54 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 1843. 
Back Numbers. — All new subscribers to the 
‘•Southern Cultivator" can be .supplied with the 
back numbers, 
DO YOUR WORK WELL. 
With whatever justice this remark may be 
applied to all the vocations of men, there is cer- 
tainly no pursuit to whicli it applies with great- 
er force than to that of agriculture. Upon its 
strict oljservance success in every department of 
business depends, and it is, therelore, a maxim 
of great importance to all classes ot business 
men, and particularly to farmers, because of the 
almost certain reward it brings to labor. We 
cannot, therefore, at this time, when all are in- 
dustriously engaged in the labors necessary to 
the rearing of another crop, impress it too earn- 
estly upon the consideration of the planter. It 
makes an appeal not only to his interest, be- 
cause of the increased production oi his farm 
which it brings, but it promises a rich reward 
ii^ the happiness and comfort and ease ■with 
which it encircles the family group; — for -w^her- 
ever there is a consciousness of having discharg-. 
ed well and faithfully whatever duty our busi- 
ness may have imposed upon us, there is much 
food for high and unalloyed enjoyment; and no 
man enjoys more the felicity of such a consci- 
entious discharge of duty than the farmer. The 
fruits of his labors are ever present to him, 
wherever he turns his eye upon his farm, and in 
proportion as he has executed well his w'ork^ 
does it delight him to review the fields which are 
ever teeming with the rich rewards they yield 
to hi.s industry. Upon this subject the “Central 
New York Farmer” says, with much truth: — 
“Whatever system may be adopted, we cannot 
too strongly urge upon our farmers the propriety 
of doing their work well, and of cultivating 
their fields in a perfect and thorough manner. 
It is to be feared that the hard times will operate 
injuriously to agriculture, b)'^ preventing im- 
provements which would be undertaken in more 
prosperous times. Every farmer must decide 
for himself how far his means ■will permit him 
to go; but we must be allowed to suggest that if 
the labor or expenses on the farm are to be cur- 
tailed, it is far better to let some fields remain 
ttn cultivated, than to undertake to cultivate 
much land 'W'ith little labor. Here lies the se- 
cret of success in farming — for every man who 
has ever tried both methods, must be satisfied 
that it is better to cultivate a little land well, 
than a great deal imperfectly.” 
Industry and economy constitute the weakh 
of a nation. 
MANURING— ITS VALUE. 
The annexed communication of Mr. L. F, 
Ai.een, which we find in the American Agri- 
culturist for April, establishes so fully how 
much may be accomplished in the resuscitation 
of exhausted lands by the application of ma- 
nure, that we deem it peculiarly appropriate 
for the consideration of Southern planters, and 
therefore commend it to their consideration. In 
all the older settled parts of the Southern Atlan- 
tic States, the eye of the traveller is met at ev- 
ery step with thousands of acres of land, which, 
exhausted by our system of culture, are no's-' not 
only unproductive, but a mere waste. That 
these lands, or a great portion of them, may be 
reclaimed by an enlightened system of culture, 
we have never entertained a doubt. To accom- 
plish a result so desirable, however, resort must 
be had to manuring, without which we shall go 
on exhausting the lands, until our whole coun- 
try -will be little better than a barren -waste, and 
our population seeking a better re-ward for labor 
in more fresh and fertile lands. Our wdiole .sys- 
tem is wTong, radically wiong; the greate.st evil 
of -ft'hich is the persevering efforts of every far- 
mer to cultivate too much land — so much, in- 
deed, that they are unable to bestow that atten- 
tion to the improvement of their lands, so neces_ 
sary to increa.sed production. This evil must 
and should be corrected, and planters should 
learn that it is much better to cultivate fewer 
acres well, -which are all the time improving in 
value and increased production, than to culti- 
vate much and have it exhausted yearly, and 
consequently yielding a poorer reward for labor. 
A MARYLAND FARM. 
Agricultural Capital. — I have frequently, 
in reading over the foreign agricultural journals, 
been astonished at the lavish expenditure of eap- 
iial on the landed estates in England, to promote 
their fertility, reclaim them irom waste, or bring 
hitherto Avorthless tracts under cultivation, wall 
them in from the sea, and otherwise render them 
more productive; but on further examination 
my -wonder has ceased, wfoen I learn that in al- 
most all cases of such improvement, the capital 
thus expended has produced a liberal additional 
interest on its investment. Probably no depart- 
ment of British industry receives so liberal an 
outlay of capital as that of its agriculture, af- 
fording in this particular a marked contrast to 
our American agriculture, -which scarcely any- 
where receives, and even then grudgingly, but 
an investment of moneyed capital sufficient to 
render our lands habitable, by a large proprietor. 
How often do we see proprietors with large 
landed estates lying in a ruinous, dilapidated 
condition, -with but a lew meager acres careless-- 
ly cultivated, around their dwellings, wffiich last 
appendage may be even elegant and costly,Avhile 
they have their tens of thousands invested in 
some bank or insurance company , or in bonds 
and mortgages, which, if withdrawn, and intel- 
ligently invested in the improA-ement of their es- 
tates, what noble revenues, as Avell as delightful 
employments w’ould result from it, instead, as is 
often the case, of wasted fortunes from the in- 
solvency of their debtors, and of personal ruin 
to many a worthy, and, imder different circum- 
stances, promising young man, resulting from 
idleness and dissipation, arising simply from 
Avant of employment! 
Yet, Avith all our experience in these matters, 
hardly an individual can, at this time, make an 
investment of capital in agriculture, but, ten to 
one, he will be looked at with suspicion by his 
monied friends and associates, and either his 
judgment or his credit, according to his expendi- 
ture, is an once suspected.- This we knoAv to be 
all Avrong, and the result of a pen'erted and false 
estimate of the true value of agriculture, and it.s 
safely and sure reliance for support, in all times 
and seasons, and the steady virtue and integrirv 
of those AAffio rely upon its bounties. How' ma- 
ny, and many young men have I known, sons 
of rich, pains-taking fathers, who, indulged in 
habits of ease or of loose attention to bu.sine.ss 
when boys, yet with sanguine expectations 
hereafter, on attaining their majority haA'e been 
placed in business Avith a handsome capital, and 
in two, three or fiA'e years, as the case may be, 
had lost CA-^eiy farthing, and thousands besides, 
the property of others, who had confidingly 
trusted to their good management! Yet if these 
fond fathers had investad the same sums in good 
farms or plantations, and given their sons a plain 
agricultural education, ten to one they would 
haA-e proved prudent, useful, thriving citizens, 
and good contented, and happy farmers, instead 
of, at an early age, broken down, disappointed 
and unhappy men. And all this from a falsC; 
imperfect estimate of the agricultural profe.ssion 
and its dignified and sturdy resources. 
A Maryland Farm. — But to the main sub- 
ject of my letter, instead of a homily on false 
principles and habits. In a brief journey to the 
seat of government, last June, Avhen arrived at 
Baltimore, I made a div'ersion from my route, 
to visit a gentleman located near the Ohio rail- 
road, about thirty miles Ave.st of the city, and fo 
view his fine estate, and see his herd of beauti- 
ful Devon cattle, for the care of -which he has 
long been celebrated. I found him on his farm 
of some seventeen or eighteen hundred acres of 
fine rolling land, a garden amidst a poorly culti- 
A^ated yet pleasant countiy, years ago AV’orn do-WH 
by hard cropping of corn, wffieat and tobacco, 
but ot good natural soil and capabilities. Here, 
retired upon his estate, with a plain but beauti- 
fully situated dwelling and outbuildings, and all 
the necessary appliances for a gentleman of 
Avealth, education and leisure, he has for many 
years lit'ed and improA^ed his estate, until it has- 
become one of the most valuable in the coun- 
try; and from a condition wffiich, when he first 
began its cultivation, Avas sterile, Av-orn out and 
almost worthless. I spent a day in rambling 
with him over his fine domain, and never haA-e 
I been more pleased and instructed. As this is 
a full and successful illustration of what may be 
done in almost all our Atlantic States, in the 
improvement of Avorn down soils, I trust I 
shall be excused for giving itsomeAvhai in detail. 
When the proprietor first located on his farm it 
was entirely unproductive; yielding no crops, 
giving no manures, and possessing no resources 
of fertility, other than the muck or swamp-holes, 
occasionally interspersed among the Avoods and 
waste lands of the estate. After thoroughly ex- 
amining the soil, which Avas found to be of va- 
rious kinds, but chiefly a Joose triable earth, bas- 
ed on a clay bottom, with occasionally tracts of 
stiff clay on the surface, he purchased a lime- 
stone quarry a dozen miles drstance on the rail 
road, erected two large kilns at the depot near 
his estate, and Avent vigorously to w'ork in get- 
ting out the .stone, reading it to his kilns and 
burning it. This material, delivered on the 
farm, costs on an average tAventy cents a bushel. 
The bushes and straggling avooSs AA^ere cut and 
made into fuel, the fields were squared out and 
put into shape, and the quick lime applied al 
once upon the land, in quantities of from fifty 
to two hundred bushels to the acre, no matter at 
Avhat season of the year. When the lime Av^as 
ready it Avas applied, by dropping it in heaps of 
five or six bushels each, and, as soon as suffi- 
ciently slaked by the weather, carefully spread 
on the soil. A great part of the land was so 
sterile that it had no sod upon it, and was sadly 
disfigured with gulleys made by the washing of 
the rains. In such fields as had a tolerable sod 
of grass, a slight dressing of barn or stable ma- 
nure was obtained and applied Avith the lime,, 
which being ploughed became at once produc- 
tive; but where no manure was placed in aid of 
the lime, it Avas left untouched to dissolve AAith 
