SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR 
75 
of manure tliat will burpi^se any one during the winter. 
We believe the qn. -.ntity of manure saved alone daring 
the wifiter, wnulJ be a fir coni pen satioii fer providing 
and feeding catdc we ll, it is neces.sary to giw; them a 
variety, but we find turnips a cheap and most excellent 
food, cooked or otherwise. 
During the sampler, it is better to ]^en on lots where 
you wish to raise turnips, small grain, or winter grasses., 
and turn under occcasionaliy six or eight iiiclies doejx T 
should like to say much more, but I am already making j 
this article quite too long. 
Allow me to make a quotation from an eminent Euro- 
pean writer, (Johnston,) and I have done with this sub- 
ject. 
“ The practical farmer who uses every effort to collect 
and preserve the manure which nature puts within his 
reach, is deserving of praise when be expends his money 
in the purchase of manui-es from a distance, of whatever 
kind they may be ; but he on the other hand, is only open 
to censure who puts forward the purchase of foreign ma- 
nnres, as an excuse for the neglect of those which are 
running to waste around him.” 
Ill the July number of your paper, in giving my plan 
of putting up the Swoe* Potato, you make me say three or 
four boards on the top of the hill. It should be three or 
four feet boards. I prefer havii.g at. least one-t' -l:d of the 
hill well sheltered. 
Tiiose who planted on the little ‘'patch” plan this year, 
did not have a large crop to save in this region of country. 
To ensure a good crop of potatoes, as of corn, we 
should always cultivate land enough to make plenty, 
should the season be unfavorable or “a bad crop year.” 
\ie may by this course sometimes make a surplus, but 
we seldom hear a man complain of having made too much ; 
and his chances for another crop are always better, with a 
fat team and well filled baim. 
Enclosed I send the subscription fee; at the risk of being 
styled a “book farmer,” I wish to read another volume of 
the Southern Cultivator. 
Wi.'-hing you a pleasant New Year, and that success 
which your distinguished efforts, in the noble cause you 
have espoused entitle you. 
I remain very respectfully yours, &c., 
J, R. Jackson. 
Clinton, ha., Dec., 1854. 
SYSTEM ON THE PLANTATIOH-LETTEE FROM 
MS. AFFLECK. 
To , jEiV: 
Dear Sir — The remark in yours of the 18th inst., sur- 
prises me no little — that “for myself I have no hope of 
ever getting an overseer who will or can keep such a 
book” as my “Plantation Record and Account Book.” 
And that you are now “trying to teach one— perhaps my 
best —who has 100 workers under him, to write, and to 
read my svriting !” 
j An overseer unable to write, and yet entrusted with the 
i management of a property worth, I presume, from 
000 to 3180,000 ; and the lia}ipiness, to a very great de- 
gree, of some 150 souls! In wluu other bu.sines.s would 
such a risk be run 1 /Vnd yet it is by no means an un- 
common state of things. Bull, in your co.se, 1 v/as well 
aware that if men really competent for suedi an employ- 
ment and position could be had, you would liave them. 
And hence, infer that your overseers, as a class, arc thus 
ignorant. 
Here, it is not so. There are many orer.s< ers 1 ere who 
are men well educated and fully ceenpi tent :.o the respon 
Bible charge of large pkoitation , — in nta a fe.v in-.t;inces, 
mu'*h more compeljni than their en-ployers. They ate 
able to keep a id do keep their Plantation Buok.s in u satis- 
factory mamu.r. 
When I first commenced cotton-jd.anting, iiaving been 
I trained in Scotland to the strictest business habits, I was 
astonished beyond nieasuie to find that it was almost im- 
possible to find an overseer who would ever li.sfen to an 
idea of the kind — as to keeping a plantation book. They 
would note ilie daily pdclting of cotton and the w eights of 
the bales as seat ofi— but nothing else. 'That would not 
suffice for me. 1 looked ar. i-.nd amongst my neighbors 
and found some few who had Jrept regular jdantatioii books 
j for many years. I examined these, and gained many 
valuable hints. But tiie great difficulty was, the entire 
want of uniformity, orof anything bite a general system of 
management recognized by all. During my first year’s 
planting, I prepared two books v:lik Ike pen, almost iden- 
tical with that now published for the cotton plantation, and 
gave one to each of my next year’s overseers, making it 
a part of my contract v:ith them, that these books were to 
be correctly kept and returned to me at the end of the 
year. And, with a little assistance and encouragement, 
it was done. And what a satisfaction it was to me ! Soon 
after that, at the suggestion of a New Orleans Publisher, 
I prepared him a transcript of the plan for publication, and 
the books were published. For years, they went off 
slowly, hxLt surely. Now, as I mentioned, the edition of 
•2,000 for the present year will all be sold. 
Already a vast improvement in the overseers themselves 
is observable, and certainly in the system of plantation 
management and discipline. Think of the advantage to 
both planters and overseers, of even 1 ,000 books of written 
from day- to-day- experience, scattered over the country! 
At first, overseers were strongly opposed to any such 
evidence of a strict responsibility to their employers ; and 
to the trouble of a daily entry of what occurred upon the 
place; a quarterly inventory of stock, tools, &c., &c. 
But they had no alternative — it was made a part ot their 
contract, and must be done and done well. The eflbri was 
made, and the task found to be not so very serious a one 
after all. It even helped to while away an hour of an 
evening; and the retrospect passed many a w’et day off 
pleasanily. The hand-v/riting improved. Business.habits 
were induced, and everything moved along more smooth- 
ly. Overseers found that their assurance that they had 
“been in the habit of keeping one of Affleck's Plantation 
Books” was no small recommendation to desirable situ- 
ations. They found, too, that, in fact, their responsibility 
was lessened rather than increased. “Here are my writ- 
ten orders— there is the proof that they were carried out 
— for the result I am not alone responsible.” Then, again, 
an able and intelligent manager, who leaves his corn cribs- 
full; stock increased in number and in fine order; the 
negroes comfortably housed, fed and cared for; imple- 
ments made at home; sundry improvements carrhaj out 
on the place; and withal a very fair crop of cotton made 
and sent to market in good time and fine order ; is follow- 
ed, perhaps, by one who has e.'-tablished for himself a repu- 
tation with many employers, by making an enormous crop 
of cotton ! “ I made, last year, for Mr. , upen ids 
worn place, with so and so hands, so and .'lo liak s of' cot- 
ton.’ Ah! he iso. manager! — ten— twelve b.des to the 
hand ! Net a word of the active, healthy, not over worked 
hands; tiic full corn cribs; abundance of fodder, peas, 
potatoes, &c.; the hogs killed and meal cuied; the fine 
te.am.S; good fences, poor spots manured, wet place.s diicti- 
ed. road.s well worked, gin house, scafl'nl.f.v, &.(; , in fine 
order, wldi which he commenced t!ic ) < ar — all tin- work 
of hi.s predecessor, ^o|• of the condii ion of things then 
upon the plav;t — tin ex .ci I'evcrse of all this. Hi., lii:^ crop 
proving io bo a seiions loss to I' e employoi, in tin ( iid. 
To those manaj^iog estates as Kx'cuiur.':, Gu.adi.'Ois, 
(fee.; ihe.se hooks .'rf! invaluable. A pri'inineni Ivi.wv Or- 
leans fi.ctor gratified me not a little rein inly, hy n marking 
that he has littlo ^leOtation in advancing to or arccpiing 
f)r u Planter v/ho kept his Plantation Record and Account 
1 
