THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
127 
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1S43. 
Back Numbers. — All new subscribers to the 
{‘Southern Cultivator” can be supplied with the 
back numbers. 
TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS. 
Pure Berkshires. — Either our correspon- 
dent, “J. M. G.,” or we have misconceived “A 
Lover op Good H.am;” for had we supposed 
that he designed to convey the idea that there 
were no pure Berkshires in Georgia, we cer- 
tainly should have corrected his error. Our un- 
derstanding of his meaning was, that those 
hogs which had been brought from the West, 
by drovers, and sold in Georgia as Berkshires, 
are mixed blood, and as we entertain quite the 
same opinion, we of course did not dissent 
from his position. 
In reply to the suggestion of “J. M. G.,” that 
Col. Bonner furnish for the '•'■Southern Cultiva- 
tor," such facts as he may deem of value and 
interest to the farmer, relative to the value and 
capacities of the Berkshires, we have only to 
remark, that we should be pleased to give his 
views to our readers, and rve doubt not they will 
be equally pleased to obtain the opinions ol one 
who has so much experience on the subject in 
this climate, as our triend Col. Bonner, and we 
therefore hope he will favor us with a commu- 
nication. 
I.MFROYED Culture of Cotton. — The reader 
will find in this number, an interesting commu- 
nication from Dr. Cloud, of Alabama, on the 
subject of his improved method for the culture 
of cotton, to which we invite attention. In jus- 
tice to ourself, we mast explain to Dr. C. v/hy 
it was that we only ga\m an extract from his let- 
ter to the Albany Cultivator. The extract ap- , 
peared in the second number of our paper, 
which w'as issued before -we obtained an ex- 
change with the Albany Cultivator, hence we 
made the extract from another paper, which 
only contained that portion of Dr. C.’s plan 
that we gave. We do not ho w^ever regret the 
circumstance, as it has been the means ot afford- 
ing us an opportunity to introduce the Doctor to 
our readers in an original communication — an 
acquaintance which we trust will be cordially 
cultivated by all parties, and which Ave doubt 
not wffll be highly interesting and instructive, 
and, vre hope, mutually beneficial, for we flat- 
ter ourself that the Doctor will avail himself of 
every occasion his leisure may afford, to give 
us the results of his experiments lor the benefit of 
our columns. 
Agricultural Papers, &c. — We need not 
urge upon the reader’s consideration the plam, 
practical suggestions of our correspondents, 
JoH-N Farrar a.cd “A. O.” They are told in a 
languacra which but too truly discloses their ori- 
gin to be from plain, practical men, men whose 
views have been for.mel upon much experience 
and clo.se observation, and they are, therefcrc) 
worthy the consideration of every planter. Es- 
pecially would v.m invite attention to the ac- 
knowledgement of Mr. Farrar as to the value 
of agricultural papers. It is indeed .strange that 
the great mass of planters, while they observe 
in every other branch of their business that 
sound maxim which teaches, “when you have 
failed by one system try another, and invoke to 
your aid the light and experience of others,” it is 
strange, we repeat, that the}' should hesitam to 
adopt it in that most important of nil other pur- 
suits, agriculture. Nevertheless it is true- 
most lamentably Uue. Go where you will and 
you find men whose whole lives have been de- 
voted to the positiv'e destructio:i of the finest 
land on the globe, and while the}'- are ready to 
profit by the experience and observation of oth- 
ers on any other subject pertaining to their 
interest, they reject most positively any sug- 
gestion about farming, improving lands, &c. 
&c., and SCO .at the idea of "book fanning," as 
the meie speculativ'e theories of visionar}’ men. 
We however rejoice to. find this prejudice is 
fast passing away, and giving place to a more 
enlightened and philosophical view of the mat- 
ter, and we are particularly rejoiced to have the 
testimony of such a practical man as John 
Farrar in support of agricultural papers. 
THE IRISH FARMER. 
The follo wing sketch of an Irish Fanner and 
his farm is from the Irish sketch book, by 
Thackeray, which we hope may not pass un- 
heeded by our Agricultural readers. 
“Before setting out on our second day’sjour- 
ney we had time to accompany the well pleased 
owner of H ^town, over some of his fields 
and out-premises. Nor can there be a pleasant- 
er sight to owner or stranger. Air. P farms 
four hundred acres of land about his house; and 
employs on this estate no less than one hundred 
and ten persons. He says there is full woik 
for every one of them, and to see the elaborate 
state of cultivation in which the land was, it is 
easy to see how such an agricultural regiment 
were employed. This estate is like a well or- 
idered garden — we walked into a huge field of 
potatoes, and the landlord made us remark that 
there was not a single weed between the fur- 
rows; and the whole formed a vast flower-bed of 
a score of acres. Every bit of land up to the 
hedge-side was fertilized and full of produce; 
the space left for the plow having afterwards 
been gone over, and yielding its fullest propor- 
tion of ‘fruit.’ In a turnip field were a score or 
more of women and children, who were march- 
ing through the ridges, removing the young 
plants where two or three had grown together, 
and leaving only the most healthy. Every indi- 
vidual root in the field was thus the object of 
culture; and the owner said that this extreme 
cultivation answered the purpose, and that the 
employment of all these hands, (the women and 
children earn 6d and 8d aday all the year round,) 
which gained him some reputation as a philan- 
thropist, brought him profit as a fanner too; for 
his crops were the best that land could produce. 
He has further the advantage of a large stock 
for manure, and does every thing for the land 
which art can do. Here we saw several exper- 
iments in manuring. An acre of turnips pre- 
pared with bone dust; another with ‘Alurray’s 
composition,’ whereof 1 do not pretend to know 
the ingredient.-; another with a new manure call- 
ed guano. As far as turnips and a first year’s 
crop went, the guano carried the day. The 
plants on the guano acre looked to be three 
weeks in advance ol their neighbors, and ex- 
tremely plentiful and health}-. I went to see his 
field two months after the above passage was 
written; the guano acre still kept the lead; the 
bone-dust ran the guano very hard; and the com- 
position was clearly distanced. 
“Behind the house is a fine village of corn 
and hay ricks, and a street ot out-buildings, 
where all the work of the farm is prepared. 
Here were numerous people coming with pails 
of butter-milk, which the good natured landlord 
made over to them. A score of men or more 
were busied about the place, some at a grind- 
stone, others at a forge; other fellows busied in 
the cart-house and stables, all of which were as 
neatly kept as in tlie best farm in England. A 
little further on was a flower-garden, a kitchen- 
garden, a hot-house ju.st building, a kennel of 
fine pointers and setters — indeed a noble feature 
of country neatness, thrift, and plenty. 
“We went into the cottages and gardens of 
several of Air. P.’s laborers, which were all so 
neat, that I could not help fancying they were 
pet cottages erected under the landlord’s own 
.superintendence, and ornamented to his order. 
But he declared that it was not so; that the only 
benefit his laborers got I'rom him was constant 
work, and a house-rent Irec; and that the neat- 
ness of the gardens and dwellings was of their 
own doing. By making them a present of the 
house, he said, he made them a present of the 
pigs and live stock, with which almost ever}' 
Irish cotter pays his rent, so that each workman 
could have a piece of meat for his support; 
would that all laborers in the empire had as 
much! AVith regard to the neatness of the 
houses, the best way to insure this, he said, was 
for the master constantly to visit them, to awa- 
ken as much emulation as he could among the 
cottager.?, so that each should make his place as 
good as his neighboFs — and to take them good- 
humoredly to task if they failed in the requisite 
care. 
“And so this pleasant day’s visit ended. A 
more practical person would have seen, no 
doubt, and under-stood much more than a mere 
citizen could whose pursuits have been very dif- 
ferent from those noble and useful ones here 
spoken of. But a man has no call to be a judge 
of turnips and live stock, in order to admire 
such an establishment as this, and heartily to 
appreciate the excellence of it. There are some 
happy organization in the world which possess 
the great virtue of prosperity. It implies cheer- 
fulness, simplicity, shrewdness, perseverance, 
honesty, good health. See how, before the good 
humored resolution of such characters, ill-luck 
gives way, and fortune assumes their own smil- 
ingcomplexionl Such men grow rich without 
driving a single hard bargain; their condition 
being to ma.te others prosper along with them- 
selves. Thus, his very charity, anotherinform- 
ant tells me, is one of the causes of my host’s 
good fortune. He might have three pounds a 
year from each of forty cottages, but instead 
prefers a hundred healthy workmen; or he might 
have a fourth of the number of workmen, and a 
farm yielding a produce proportion ably less, but 
instead of saving the mone}’- of their wages, 
prefers a farm the produce of which as I have 
heard from a gentleman whom I take to be good 
authority, is unequalled elsewhere.” 
“The Great Agricultural Era Coming.” 
— Under this head, the Long Island Star, after 
alluding to the labors of Liebig, Johnston and 
others, in connection with the application of the 
principles of chemistry to agriculture, says: 
“A greater advance than heretofore has, we 
understand, been latterly made. Dr. Wm. Val- 
entine, heretofore better known in other depart- 
ments than that of a chemist, in which he has 
been well educated, and for which he has a na- 
tural aptitude, has been lately devoting his 
whole attention to agricultural chemistrv. Bv 
