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THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 47 
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 1S43. 
Back Numbers. — All new subscribers to the 
“Southern Cultivator” can be supplied with the 
back numbers. 
FARMERS’ ENCYCLOPEDIA AND DICTIONARY 
OF RURAL AFFAIRS. 
We have received tire three first numbers of 
this truly valuable publication, and respectfully ' 
recommend it to the planting community. It is 
an English publication, revised and adapted to 
American agricuiture. T-he .-numbers before us 
are better an'anged than any work we have 
.seen, by which reference can be had to any sub- 
ject with the same facilitj^ that a word may be 
found in a common dictionary. It is published 
semi-monthly, by Mes.srs. Carey & Hart, Phil- 
adelphia, and will be completed in sixteen num- 
bers, at 25 cents a number. The work is got 
up in a ver}' neat style, in book form, and when 
completed, will be very valuable as a work of 
reference on all .subjects of which it treats. 
HORIZONTAL PLOWING. 
-We have to thank our friend Hunt, lor his 
•communication on the subject of horizontal 
plowing, and hope he will continue to fory’ar'd 
such facts as he may deem of -value to his agri- 
cultural brethren. We have endeavored to 
make a cut of his level, whieh we hope will be 
comprehended by our readers, for, in the ab- 
sence of any engraver, our only reliance has 
been upon otirself. This is one of the difficul- 
ties under which we labor.; for we shall be 
compelled to send abroad, perhaps to the north, 
Tor all our cuts. Though if the planters will 
sustain us with a liberal patronage, no expense 
.shall be spared to afford eveiy nece.ssary embel- 
lishment to render thc Cultiv'ator equal, in this 
regard, to an)-- Agricultural paper in the Union. 
W e shall, therefore, in due time, if our subscrip- 
tion list will justify the expenditure, make such 
arrangements as will enable us to present prop- 
er cuts of all the most approved agricultural im- 
plements now in use, together with sucli im- 
provements and new ones as may ircm time to 
time be introduced. We sincerely hope we are 
not too sangine, when we indulge the confident 
hope that Southern planters will sustain our en- 
terprise most liberally, and enable us to build up a 
work, of which the South mayju.stly feel proud. 
We encounter the same difficulty in comply- 
ing with the request of our correspondent, to 
“give some idea of a Cultivator,” for .’he want 
of a propercut, and are, therefore, compelled to 
rely upon the following description of that val- 
uable plow, which we find in the Albany Culti- 
vator. 
Cultivator. — This is an implement of agri- 
culture, the use of which is to loosen the earth 
between rows of plants, so as tg destroy weed,s, 
and give the earth and plants the benefit of at- 
mospheric influence. It is formed of a central 
piece of timber with diverging moveable side 
pieces, into which shares or points of iron are 
fixed, and the whole, drawn by a horse, pulveri- 
zes and stirs the earth, without penetrating so 
deeply as to injure the roots of the plants under 
cultivation, as is sometimes done by the com- 
mon plow, particularly in crops of corn and po- 
tatoes. In preparing these plants for hoeing, 
the cultivator is now generally rtsed in prefer- 
ence to the plow, as possessing all tire advanta- 
ges of that implement, with none of its disad- 
vantages. As with the plow, so with the culti- 
vator, a great variety of these implements have 
been placed belore the public, the general prin- 
ciple in all the same, and differing only in the 
details and construction. 
iY>r t/te Southern Cultivator. 
Columbia County, April 10. 
Messrs. Editors — The following is a preven- 
tive to the destruction of cabbage plants by the 
cut w'onn: 
Take of China berries, boil them until a 
strong decoction is made; pour one gill at the 
root of each plant, and the .wxmn .will leave im- 
mediate!}". I have tried the remedy for many 
}"ears. It has never failed. If the above recipe 
be worth publishing, you can do so under the 
initials. J. C. 
For the Southern Cultivator. 
TRAauiLLA, Jones County, April iJd. 
Alessrs. Editors — Noticing in the third num- 
ber of the Southern Cultivator, under the head 
of “Agricultural facts,” a request that every 
farmer and gardener, wiiose eye .metthelieading . 
of that article, Avould send you such facts as he 
may.be in possessibai at, relating to agriculture, 
I have thought proper to send 3’'ou an experiment 
of mine in '■’•horizontal ‘ploicntg^'' which I have 
not seen noticed by any other in yom’ paper, 
and which I am fully persuaded must be adopt- 
ed by our planters, if a better plan cannot be 
suggested, to secure our lands from washing. — 
My own experience in this modeofplow’ing has 
satisfied me that it is much better than the sys- . 
tern, so generally in use, of up-hill and down- 
hill plow'ing and planting, and if carried fully 
into effect, our hilly lauds may be saved from 
w"ashing almost as tvell as the level, 1 will 
now give you my plan as well as I can describe 
it, and depend upon you to correct bad spelling 
and grammar, as I am no grammarian. 
F iRST — I make a level (the fonn given below) ' 
15 feet at the base from foot to foot, braced 
acro.ss about 12 or 18 inches above the base;, 
and after placing it on a level foundation t® a.s- 
certain the center of the brace, by the aid of a 
plumb attached to the point, I then place a 3 
inch block under one end of the level, .so as to 
get the guage, indicated by the line of the plumb, 
on the brace or cross piece, to give a fall of one 
inch for every ;0.ve feet. This done, I am ready 
for laying off my land. 
In laying off, m}' plan is to commence cn the 
point of a hill, so as to drain the water each way. 
Care should l>e taken, that the water be not car 
tied too far before it is let off in ditches or out- 
side of, the .field, to prevent the collecting of the 
water in so great a body as to w'ash the rows, — 
all of which, should hare precisely the same 
fall as the water-furrow, (1 calT every row a wa- 
ter-furrow",) a result easily attained by the care- 
ful and ficquent application of the level. — 
Should there be small sinks or gullies, they 
.should be filled, to admit the water to pa.s6 over 
them — othenvise, it w’ill collect in a body and 
break across, forming a w'a.sh carrying off the 
soil and growing crop. Should the hill-sides be 
abrupt, ditches should be cut at such distances 
apart, Avith .sufficient fall, to take off the water 
graduall}', — the direction of which, will be read- 
ily indicated by the use of the level, which ena- 
bles you to give the ditch its proper direction 
w’ithout difliculty. In laying off the rows be- 
tween the ditches, my plan is to commence on 
one side, and lay oil' half w’ay, then commence 
on the other side, by which the short rows, if 
any, will be left in the middle, — w hich is very 
desirable, .as it pr.evenls the de.stniction of t!i£ 
margin of the ditch in cultivation. Sometimes, 
however, it is best to make the short rows near- 
er one side than the other, owing to the situa- 
tion of toe land, — a fact which the practised eye 
of an experienced fanner will readily perceive. 
In the construction of your level, care must 
be taken to make it light — a small boy, w ith a 
hoe, will answ"er to mark ever}" place where the 
level stands; and, after running the row, these 
marks or chops .should he followed back, as it 
is impossible, on bumpy land, to run the rows 
correctl}", if there is very material variation — 
although a slight variation, occasionally, is al- 
lowable to give the row’s a better shape or ciii;- 
vature. 
I have thiLS, as briefly as I can, given you my 
plan for preventing the w’ashing away of i oiling 
lands, — which, if adopted generally by the plan- 
teis in Georgia tw"enty years ago, I have no 
doult the lands would be worth one hundred per 
cent more than they will now command. If 
you deem it of any value, it is at your service — 
and an}" other facts I may deem worth publish- 
ing, you shall have. 
Yours, respectfull}", 
Thomas Hunt. 
P. S. — Be so good as to give an idea of the 
plow called the cultivator. 
“Dig ABOUT and dung it.” — This direction 
w'as given many centuries ago, and has often 
been repeated, and perhaps I may say, as often 
forgotten or neglected. Last summer I took 
particular care to apply the above to some ycung 
peiif trees. One was a graft.of a year’s growth, 
on a stock of several years’ standing'. The 
ground was loo.sened for some distance about 
the tree, perhaps a dozen times during the .sea- 
son. From a single stem of three feet, the new" 
growth measui ed 30 feet! The effect on all wa? 
A-ery obvious . — Albany CvUivaior. 
Maxim of Health. — Sir William Temple 
.says: — “The only way for a rich man to be 
healthy is to live as if he was poor, using exer 
cise and observing abstinence.” 
