What 
dis'’ourag8ments, wh't apoarently insuperable 
difficulties env roned our ancestors? Resolu- 
tion and patience surmounted all — however long 
it was before cotton brought a single dollar to 
the pocket. It is a maxim that has become an 
axiom, that the most lucrative employment, be- 
fore it can ever confer opulence upon its constant 
fosterers, is, for a great while, useless, or barelv 
remunerating. The progress of things on earth 
is, at first always terrapin like. Truth, i'seR, 
moral and political, moves with the same oii- 
ginal tarriness. gaf, phys cal veracity be 
t-xe ' pt from the common lot ol theories emerg- 
ing into practice ? 
It wou d be far better, if people could, Vke 
fccdsfs. dispense entirely with intoxicating bevf r- 
ages — by all means with “Icohol — if men could 
have the simpltci'y of those t'hephern’s, in re- 
mote times, to whom Icariu-! nrrt taught the use 
of w'ine. and who, findin.' thoir heads turned, 
slew him as having poisoned them ! The strong- 
est i; an of whom we have authentic record. 
Siamso.., never was allow'ed wine. The loss of 
his seven locks, or inebriation, appears the same 
a.s respects himself. Although it is recorded, 
Jesus Christ made water wine, vet what evidence 
have we that the Heaven wrought fluid, had any 
of that celeterious property, which is more or 
less innate wi’h eat th-born wines? Siil, sofar 
from confining wines and liquors to their natu- 
ral and inevitable unsoundiiess — vintners, dis- 
'illers and wine merchants, adulterate so much 
in the bulk of what is sold about this country, 
that men cannot be sufficientlv cau'ious in what 
they drink. The seeds of disease lie in ambu?h 
in many a decanter of glistening drink. Some 
p.nsons don’t manifest themselves till months 
after being taken. 
I doubt if what is called our sweet wines, and 
sold by confectioners in every villa, has ever 
kissed the grape. They are poison, as you al- 
lege. Genuine Madeira ar.d Port from ports, 
however cisgustingly prepared in those coun- 
tries, are scarcely ever drank in our State Even 
these wines have some addition of sugar, brandy 
and flavoring substances, to render them pala- 
table — things, those from the best kii'ds of grapes 
do not require. How necessary then that our 
honest people lake into their own clean hands 
the manufacture of the pure iuice of the grape — 
which is comm nly drank in France, Spain, etc. 
as we do cider or ale ? 
To extract from a work I have on hand : — 
‘‘There is perhaps no kind of merchandize in 
which the public is more deceived than in the 
qualities of ardent spirits and wines. To ill us 
trace this, it is only neccssarv to observe, that 
Holland gin is made by distilling French brandy 
with juniper berries, but most of the spi- 
rits sold under that name consist only of rnm 
or whiskey, flavored with oil of turpontiue 
Genuine French brandy is distilled from grapes ; 
but the artie'e usually sold underthat denomina- 
tion is whiskey or rum, colored with tr' acle or 
burned sugar, and flavored with oil of wine, or 
some kind of drug.” 
By authority of the same work, I learn that 
lead, copper, antimony and even corrosive sub- 
limate are used in rendering sour wine drinkable. 
And, some years ago, I read of a rich London mer- 
chant, who thus so impregnated his bad wines, 
as ,0 cause many thousand of his unwary cus- 
tomers to die of lingering and insidious mala- 
dies, whose origin net even suspicion could de- 
tect. I forget whether or not he confessed this 
on a death bed — but that is probable. How 
many die without giving this confession of the 
hidden horrors of their trade ? How dangerous 
is the wine and liquor trade to health and life, 
even when unadulteratrd. How much more fatal 
w'hen adulterations make up the bulk ? In ev 
ery suspicions oaseot negotiation, and more than 
so, our planters ought to be their own and the 
wine merchants of their fellow-citizens who 
will have the viands. Vours, J. J. F. 
The Growing Crops, &c. 
Mb. Camak: — I feel it due to the readers of 
your excellent agricultural journal, that I turn 
aside from the mo'e active duties of the farm, 
for a short time, and lay down the hoe, or stop 
the plow, until 1 can inform them how we are 
moving on down here South ; as there is no mat- 
ter that finds its wuay into our agricultural jour 
nals I read with so much i.nte''est as I do the 
■=ituniion of the crop while growing. Judging 
others by myself, I will avail mjserf of the pre- 
sent leisure moment to let my brother farmers 
know that the growing crop, through this sec- 
tion of the country, looks remarkablv well at 
this time. We have been blessed with frequent 
showers; indeed, there has tallen ou’ a^out rain 
enough to keep up a sufficient moisture to keep 
crops growing, while there has not fallen out so 
much as to prevent the working the cotton and 
c mn. We make so little small grain in this re- 
gion o country that it is but little in the way of 
regularly going on with the cleaning the grass 
from the great Southern staple ThiSr and put- 
ting the corn crop (which is only secondary to 
the cotton crop in point of number of acres ) in 
order for the reception of rain. As lor a hot sun 
we have that in its full power. I loundit much 
cooler last year in Illinois in J uly than it is here 
in May. 
But I said I had turned aside from the more 
active duties of the farm to take up the pen lor 
a short time. I entered on the responsible du- 
ties of managing my farm on the the 12ih day of 
May. since which lime, I have spent some twelve 
hours each day in superintending the opeiaiions 
of my farm in person, l am at presenl without 
a manager or overs, er. While on that subject, 
should you be acquainted with a young man 
who wishes to make son eihing of hiiuself in 
the way of a f rmor, that desires a binh as over- 
seer, I would thank you to recommend him to 
me. 
I have made an effort to raise wheat of differ- 
ent kinds, so as to get one that would grow in 
this climate that would not take the rust. While 
at Washington City I bought from the Patent 
Office some fine varieties. Oneot these has suc- 
ceeded admirably well. I sowed p.llonibe23d 
September, and cut the whole the 25ih of May. 
Four out of the five varieties took the rust to 
someextent. One escaped entiiely. I m much 
pleased with the Multi'.ale Rve and the Polish 
Oats. I have raised near a halt a bushel of seed 
of both the past season. 
A friend of mine, Maj. Lee, of this county, 
sent me some time past some ol the Southern 
Hemp or Bear Grass that he prepared hin.seifin 
this county. I have no doubt, from the speci- 
men before me, but that it will fully come sp to 
the representation given by Gov. Call, ol Flori- 
da, to Gov. Moseley. 
I find, at this time, the most happy efiec's pro- 
duced by the compost manure I have spread out. 
I have two fields, one of forty acres, he other of 
thirty, both cleared the same year; both have 
been in cultivation seven years, the land origi- 
nally poor pine land. I marled the forty acre 
field ; the thirty acre field I put no manure on. 
I am thinning the lorty acre field that is laid off 
in rows five feet wide, two feet between the cot- 
ton stalks. In the thirty acre field the rows are 
three, and a h ilf feet wide, and the stalks of cot- 
ton are left about twelve inches apart; so that I 
am flattered at this time that my experiment, 
for it is an experiment, in this region ot country, 
will turn out well. Still, I know it is much too 
early to form any opinion as to the cotton crop. 
There is but little fear with us as to the corn 
crop. It wi'l be far supedor to last year, as we 
suffered much for want of rain during the months 
of May and June, whereas, this year, we have 
had quite a bountiful su[ ply < f lain. 
I am, as ever, your friend, 
Alexanpes McDonald. 
Eufaula, Ala.. June Iti, 1846. 
Smut ill Oats* 
Mr. Camak : — I see an inquiry made over the 
.signature of P. W. J. in your. I uly number of the 
Cultivator, the object of which v-as to ascer- 
tain, it possible, the cause ol smut in oats, and a 
remedy for the same. He nuniions that the 
first and most general opinion is that it is owing 
to unripe seed. To this opinion I agree, and as 
a remedy to avoid said disease in the oat, 1 pio- 
pose to P. W. J. that he obtain seed oais two 
years old and sow tlum, and. my word for it, he 
will find very little, if any, smut in his crop. At 
all events, this is my experience ; for 1 was, dur- 
ing my farming opeiaiions, as much annoyed 
with this disease in oats asP. W. J., and on re- 
sorting to this expedient, found, as I supposed, 
and think yet, a sovereign remedy for the smut 
in oats. 
The conclusion drawn from this experiment 
was, that the imperfect and small seed, by reason 
of age, lost their germinating powers. 1 tried a 
similar experiment with my wheat (having not 
entiie confidence in the use of blue-stone, as is 
generally used by farmers.) and found the same 
happv result. I obtained a coarse sand sieve, 
sufficiently coarse to let through all the small and 
imperfect grains, and had my seed wheat tho- 
roughly riddled, and the result was, that there 
could scarcely be found a head of blasted wheat 
in my crop. This se^d was taken from a crop 
