SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
8^ 
This includes the ordlhary excise, as also the “Octroi,” or j 
city duty. There are by estimate, 220,000,000 gallons of 
wine manufactured into spirits, exclusive of the 90,000,- 
000 made into brandy. This leaves more than 700,000,- 
000 gallons of wine for home consumption, or about 
twenty-one gallons for each inhabitant for the year. 
Wine, as a beverage, is universally used here by all 
classes. The stronger liquors are chiefly for exportation ; 
hence, you see but very little drunkenness in la belle 
Prance. 
The disease of the vine in France has for the last two 
years been very destructive, and it has greatly diminished 
the production of wine. This is on the increase, and fears 
are entertained that it may totally destroy the vine. Under | 
this apprehension, may not the subject of vine culture | 
legitimately and appropriately attract the attention of our 
Southern and Southwestern planters'? Many of our 
Southern lands; I opine, are peculiarly adapted to the 
vine, and from natural sterility or other causes are unsuit- 
ed to products requiring richer and stronger soils. The 
lands of Southern Europe employed by the vine are light 
and sterile, unsuited to wheat and other grains. 
PISCICULTTJEE-FISH BEEEDING. 
The New York correspondent of the Charleston Mer- 
cury (“Lorris”) gives us the following sketch of a very 
useful little volume which may be obtained per mail from 
Wm. N. White, Esq., Athens, Ga. We have perused it 
with much interest, and would commend it to the atten- 
tion of all who desire information upon the subject of 
which it treats ; 
“The other volume to which I invite your attention, is 
one which should especially attract the notice of your 
wealthy planters, who have fine estates, susceptible of im- 
provement. It is from the press of the Appletons, also. 
This is A Complete Treatise on Artificial Fish-Breeding. 
It is partly a translation from the French, in which coun- 
try they have carried this art to great perfection. It in- 
cludes the Reports on the subject, made to the French 
Academy and the French Government, and reports the 
particulars of the discovery, and the progress which has 
taken place in England, also, in respect to the artificial 
breeding of fish. With these reports, it combines an ad- 
mirable manual, in which you learn all the processes — are 
shown your way, step by step, in the prosecution of an 
art which is delicate, but not difficult; and, though seem- 
ingly of much intricacy, is, in fact, exceedingly simple; 
requiring nothing more tlian care, cleanliness, and dexter- 
ity. It is really a beautiful art, which I could wish that . 
some of your practical naturalists, (who better than Prof. 
Holmes, ofyour Charleston College, who is a born natur- 
alist, and loves his labors '?) would teach, as an aside, to 
your planting gentry. Really, I am serious in desiring 
that you should make all your planters, having leisure and 
large estates, familiar with his beautiful practice, in which 
Art proves herself, emphatically, to be the handmaid ofNa- 
ture. To him who knows what your lordly old estates 
were, along the banks of the Ashley, the Cooper, the 
Ashepoo, &c., — who knows what their tastes and refine- 
ments were; who can, even now, penetrate the thickets 
and show the ancient artificial fisheries ; who knows what 
wonderful natural p-eserves there are, all along the swamp- j 
girdled rivers of Carolina; who feels that every j^S/^-AoZe j 
in the swamps may be converted into a treasury and nurs- 
ery ; who knows that the luxuries, comforts, profits, of a 
plantation — such as a gentleman would care to own — 
would be multiplied indefinitely, by the artificial breeding 
of fish so as to form an inexhaustible supply ; who knows 
also, that our planters have a sufficient leisure, and great 
passion for out- door exercises, in the fields and along the 
rivers — with gun and fishing-rod ; and who believes that 
they are beginning to awaken, and be watchful of all im- 
provements ; to him who knows all this, it seems that a 
study like the one which this book unfolds, would be of 
inestimable value. I suppose that Holbrook, Holmes, 
Bachman, and others among you— Porcher and Ravenel — 
have already looked somewhat into the matter; but I 
could wish to see them egging their neighbors on, and 
showing the planters how the thing may and ought to be 
done. There may be larger foreign books on the subject, 
but this before me seems an excellent manual, made as 
clear as possible, and which will suffice to open the way 
I should rejoice, next spring, to visit William Elliott — the 
Devil-King — and look into his artificial fish-pond !” 
WHY THE FARMER SHOULD GIVE HEED TO THE 
MAH- OF SCIEKCE. 
The following judicious remarks form the conclusion 
of an able lecture by Prof. Tuomey, upon chemistry as 
applied to agriculture : 
In conclusion, allow me to say one word upon the ap- 
parent indifference with which agriculturists, as a body, 
listen to the teachings of science. 
Rural pursuits are far less favorable to speculative states 
of mind than those of the manufacturer, and hence whilst 
the latter has pressed chemistry into his service, the culti- 
vator of the soil is too often contented to pursue his own 
chance-directed processes unaided by the light of science. 
This unnatural divorcement of science and agriculture 
has often arisen from not distinguishing between agricul- 
ture as a science and agriculture as an art. The man of 
science investigates one department, and the cultivator of 
the soil practices the other. Odium is often brought upon 
what is called scientific farming by the failure of men of 
science when they attempt the practice of agriculture. 
Now, I believe that, in general, it will be found that it was 
not the science but the common sense of such men that 
was at fault. The practice requires a different training, 
and however sound his principles, the mere man of science 
fails for want of it when he attempts to try his own prin- 
ciples practically. Liebig, I apprehend, would make but 
a sorry plowman, yet the worM has listened to his teach- 
ings. In all the arts of civilization this division of labor 
is recognized. The anatomist points out, from his know- 
ledge, of the hoof, the best mode of shoeing horses, but no 
one would think of employing him to put his own prin- 
ciples in practice. The chemist informs the tanner of 
those substances that contain the largest amount of tannin, 
and explains the rationale of all his processes, yet the 
chemist is rarely expected to be able to produce leather 
from the raw hide, nor is the utility of knowledge called 
in question on this account. 
Now, let this but be properly understood amongst us, 
and there will be an end to the sneers at “book-farming,” 
nor shall there be any longer cause to complain of the pro- 
verbial tardiness with which practical agriculturists avail 
themselves of the discoveries of chemical science. 
It only remains for me, in conclusion, gentlemen, to bid 
you God-speed in the great work that you have com- 
menced, of constructing for the South a Southern system 
of agriculture ; everything around you calls for it — your 
climate, not less than your staple productions, calls for it. 
You can scarcely apply to your soils the experience of 
any other conntry. You must conduct experimental re- 
searches for yourselves, and upon those, guided by the 
willing hand of science, you may erect a system that will 
elevate the agricultuie of our country to the position that 
nature has plainly indicated the South should occupy. 
Always take one or more agricultural papers, for 
every number will give you information which will bene- 
fit you in dollars. 
