THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
o 
Here, then, we' have a system for re- 
claiming barren wastes within every one’s 
reach ; costing nothing, and yielding 
a great deal; and if this were rigidly 
carried into practice, how soon should we 
see the naked sand banks that exist to a 
greater or less extent, every where be- 
tween the Alleghanies and Atlantic, con- 
vened into verdant, luxuriant fields. Y et 
for the want of the application and steady 
perseverance in this plain, straight-for- 
ward, simple course, how many will con- 
tinue to live on in ignorant poverty, when 
they might with less toil, and the use of a 
moderate share of intelligence, have a 
competency. A single bar left down in 
this practice, lets in the whole herd of 
Pharaoh’s lean kine. "Without the roller 
and plaster you get no clover; if you cut 
oft' the clover when grown, you get no 
subsequent crop; or if you crop too close- 
ly or rapidly, the clover-bearing proper- 
ties of the soil are exhausted, and new 
manures, or years of idle, wasteful fallow 
are necessary to resuscitate it; whereas, 
by a careful observance of the above 
plan, the ground is constantly anct profi- 
tably at work, bearing its burdens on 
equitable shares, giving one-half or two- 
thirds to you, and reserving the remain- 
der to itself, to enable it to continue the 
supply. Though Mr. C. does not connect 
any grazing or stock-feeding with these 
operations, it is easy to see how it can 
most advantageously and profitably be as- 
sociated with them. Cattle and sheep 
can be put on to the rye fields both in the 
fall and spring, when sufficiently thick 
and stout to justify it, and when well sod- 
ded over with clover, what more mutually 
advantageous to cattle and land than such 
a copartnership. 
We must add a word for the benefit of 
such of our readers as have no sandy or 
sterile soils, nothing but virgin fertility, 
falsely estimated to be exhaustless. We 
beg all such to consider that the princi- 
ple5 for reclaiming, are the principles for 
preserving also; that no land is so rich 
but that it can be exhausted, unless fed by 
inundations, and that there is more profit 
in sustaining their lands in the highest 
condition of fertility, than by a wasteful 
system of cropping, first to reduce them, 
to be resuscitated again by slow and pain- 
ful efforts, or abandoned to posterity to be 
gradually reclaimed by the sure, though 
dilatory operations of nature, to that state 
of fertility in which they might easily 
have been preserved. 
• There are some particular advantages 
that attach to the tillage of light sand y 
soils. They require the least possible ef- 
fort to plough and harrow, and these ope- 
rations can he performed at all seasons 
when not frozen; no season is too wet, 
too late, or too early for them. They re- 
quire no underdraining, and the food for 
vegetables, in whatever shape it is added, 
however crude and indigestible, is imme- 
diately converted into pabulum for the re- 
quired crop. The amount of corn and 
rye afforded per acre would not satisfy a 
western farmer, and very properly too, 
but he must recollect that his prices sel- 
dom exceed one-half of those obtained at 
the east, rye and corn being worth usual- 
ly sixty to ninety cents per bushel, and 
the straw and stalks go far towards meet- 
ing the cost of cultivation. The luxu- 
ries also, of good buildings, which are 
always to he had for less than cost, good 
roads, schools and churches, and all the 
accompaniments of a matured and Avell 
ordered society are at hand, and are co- 
gent reasons for reconciling the reftecting 
mind to the absence of that superabundant 
fertility which so universally character- 
izes the TV^eSt. [Amencan Agriculturalist. 
Pumpkins. — Early in April I plough- 
ed a small field, deep and close; threw 
abought eight buckloads of barn-yard 
compost broadcast to the acre, and forth- 
with planted pumpkin seed at five feet 
distance in checks. I Cultivated as corn 
until the middle of May, ivhen the ground 
was pretty well covered in the more lux- 
uriant spots of the vines. I then took 
hoes in hand and planted, in the replant- 
ing manner, corn in each pumpkin hill— - 
the corn having remained in soak forty- 
eight hours. It came up at once, greiv 
off kindly, and yields a fair crop of corn 
-—no vacant rows— -corn in all. 
Previously the pumpkin vines got such 
a start they were not checked by the 
growth of the corn, and now exhibit a 
small field more abundantly bespeckled 
Avith pumpkins, than any I e\er saAV by 
fourfold. My neighbors seldom pass 
Avithout inquiring hoAv I raise so many 
pumpkins and a fair crop of corn together? 
I tell them frankly the mode of culture, 
and the pumpkins shoAV the result. I am 
astonished at my success; my little field-— 
I ought to call it patch— -is the admiration 
of all, and if this short account of the 
matter should be the means of helping 
my hrother farmers to a like success, the 
end in vieAV is obtained. 
Pauvus Agricola. 
[Nashville Agriculticrist. 
Salting Horses. — A curious fact is 
mentioned in Parker’s Treaties on Salt; 
“A person Avho kept sixteen farming hor- 
ses, made the folloAving experiment Avith 
seven of them which had been accustom- 
ed to take salt with their food. Lumps of 
rock-salt Avere laid in their mangers, and 
these lumps, previously Aveighed, were 
examined Aveekly, to ascertain what quan- 
tity had been consumed, and it was re- 
peatedly found that whenever these horses 
were fed on old hay and corn, they con- 
sumed only from 2 1-2 to 3 oz. per day, 
hut that Avhen they Avere fed with new 
hay, they took 6 oz. per day.” This 
should convince us of the expediency of 
permitting our cattle the free use of salt 
at all times, and it cannot be given in so 
convenient a form as rock-salt, it being 
much more palatable than the article in a 
refined state, and by far cheaper. A good 
lump should ahvays be kept in a box by 
the side of eA^ery animal, Avithout fear 
that it will ever be taken in excess. 
[Farmers’ C.tLinet. 
Application of Manure.— -T he 
most essential point in my estimation is 
not thoroughly looked at, viz : the mak- 
ing of the most of our manure alter once 
made. Some say put it where you are 
going to plant corn or potatoes, and plough 
it under, and it Avill ferment and rot, and 
as the soil is thirsty it AAdll absorb it. So 
it Avill for a season; but as you plough 
and hoe, you stir up the manure and leave 
it exposed to the scorching sun, and it 
evaporates and is AA^asted. The spring 
folloAving, you plough and soav the same 
field Avith oats, as is generally the case; 
and here you not only expose the manure, 
but the first crop, after it is AA^ell mixed 
Avith the soil, is one calculated to impo- 
verish it the most. Then comes a crop 
of rye or Avheat, AA'hich, Avith your oats 
and corn, exhausts three-fourths of the 
manure. Thus in my estimation this 
three-fourths is lost to the farm. 
The question then arises, Avhat shall 
we do Avith our manure? Why, sir, 1 
Avould advise to put it Avhere you soav rye 
or oats, and plough it under, and let it 
stay there, and soav grass-seed for your 
first crop, and smooth it doAAui to meadoAv 
or pasture. Then you Avould have large 
crops of grain and grass for fodder and te 
make manure Avith, besides the compost 
heap. Then you Avill have a rich mea- 
doAV pasture -for your planting, instead of 
a plough-Avorn field that needs thirty ©r 
forty loads of manure to be fit to till. 
[forwzers’ Gazette. 
Relief of Choked Cattle. — I find 
in your October number, a receipt by Da- 
vid F. Lott, to relieve choked cattle. I 
some months since sent to the Agricultu- 
rist, Nashville, a receipt, and in a few 
AA'eeks after its publication, recewed the 
thanks of a gentleman, Avho, by using the 
prescribed means, saA'ed a fine horse, af- 
ter trying all other means recommended 
Avithout effect. Raise one of the fore 
feet as the smith does when shoeing a 
horse, tie a strong cord, Avhip-cord or 
drum-line Avill answer, tight above the 
knee, Avhile the foot is up; let the foot go, 
and if the animal refuse to put it to the 
ground, as it probably will, a smart stroke 
Avith a Avhip must be dealt, and in a se- 
cond the beast is relieved; be careful in 
tying the string to tie a slip knot that you 
can loosen quick, for the pain is excruci- 
ating. How it operates is immaterial; 
my theory, probably a false one, is this ; 
the hard cord, acting on the nerA^es of the 
arm, produces nausea, the muscles of the 
throat are relaxed, and the substance by 
which the brute is choked is thrown from 
the gullet. John A. Jonbs. 
Fairie Knowl, Geo., 1842. 
CMivator. 
