THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR, 
187 
bor of picking out less, a hand being able to pick 
more of it in a day. A given weight in the seed 
will yrsld a greater weight of lint, and the sta- 
ple is softer, longer, finer and fairer than of other 
kinds; and as a matter of course, the price in 
market must be better — all of which seem to me 
<0 be important advantages. J. C. Paulett. 
Madison, Oct. 28, 1846. 
Crops in Florida. 
Mr. Camak : — For months I have been pro- 
mising myself to become a subscriber to your 
paper, the Southern Cultivator ; but procras- 
tination, that thief of time, improvement and 
moiiey, has prevented me from fulfilling that 
promise until the present moment. The Culti- 
vator is making its way in this State, and I 
think in a short time you will number many 
subscribers in Florida. It is strange, “passing 
strange,” why planters will sustain many polit- 
ical papers, and suffer a paper devoted solely to 
their interests, “to go a begging” for a mere 
support. It is the same way with Christians. 
They give abundant support to party papers and 
suffer religious periodicals to breathe upon a pit- 
tance. The editor hardly getting sufficient of 
this world’s goods for his labor of love to keep 
soul and body together : — the one, laboring for 
the spiritual good, the eternal happiness of man- 
kind ; the otiier, for the temporal wellare, the 
benefit, the wealth, the aggrandizement of the 
agricultural community; and neither likely to 
receive their due, their reward in this “ our 
day.” I beg, I beseech the planters to come up 
handsomely, earnestly, to the help of the Culti- 
vator, our paper, the Southern planter’s paper. 
We have, in this State, much need for papers de- 
voted to enlightened agriculture. I regard Flo- 
rida (at least many portions of it,) not to bo sur- 
passed for planting purposes. We want help to 
bring out the many resources for wealth we 
have here. Our country is healthy— the land 
productive and kind — the climate genial; and 
we can grow the Sea Island Cotton, the Sugar 
Cane, Tobacco, and many otherplants that can- 
not be grown successfully in the older States. 
Some experiments are also now being made in 
raising and preparing the Bear Grass for market, 
and should it prove successful, the South will be 
benefitted thereby. 1 think, from what I have 
seen, that Sea Island Cotton can be raised in 
this coun.ry very profitably. Last year from 2 
up to 4 bags to the hand was gathered in this 
county, and it sold from 14 to 30 cents per pound. 
This year, like the balance of the planters over 
the United States, we are making nothing, and I 
cannot perceive, from the ravages of the worm, 
that Sea Island planters in this county have suf- 
fered more than the planters of the common cot- 
ton. We have all suffered greatly, and I do not 
believe that more than half crops can possibly 
be made. In writing for the Cultivator, Mr. 
Editor, I thought I would w'rite you a few words 
•bout crops, &c. &c. 
Yours, &c., Macison. 
Madison Co., Florida, Oct. 25, 1846. 
Improvement of Laud. 
BEPOET or THE COMMITTEE OF THE FARMERS’ 
CLUB OF MONROE COUNTY. 
The Committee appointed to report on “the 
most practicable means of preventing the ex- 
haustion of soil, and on the improvement and 
reclaiming of exhausted land,” have had the 
subject referred to them under consideration, 
and submit the following 
REPORT: 
It may not be inappropriate to preface what 
they have to say with a few remarks, on the 
necessity of bestowing more attention on the 
Improvement of land in this section of our State. 
That our lands have become exhausted by long 
cultivation is apparent from the diminution of 
their yearly products — that the rich, fresh - soil 
which once so fully rewarded the labors of the 
husbandman, is no longer present to yield re- 
munerating crops, the red hills and deep, gul- 
lies to be seen every where through our coun ty 
too fully atiest. And the time too, has passed 
away when one could purchase fresh land, and 
after exhausting it by cultivation, remove to a 
“new purchase” where more fertile lands might 
be obtained. Georgia has no more territory to 
distribute by lottery. Her last purchase has 
been made, and the land acquired has passed in- 
to the hands of private holders, and is already 
beginning to show the effects of exhausting cul- 
tivation. He, who now wishes to procure fresh 
land, must seek it in the “Far West.” He must 
cut loose from all the endearing associations 
which bind him to relatives, friends and neigh- 
bors — he must leave all the comforts and conve- 
niences which for years he has been gathering 
around him, and biddingadieu to his native State 
or the State where he has long resided, and 
around which his best affections cluster, take 
his journey over a long and w'earisome road, to 
find a home in the far distant west, and when 
he finds him a home he may, perhaps, also find 
an UHCongenial clime, as productive oi fevers, as 
his new land will be of plentiful crops. Or, if he 
shrinksfrom the privations incident to a new set- 
tlement, and determines to remain amongst kind- 
red, and friends, and neighbors, and still cultivate 
old and worn out fields, he must begin the work 
of improvement, or unrewarded labor will be his 
doom. What system shall be recommended as 
the best means of improvement in the work we 
now have before US'? The Committee truly 
regret their inability to do justice to the task im- 
posed on them. They have no new mode of 
renovating soil to recommend. They pretend to 
no discovery of a system which wdll supercede 
the use of patient toil and unremitting labor. — 
Nor will they submit a plan clothed in the tech- 
nical language of agricultural chemistry, which 
to a majority of readers is nothing but unintel- 
ligible jargon — nor will they propose a system of 
improving land by the use of lime, so costly in 
its nature as to be carried into effect only by the 
wealthy. All that the Commitree aims at, is to 
present briefly and in as plain and simple Ian 
guage as possible, what they conceive to be, if not 
the best, at least the most general and practicable 
means of preventing the exhaustion of land and 
of restoring fertility to soil. 
And to effect both or cither of these objects, 
they deem in the first place, hill-side ditching to 
be indispensible. In vain may a man expect his 
fields to retain their original fertility, while the 
soil is liable to be washed away by the heavy 
rains so common to our climate; and in vain 
may he expect the application of manures and 
other means used to restore fertility to soil to be 
successful, while the same exposure to the deso- 
lating effects of washing rains which first carried 
away the soil, still continuesi The third year 
after land has been in cultivation, and before any 
of the soil is carried off, is the proper time to com 
mence ditching. Made thus early and at suita- 
ble distances to conduct the water off gently, 
soil may be made permanent. 
We are aware that many object to hiil-side 
ditches, because they do not always effectually 
carry off the water of heavy rains, and when 
the water breaks over them the land, it is said, 
is injured more than before they were made. 
But we are of the opinion that this more fre- 
quently happens from the imperfect construc- 
tion of the ditches, than from any inherent de- 
fect in the system itself. If sufficient fall is 
given (and this must be graduated according to 
the declivity of the ground,) so that the water 
may pass oft' freely and without obstruction, and 
if they be made wide and deep enough to con- 
tain all the water which may flow into them, 
and not be extended too far before they are emp- 
tied, so as to prevent too great an accumulation 
of water, it is believed that ditches thus con- 
structed, will effectually answer the purpose in- 
tended. But another objection to them is, the 
number of short andcrooked rows which neces- 
sarily attend them. To this objection we would 
simply reply, that it is better to have short and 
crooked rows on productive land than long and 
straight ones over unproductive red hills and 
deep gullies. 
To those then who have fresh land under cul- 
tivation, we would recommend in the first place, 
that it be properly ditched so as to prevent the 
soil from being washed away, and wffien this is 
effectually done, or at least as much so as the 
nature of the ground will admit, then a rotation 
of crops with rest every fourth year will as effec- 
tually prevent soil from deteriorating as any plan 
the Committee can recommend. To give an 
example in illustration of the views of the Com- 
mittee, and if it be not at all times the best ro- 
tation, let such other be substituted as circum- 
stances may justify : — 
Let a field properly ditched be cultivated in 
cotton one year — in corn the next — a crop of 
small grain the third, and then suffered to lie 
fallow thefourth, and in the fall of that year let 
the crop of grass and weeds while green be well 
turned under without bringing up the subjacent 
clay. This rotation (and no other can bethought 
of in this cotton growing country,) will preserve 
land as nearly in its original state of fertility as 
any system of cultivation known to us in the 
South. 
To reclaim exhausted land and restore fertility 
to it, the Committee would also, in the first 
place, recommend a thorough system of ditch- 
ing, for as the soil has been carried offby wash- 
ing rains, whatever is applied to replace the soil 
taken away, will be swept off in like manner 
unless means are used to prevent it. But where 
washing is effectually prevented, galled hill- sides 
and red worn out places may be restored by rest 
and the application of manures horn the stable 
and compost heap, and by plowing in green veg- 
etable matter. To collect and apply manure to 
all such places in a farm of much magnitude 
would be a tedious and laborious business. 
We would not discourage the use of manures, 
but, on the contrary, would recommend all to 
prepare and apply to their worn out lands as 
much manure as possible. But we fear that the 
permanent improvement of such land will not 
be very extensive, if it depends on manure alone ; 
because the great quantity required to improve 
even a small extent of ground, and the tedious- 
ness in collecting and applying it, w ill deter from 
the use of manures to a very great extent. But 
there are other modes of improvement to be 
used, and no good farmer will confine himself to 
one alone, but will resort to all which experience 
has proven to be successful. Hill side ditching 
— manures — a judicious rotation of crops — rest 
and plow'ing in green vegetable matter — all these 
combined, or used separately, as a sound judg- 
ment may dictate, will assist greatly in restoring 
exhausted land. And they are means w'hich 
can be used by all — by the poorest, as well as by 
the most wealthy — by the humble farmer whose 
own hands toil for his support, as w’ell as by the 
wealthy planter, whose fields are cultivated by 
a hundred slaves. 
We said that in discussing the subject submit- 
ted to us, w'e would not use the technical lan- 
guage of agricultural chemistry ~w’e will adhere 
to th« t promise, but beg leave, while on this 
branch of the subject, to lefei briefly to some of 
the elementary principles of that science. 
A fertile soil consists of the mineral elements 
of which it is composed, together w ith decayed 
vegetable matter. We shall not state the ingre- 
dients contained in it, nor the proportions in 
which they are united. But a bare reference to 
the fact that a fertile soil is thus constituted, is 
sufficient for our purpose. Plants derive their 
support in.part Irom the soil in which they grow 
and in part from the atmosphere. Each plant 
draws from the soil those elements peculiar to 
itself— one draws a greater proportion of lime 
than another — a second, a greater proportion of 
potash — and a third finds its chief support in 
some other one of the mineral constituents of 
soil ; and it is upon this fact, well established by 
analysis, that a rotation of crops is recommend- 
ed. AH farmers acknowledge the necessity of a 
change of crops, for by cultivating one for many 
years in succession in the same field, the land 
becomes unproductive, and will scarcely yield 
enough to pay for the labor bestowed on it — and 
the reason is that the elements in the soil, which 
form the peculiar support of the crop grown, be- 
come exhausted, and the iand will not again 
yield plentifully of that crop, until it has had;rest 
and time to collect a new supply of food neces- 
sary for the growth cf that particular kind of crop. 
Hence, by a change, the soil will be allowed 
time, by a process which is constantly going on, 
and of which we shall speak presently, to be- 
come re-charged with one of its mineral consti- 
tuents, a too great proportion of which has been 
carried off in the crop taken from it, and the 
new crop planted will find other sources of 
nourishment in another mineral element, which 
forms its peculiar food, and which has not been 
drawn from the soil — and thus changing from 
one to the other alternately, the soil becomes 
charged with fresh nutriment for each crop in 
its rotation. And the use of fallows, that is, al- 
lowing land to lie at rest, is also based upon this 
principle ; for it is a well established fact that 
there is a resuscitating power in soil itself — a 
