98 
THE t^OUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
For the Southern Cultivator. 
WORN OUT LANDS, SCOOTER AND SHOVEL 
PLOWS, &c. 
Mr. Editor — The worn-out condition of the 
lands in Georgia, has become a matier of regret 
to every patriot in the State. To retain the pre- 
sent population, and prevent their emigration ; 
to .restore the lands in the State to their original 
fertility, andeven greater productiveness, should 
be the earnest wish and constant endeavor oi 
her citizens, statesmen and legislators. The 
Legislature should assi.st in the great work, by 
offering premiums for the best improved farms, 
crop.s. plows, &c. More than three-fourths of 
the taxes are raised from the farmers. Can any 
one object to a lew thousand dollars being re- 
stored to them in that way ? Any assistance in 
arresting the evil, and restoring the worn-out 
fields to fertility, will be doing “ the State some 
service.”— So, Mr. Editor, if you will print 
what a plowman writes, you shall have my help. 
The destruction of lands at the South, is ow'- 
ing partly to their rolling nature ; partly to the 
heat of the sun ; partly to treading by slock ; and 
mostly from imperlect cultivation: w'hich in- 
cludes want of rotation, want of manure, over- 
cropping, and improper implements of tillage. 
A few remarks on the la.st subdivision, as con- 
nected with plowing and plows, will, it is hop- 
ed, meet the approbation oi my lellow plow- 
men. 
Generally, the deeper the ground is broke by 
the plow, the better ior the crop, (except deep 
sand with a light vegeiahle mould on Sop.) If 
more labor and attention were bestowed on the 
preparation of land ior planting, less labor would 
be required in cultivation, and the production 
would be increased. Land, to be well plowed, 
should be broke at the bottom of the lurrow as 
well as at the top. A plow, to break the ground 
well, should have a broad point ; or, il a wing- 
ed plow, the lower part of the wing should be as 
nearly horizontal with the point of the plow as 
practicable to work well, so that it may cut the 
dirt loose at the bottom of Ikefurrov), 
Spade culture is consideied the must perfect; 
consequently a plow (in plowing) that approxi- 
mates nearest to spade work, must be the best 
plow. The sco'iter and shovel plows (used al- 
most universally in Georgia) are triangular, 
lorming acute angles atth’ points, anct their 
wot k does not imitate, in the least, work done 
by the spade;* themfore, they are imperlect 
plows, and cannot dj gooid work in breaking the 
ground. The scourer and shovel plows have done 
more injury lo Ihe lands in Georgia, than every 
thing else ) because the ground is broken so 
shallow by them, that it is washed off by the 
rains. They cut a sharp trench into ihe ground, 
and leave an unbroken ridge on each side of the 
furrow. They cannot thoroughly break and 
pulverize the ground; and in plowing over the 
second time, they will lollow in the furrow made 
at the first plowing. 
Now, Mr. Editor, I have condemned seven- 
eighths ol the whole number ol plows in Geor- 
gia, comprising scooters and shovels, and I 
might leave the owners of them where I have 
found them; but, as I am fond of good plowing 
and plQvKcrs, I will tell them what other plows 
ao use. Besides the improved northern plows, 
which you can sec described in the Cultivator, 
some of our blacksmiths make plows that are 
far superior to the scooter and shovel. 
Among them, is the scooter dagon, a taming, 
one horse plow, stapled to light soils ; the 
nullijier f a broad-pointed plow, commonly 
made to turn the soil half over — can be made to 
turn it entirely over— adapted to all soils, excel- 
lent for breaking stiff stubble land, cutting deep- 
rooted vines and briars, bedding cotton ground, 
potatoes, &c., an excellent plow ; the coulter, 
winged coulter, twisted shovel, (&c., all of which 
”1 don’t mean that any person ever plowed with a 
spade, but used it with tha hands. 
can be used on the common plow stocks, except 
the coulier and winged coulter, which require 
coulter .stocks. I know some farmers who have 
thrown aside the scooter and shovel altogether. 
They may do for some kind of work, but they 
are not like patent pills, they won’t answer for 
all complaints. 
In traveling tbn ugh the country, I have often 
stopped at the smith-shops, and ' xamined the 
plows. In many shops, the scooter and shovel 
are the only plows made, except a few sweeps. 
The farms around such shops are generally bad- 
ly worn, and the crops poor. In a few shops, 
wherever I have found an improved variety of 
plows, the improvement was apparent in the ap- 
pearance ol the field<, and in the growing crops. 
And wheie manure was added, the crops were 
still better. 
If the ab> ve remarks and facts should save 
even our small fields Irom utter desolation, or 
put one dollar more into the pocket ol a brother 
farmer, it will be very gratifying to a 
Plowman. 
Butts Co., May mh, 1844. 
For the Southern Cultivator. 
4 LEAF FROM THE BOOK OF EXPERIENCE. 
HILL SIDE DITCHING, MANURING, ETC. 
Mr. Editor — 1 have been many years a far- 
mer, and for .several years past have manured 
much of my corn in the hill, and some of my 
cotton. I have acquired some little notoriety 
among my neighbors, for saving and applying 
manure ; have cleaned out my stables, scraped 
my borse-lot and barn-yard, and all the manure 
not needed on my garden has been given to my 
fields. Surplus cotton seed, too, has not been 
wasted ; yet, in spite of this stercoraceous^uo/w* 
sion, I have had to look, with laeful face, upon 
annually decreasing crops and half-filled cribs, 
I will say nothing of cotton, for I cannot say any- 
thing that would be very flattering lo niy varie- 
ty, or interesting to the public, either in regard 
to mode of culture or large production. But I 
am a man of corn — formerly enjoyed the envia- 
ble distinction and title of “ corn-seller,” and 
am yet no corn-buyer ; but if a turning point is 
not soot found, 1 may be reduced to that neces- 
sity. I farmed it, in this down-hill fashion, for 
15 years — perhaps more : I’ll not stop to calcu- 
late. Now what have I got by it, and what have 
I done? Why, I have a house full of children 
to feed and educate ; but, as J did not gather 
them from the fields, I will drop them from the 
narrative ’ Next, I have got an exhausted farm 
— fields gullied by rain, and a face furrowed by 
time; the latter being inevitable, I can bear it 
with becoming resignation; but the former be- 
ing avoidable, I cannot contemplate it with so 
much composure. 
Now these things have not come upon me 
like ihe Texas treaty, without premonition, but 
gradually, like my children to the table— one 
every year or two. Seeing the evil ol impover- 
ished land, 1 attempted to avoid it, and for this 
purpose sought information. Years ago, I yead 
attentively the Albany Cultivator, a good paper 
in its latitude, but most of its matterabout as in- 
teresting to a Sow^AcrTifarraer asa lecture op foe 
best mode of cultivating Chinese jea would be. 
Next, I took foe Farmer’s Register, apd then foe 
Southern Planier, These contained too much 
tobacco, not for my teeth, but for my habits — 
agricultural habits, I mean. Suffice it to say, I 
derived but little benefit from either, or all of 
them. They led me to one thing, however, 
which, though immediately injurious, may 
prove remotely beneficial, to wit : whirling my 
land tai 9,'-turvy with a turning plow. This 
may do for rich land and deep soil, but will 
never do for cow-hide land. 
Perhaps, Mr, Editor, in all your geological 
researches, you have not touim oui wh.; cow- 
hide land” is. If so, I felicitate mysell iri being 
able to add to your stock ol knmvl d^e. It is 
land which has soil about as thick over the clay 
as the hide on an ox. By deep j low m;-, ihere- 
lore, a quantity of litier, vegetable matter, was 
turned under, but too mu hclay v a^ turned up ; 
the soil was weakened, to be sure; ti,e elements 
ot vegetable nutrition are there, bii.: me roots 
can hardly find them, or if foun , can hardly be 
extracted by the clay-clam [-ed roots jn a dry 
time. This is the present injury, and the re- 
mote benefit is, I have got the soil where foe 
rain can’t wash it all away at once, and I will 
get tbegood ol it alter a while. 
Manuring and turning over, however, is not 
all I have done to improve and save u;y land. 
Some has been laid off on foe horizonlal plan; 
and upon the whole, the level has done some 
good. Indeed, the plan is very good in moder- 
ate rains ; but when the bottom drops out of the 
clouds, and deluges come, there must be some 
way provided for the water to pass out of the 
field, or it will make ilselt one. So you may 
perceive I have some ex['erience, and have 
tried various expedients ; yet the tendency is 
still downward. 
My next periodical reading on the subject of 
agrieultare, is in the “Southern Cuhivauir.” 1 
say noth jfig ol its merits or demerits; the one 
iXiighl offend editorial modesty, and the other be 
unjust. It is sufficient for my present ) urpose 
lo remark, thail lound in it instructive essays on 
hill-side ditching. These I lead and thor oughly 
consideied in all lheirdetails,aiidsofar ajjj roved 
as lo determine to adopt tlie plan, witli some 
little modification. Accordingly, 1 recounoiter- 
ed a field, and armed with the proper implement 
I invaded it, laid off the ditches, plowed up, and 
excavated them secundum artem. But 1 made 
an awl'ul mistake. Your practical and excel- 
rent correspondent, Farrer, sard— give a tall of 
two inches to ten feet. Says 1, that won’t do, 
the remedy is as bad as foe disease ; every ditch 
will become a hideous gully ; I’ll make an im- 
provement, by giving only two inches to the 
rod; and I adapted my works to my faith, at 
least in some of my fields. Luckily, rain came 
seldom, and light when itdiil come, Th«-ditch=. 
es performed their duty finely, because thatdu- 
ty was easy. But a chance came — not ol foe 
moon, but of the weather. “The heavens 
thundered, and the firmament glared w ith fre- 
quent lightnings” — rain descended in lot rents, 
lor hours togethet. Such rains do not tall eve- 
ry year } Many of the ditches were fibea with 
sand, and others demolished ; some gullies were 
for med and others deepened ; and much ol my 
land, that 1 had a title “to have and to Hold in 
fee simple forever,” nullified my deed, and start- 
ed down the river toward Macon. Such was 
foe result on rolling land, where the ditclies had 
not sufficient declivity; but ou oLier fields, 
where the land was more level, and on roiling 
lands where the size and declivity ol the ditches 
were sufficient, no damage at all was done, 
The success was so perlect, that I ani now sat- 
isfied, that I have found the great agricultural 
panacea, for which w e have been hunting these 
many years. When I have seen nut only the 
soil, but foe manure that 1 have toiled to get on 
my fields, soon washed away, 1 have lelt dis- 
pirited, and sad; and visions— day dreams — ot 
the fruitfolness of Alabama, Mis-sissippi, and 
even Tetas, infested my mind. But the ties ot 
nativity, friendship, kindred and comloit, have 
thus iar bound me to the soil of my ancestry; 
and now the gratifying truth is discovered and 
established, that the fertility of our faruis may 
be preserved or restored, and that emigration to 
a wilderness country with its thousand attend-, 
ant ills is no longer necessary. 
I am no enthusiast, Messrs. Editors. My 
scepticism in regard to the many plausible 
novelties ot the day justifies the assertion. Yet 
I hesitate not to say, from my limited but satis- 
factory experience, that ditching, when seconded 
by other necessary meatis, can do 'vonders in 
the improvement of the face and fertiliy of our 
country. No observant farmer will deny or 
