THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
173 
and e'/ery body else would think of this. If 
they v'ish their children to become virtuous and 
indu .tncus, they must take the proper steps to 
produce that desirable end. Children can be 
made to work by a constajii application of the 
rod, and they can be kept out of mischief by 
shut! in? them up in a closed room, but this is 
not the way to make them industrious or better. 
If we wiS'i to make children or adults industri- 
ous, \v- most learn to make iheirbusiness agree- 
able and interesting. In this way it can be 
done, and in no other way. Children cannot 
divorce themselves from the love of happiness 
any more than adults, and if they do not find 
happiness in their business, surely it is not won- 
derful if they look for it elsewhere. If agricul- 
ture is properly conducted, it equally delights 
and [irofits both young and old, but if it is not 
properly conducted, it fails to interest or reward 
the laborer. In view of these facts, why ne- 
glect to improve the business? Why patronise 
so many political papers, some of which seem 
to have no higher or holier object than to dis- 
tract and misguide the people, and neglect the 
only agricultural paper in the State? Have the 
people made up their minds to live on politics 
and President making? If they have, we may 
look f jr clean teeth and light purses. The good 
of the country depends on the virtue and wis. 
dom of the people more than on the President^ 
If the people are wise and virtuous, prosperity 
and happiness will be our lot, let who will be 
President. But if the people are ignorant and 
vicious, no President, nor any form of govern- 
ment, can save us from wretchedness and ruin. 
We all wish, or profess to wish, for the prosper- 
ity of Georgia; but Georgia cannot be prosper- 
ous unless the proper steps are taken to make 
her so. If the people consume as much or more 
than they produce, they never will add any thing 
to their capital. An individual that has his 
^ head and heart trained to the dirty business op 
swindling, can sometimes fill his pockets by 
emptying those of his neighbor; but communi- 
ties must get rich, if they get rich at all, by pro- 
ducing more than they consume. The true 
friends to the country are those that, by precept 
and example, are promoting industry, virtue, 
economy, enterprise and improvement, whether 
they understand President making or not. 
We have the elements of wealth and prosper- 
ity in Georgia to a great extent, and we abound 
in politicians, wise men and reformers; and af- 
ter all, it is said the country is in a bad condi- 
tion. if this is true, if it is true that we pos- 
sess the elements oi wealth and prosperity, and 
if it is true, also, that poverty and vice abounds 
among us, it is because the proper steps have 
not been taken to produce a better state of things. 
1 suppose we have several hundred grog shops 
in Georgia, and, I believe only one agricultural 
paper, and I fear there is no great interest taken 
jn that. This is a strange affair. No man that 
thinks at all, expects any thing irom these nur- 
series of evil but mischiefj and yet we support 
hundreds of these dens of iniquity, that are cor- 
rupting the morals of the people and doing evil 
in a thousand shapes, while we are showing but 
little zeal to promote the great work of improve- 
ment that is going on in the w'orld. i do not 
like all this. 1 fear it will not form a very desi- 
rable chapter in our history. I fear it may be 
said to old Georgia, “one thing thou lackest,” 
and that one thing is, want of zeal in the things 
that promote our true interest — virtue, wisdom, 
i; du.?try, econom}', entei prise and improvement. 
These things will make us get rich and happy, 
let who will be President. 
I feel a deep interest in the “Southern Cul- 
tivator.” I would rather every grog shop in 
the country should lack patronage and so depart, 
than that our Georgia agricultural paper should 
languish. I am sure that improvement in agri- 
culture is among the most desirable things that 
could be introduced among us, and I know of no 
mean.? that seem to me so likely to promote that 
object as agricultural papers and societies, and 
I earnestly recommend the people of Georgia 
to patronize the one liberally, and form societies 
in every county. 
Yours, truly, 
A. E. Ernest. 
Covington, Newton Sou.nty, ) 
October 10, 1843. ) 
Messrs. Editors — I have but lately become a 
reader of your most excellent paper, the South- 
ern Cultivator, since which I have seen several 
articles on preparing seed wheat to prevent the 
smut. I saw one in the last number, (the report 
of the Newberry Agricultural Society,) which 
comes up to m}'' notion of the thing ratner better 
than any I have seen, though the committee 
seem to speak of it with not as much confidence 
as I should have liked. As it is common for 
literary men, when they find out any thing new 
in science, to communicate it to each other for 
their benefit, why should not farmers, if they 
are bunglers, do likewise? There is no good 
reason; and as a farmer, if I may be so called, 
I wish to add my testimony in support of the 
preparation recommended in that report. I 
think the year 1835 was the first of my knowing 
any thing of soaking wheat in a solution of 
bluestone. The smut had become very injuri- 
ous to the kind of wheat that my neighbors and 
myself sowed, (the red May.) My neighbor 
soaked, in 1835, to sow ^all of his crop but one 
acre — he sowed that with unsoaked seed. He 
brought the whole of it to me to thrash. I dis- 
covered some little smut in the wheat that was 
soaked, and I think one third ol the unsoaked 
was smut, although sowed side by side. 
The next sowing 1 got of my neighbor the 
same kind of seed, (that was, of the old wheat 
soaked the year before,) and prepared it myself 
by soaking, and have sowed the same kind ever 
since; and as to smut, I care not for smut mills 
to take it out, as there is so little it would not 
be worth while to be at the expense of building 
, them. My plan of soaking is, in the first place 
procure good bluestone, (say of the deep color 
if not, put the more in,) get a small hogshead 
that will hold some six or seven bushels, put in 
' it five bushels of seed wheat, fill it up with wa- 
ter some four inches above the wheat, as the 
wheat will swell some; take three-fourths of a 
pound of bluestone, dissolve it in warm water 
pour it in the vessel with the wheat, stir it till 
you think it is well mixed with the wheat; let it 
remain some G or 12 hours, owing to the weath- 
er — il warm six hours will do. When you take 
out yoar wheat, save the water you soaked the 
first in; add for the next five bushels one-haif 
pound of bluestone — so for every five bushels. 
Lay your wheat out on a floor some five hours 
and it will be fit for sowing. I would recom- 
mend every farmer to sieve his wheat. 
William Brown. 
ON CLEARING LAND. 
Messrs. Editors — Permit me, through your 
paper, to communicate some of my ideas to my 
brother farmers on clearing land — I might say 
experience. The plan I have tried successlully 
for several years, is this:— I grub, cut the fire- 
wood, and rail limber, kill the timber left stand- 
ing, and split the rails in the course of the fall 
and winter; heaping no more brush than will give 
me sufficient pass-wmy to haul the firewood out 
as 1 need it. In that condition 1 let it lay one 
year, with the exception of shrubbing the ensu- 
ing summer, and the spring follov/ing I have a 
fine piece of mellow new ground, ready for in- 
closing and cleaning up, the standing timber all 
dead, the fibrous roots, the leaves and trash all 
rotten, and the land very often producing a dou- 
ble crop the first year. Nor does it stop there; 
for I believe the good effects may be seen for 
■ix or eight years after. Neeil 1 tell any ration- 
al man that the first year’s rest is worth more in 
enriching the soil, when the brush and timber 
are lying on it, than any two or three years af- 
ter it has been in cultivation? Let me invite 
them to look at our wood-lands, with the growth 
so dense that you can scarcely ride through iti 
the face of the earth covered tw'o or three inches 
deep with leaves, and ask them to determine 
whether, if all be cut and burnt ofl' the same 
winter, as is usually done, their land is not 
greatly impoverished? Need I argue wdth my 
brother farmers so plain a case? p think not; for 
if they will reflect one moment on the two plans, 
I believe they will try mine, and I venture to 
say if once tried they will pursue it in future. 
My next clearing I expect to let lay two years, 
with all cut and killed on it but the rail timber, 
and the second winter I will cut and split the 
rails, leaving all on the ground one year, and I 
expect by doing so my land will be worth more 
than double the same lands cleared in the usual 
way. 
And now, Messrs. Editors, in looking over 
your paper, I am surprised to find so few con- 
tributing towards supporting it with their prac- 
tical modes of farming. We w^ant Georgia 
farming — surely no place needs improving more 
than middle Georgia— and I do hope that there 
is intelligence and patriotism enough in middle 
Georgia to make your paper appear what every 
good citizen should wish it to be. 
Robert Caldwell. 
Cure for Swiney . — As soon as you discover 
your horse is swineyed, take three ounces of 
rusty bacon, fry it over a slow fire until brown; 
take out the crackling, and, when milk warm, 
add the yolks of three eggs, and a table spoon- 
