THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
63 
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 1844. 
THE BACK VOUIME. 
All new subscribers who may desire it, can 
obtain the first volume, neatly bound in boards, 
at one dollar the volume. 
Culture of Broom Corn.— “A Subscriber,” 
to whom we are much indebted for his valua- 
ble communication upon the “ Culture and pre- 
paralion of Indigo for Market f in this number, 
in a postscript to that article, asks; — “Why 
may not the Broom-Corn be an object wor- 
thy the attention of Southern Agriculturists 1 
Of this,, there are several varieties, (spe- 
cies.) The Sorghum saccharatum, is culti- 
vated at the North, not only as an article 
for manufacture, but for the seed, which 
is said to be a nutritious food for stock, when 
ground and mixed with the meal of the Indian 
Corn. Its comparative weight with the Maize, 
is nearly as four to five. There is no doubt it 
might be profitably cultivated at the South- 
Must we be dependent upon our Northern breth- 
ren, for so simple an article as a Broom 1 We 
should do our own sweeping upon our own 
terms ^ and without paying a stiver for a clean 
and comfortable floor. Whilst we are paying 
heavy duties to protect their interests, let us at- 
tend to another duty, which we owe to ourselve- 
— ^to protect our interests by industry and econo" 
my ; and we shall pay them less, and enjoy the 
products of our own labor.” 
In reply, we beg leave to remark that, in our 
opinion, there is no good reason why Broom- 
Corn is not worthy the attention of Southern 
planters. For, in addition to its value for food, 
the manufacture of brooms from the stalks af- 
fords to a considerable class of laborers at the 
North and East, profitable employment, in the 
production of an article of necessary consump- 
tion, and of which the South is a large consu- 
iper. We have often been astonished at this, 
but we have been so long accustomed to the 
culture of Cotton and Corn, while we submit to 
be dependent upon other sections of the Union 
for almost every thing else we consume, that 
we seem not only to be ignorant of the advanta- 
ges of independence, but wholly indifierent as 
to the means to attain that position. It is true, 
there is no manufactory of brooms at the South, 
of which we have any knowdedge; and it is 
even doubtful, if there were several, whether 
our planters would not consider it “ too small a 
business" to cultivate Broom-Corn for their con- 
sumption. It is, however, equally true, that 
while we are large consumers of the article, w-e 
are entirely dependent, for them, upon theNorth 
and East— enjoying, too, a climate and soil 
equally well adapted to their culture, and pos- 
sessing all the advantages for manufacturing. 
FEEDING STOCK. 
We commend to the careful consideration of 
our readers, the following letter on this interest- 
ing subject. The lavish use of provender in 
Kentucky, to which Mr. Lewis alludes, and 
the necessity for economy in the feeeding of 
stock of every description, applies with great 
truth to almost all our planters, who are all 
stock-raisers to a greater or less extent. They, 
as well as their brethren of Kentucky, have 
much to learn from the Eastern farmers, as well 
in this department of domestic economy, as in 
all the others to which Mr. L. refers. 
From the Southern Planter. 
Llangollen, Ky., February 28, 1844. 
C. T. Botts, Esa. : 
Dear Sir — Permit me to return you my sin- 
cere thanks, lor sending to me two numbers, 
(the January and February,) of your agricultu- 
ral periodical, “ The Southern Planter.” The 
people are more benefited, their real interests 
more advanced, their rational and moral powers 
more healthfully secured, by one such paper, 
than by all the political and polemical slang- 
whanging journals that ever were or ever will 
be expectorated on them. Agriculture is gradu- 
ally ceasing to be a mere empirical practice. 
It is rightly becoming an enlightened art, found- 
ed on science, and the time will surely come 
when the treatment of land, crops, stock, &c., 
will be founded on w'ell ascertained and estab- 
lished principles, deduced from facts. In feed- 
ing stock, we err widely, and commit great 
waste of food. If we observe the horse, cow 
and sheep, for instance, w'hen permitted, unre- 
strained, to gather their own food in spring and 
summer, we may learn truths, which we should 
apply to them when dependent on us for their 
supplies. We cannot doubt that their instincts 
direct them aright as to quantity and quality; 
for W'e see chat they grow and thrive where there 
is an abundance of those plants w^hich they se- 
lect. The green leaves and seeds, both imma- 
ture and ripe, constitute their food. In these the 
larger portion is w'aier ; yet they drink and also 
seek salt-licks. The bodies of the mammalia, 
including man, contain seventj'-five per cent, of 
w’ater ; yet, we do not attempt to assimilate their 
food to green grass, but feed them on dry hay or 
straw, and dry seeds. And the consequence is, 
that they do not grow or fatten so well, unless 
such quantities are given that a great portion 
passes undigested; irritating the alimentary ca- 
nal, and often causing disease. Besides, these 
animals will not eat enough dry hay or straw to 
give the proper degree of distension to the stom- 
ach for digestion and assimilation, without the 
danger of producing inflammation or other in- 
jurious effects, w’hen expanded in the .stomach 
by heat and moisture. This should be done at 
least by the latter before it is eaten. Much of 
the hard^ di-y grain, given to these animals, so 
different in its condition from that which they 
gather for themselves, is neither sufficiently 
masiicated nor moistened on entering the stom- 
ach, to produce its normal effect. One half the 
usual quantity, properly prepared, wmuld bene- 
fit them more, and all the rest would be saved. 
Just so much nutritive matter as is contained in 
the quantity of good rich grass, eaten by one of 
these animals in a day, should be diffused in as 
much finely chopped hay, straw or fodder, as 
the animal will eat in the same time, sufficient- 
ly moistened some hours before it is giv'en, (the 
longer the better, provided that it does not fer- 
ment or turn sour.) I do not confine the benefi- 
cial effects of this method to the mere mechani- 
cal effect of the water in sofiening and distend- 
ing the mass, ffhe most important effect, I be- 
lieve, is produced on the elements of the water 
itself; one of which enters largely into the 
composition of flesh and fat, (hydrogen.) We 
know that cows and sheep will thrive w'hen fed 
on turneps and straw, yet turneps contain 92j 
per cent, of water, according to the analysis ot 
Mods. Boussingault, an accurate chemist ; and 
when compared with Indian corn, 138 parts of 
the latter are equivalent, in nutritive matter, so 
called, to 1,335 of turneps. The decomposition 
of water, and the appropriation of its elements, 
by the organs of nutrition, I believe, to be great- 
ly facilitated by mixing vegetable matter with 
it: if so, W'e grtf/i one of the important constitu- 
ents of flesh, fat, &c., from the water. And this 
is certainly cheaper than to get it from rich, oily 
seeds, the proceeds of laborious cultivation. 
This is not a mere conjecture ot my own. Count 
Rumford entertained the same opinion, and so 
do Drs. Prout and Pereira. (Treatise on Food 
and Diet by Jonathan Pereira, edited by Chas. 
A. Lee, New York, 1843, p. 40.) It is well 
knowm that gold and silver fishes, and others 
also, w'ill grow and fatten on w'ater alone. It 
may be said they obtained their nourishment 
from other substanees contained in the water, 
and not from the w'ater itself. This w'ould not 
alter the case, for the water mingled with the 
food of stock contains also these other substan- 
ces, while haddock has in its composition 82 
per cent, of water; carp, 80.1 ; and trout, 80.5 ; 
according to the authority of Brande and 
Schlossberger. Now', this greater quantity of 
water in fishes than enters imo the composition 
of the mammalia, it is fair to attribute to the 
W'ater itself, on which they seem to live. 
The mill, the straw-cutter, and water are, in 
my opinion, the indispensable auxiliaries of 
those who would feed their stock in the best 
manner and most economically. We have 
mills here which grind up unshelled ears of 
corn. A slight alteration in the common corn 
grist mills, adapts them to this purpose, without 
interfering with their fine meal making use. 
The eye of the upper stone, instead of being cir- 
cular, is enlarged on one side, and a removable 
tube, large enough to admit any ear of com, is 
thrust into this side enlargement. Into the low- 
er stone, beneath the end of the tube, two knives 
are fastened, so that at eveiy revolution of the 
stone, the ear of corn is sw'ept round over these 
knives, which slice it up, and then grind it into 
meal. It is a patent affair, answers admirably, 
and is added to any common mill for fifteen 
dollars, patent included. Mr. Robert Wickliffe, 
of Lexington, has had lately a sort of mill erect- 
ed, w'hich grinds up oats in the sheaf or corn in 
the shucks. I have not examined i', but am 
‘old that it makes excellent chop, ready for 
moistening or feeding dry. 
So you see, sir, that even in this Elk Horn 
Paradise of hogs, horses, mules, and corn, we 
are seeking out and practising more economical 
methods of feeding stock. You must not sup- 
pose, though, that these methods are in general 
use— far from it ; few a.s yet have adopted them. 
After the adoption of these, another w'ill follow 
for cows and hogs. The cooking of their food, 
in which there is certainly great gain.— But owr 
onward course in all these matters is greatly re- 
tarded by the w'ant of laborers, and the conse- 
quent high price paidfor every kind of manipu- 
lation. 
Although we are “c match" for the Yankees 
in horse-swapping, bartering, and stump-speech- 
es, (in the latter, your real corn-cracker can beat 
the world,) yet in machinery, farm fixtures, and 
the economical application of labor, we have 
much to learn from them. The cheapness of 
grain, and the want of a ready market for it, is 
one cause of its slovenly and lavish use in Ken^ 
tucky. John Lewis, 
Okra — “Gumbo.” — T. Affleck, Esq., gives 
the following mode of preparing this vegetable.. 
“ A large mess of okra soup, (called gumbo,) 
should be served on every plantation at least 
four days in the week, w'hile the vegetable is in 
sea.son. The pods are gathered while tender 
enough to be cut b}' the thumb nail ; cut into 
thin slices, and with tomatoes, pepper, &c., ad- 
ded to the rations of meat, forms a rich, mucila- 
ginous soup. It is planted (in Mississippi) 
about the first of March, in drills four feet apart, 
every two or three feet, if the ground is rich, 
which it should be.” 
