THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
125 
stock upon icsoine tune previously, or what is 
still better, on a piece of newly cleared land.” 
Procure Dale’s hyorid or any other good variety 
of seed, and sow halt a pint to the acre. If the 
ground is not wet or there is not an appearance 
of immediate rain, it will be better to brush in 
the seed The ground should be finely pulver- 
ized by the plow and harrow, then the brush 
will rather settle the earth to the seed than other- 
wise. Cut such rice as may have ripened this 
month, and see it carefully stacked. Be careful 
to shut the water oft the fields ten days at least 
before cutting. 
About the middle of this month cotton will 
have sulftciently ripened to burst its covering, 
and will bear piciring. Open the branches to 
the sun, that a freer circulation of air may pass 
through them, and the cotton will open sooner, 
and notrot in consequence of moisture. 
Cut tobacco plants as soon as they come to 
full maturity. This may be known by the 
leaves becoming mottled, coarse, and of thick 
texture, and gummy to the touch; the end of 
the leaf, by being doubled, will break short, 
which it will not do to the same extent when 
green. Do not cut it in wet weather when tne 
leaves lose their natural gummy substance, so 
necessary to be preserved. When the cutting 
is to commence, procure a quantity of forked 
stakes, set upright, with a pole or rider resting 
on each fork, ready to support the tobacco, and 
keep it from the ground. The plants should 
be cut obliquely, even with, the surface of the 
ground, and should receive two or three smart 
raps with the back of the knife, in order to re- 
move the sand or soil from the leave.s ; then ty- 
ing two stalks together, they should be gently 
placed across the riders or poles, where they 
should remain in the sun until they become 
wilted. Then they should be carried into the 
drying house and strung upon frames, leaving 
a small space between each plant that the air 
may circulate freely and promote the drying. 
As the drying advances, the stalks may be 
brought closer to each other, so as to make 
room tor others, E.'ccluda all damp air possi- 
ble, and be equally guarded against the admis- 
sion of drying winds, in order that the opera- 
tion may not be too precipitate, except in the 
rainv season, when, the sooner the drying is et 
lected the better. When the middle stem is 
perfectly dry, the leaves may be stripped and 
put in bulk to sweat. This is done more con- 
veniently in cloudy weather, when the leaves 
are moist and more easily handled. The leaves 
should be assorted according to their qualities, 
and their stems kept all in one direction in the 
bulk, which should be two or three feet high, 
and of a proportionate circurnlerence. To 
guard against the leaves becoming overheated, 
and to equalize the fermentation or sweating, 
after the first twenty -tour hours, place the out- 
side leaves in the centre, and those of the centre 
to the outside of the bulk. By doing this once 
or twice, and taking care to exclude the air from 
it, and leaving it in tnis state for about forty 
days, the tobacco will acquire, the odor and 
other qualities desired. For further informa- 
tion, see Gen. Hernandez’s Letter in Vol. ill of 
the Southern Cultivator. 
Inoculate trees of this year’s growth; procure 
none but the best and choicest fruit, and the la- 
bor will not be lost. If your cabbages are eaten 
up by caterpillars in this month or next, be not 
discouraged. Although it will retard their 
growth until the insects are turned to moths or 
butterflies, they will afterwards take a fresh 
start and flourish well. 
To MAKE Tomato V’Vine. — To one quart of 
juice, put a pound of sugar, and clarify it as 
for sweatmeats. The above is very much im- 
proved by adding a small proportion of the juice 
of the common grape. This wine is believed 
to be far better and much safer for a tonic or 
other medical uses than the wines geneially 
sold as port wines, &c., for such purposes. It 
is peculiarly adapted to somediseasesanJ states 
of the system, and is particularly recommended 
for derangements of the liver . — Prairie Fa.rmcr. 
From the aouth Carolinian. i 
The Kiglit Spirit. 
•‘There isalide in the affurs of men, which, taken 
at the flood, leads on to fortune,” 
The fact of the business is, very few men 
now-a-days are willing to bide their time, to 
wait for the tide. Impressed with the old 
adage, perhaps, ihat “ time and tide wnit lor no 
man,” they are determined not to wait for them, 
but to “take time by the forelock,” and jump 
in mediae res, at the very beginning. 
So thoroughly changed we seem to be, with 
this steam spirit of the age, that we must grow 
rich at once — make a perfect Aladdin’s Lamp 
business of it. 
Did our fathers, with all the advantages they 
po.ssessed, do so before us 7 Who are the men, 
who during the last ten years of speculating 
mania and bankruptcy, have done best amongst 
us— have added most wealth, character and hap- 
piness of the country 7 The quiet substantial 
farmer, who, living upon his own resources, 
enjoying all the home luxuries ot life, the con- 
tentment ot a mind free trom debt; has laid up 
small savings every year to educate his chil- 
dren, and by the increase of his properly, has, 
as it were, unconsciously grown rich. Do you 
see that snug while house by the roadside, 
flanked by capacious barns, corn cribs, machine 
houses, and all the means and appliances to 
boot of a subs'antial citizen — to whom doth it 
belong7 “Mr. Siick-to-his-business,” jncld 
ellovv who, twenty years asro, was not worth a 
dollar. He never incurred a debt — he bought 
things at cash prices— cultivated no more land 
than he could cultivate well, bought properly 
when other people ha 1 no money to buy with — 
sold corn when other people had to buy — raised 
his own stock and eat his own “ hog and homi- 
ny.” He has educated his family very well — 
now works twenty good hands, oily laced, hap- 
py negroes, who love their “own folks” — and 
has now moved out on the high road, wnere he 
can amuse himself seeing people pass in his 
old age, and entertain his friends, when they 
come to see him, comforiably. This is no un- 
usual picture — no fancy sketch. 
We know a great many fanners who have 
cultivated poor land and grown well-to-do in 
the world in twenty years past. They have at- 
tended to their own business, and used indusiry 
and economy But now-a-days, people cannot 
attend to their own business— every young man 
who starts in the world with eight or ten hands 
must have his overseer, and what is ihe conse- 
quence 7 The overseer thinks only of his repu- 
tation for making a bigrrop of cotton, so many 
bales to the hand — and the negroes and mules 
are run to death, as m-uch ground as possible 
worked, the stock neg:lected--the fences unrepair- 
ed— the corn crib half filled— all for the want of 
not attending to one’s business. Why is this? 
Has agriculture ceased to be (in the language 
of Socrates,) “ an employment most wonhy ol 
the application of man, the most anci’ent and 
the most suitable to his nature, the common 
nurse of all persons in every age and condition 
of life, the source of health, strength, plenty 
and riches, and of a thousand sober delights 
and honest pleasures— the mistress and school 
of sobriety, temperance, justice, religion, and, 
in sho! t, ot all the virtues, civil and military 7” 
Verily, one might well come to such a conclu- 
sion from the adopted method of farming, and 
the mania now-a-days tor making professional 
genilemen (7) out of every fellow who can de- 
cline Dominus. Elieujam satis! we exclaimed! 
Let us mend our wavs — enough of a thing is 
enough, in plain English, for as theysay in Ken- 
tucky, “we’ve run the thing into the ground.” 
We do not belong to that class ol croakers 
who are ever prating about our decllBiiig pros- 
perity — and we are glad to see that we have 
such distinguished aathoriiy to susiain us, as 
the Hon. Joel R. Puinsett, who in his late Agri- 
cultural Address before the State Agricultural 
Society, remarked, “that South Carolina has 
advanced, and was advancing in wealth and 
comforts, if not quite so rapidly as some of her 
sister Slates which have been more zealous and 
energetic in availing themselves ol the ele- 
ments ot national prosperiiy within their reach, 
still herimprovernent'> have been perceptibly pro- 
gressive. If rapid and brilliant fortunes nave 
not been made as frequently as in former years, 
when the State enjoyed almost a monopoly of 
the cotton market, siill a m me wholesome, du- 
rable and general prosperity is diffused over 
the land.” Who can gainsay ii7 But where, 
in what class do we find the most of this pros- 
perity? It strikes us, not among capitalists, 
large planters and speculators — they have gone 
to the more congenial West— “ to make a spoon 
or spoil a horn.” No, it* is among me middle 
classes — those who, starting upon little in the 
world, but industry and economy for their mot- 
to, have worked their way into me upper ranks 
of society.’ ’ 
You have only to look about you to see the 
truth of this. How many of your neighbors 
who are doing well, are the sons ot wealthy 
parents? How many rich planters live around 
you, who have not sent out hands to the west — 
and are still deeply in debt 7 
We arejust getting a wake upon the impor- 
tance ol manufactures. We are just beginning 
to thinkol the importance ol openingcharinels of 
communication beiween different sections ol 
country. We have capital among us — men of 
enterprize, spirit and patriotism amongst us. 
Neither our State nor our people are uppressed by 
heavy debts. We have no sin of repudiation to 
answer for— no broken banks to disturb our finan- 
cial opeiations — nocholera visitations to mourn 
over — no Morrnonisms nor Millerisms, nor 
Fourierisms nor Naiiveisms, to bedevil us. 
We have lived through the Devon and Dur- 
ham, the Berkshire, Grazier and Woburn, the 
Baden and Dutton, the Okta and Multibolled, 
ihe California and iMukicaulis humbugs, and 
we think we are safe. A ship that could sail 
through all these shoals and breakers in .safety, 
most assuredly might be trusted in a calm sea, 
under a clear sky, to make her way into port — 
unless the new charts, being set to music, as 
they now teach Geography, shou'd Siren like 
draw her into the unfathomed caves of ocean. 
It is only neeessarv to be true to ourselves to 
ensure success. We have great resources if 
weonly develope them— a soil which, if exhaust- 
ed, can be easily reclaimed and made to yield 
a rich return for the labor bestowed upon it— 
sections well adapted to the growth of corn, 
wheat, rye and the grasses where stock might 
be reared profitably— a genial climam varying 
so, from the seaboard to the mountains, as to 
admit of the production of a variety of staples. 
We have throughout the back country abun- 
dant water powei— the raw material and the 
surplus labor to supply the manufacturer, and 
the capital to put it in motion, too, if weonly 
had the confidence and the energy to do it, We 
have immense beds of marl in the lower and 
of lime in the upper districts — inexhaustible 
veins of the best iron ore in the United Stales, 
and we have gold mines too — strange if with 
all these blessings we cannot prosper, really. 
Again we say, it is only necessary to be true to 
ourselves, ‘Mo push ahead, keep moving,” to 
ensure success, Setourselves earnestly to the 
work of reform-— develope the resources ol the 
country — push railroads and turnpikes into eve- 
ry corner of the State, then manufactories will 
spring up, and the markets of Columbia and 
Charleston will be supplied wiih the corn, rye, 
oats, flour, cattle and hogs of the backwoods of 
South Carolina instead of being dependent 
upon the farmers of the North and West. 
Away wdth the absurd mania ot growing rich — 
is this all the world lives for? Would it not be 
belter to live well, educate our children, bring 
them up to habits of industry and economy and 
start every boy upon his own hook, than with a 
fortune and foolish notions to become a bank- 
rupt or a gambler. Why are we working so 
(or posterity? What has posterity done for us 7 
He who no.v can say, I owe no man anything, 
is rich enough to begin this world or to live in it, 
A Cracker. 
