184 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR 
0ciutl)ern (Eiiltixiatou 
AUGUSTA, GA. 
vor.. IV., L\0. 12...I>ECB:;i«BEiR, 1846. 
To Onr Patrons. 
As the present number .concludes the Fourth 
Volume of the “ Soots ebn Cpltivatoh,” the 
publishers deem it a fit occasion, kind patrons, 
to hold a little converse with you. It is no: our 
purpose to flatter you with soft and honied 
phrase, or laud our own efforts in the cause of 
Southern Agricu-ltural improvement. Rather 
let us deal in the language of frankness and 
candor. We prefer this, as well from our con- 
victions of its propriety as from our inclinations, 
believing it the only sure and safe means of con- 
tinuing an acquaintance, which, we trust, has 
been moit agreeably formed, and will continue 
to dispense mutual benefits to you and our- 
selves. With this numoer, then, we have per- 
formed our part of the contract entered into 
between the patrons of the Cultivator and our- 
selvesj How it has been performed, you, of 
course, must judge. If your decision be favor- 
able, we hope you will renew the relations ot 
Patrons and Publishers, which cease with this 
number, by subscribing for the next volume, the 
first number of which w ill be issued in January. 
It is not only our desire that each of you should 
again become subscribers, but we indulge the 
hope that you will make an effort to induce your 
neighbors and friends also lo subscribe. This 
policy will be doing your whole duty to yourselves 
and to society, and by it we shall be rewarded 
for our efforts in attempting to sustain a work 
exclusively devoted to .Southern Agriculture. 
Having said thus much of what we desire 
you should, and we think those of you who 
value the work, ought to do, let us now say 
what we have done and are doing to make the 
work worthy of the support of yourselves, your 
friends and neighbors. We have already order- 
ed new type, and the January number will ap- 
pear in an entire new dress, and we hope greatly 
improved in appearance. We have made and are 
making arrangements for its embellishment with 
elegant engravings, in all the departments of 
husbandry. To do all these things requires a 
large expenditure of money, which we have 
made, relying upon the liberality and justice of 
the Planters of the Southern States to sustain 
us. How fully our co^niidence in their liberality 
and justice will be justified, remains for them to 
make known. 
This, then, is the appropriate time for action 
on your part — and if the effort be made with that 
seal and energy which you are wont to bestow 
on any enterprise in which you feel an interest, 
your success will be as certain as it will be tri- 
umphant. 
Jn conclusion, permit us to repeat our desire 
that eve'^y subscriber to the present volume will 
immediately forward his subscription for the next 
volume, and use some exertion to induce his 
friends and neighbors to unite with him. 
Science and Agriculture. 
Some how or other we have not been, during 
the last month, at all in the humor for writing. 
Hence the meagreness of our editorials in this 
Those 20,000 Subscribers I ! 1 
The Publishers have taken the responsibility 
of publishing the subjoined extract from a letter 
of John A. Calhoun, of Eufaula, Ala., to the 
Editor, which they commend to every reader of 
the Cultivator as worthy of their imitation. 
A few such friends as Mr. C., and the Publishers 
would never be subjected to the humiiiating po 
sition of making appeals in almost every number 
for support. How many such friends can the 
Southern Cultivatos boast ol in Gfeotgia and 
Alabama? But to the letter ; 
Eufala, Nov. 13/A, 1846. 
M R. Editor : * * * Since my last to 
you announcing my intention to become the 
substitute ol Col. McDonald in carrying out 
his proposal, I have been constantly confined to 
my home with a sick family; and hence have 
been able lo do but little towards redeeming my 
pledge. I hope however, as my family’s health 
is improving, that I shall be abreyet to do some- 
thing from this to the first ol January next. 1 
brought lorwardihe claims of the Cultivator 
before the last meeting ol our Society; and it 
was resolved by the members present, that we 
would furnish ONE hundred subscribers from 
this county, embracing those who are now sub- 
scribers. This 1 think we will do, and hope that 
the other sections of this Stale may do the same. 
VVe will try, however, and make up two hun- 
dred from this county. Our Society will meet 
again in the course of three weeks, after wliich 
you may expect again to hear from me. Yours, 
respecilully, John A. Calhoun. 
We subjoin the list of those who have enlisted 
under the banner of the lamenteJ McDonald : 
Col. A. McDonald, Eufaula, Ala. 
fi. McCroan, Louisville, (ia. 
T. W. Rucker, Elberton, Ga. 
C.. Dougherty, Athens, Ga. 
G. B. Haygood, Watkinsville, Ga. 
Wm. T. DeWitt, Hopewell, Ala. 
H. E. Chitty, Henry Co. Ala. 
Wju. Cunningham, Monroe Co. Ala. 
G. B. ZuBEH, White Sulphur Springs, Ga. 
John C. Henderson, Macon Co. Ala. 
Jas. J. Banks, Etion, Ala. 
<j}em A-W. Greer, Taliaferro Co., Ga. 
Singleton Harris, “ “ 
J. S. Lasseter, “ “ 
Jared L Turner, Greene Co 
J.P. C. Whitehead, Waynesboro, Ga. 
E. P. Hurt, Macon Co. Ala. 
B. F. Bor,um, “ “ ■' 
Wm. B. S. Gilmer, Chambers Co. Ala. 
John A. Calhoun, Eufaula, Ala. 
Joel Hurt, Crawford, Russell Co. Ala. 
George Seaborn, Pendleton Dist., S.C. 
Martin McNair, Richmond Co.. Ga. 
J. N. McClendon, Fredonia, A!a. 
J. R. Stanford, Clarkesville, Ga. 
J. C. Helvenston, Macon co. “ 
J. S. Warren, Elbert “ “ 
John Webb, Newton ” “ 
P. Master, Mobley’s Pond, “ 
Lewis McKee, Jasper co. “ 
W. W, Simpson, Wilkes co. “ 
R. S. Hardwick, Hancock co. " 
J. W. McClendon, Fredonia, Ala. 
James M. Towns, Yalobusha Co. Miss. 
Guv Smith, Morgan co , Ga. 
A. B. Turner, Florence, “ 
Jos. L. Cheatham, Jefferson co., Ga. 
Joel W. Perry, Blakely, Early co., Ga. 
Geo. Stapleton, of Jeffersoo. 
N. B. Cloud, Cross Keys, Ala. 
E. G. Cabaniss, of Forsyth, Ga. 
Augustus Green, Greene county, Ga. 
Charles E. Rushing, Marion, Lauderdale 
county, Miss. 
Send in your subscriptions early— by the 
20th of this mouth, if possible. 
number. Our readers need not regret it, when 
we, searching for something wherewithal to re- 
gale them, by good luck found such an article 
as the following: 
[From the New Ycrk Journal of Commerce.] 
Farming, like all other things, and perhaps 
more than other things, is in a revolution. VVe 
once knew as much about growing corn, pota- 
toes and grass as our farming neighbors ; but we 
have glanced at enough of the science in its mo- 
dern improvements to feel that all we knew is of 
very little worth, and that, in attempting to write 
about farming now, we are more likely to get 
laughed at than admired. But no matter. 
Farming has become a science. If a farmer 
wishes to grow' wheat on his land, he sends 
wheat to a chemist to be analyzed, that he may 
find of what it is composed, or rather looks in- 
to some modern work on chemistry, and reads it 
there. He then sends a sample of earth from 
his lot to the chemist, to ascertain of what in- 
gredients the soil is composed; and whatever 
of the component parts suited for wheat is not 
found in it, he procures and spreads upon his 
land. A field m.ay have in abundance all the in- 
gredients for the production of wheat but one, 
and yet not be able to produce wheat. By 
science, the Grahams have discovered the appal- 
ling fact that butter and beef are in the jraas 
and the fruits; that the cow is only the manu- 
facturer; and that they, like the transmuting 
priest, abjure butter and beef, and yet eat butter 
and beef all the while. The farmer w ho has no 
science will, perhaps, at great cost, add those in- 
gredients of which there are already enoug . 
But that will not cause a crop to grow. This 
accounts for the fact v/hich is often so surpiis- 
iiig, that manure which has produced great crops 
on one soil has no good effect at all on another. 
A scientific farmer knows little of poor land. 
All land is good to him, for it will produce well if 
only furnished with the proper ingredients. So 
land that would only produce a very poor crop 
has been made to produce a very large crop by 
spreading upon it one or two deficient ingre- 
dients. These ingredients are, some of them, 
to be found in almost all substances — lime of 
oyster shells, ashes even of anthracite coal, char- 
coal dust, fish bones, &c. Every thing is com- 
posed of ingredients which must be had for the 
reproduction of itself, and many other things. 
Fruit trees cease to bear often because they have 
exhausted the soil of one or two of the ingre- 
dients which compose their fruit Give them 
but these, and they will at once return to pro- 
duction. A pear tree may grow in soil which 
has not all the qualities necessary to constitute 
pears, and it can no more make pears without 
the necessary ingredients than the Israelitea 
could make bricks without straw. One crop ex- 
hausts one set of ingredients, and another to 
some extent a different set ; and so farmers learn 
the fact, without knowing the cause, perhaps, 
that the same crop should not be grown for suc- 
cessive years on the same land. Yet there is no 
difficulty in growing the same crop interminably, 
if only the exhausted ingredients are supplied. 
A great deal has been learned about the mode 
and lime oUutting and curing hay and grain. 
Gra-^s, which, while lying out to be thoroughly 
dried, perhaps may get repeatedly wet, makes 
much better hay if with much less drying it ia 
preserved with a bushel of salt to a ton. Salt ia 
often cheaper than hay, so that the farmer makea 
a profit by putting it in, wdiile the labor of curing 
is much diminished, and the good qualities of the 
hay much increased. Wheat cut in the milk has 
been found to weigh six or tight pounds a bushel 
more than when left to ripen to the usual time, 
and oats were still moie increased in weight. So 
farmers have, perhaps, been suffering great loss 
for ages by cutting their grain at too late a stage 
of its progress. 
The application of science to agriculture has 
developed wonders in the capabilities of the 
ground, which have lain from the creation unob- 
served. Men are astonished when they see what 
boundless blessings the Creator has spread thick 
around, and how slow the race has been in ob- 
