THE SOUTHERX CULTIV ATOR. 
163 
F’om the Southern Planter. 
PP..OPER PISPOSITIOX OF FARMING CAPITAL. 
Mr. £d T t — i;.t^ery ma,n in thi.s cotciirv is 
more or less intere.'ited in the pursuit of agri- 
culture; and tiie business ofa commissiun mer- 
chant has rendered me as deeply sensitive to 
its interests as if i v-ere directly engaged in u.s 
pursuit. Alter much consideraticn and atten- 
tion, I ant inclined to think that the want of 
success in this profession, proceeds from an er- 
ror that I have frequently observea in my own. 
This consists in an attempt to do a larger busi- 
j|ess than is justified by the quantity of capital 
employed. It is true, that sometimes a “lucky 
hit” in irade will make all righ', out ninety-nine 
times out of a hundred, iailure is the ine ilanle 
result of an expansion disproportionate to the 
quantity of capital to be commanded. 
How often do you see an individual with a 
limited capital embarking in the profession ofa 
larm.w, expend it ail in the purchase of his 
land; which is about as reasonable as it would 
be in a merchant to sink his whole capital in a 
warehouse, without leaving anj. lor the purchase 
of goods. Neither the one nor the other would 
be wiser than th? silly fellow, wh j expended iiio 
last cent in the p .t chase of a purse. 
I have grown grey in the pursuit of com- 
merce, and it may be deemed presumptuous in 
an individual engaged in .one pursuit to pretend 
to advise those in another calling, but the loo cer 
on can sometimes .see what escapes the atten- 
tion of the player, and for the last forty years I 
have been a noi inattentive or uninterested spec- 
tator ol the progress of an art on which my own 
pursuits were founded, and with which they 
were so intimately blended. It seems to me, 
then, nothing would more promote the cause of 
agriculture than a judicious division of the ca- 
pital embarked in it. To matce this Uvision 
coustiiuies a rather difficult sum in arithmetic, 
one of the quantities only being known, but a 
pr..ciieal man with a little calculation, can rea- 
dily approximate it without even a recourse to 
algebraical signs. Suppose an individual de- 
sires to engage in lar.jhag, and that he has, we 
will say, ten thousand dolL/s to embark in the 
business. The first object is to ascertain how 
much land he should buy. Let him remember 
that it is only a certain degree of fertility that 
will pay lor cultivation, and that within reason- 
able limits, the greater the fertility the greater 
will be tne profit upon the investment. My ad- 
vice to him would be to be satisfied with nothing 
that would not yield eight barrels of corn and 
twenty bushels of wheat, at least, to the acre. 
We will suppose that such land in the location 
he chooses will cost forty dollars an acre: very 
well, let him reserve four thousand dollars to 
purchase negroes, stock, implements, &c., and to 
aflbrd him lioatingcapitalfor at least one year’s 
operations; inis leaves him six thousand dollars 
for the purchase of one hundred and fifty acres 
of land. It is a small farm, it is true, and the 
owner could not be esteemed a great landed 
proprietor, but it is well stocked, well provided, 
very productive, and the owner with everything 
w'ell fixed and comfortable, free from debt and 
with a provision for accidents, is enabled to de- 
vote his whole energies to his business. How 
certain in such a case would be the annual im- 
provement of his land, or the annual exten.sion 
of his acres. 
But let us contrast with this operation the 
course usually pursued by those investing in 
real estate. From an inordinate desire that 
•eems to be born with us here in the South, to 
be the owners of “broad acres,” the whole ca- 
pital is expended in an extensive and barren 
waste, or probably half the purchase money 
paid, and a debt incurred for the balance. Little 
or nothing lelt for stock or implements, which 
are probably bought on credit, and are frequent- 
ly of the rudest and poorest kind. Already sad- 
dled with a heavy debt, the interest on which 
begins to stare him in the face and haunt his 
imagination in his dreams, what does it avail to 
tell this poor wight of some improved imple- 
ment of agriculture, or of a judicious system ol 
tiusbaijrryl Vv’hy, ii yun auvise him to pny a 
aodar a vear or an agricultural newspaper, he 
■ epiies. and wiih a greaL deal ol truth mdeed, 
'ha.! “he can't ahu;d it.” There is a perpetual 
strui^gle upon the part oi V.is grxtai land, oiciicr 
o keep bouy and soul tugetlier, and instead of 
ea.-<e, ihnK, and impio.enicnt, he exhibits from 
ve i! to yeai tlie increa^^lng maiks of care, po- 
vciw and want; until at last his great estate 
■sii;-. ih.rough his lingers ana falls into the pos- 
.-C'siuu of some individual, perhaps, who hav- 
ing the means of improvement, doubles or 
quadruples the product, and thereby makes the 
whole an excellent investment. 
It may be said that land worth forty dollars 
cannot alwat’s be found in situations to which 
particular circumstances may confine an inai- 
vidual. Let the purchaser then gi\m ten dollars 
an acre fu one hundred and fifty acres, and re- 
setve the balance ol the six thousand dollars for 
improving it; he must be very unlorlunate in- 
deed if he does not succeed in a few years in 
bringiiig it up to the forty dollar standard. 
What I mean to maintain is, that it would form 
a much more profitable investment, generally 
speaking, to buy one huntired and fifty acres of 
such land for fifteen hundred dollars, keeping 
rhirtv-hve hundred dollars to improve it, than to 
pav the whole six thousand dollars for six hun- 
dred acres. 
I have been led into these considerations by 
conversations which I have held with many of 
our farmers, who, apart from this common error 
into which they have fallen, are sound and ju- 
dicious men. 1 have found universally a much 
greaiei want of ability, than of desire, to im- 
prove. I say ability to improv'e, because I be- 
lieve the improvement of poor land without mo- 
ney is a very slow business; to a man in debt, 
it js unattainable. 
There are in Virginia a great many rich men 
owning extensive tracts of land that yield them 
little or no revenue. Suppose such an one 
would lay off a tract into farms of one hundred 
and fifU'acre.s; erect neat, cheap and convenient 
buildings, and offer them for rent on long leases, 
to substantial, moral men, to be cultivated upon 
particular systems, prescri'oed by the landlord. 
By the purchase of a few good negro me- 
chanics, the buildings could be erected very 
economically, the material beinggenerally to be 
found on the spot, and it seems to me that ten- 
ants could be readily obtained on terms that 
would make the investment an excellent one. — 
Fifteen hundred acres so disposed of, might, by 
judicious restrictions in the leases, be converted 
into a splendid estate in twenty years. If it 
only paid six per cent on the improvements in 
the’ meantime, it would constitute a safe and 
capital investment. There are many good and 
substantial men in the country, who have capi- 
tal enough to farm it advantageously, if they 
could only rent good land on fair terms, who are 
sure to fall through when they attempt, with 
their limited means, to purchase for themsel/es. 
If these suggestions should excite the atten- 
tion of those much better qualified tq discuss all 
the questions appertaining to the art of agricul- 
ture, than one who has never been connected, 
except incidentally, with its pursuits, my object 
will have been attained. 
Your obedient servant, 
A Merchant. 
Important to Ladies. — An English paper 
has the following card to all fair lovers of worst- 
ed work: — 
“Half a pound of soft soap, half a pound of 
honey, one pint of English gin, mix all well to- 
gether, and, with a sponge, clean the work with 
it, and then apply cold water in the same man- 
ner, dry with linen — the brightest colors will 
be uninjured.” 
g^Corns may be cured by binding them tight 
at night with a piece of spunge moistened in a 
solution of pearl ash. The com may be brushed 
off in the morning, having been dissolved by the 
action of the caustic. 
From the Ballimore American. 
Messrs. Editors — 1 he diffusion of intelli- 
gence on agiicuhuie being one of the charac- 
teristics of }uui' widely circulated andveiy val- 
uable paj er, as well as to convey the earliest 
commtnial intelligence, has induced me to 
give to the iaraiera few practical hints on seed 
wheat, and its piepaiaiion, as well as on the 
proper tiuie lor seed ng, as elicited by a late ar- 
ticle in your jiaper ou the sui ject of preparing 
the seen lo tivuia smut. It has been abundantly 
proven in the western counties ol tbis State, pre- 
pare the smut seed wheal as ^mu may, that you 
seldom if ever fail o produce smut wheat. — 
The cause is the strong inieclion of the smut ad- 
hereing to the tound grain; not that the smut 
vegetates: this is by no means the fact. It is 
oni}’ accounted for on the principle of poison 
being communicated in the animal creation, 
which ap, lies with equal foice to the vegetable 
kingdom. Aided by some practical know ledge, 
and a desire to give all he iniormation possible 
on the subject ot faiming generally, 1 have been 
unremitting m my eli'ons to obtain Irom practi- 
cal sources in this country and Europe all that 
is desirable on the subject.* 
It is a coiisiaiit practice among the most suc- 
cesslul lariners to change their seed Irequently, 
say once in two or three years, taking care to 
obtain it from a different soil. The object at- 
tained by this is to retain the quality of the 
wheat. 
Very few American Farmers, or rather wheat 
growers, are willing to apply the labor necessa- 
ry to prepare the seed ior sowing. This with 
the English, Irish and Scutch fatmers, has be- 
come indispensable; their constant practice is 
to purify the seed by passing it through a strong 
brine, then roll it in slicked lime similar to roll- 
ing it in plaster; the safest way is not lo let it 
lay in the brine more than one or tw o hours. — 
By this process, if the argument holds good that 
from impurities in the wheat smut proceeds, and 
the egg producing the fly is deposited on the 
grain, the cause lor these will be all removed; 
you will have at least accomplished one grand 
object by the cleansing and rolling— the. starling 
of the plant fiom the root a vigorous growth, 
which will go far lo mature it early, and will be 
a preventive from fly and smut. 
There is such a diversity of opinion as to the 
time of sowing wheat, that it is difficult to com- 
bat the different opinions. The object of fall 
sowing is evidently to give strength to the plant, 
so that on the opening of vegetation in the 
spring, the plant will take an early start. Early 
maturity of course follow s, which at all limes 
insures you a good crop of heavy wheat, provi- 
ded the land is in good plight. 
Haying the fly to contend with in the autumn, 
at which time it is most destructive to the grow- 
ing wffieat, you will hardly take the risk of sow- 
ing too early, and it too late, the w eak state of 
the plant in the spring will cause you to have 
the fly to contend with. Then taking the mid- 
dle course of time is by all means the safest, 
say from the Isi to the 8lh of October. By this 
time you will have had frosts that wrill be de- 
structive to the insect, if on the surface. If at- 
tacked from the root, its progress will be retarded 
for w'ant of heat. 
It will not have escaped the recollection of the 
wheat grower in 1836,1 think, when there was 
a total failure of the wffieat crop in nearly all 
this country, then it was owing to early sowing, 
which luxuriated fairly, but was all cut down 
by the fly in the autumn. J. Meixsel, 
Baltimore, 
To Dry Cows intended for Fattening. 
Take an ounce of powdered alum, boil it in two 
quarts of milk till it turns to whey; then boil in 
this whey a large handful of sage, till it is re- 
duced to one quart; rub the cow’s udder with a 
little of it, and give her the rest to drink. First 
milk her clean, and afterwards draw a little 
milk every second day, lest the udder become 
over charged. Repeat the dose and operation if 
necessarj'.— Agr. Dictionary. 
