THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
69 
present one belore our readers, in order that they 
may avail themselves of this meansof restoring 
any lands which they may have, that once were 
good wheat lands, but have ceased to be so, to a 
condition congenial to the product 'of this im- 
portant crop. And that their experiments in the 
use of charcoal may not be expensive, we would 
advise all to test its utility upon an acre or two 
at larthest, selecting such parts of their fields as 
may offer a fair opportunity of producing re- 
results not dalculated to deceive. 
Although we do not belo ng to the tribe of hus- 
bandmen, who hallow things merely because 
they have been handed down from father to son, 
through a long line of generations — although we 
confess ourself to be imbued with the spirit 
which impels man onwards with the improve- 
ments of the age, still, where expense in the 
procurement of new manures are to be incurred, 
we think it safest to exercise caution in expen- 
ditures, as there is no class in the communities 
of men, where true economy is more needed 
than among farmers; for, with very few excep- 
tions, profits are only to be attained by them by 
the pursuit of that enlightened system of man- 
agement, which husbands means, without de- 
nying to the soil any of the appointments es- 
sential to the development of its capabilities, the 
melioration of its condition of fertility, and the 
amendment of its texture. 
A leading object in reverting to the use of 
charcoal, as an improver of wheat lands, and in 
arraying before our readers the emphatic fact 
stated by Dr. Lee, springs from the hope that 
some of our numerous subscribers may be in- 
duced to try its efficacy upon the now growing 
crops. I: is still time to make the experiment, 
and surely, if the advantage to be derived is as 
represented, with regard to the enhanced product 
of France, the strongest inducement is held out 
to every wheat grower, to subject a portion of 
his lands in wheat, to the sure and unerring test 
of experiment. Should any make such experi- 
ments, we respectfully ask them to permit our 
paper to be the medium of communicating the 
results to the public. 
We do not affect to know what are the pre- 
cise action of charcoal, and it may be premised, 
that even those who have an intimate knowledge 
of the science of chemistry, could not undertake 
to decide upon the question at issue. What 
we do know of charcoal, is calculated to impress 
us with a very high opinion of it as an agent ol 
fertility. We know that if it be incorporated 
w’ith animal or putrescent manures, that it ex- 
erts a most powerful economy in preventing the 
escape of the fertilizing gases: we believe that 
when applied in sufficient quantity, it will arrest, 
or rather prolong, the process of decomposition ; 
thus continuing to a greatly extended period, 
the capacity of such manure as a fertilizer. If 
we approach a dung heap which is in a state of 
rapid decomposition, our sense of smell at once 
detects the escape of the volatile gases, which 
sensibly fix upon the susceptibilities of the ol- 
factory organs. But if we mix with this decay- 
ing mass, a quantity of charcoal, though the 
decay may still go on, it will be at a gieatly 
retarded rate, and from the affinity possessed by 
the charcoal for the ammonia eliminated by the 
carbonizing bodies, the pungent odour will be no 
longer perceptible to the senses, as it is seized 
upon by the charcoal and held in a state of fix- 
edness. So also, if we go into a close stable, 
the same effect will be visible ; but let the floor 
of that stable be strewn with charcoal or gypsum 
and, in a very short period, the unpleasant odor 
will cease, and for the simple reason, that the 
ammoniacal gas has been absorbed by the char- 
coal, and diverted from its natural tendency to 
ascend and become mixed with the surrounding 
atmosphere. 
It is maintained by some of the most scien- 
tific writers upon the subject, that the decompo- 
sition of all bodies, whether of fresh manure, 
or of organic remains in the soil, is produced 
by the operation of combustion — a combustion 
similar in character, though infinitely slower, 
to that produced by fire. Now, we profess to be 
believers in this doctrine, and hence we infer, 
that the peculiar use of chai coal, to consist in 
its competency to absorb and retain within itself 
for a considerable time, those fertilizing gases 
which are produced by the decomposition spo- 
ken of, and which, by the by, constitute the very 
essence of all putrescent manures— the very life 
and spirit which supports, to a considerable ex- 
tent, the growth of plants. 
It has been a remark, justified by the observa- 
tion of the best informed farmers, that new 
grounds, where their mechanical texture is 
adapted to the growth of the wheat plant, are 
most favorable to its culture and product; and 
that such grounds, in a series of years, cease to 
be so — Why is this so"? Is not the inference 
fairly deducible from the facts stated, that it is 
because by cultivation; by the letting in of the 
warming influence of sun and air, the decom- 
position of the vegetable constituents of the 
soil has been brought about, and that owing to 
thej escape of the ammoniacal gases, by evapo- 
ration, and the appropriation of them by the 
successive crops to their uses, that the earth has 
become so exhausted of its vegetable pabulum, 
that the sustaining principle exists in such mi- 
nute proportions in the soil, as to no longer fur- 
nish to the cultivated plant its requisite quan- 
tum of nourishment to carry on that healthful 
and vigorous expansion of the system of roots 
and stems so essential to the perfection of the 
grain. 
If we are right in our conjectures, it would 
.seem to follow as a natural consequence, that 
where the land has, by culture, become deprived 
of its carbon, or the material for forming it by 
combustion, that the hu.;bandman should set 
himself to work to supply the deficiency; and 
if this be admitted, there can be no better mode 
adopted than by the application of pulverized 
charcoal. It is admitted by most competent 
minds, that soils abounding in vegetable remains 
are more competent to attract from the 
atmosphere than those which have been deprived 
of them. While the many admit this fact, but 
lew, if asked the question, can tell you why they 
are so. But agricultural chemistry comes to 
our relief and solves the question at once. It 
tells us, that lands constituted liberally of such 
remains, possess the capacity of absorbing this 
moisture, or, more properly speaking, of ab- 
sorbing and retaining the ammonia which floats 
in the air, and forms a constituent property ol 
all snow and rain; and that this capacity is im- 
parted to the earth by the carbon produced by 
the combustion of vegetable remains, or in other 
words, by their decomposition and decay ; and 
that, in proportion to the quantity of matter bear- 
ing a relation to charcoal existing in the soil, 
so is its power to absorb and retain regulated. 
We know, that lands, which have been ex- 
hausted by injudicious culture, have been 
restored to fertility by the culture of clover and 
the application of plaster, and that so soon as 
we can get them to sustain a good stand of clo- 
ver, so soon may we date their meliorated con- 
dition. These facts go to establish the truth of 
our doctrine; the clover-ley turned in furnishes 
both carbon and ammonia, while the latter not 
only seizes upon the latter as it is produced, 
gives it fixedness, attaches it to the soil, but ap- 
propriates to the use of the plants that also 
which floats above it in the atmosphere, and de- 
scends, as we have before remarked, in the rain 
and snow. If this were not true, it would be 
impossible that so small a quantity as a bushel 
to the acre, could exert the immense power 
that it does. We do not pretend to affirm, that 
the powers of attraction and condensation, pos- 
sessed by plaster, are its only powers or uses, 
but we may, in all modesty, claim this as among 
its most potent agencies. 
From the course of our remarks, it Is obvious 
that the action of charcoal upon any lands adapt- 
ed to the culture of wheat, must be eminently 
beneficial; and from the circumstance of its 
being difficult, if susceptible at all, of solution, 
that when once applied, it will exert a whole- 
some influence for a long series of years ; and 
I hence, that it would prove not only to be a last- 
I ing, but a cheap manure. 
We have thought much upon the subject, and 
we have come to the conclusion, that each far- 
mer would find it to his interest, every year to 
mix charcoal with his long manure before he 
carts it out upon his fields, as in so doing he 
would prevent the loss of a considerable portion 
of the most valuable of the constituents it pos- 
sesses — we mean the fertilizing gases, which, 
by heat- and moisture, are generated, thrown 
into the air and lost. 
From the Albany Cultivator. 
MISSISSIPPI— HER AGRICULTURE, &c. 
PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE. 
We have, within the last few days, received 
an ample package from our friend, M. W. 
Philips, M. D., the able senior editor of that ex- 
cellent Journal, “ The South-Western Farmer,” 
published at Raymond, Miss. It is rarely that 
we have been more interested than in the peru- 
sal of the several papers, and we regret that the 
strict injunction, “ not to print,” will prevent our 
readers sharing with us in the pleasure which 
the life-like sketches of domestic custom, as 
well as ol men and things in that portion of the 
South would have given them. A few extracts, 
however, are permitted, and will be found below 
and in our next. It is evident the spirit of imj 
provement is abroad in the South, and the ad- 
vance, within a lew years, has been truly great. 
Indeed, it could scarcely have been possible it 
should have been otherwise, when such men as 
Philips, Affleck, Cloud, Fanning, and a host of 
kindred spirits, took upon themselves the labor 
of enlightening the public mind, and, In their 
own practice, giving an example of what a more 
skilful method of culture could accomplish. — 
There is much yet respecting the South that is 
misunderstood. Its capabilities and its produc- 
tions have been decided upon, more with refer- 
ence to the sea-coast, or that ol the gulf, than its 
vast and fertile interior. A few such men, howj 
ever, as Dr. P. with his perseverance, taste and 
intelligence, scattered over that region, will, by 
the influence of their writings and their exam- 
ples, correct and expand a vitiated and limited 
public sentiment, and give to agriculture and 
horticulture their proper place in the pursuits 
and aspirations of the planter. Care will take 
the place of negligence, economy that of impro- 
vidence, and comfort, a word that embodies so 
many associations delightful to the lover of na- 
ture, will become more common than it now is. 
We give the extracts for the truths they contain, 
and to show what an observing, intelligent man, 
who is willing to devote the rich gifts God has 
bestowed to the benefit of his fellow-men, can 
accomplish : 
“We are too improvident in all the South, to 
enable us to enjoy the real pleasures of the cli- 
mate we live in. There are many who have 
little else than hog and hominy all the year, who 
are able to afford better living, if property be a 
test. There are numbers, with good estates, that 
have no fruit excepting a lew peaches. The 
majority of my people, I do very believe, would 
look upon the Dahlia as a noxious weed; the 
Cape Jessamine as a worthless shrub, and if it 
could be that a noble Camelia were standing in 
a field where a plough could run, even in full 
bloom, that it would be cut down and cast into 
the fire with as little compunction of conscience 
as if it were a sassafras or box elder. They are 
unable to see any beauty in the noble steed, 
stately cow, happy hog, farther than they con- 
tribute to the making of cotton. Yet, with all 
this, there are redeeming spirits enough in the 
land to make one love his fellows. They are 
the right sort of material to make good farmers 
out of; they are beginning to see beauty in all 
things that a beneficent Providence has given 
excellence to; and I look for the day when our 
people will build and plant, rear and nourish, 
with reference alike to the useful and ornamen- 
tal.” 
“Although I have been in Mississippi since 
1830, (my native place being Columbia, S. C.,) 
I have seen comparatively little of the State, as 
I have found full employment at home. 1 can 
then, therefore, say little as regards fruits, shrub- 
