172 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
jecl ofcorn shellers; and more especially re- 
specting one which he says he has had in use 
lor some time, which has excited considerable 
curiosity with me and many others in this sec- 
tion of country, to find out the particulars ol 
said machine. 
Mr. Duncan represents the principle as not 
entirely new; but as lor cheapness, durability 
of character and lor fast shelling, he thinks it 
cannot be excelled. Besides, there are several 
other traits attending the machine which should 
command the attention of every farmer, as for 
instance its simple structure, so as to be made 
by any rough workman, and its needing no 
patching and mending, as stated by Mr. Dun- 
can. 
The object of this communication is to re- 
quest Mr. Duncan through the columns of your 
valuable paper, to give us a full, precise and 
definite description of said machine in every 
particular, and the materials composing it. In 
short, if it is out ol his power to give us a cut, 
he will favor this community by giving such 
information as will enable us to construct the 
machine and try the experiment. Yours, with 
great respect, Robert Caldweli,. 
Jones county, Ga., Sept., 1846. 
Farm Mauageraeiit. 
Mr. Editor I have owned the plantation 
on which I now live about five years. When 
I first took possession of it I found it in a very 
dilapidated condition —not a house fit to live in, 
the fences rotten and in a bad condition, the 
fields badly arranged and much injured by the 
bad management and bad cultivation of a care- 
less overseer, and some parts in gullies before 
the roots are fairly got out ol the ground. 
My first object was to arrange the plantation 
in a systematical and convenient order, to 
straighten out fences, enlarge the fields, to make 
suitable and convenient divisions, to build 
houses of every convenient description, gates, 
bars, &c., to pul the far.ii under a good system 
of hill side ditching and horizontal plowing, 
and ol drilling all my cultivated crops of every 
description. 
In order to arrange the farm with convenience 
I have a centre pasture. Mine is of woodland, 
containing constant running water. Fromthis 
pasture I have bars or gates leading into every 
division of the farm. 1 his pasture contains 
all my stock, except my cattle are turned in the 
range a fev/ months in the spring and are then 
taken in again. My sheep I never suffer to go 
out — my stock hogs I keep constantly in the 
range. I take into the pasture every winter a 
sufficient number of hogs of one year’s growth 
to make bacon the year after; they are to run 
one year on my grass pasture, and at the age 
ol two years old they make fine large hogs, and 
an equal number of one year’sgrowth are taken 
from the range and put in the pasture lor the 
next year. 
In arranging the divisions of my farm, 1 have 
allotted ofTtwfi fields of about ninety acres each 
of my poorest land, which is entirely devoted 
to corn and pasturage; changing them every 
year, one in corn and one for pasture. This 
affords sufficient grass for all my stock. 1 have 
also arranged four small lots of twenty acres 
each, convenient to my centre pasture, which I 
devote to other crops; say, one in potatoes and 
pindars, one in corn and peas, for early use; 
one in rye or barley tor winter and spring graz- 
ing, which will be oft' by May, and may be 
plowed up and drilled in peas for a fall pasture, 
and one 1 sow in rye, oats and barley lor seed. 
It then makes a good fall pasture for mules and 
horses. 
These erops I alternate every year, say first 
in potatoes, second early corn and peas, third 
rye and barley for grazing, fourth, seed rye, 
oats and barley. 
The other parts of my farm are in larger di- 
visions and are devoted exclusively to corn and 
cotton. Three fields I design enlarging in order 
to rest the weakest parts every other year, this 
will very much aid in keeping them in good 
heart and ensure belter crops. 
As much of my time, for the last few years, 
has been devoted to the arrangements and im- 
provements above mentioned, I have devoted 
but little attention or time to saving and apply- 
ing manures to my land. But as the first ob- 
ject is now nearly completed, I shall turn my 
attention more particularly to manuring and 
improving the quality ofmy land. 
I think every farmer ought to attach great im- 
portance to the beauty, order, convenience and 
systematical arrangement and management of 
all business of the farm. When these matters 
are attended to as they should be, the farmer’s 
home is made much more agreeable. His bu- 
siness is a source of pleasure. It invites no- 
tice and admiration, notonly by the owner, but 
by visiters. He is pleased with the beauty, or- 
der and convenience of all his business. It 
stimulates him to complete the objects of his 
pursuits. 
When industry and economy are attached to 
a well regulated system we may expect an abun- 
dant supply of such means of subsistence as 
a farm can afford for man or beast, and a valua- 
ble source of pecuniary income, and content- 
ment and happiness, they have a right to claim 
and expect, so far as this life is concerned. 
On the other hand, when a farmer makes his 
arrangements only for one year at the time, he 
has neither order, beauty, or convenience attach- 
ed to his business. He looks only to the profits of 
his farm, which can only be realized once a 
year. His mind is kept long in suspense, 
and he cannot feel that interest in his pro- 
fession that one does who endeavors to add 
all the other advantages, and instead of re- 
commending that profession to others, by ex- 
hibiting a well regulated, pleasant and profita- 
ble business, their example is well calculated 
to deter others and check a spirit of improve- 
ment. I may write again soon. Very respect- 
fully R. W. 
Tallahassee, Sept. 1846. 
Turpentine. 
Mr. Camak — An Alabama correspondent of 
the Southern Cultivator inquired for infor- 
mation about the Turpentine business. Noone 
has yet answered him. My own inquiries have 
been directed to the same interest, by a desire 
to make use of my pine lands in Decatur and 
Baker, and 1 bad before then been kindly fur- 
nished by Mr. McMillan, of North Carolina, 
with the information contained in this letter. 
The facts may be of great use to the pine coun- 
ties. Mr. McM.’s letter is, therefore, at the 
service of the Cultivator. Yours, &c. 
Dear Sir— I received by the hands of the 
postmaster at this place, your letter of the 8th 
inst., wishing information on the subject of get- 
ting Turpentine. I take pleasure in communi- 
cating the same in answer to your interroga- 
tions. 1 must only give the usual rates and 
amounts, &c. 
A good hand will cut from 60 to 80 boxes per 
day; will tend from six to ten thousand, which 
will yield from 175 to 225 barrels per season or 
year. The barrels usually hold about thirty- 
three gallons, or weigh, gross, about three hun- 
dred and twenty pounds. The barrels usually 
cost, with us, from 25 to 33 cents each. Our 
turpentine getters make it from ten to fifteen 
miles from navigation, which is about as far as 
it will bear hauling. The same boxes will 
stand tending or chipping from eight to ten 
years, which labor is performed by males, both 
while and slaves — women and children not be- 
ing very serviceable. The hands who lend tur- 
pentine have no lime for any other business. 
The usual custom with us is to cut the boxes 
from the 1st of November until the Istof March, 
or from the going down of the sap until it rises 
again. The time of tending is from the Istof 
April until the 1st of October, during which 
time the boxes are filled from three to five times 
and dipped out. 
If, from the foregoing, you think the pines in 
Georgia will yield Turpentine, and you have 
any idea of going into the business, you had 
better employ a young man from North Caro- 
lina to superintend for you the first year ; at 
least one aceustomed to the business, who can 
put your hands in the way of making, cooper- 
ing, &c. 
Any further information you may want, or 
any services 1 can render you, will, on inquiry, 
be cheerfully given. Respectfully, yours, 
Dugall McMillan, 
Wilmington, April 14, 1846. 
Wilmington, March 16, 1846. 
The stranger who enters North Carolina, eith- 
er from the North or the South, will be struck 
with the wilderness appearance it almost every- 
where presents. Its sandy, sterile soil offers 
little to tempt the adventurer or emigrant to set- 
tle down, and where there are few people, there 
is little to interest the sentimental or inquiring 
traveller. 
Passing from the easy, affluent, aristocratic 
city of Charleston, whose very atmosphere is 
fragrant of refinement, we come next, in a 
steamboat journey of one night, to Wilming- 
ton, the commercial capital of North Carolina. 
For this we pay six dollars to the captain, and 
one dollar for dinner and tea, the distance being 
about ninety miles. The voyage for the most 
part is made along shore, with the wild Atlantic 
dashing upon us. 
Wilmington consists of about four streets, at 
right angles, and about 7000 whites and 3000 
colored. It has been peculiarly unfortunate, 
having had several fires. In many places the 
black ruins of once stately blocks, are to be 
seen. The timber used in their buildings, be- 
ing all charged with turpentine, pitch and rosin, 
there is no saving a house when once it catches 
fire. The more water that is thrown upon the 
burning pile, the more and the higher it blazes 
a way. 
The city is built quite down to the water, on 
the river Cape Fear, which is navigable from 
the sea to this point (13 miles) for the largest 
ships. The river stretches its arms away back 
through the State for three or four hundred 
miles, until it becomes lost in rivulets in 
the Tennessee mountains. The river is navi- 
gable in some parts of the year for steamboats, 
as far as Fayetteville, about one hundred and 
twenty miles back in the interior. 
On walking along the banks of the river, one 
can see scattered down and up many steam saw 
mills, receiving immense logs from the rafts- 
men, on one side, and on the other rattling them 
out in boards, to ships bound to the West In- 
dies, and to the eastern markets. There are to 
be seen liere.some twenty turpentine distilleries, 
most of them lately set up, and all doing a very 
profitable business. 
This turpentine business has become, within 
the last two years, a very lucrative one. The 
boundless forests ol fir which cover North Ca- 
rolina, offer material to the enterprising for a 
couple of centuries to come. These forests 
can be purchased for a dollar an acre. Some 
farms have been sold for ten cents an acre! 
and the highest I have heard of did not exceed 
two dollars. The soil yields little or nothing 
for the food of man or beast, except in the im- 
mediate neighborhood of rivers. One may 
travel an entire day in the stage, without meet- 
ing more than one or two farm houses. This 
remark applies to the region of country from 
Wilmington to Raleigh, a large breadth ol about 
200 miles. 
Many speculators have lately entered into 
this turpentine manufacture. One negro man 
will collect 200 barrels in a season, which will 
sell for about $800; about $100 will feed and 
clothe I he negro; thus there is a pretty full 
margin of profit for the capital embarked in the 
land and negroes. It is better, by far, than cot- 
ton raising — many cotton planters are going in- 
to i I, and the expansion of manufactures and 
arts, at home and abroad, keeps pace w’ith the 
increased number of those who are entering in- 
to this profitable business. 
For the benefit of those who have never been 
