THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
uin upon silk culture. Many embarked into 
the business, stimulated by the public bounty. 
At the next session of the legi-^lature, the law 
was repealed, and all that had embarked in it, 
in discouragement, abandoned it. Why the 
friends of agriculture did not sustain this mea- 
sure, is a circumstance tha*^ has always excited 
my surprise; it is a lact, however, that forci- 
bly illustrates the necessity ot this great inter- 
est being more efficiently represented in the halls 
of legislation, if the silk culture can be made 
profitable in this State, what a loss has its citi- 
zenssustained by a discontin uance of the bounty. 
Two years more would have attested the 
question. 11 unsuccessful, the bounty would 
have cost the State but little; il successful, the 
people could have paid millions. The exhaust- 
ed hill-side, and the pine barren, would have 
been covered with the mulberry, and we might 
have been realizing Ifom its culture as much as 
our lathers did Irom the culture of the cotton 
plant. 
As a measure of advancing this branch of 
industry, the encouragement of agricultural so- 
cieties, fairs, the distrtbution of premiums, and 
patronage of agricultural papers, cannot be too 
strongly recommended. Every citizen who feels 
an interest lor the welfare ot society, without 
regard to his pursuit, should enroll his name as 
a member of some agricultural society. It a 
mechanic, you have an interest in the great 
work. If the farmer makes good crops, you 
will get more work, better paid, and provisions 
cheaper. The same argument appdies to the 
merchant. We want the influence of your 
names, and presence, and purses. These annu- 
al celebrations are fit occasions to beat up for 
volunteers in this great work, and we most re- 
spectfully invite one and all to eonte and go 
along with us in this great work of benevolence 
and humanity. It is in truth a work of human- 
ity and benevolence; It will not only increase 
our means ot clothing and feeding the poor, 
but agriculture makes employment abundant 
and profitable, and where there is plenty of em- 
ployment, there are no poor. The benefits of 
these fairs must be apparent to all. Who can 
look upon these fine exhibitions of stock with- 
out resolving to make an effort to improve his 
swine, cattle or horses'? Who can look upon 
the improved implements ot husbandry without 
its suggesting to his mind something that may 
be turned out to profit. Recollect, that one of 
the great improvements to the cotton gin^ the 
brush wheel, without which it never could have 
been instrumental in bringing about that revo- 
lution in commerce which has so distinguished 
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, w'as 
suggested to the mind ct a lady, by the exhibi- 
tion of the model by its immortal inventor. — 
They not only create a spirit of emulation be- 
tween farmers, but between ladies. The splen- 
did exhibitions of the domestic fabrics that sur- 
round us, show that the ladies are taking an in- 
terest in this great work; they give us iheir pre- 
sence and smiles, and when woman smiles, suc- 
cess universally crowns the efforts of man, no 
matter how perilous the enterprize. Perhaps, 
too, they may be instrumental in substituting the 
old fashioned and too much neglected music of 
the spinning wheel, for the contemptible and 
too common thumbing upon the piano forte. I 
consider, however, the distribution of premi- 
ums as decidedly the most efficient in giving ef- 
fect to agricultural improvement. It is now 
no experiment; its efficacy has been amply at- 
tested in Europe and this country. Scotland 
has quintupled her products. In every coun- 
try, climate and soil, the agricultural products 
have been increased to an incredible extent, 
where this artificial stimulant has been applied. 
Here we \vant legislative aid, and you will be 
recreant to this great interest if you do not get 
it. W e not only want premiums for the best 
stock, the best implement, and the best domes- 
tic fabrics, but we want premiums, and high 
premiums too, for the best ditched plantation, 
the best crop of wheat, corn and cotton. It is 
upon the improvement of our lands wm wish to 
11 
see all the intelligence of the agricultural class 
directed. There is no want ot knowledge in 
the cultivation of our soil with our farmers; but 
they are ignorant as to the best means of mak- 
ing and applying manures, it is here we want 
the light of science. She has snatched the 
thunderbolt of Heaven and placed it powerless 
at our feet; she has made safe highways through 
the “pathless ocean;” she has annihilated time 
and distance; she can and will, in due time, 
make discoveries as wonderful and beneficent 
for this great interest; she has already discover- 
ed, in many places in the bosom of the earth, 
inexhaustible supplies of manures; she is still 
at work, and perhaps it is already accomplished 
by the discoveries of Jauffret. By this disco- 
very we can convert all vegatable matter, in a 
short period ot time, into rich manure. If his 
process succeeds, these old plantations of ours 
will soon teem wdth crops as luxurient as when 
in their original fertility. We wantgullies fill- 
ed up and leveled, and plantations made rich; 
w'e want high premiums to stimulati* farmers to 
make efforts commensurate w’ith these great ob- 
jects. Societies are too poor — the State must 
do it. 
“One ot the most remarkable features of 
modern times is, the combination ot large num- 
bers of individuals, representing the whole in-_ 
telligence of nations, for the express purpose of 
advancing science, by their united efforts of 
learning its progress and of communicating 
new discoveries.” It is to this circumstance 
that we must attribute the accelerated progress 
men make in modern times in the arts and sci- 
ences. We want legislative assistance to ac- 
celerate our improvement in this great interest. 
^25,000 to be given by the State annually in the 
way of premiums, would be attended wuth the 
most beneficial effects. What substantial ob- 
jection can be urged to a mere regulated system 
of premiums furnished by the State? For the 
State to patronize one branch of industry at the 
expense ot another, is unjust, and ought not to 
be tolerated; but this reason does not apply to 
the encouragement of agriculture. All classes 
and pursuits participate equally in benefits con- 
ferred upon it. “Speed the plow,” and you will 
give a corresponding ; nimation to the business 
of the mechanic, merchant and manufacturer. 
A distinguished ethical writer of modern 
times, has well remarked, that the final view of 
all rational politics, is to produce the greatest 
quantity of happiness in a given tract of coun- 
try. I'he richest thought and glory of nations, 
the topics which history celebrates, and which 
alone almost engage the praises and possess the 
admiration of mankind, have no value farther * 
than as they contribute to this end. When they 
interfere with it, they are evils, and not the less 
real for the splendor that surrounds them. The 
happiness of a people is made up of the happi- 
ness of single persons; and the quantity of hap- 
piness can only be augmented by increasing the 
number ol the recipients. 
That it may and ought to be assumed in all 
olitical deliberations, that a larger portion of 
appiness is enjoyed among ten persons pos- 
sessing the means of healthy subsistence, than 
can be produced by five persons under any ad- 
vantage of power, affluence and luxury; that 
consequently the decay of population is the 
greatest evil that a State can suffer, and the im- 
provement of it the object which ought, in all 
countrie.=, to be aimed at in preference to every 
other political purpose whatsoever. Here the 
duty of the politician is clearly and distinctly 
laid down — increase populatii n in order to aug- 
ment human happiness. The population of 
every country depends upon its productions. — 
The district of country that produces fifty bush- 
els of corn to the acre, will sustain five times 
the number of inhabitants that a district will 
that produces but ten. Multiply, subtract and 
divide, and see what a difference in the sum of 
human happiness is to be carried to the credit of 
that government which, by a system of policy, 
quintuples her productions and her population. 
To be continued. 
Great Yield of Wheat. — Mr. T. C. Pe- 
ters, in a letter to the “New Genesee Farmer,” 
says: — 
The largest yield of wheat that 1 have heard 
of this year, was in Alexander, Genesee county, 
N. Y. Mr. James Lewis, of that town, raised 
from 2 acres and 70 rods of ground, 140 bush- 
els, clean for seed, and 8j bushels shrunk wheat; 
60 pounds to the bushel. This is a trifle over 
60 bushels and 2 pecks to the acre. The wffieat 
wms thrashed and accurately measured. That 
there might be no mistake, I requested a friend 
to procure from Mr. Lewis a statement of the 
whole of his crop, method of cultivation, &c. 
I will remark, that 1 am personally acquainted 
with him, and that he is a man of strict integri- 
ty and veracity. 
The whole field in wheat was 17 acres and 71 
rods; principally bottom lands on the Tona- 
wanda Creek, and of course alluvial soil. The 
previous crop wms corn and spring wheat; no 
manure applied to present or previous crops. 
“The eround was “summer fallowed,” plow- 
ed twice in the season, and dragged three times. 
It was sown from the 5th to the 10th of Septem- 
ber, broadcast, one bushel and a half to the acre. 
The seed w^as the “Red Chaff Yellow Flint.” 
It was harvested from the 1st to 6th of August, 
1843. The wheat was thrashed, and accurately 
measured. The whole product was 677 bush- 
els clean for seed, and70| bushels shrunk; equal 
to 42f bushels per acre. 
The above 2 acres and 70 rods were taken in 
a body, from a portion of the field. 
Here we see, that if the soil be in a proper 
condition, it will produce 60 bushels of wheat; 
because it has been done in our midst. There 
is no mystery about it. 
Valuable Cows. — At the meeting of the Ag- 
ricultural Society of New Castle County, Del- 
aware, in September last, Mr. Holcomb exhi- 
bited 8 beautiful native Devons, among them 
the celebrated Cow' “The Lady.” The result 
of twelve weeks’ trial w’iih this cow, gave 174 
pounds 12 ounces of butter, averaging 14 lbs. 
9 oz. per week — the highest product in any one 
week being 19 lbs., and the lowest 12^ pounds. 
To Mr. Holcomb for this Cow, the committee 
unanimously awarded the first premium. 
Her feed the first part of the time wms hay, 
and dry oat and corn meal mixed — subsequent- 
ly this'was changed to slop: two buckets a day 
was regularly given her, containing about two 
quarts of corn meal, and as much wheat bran, 
mixed in a bucket of warm or tepid water, with 
a little salt. The week of her great trial, in 
June, she was fed for about ten da 3 ’s on three 
gallons of meal a day, at three feeds, mixed as 
above. She had the run of a good pasture, and 
she was also, for a time, fed on green oats, and 
again wdth corn fodder that had been sown 
broadcast. 
The Weeeling Times gives an account of a 
cowq the property of Dr. H. W. Chapline, of 
Ohio county, Ya., w'hich was milked three times 
a day, and yielded in the months of Maj" and 
June, for 16 days, upwards of 34j quarts of 
milk! and during two weeks that a record was 
kept of the amount of butter manufactured from 
the milk of the same cow', showed a yield of 29 
pounds, an average of 14^ pounds a week. — 
These facts are substantiated, the Gazette sa 3 "s, 
by the affidavit ol an individual whose wmrd 
alone would gain credence for more extraordi- 
nar 3 '' statements. 
Who c an beat it? — The Little Rock Gazette 
of the 27th ult., says that on the plantation ol Mr. 
R. H. Douglass, in Arkansas county, one ol 
his boys gathered 601 pounds of neat cotton, 
(white and clean as usual,) in one day — and 
that another boy belonging to the same gentle- 
man picked 649 pounds, (not so clean, however,) 
in a day, making together 1250 lbs. On another 
day the same boys picked 1042 pounds. 
