SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
85 
harrows thirty-six inches wide. That is, on bottom lands, 
where the rows are five or six feet apart. 
“In the cleaning process, a small per centage may be 
lost, but you save the loss occasioned by standing in the 
field till February, exposed to winds and rains; and also 
much of the loss in the spinning-room, which is now ten 
per cent, from dirt, dust, leaf, etc. 
“We shall look with much interest to the operations of 
this invention. Should it prove successful, it may, in 
truth, be characterized as a machine which will mark a 
more important epoch in the progress of the growth and 
manufacture of the great Southern staple, than any inven- 
tion since the construction of the gin . — Jackson Mississr})- 
pian. 
answer to the inquiry of W. D. G., of Longs- 
bridge, Ga., (Feb. number, page 56, Southern Cultivator') 
we give the following from one of our Northern ex- 
changes ; 
PRATT’S DITCH DIGGER. 
Mr. R. C. Pratt, of Canandaigua, New York, patented 
in July, 1853, a machine for digging ditches, which proved 
one of the best things exhibited at the late State Fair. By 
its aid, one man and two horses have frequently dug 150 
rods of ditch three feet deep in one day, and from 50 to 
150 (according to the nature of the soil) is considered a 
day’s work. The machine consists substantially of a 
scoop and revolving wheel — the scoop scraping and the 
wheel carrying up the dirt until at a sufficient height it is 
tumbled out upon the sides, at a little distance from the 
ditch. Several repetitions of the operations are required be- 
fore the ditch is sunk to sufficient depth. 
The specimen exhibited at the late Fair was all wrought 
iron, and weighed between 700 and 800 pounds. Tlie 
diameter of the main wheel was 5 feet, and the breadth of 
the diggers or lifters fixed thereon, and that of the scoop 
or curved channel in which they rise, is about 9 inches. 
Although the lifting apparatus is thus narrow, it is practi- 
cable, and indeed desirable, to make the small plows or 
cutters which pare the side cuts somewhat wider, so that 
a ditch of any width, from 9 to 15 inches may be excavated 
by the same machine. 
The weight of the dirt which is being lifted, the curved 
channel, and in fact of the whole machine, rests on the 
diggers, which, like the floats of a paddle-wheel, project 
from the perphery of the main wheel. As the machine is 
drawn forward by the horses, the diggers are successfully 
forced into the earth, and compel the wheel to rotate — thus 
carrying up and discharging from the top, all the earth 
caught by the scoop, which is in immediate contact be- 
hind. On the extreme rear of the whole is adjusted two 
cutters or small plows, which pare the sides and tear the 
earth to a suitable distance below, ready for the next pas- 
sage of the machine, so that after the first passage the dig- 
gers are always pressed down into the ground already 
loosened, to a depth of from two to ten inches, which loos- 
ening may be supposed to regulate the depth to which 
they will be likely to sink. The Avheel and its accompani- 
ments being of considerable weight, great muscular exer- 
tion would be required of the attendant to prevent its fall- 
ing on one side, but for a simple and very effectual pro- 
vision for its support. The stout iron shaft on which the 
main wheel freely revolves, is prolonged some two or three 
feet on each side and provided with a light carrying wheel 
mounted loose, as in a common carriage axle, to run upon 
the ground. These wheels are to maintain the upright 
position of this machine ; but the weight must at all times, 
when in operation, be allowed to rest on the diggers. In 
short, the main wheel and the whole machine must be 
allowed to sink down into a ditch or rise to the surface, 
while the carrying wheels simply run lightly on the sur- 
face at the sides. The end is accomplished by bending 
the axle into the form of a large crank at each side and re- 
leasing it from all connection with the machine, except 
that of passing loosely through the centre. A catch is 
provided by which the attendant (who is supposed to be 
grasping a pair of handles in the rear) may make the con- 
nection a fixed one at pleasure, and when desiring ta 
leave the field and travel the road the weight may, by this 
means, be thrown entirely upon the carrying wheels. 
COTTON~ITS VALUE AND IMPORTANCE. 
We quote the following eloquent remarks from the late 
speech of Hon. A. H. Stephens, of Georgia, in reply to 
an onslaught upon the South, by one of the Representa- 
tives from Ohio : 
“But, Mr. Chairman, my time is nearly out. There are 
many other matters, I did wish to allude to, which I must 
pass over and omit. I wanted to say something about 
the present condition of things in some of the Northern 
States, particularly in the City of New York, where it is 
now found that there is, after all, something in life worse 
than being required, or even made, to work. 'I his is the 
great evil the negro in the South is subjected to, in the 
opinion of those who rail so much against our social sys- 
tem. But that greater evil which is now felt in New Fork 
is the want of work to do, by which means may be earned 
to keep from starving. ‘Hunger is a sharp thorn’ was, a 
few days ago, the banner motto borne by thousands in 
that great mercantile metropolis. Under our system, sir, 
we never have such scenes. We have, it is true, our af- 
flictions of disease, and epidemics, and disasters of drouth, 
floods, and hurricanes ; but the wail of thousands crying 
for bread, has never yet, under the blessings of Heaven, 
been heard in our land of sunshine and plenty, ^cursed, ^ 
though it be, with slavery! We have a ‘Special Provi- 
dence,’ to use a late very appropriate designation given 
by the New York Tribune, which prevents all this. A 
system by which capital, accumulated in the years of 
plenty, is required to sustain labor in the years of want. 
These matters I wished to go somewhat into, but I cannot. 
But enough has been said to show a development, wheth- 
er considered physically, morally, socially, or intellectu- 
ally, quite sufficient to place Georgia (with domestic insti- 
tutions as much abused as they are by those who know 
so little about them; fully along side of Ohio, ‘ the giant of 
the West.’ or any other State of this Union. That was my 
proposition, and! think I have made it good. 
“ I want, in conclusion, however, to say a few things, 
Mr. Chairman, about one of our great staples. I omitted 
it in its proper place, but it will do, perhaps, just as well 
here. 1 mean the article of cotton; and I wish to say 
what I do on that subject, from the fact that I have seen it 
stated that the Ohio hay crop was equal to the Georgia 
cotton crop, and that the hay crop of the United States 
annually is quite equal in importance, as an agricultural 
product, to this great Southern, or, I should rather say, 
National staple. Those who thus think, or talk, or argue, 
take a very narrow, imperfect, and unphilosophical, as well 
as unstatesmanlike view of the subject. As to the mere 
money value of this article, or its excess in value over the 
other, it is not my purpose to speak ; that— great as, in 
fact, it is— is a small matter, infinitely small when placed 
by the side of other larger and more comprehensive con- 
siderations of the question. Some things have values ex- 
trinsic as well as intrinsic Cotton is eminently one of 
these. Gold and silver are not so much entitled to be 
placed on the list of such things as it is. The extrinsic 
value of these metals ari.ses from their agency as the adopt- 
ed representatives of all values. With their displacements, 
however, many substitutes could be obtained. But what 
substitute could be procured for the agency of cotton 1 
