VoL. f. AUGUSTA, Ga., JUNE 7, 1843. No. 12. 
COMMUNICATIONS. 
Decatur County, Ga., May 15, 1843. 
Messrs. Jones — I have been sometime think- 
ing of sending you some of my ideas in a crude 
state as tiiey are, for you to refine them, but as 
I write under a fictitious name, I could not well 
afford to pay the postage and then not see my 
name in print; but after seeing your suggestion 
of the 3d in-tant, for planters to send in their 
plans for keeping sweet potatoes, I could with 
stand the temptation no longer, and as I have 
been a good potato grower, keeper and eater, I 
will give you my plan for making and keeping, 
which differs from Mr. McKinley’s some. I 
think^mine the better way, as I cannot conceive 
how he gets his potatoes out of the ground af- 
ter he makes them, which he tells us nothing 
about. But to the text. 
In the last of February or first of March, with 
a good season in the ground, I break up well, 
then lay off rows four feet apart, and throw up 
a bed of four furrows, with turn plow, same as 
for planting cotton, only I am more careful to 
bed as high as possible; then, after first rain, 
run a scooter furrow in middle of bed and drop 
the potatoes in it from 12 to 18 inches apart, 
and throw up with turn plow as before. When 
up, side with scooter or coulter, and throw up 
balance with turn plow; afterwards use the 
turn plow altogether until the vines run so as 
to be in the way too much, then, when a good 
season is in the ground, draw up the earth un- 
der the vines so as to make a tolerable ridge, 
and you will have a mellow bed, and the the po- 
tatoes will be so deep in it as not to be inj ured 
by drouth worse than the surface culture, with 
the advantage that you have the mould thrown 
next the potatoes, and a ridge to plow down to 
get the sweet things, which do with along scoot- 
er. If there is no danger of frost, let them lie 
in the field all night to get cold. Have an inch 
or two of the surface scraped off at the place of 
banking, so as to form a circular ridge on the 
out edge, and fill with potatoes— making the hill 
as sharp at top as the potatoes will lie. Lean 
corn stalks, clear of shuck, cut the right length, 
so as to reach from the ground to top of hill. 
Lean them up from six to eight inches apart at 
bottom, so as to keep the bark from the potatoes. 
Cover with pine bark, and then with earth the 
thickness of the breadth of a hoeblade, laying it 
up with the edge of the hoe next the hiU. Have 
the bark so as not to reach beyond the top of the 
potatoes, which will leave an opening of near a 
oot in diameter at top, for the escape of the 
heat while going through the sweat. Cover the 
top with a piece of bark, leaving it in its natu- 
ral shape, (concave side down,) to turn off the 
rain, and a little dirt on top of it to keep it there. 
There are but two months out of the twelve but 
1 have potatoes, and not a few kept for a rari- 
t}'-, but as many as my negroes and all will de- 
stroy, by following the modus operand! above 
stated. If you think it worth a place in your 
Southern Cultivator, after pruning and point- 
ing, give it, if not, throw it in the fire, as I do 
not wish to see any thing bad (not even my 
own) in it. 
Mr. McKinley’s theory of mixing earth with 
potatoes, I think is better in theory than pactice. 
I have not a doubt but they would keep well, 
but it is a well known fact that potatoes never 
sweeten until they are taken out of the earth 
and put where they keep drj" — the dryer you 
keep your potatoes the sweeter they will be. 
I have tried pine straw instead of stalks in 
banking, but it retains too much of the moist- 
ure generated in the bank, and causes the pota- 
toes to rot. I am of the opinion that pine sticks 
split small, would be better than stalks to lean 
around the bank. 
Yours, &C. AGRICOLA, JR. 
P. S. To keep beef fresh for eating, sprinkle 
it over with corn meal and hang it up, and you 
need not fear the flies. As simple as it is try it. 
Cracker’s Neck, Green Co., Ga., ) 
May 15, 1843. 5 
Messrs. Jones— In the last Cultivator I dis- 
cover an answer to an enquiry made by Mr. 
Penniman of Col. McKinley, of Lexington, as 
to the best method of keeping potatoes through 
the winter, and as it seems that the Colonel’s 
modus operand! proved ineffectual, I will give 
you my mode, which has never failed in one 
instance with me, last winter (which was very 
fatal) not excepted. 
After digging my potatoes, I raise a mound 
of loose earth, say some three or four inches 
above the common level, upon which I pile my 
potatoes as snug as possible, say 40 or 50 bush- 
els to the bauK, more or less, it matters not. I 
then cover them completely with corn stalks, 
placed straight from the base to the top of the 
hill, and cover all up with about three inches of 
earth. Some leave air holes at the top, but 1 
find, from experience, that it is best to prevent 
all accession of air to the potato. 
I like Col. McKinley’s mode of raising them 
very well, and have adopted it this year. I se^ 
no reason why it should not succeed admirably' 
I have generally planted in the common way, 
and have laised enough to last the year through. 
I have now plenty of as fine as I ever saw. 
My method has been, at the opening of spring 
to raise my potatoes from the banks above de- 
scribed, and sun them until perfectly dry, and 
then place them in an upper dry room. They 
have always kept well and retained all their 
good qualities during the summer. 
Respectfully, 
JOHN D. COPELAND. 
RESPONSIBILITIES OF AMERICAN WOMEN. 
The succes of republican institutions, as is 
conceded b}' all, depends upon the intellectual 
and moral character of the mass of the people. 
If they are intelligent and virtuous, democracy 
is a blessing; but if they are ignorant and wick- 
ed, it is only a curse, and as much more dread- 
ful than any other form of civil government, as 
a thousand tyrants are more to be dreaded than 
one. It is equally conceded, that the formation 
of the moral and intellectual character of the 
young is committed mainly to the female hand. 
The mother forms the character of the future 
man; the sister bends the fibres that are here- 
atter to be the forest tree. The wile sways the 
heart, whose energies may turn lor good or for 
evil, the destinies ot a nation. Let the women 
of a country be made virtuous and intelligent, 
and the men will certainly be the same. The 
proper education of a man decides the welfare 
of an individual; but educate a woman, and the 
interests of a whole family are secured. 
If this be so, as none will deny, then to Amer- 
ican women, more than to any other on earth, 
is committed the exalted privilege of extending 
over the world those blessed influences which 
are to renovate degraded man and “clothe all 
climes with beauty.” 
No American woman then, has any occasion 
tor feeling that hers is a humble or insignificant 
lot. The value of what an individual accom- 
plishes, is to be estimated by the importance of 
the entei-prise achieved, and not by the particu- 
lar position of the laborer. The drops of hea- 
ven which freshen the earth, are each of equal 
value, whether they fall in the lowland meadow 
or the princely parterre. The builders of a 
temple are of equal importance, whether they 
labor on the foundation or toil upon the dome. 
Thus, also, with the labors which are to be 
made effectual in the regeneration of the earth. 
And it is by forming a habit of regarding the ap- 
parently insignificant efforts ot each isolated la- 
borer, in a comprehensive manner, as indispen- 
sible portions of a grand result, that the minds 
of all, however humble in their sphere of ser- 
vice, can be invigorated and cheered. The we= 
iHan who is rearing a family of children, the 
woman who labors in the school room, the wo- 
man who, in her retired chamber, earns with 
her needle, the mite which contributes to the 
moral and intellectual elevation of our country; 
even the humble domestic, whose example and 
influence may be moulding and forming young 
minds, while her faithful services sustain a 
prosperous domestic state — each and all may be 
animated by the consciousness that they are 
agents in accomplishing the greatest wmrk that 
was ever committed to human responsibility. 
It is the building of a glorious temple, whose 
base shall be co-extensive with the bounds ot 
the earth, whose summit shall pierce the skies, 
whose splendor shall beam on all lands; and 
