THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
107 
fresh and allow nothing lur shrinking in 
the spring; when your alkali is to be well mix- 
ed in v\'ith the mould, and, after shoveling over 
for a few weeks, use it as you would stable ma- 
nure. 
Tnese quantities of ashes and alkali are the 
lowest which may be advised. Thiee or four 
times this amount may be used with advantage, 
but both the quantity of alkali and the number 
of loads per acre, must and will be determined 
by each for himself. It is a question of ways 
and means, rather than of practice. But sup- 
posing the smallest quantity of ashes or of al- 
kali to be used, which we have advised, then at 
least five corvis of the compost should be used 
per acre. This maybe applied to any soil, 
light or heavy. But there is another form of 
this same swamp-muck and alkali, which 
should be used only on light, loamy, sandy soils, 
to produce its greatest benefit, though even on 
heavy soils, if not very w’et, it may be used with 
great advantage. This is a compost of one cord 
of spent ashes to three cords of swamp-muck. 
This is decidedly the best mixture which has yet 
been tried. We have in this all that mixture of 
various salts and mould which plants want, and 
both by the action of the mould and by that of 
the air, the alkali of the spent ashes, which no 
leaching would extract, is soon let loose, and 
produces all the effects of so much clear potash 
or soda. 
I have thus, reader, givmn you a few of the 
ways by which you may convert your peat-boss 
and swamps into manure, when you have neith- 
er cattle nor hogs. I have not thought it worth 
while to go into this subject further, and give 
you directions for lime and salt, or other mat- 
ters which might be used. 1 have given you 
the most eomraon, and those well kuown and at 
hand. All you want, then, to apply these prin- 
ciples of forming composts, is to give them that 
iittle attention which will enable you to under- 
stand them. And the re^t must be left to your 
practical common sense, without some share of 
which, farming, like everything else, would be 
vanity and vexation of spirit. 
I would here, reader, take my leave of you, 
and in the hope that we may again meet to have 
another talk. There are a great many other 
points relating to manure, which can be under- 
stood only after we have made ourselves some- 
what acquainted with the chemistry of soil. 
Then, having explained that, before the full ac- 
tion of manure can be understood, tve must pro- 
ceed a step further, and consider what changes 
take place in growing crops, and the effects of 
these growing crops upon soil and manure. The 
quantity and kind of sails they extract, and how 
soil is exhausted. This would lead to the con- 
sideration of the quantity and kind of manure to 
be applied to different soils, and the value of dif- 
ferent manures. But there is one other impor- 
tant thing belonging to our subject. Crops ex- 
haust land, but fatten animals. Now this last 
properl}. belongs to that part of our subject re- 
lating to the changes occurring in vegetables, 
and their power of exhausting the soil. It will 
be seen, therefore, that the whole covers the 
ground called Agricultural Chemistry. 
This Essay is only its first part. If it meets 
your acceptance, I trust it may encourage its 
author to draw up its second part on soils, and 
its third part on the effect of crops on soil, and 
their value as food for animals. 
From the New Farmers’ Journal. 
UTIUTY OF GEESE TO THE FA.RMEE. 
It has been long remarked that cattle of all 
kinds are never unhealthy where geese are kept 
in any quantity ; and the reason assigned is sim- 
ply this, that geese consume with complete im- 
punity, certain noxious weeds and grasses which 
taint, more or less, according to their abundance, 
the finest paddocks depastured by horses, bul- 
locks, and sheep. Most tarmers are aware of 
this, and in rnany places where the beeves ap- 
pear sickly, geese are let into the pastures, and 
the soil where they tread is converted for the 
time being into a sort of infirmary. 
Fi om ihe [ColuinbidJ Souiti-Carolinian of June 6lh. 
OVERSEER.S. 
We seldom see communications in agricultu- 
ral journals in relerence to oversee.s. Yet 
overseers are most impoi tant characters in all 
planting operations, and it would be as much to 
the interest of planters to improve them, as to 
improve th»lr lands, slock, or manner of plant- 
ing. In fact more, lor without improving them 
it IS very difficult to effect any other improve- 
ment. Even with the best managers, most of 
the pleasure, if not profit of planting, depends 
on the character of the overseer. Planters may 
be divided into two great classes, viz : ihnse who 
attend to their business, and those who do not. 
And this creates corresponding classes of over- 
seers. The planter who does not manage his 
own business, must, of course, surrender every 
thing into the hands of his overseer. Such a 
planter usually rates the merits of the ovmrseer 
exactly in proportion to the number of bags of 
cotton he makes, and of course the overseer 
cares for nothing but to make a large crop. To 
him it is of no consequence that the old hands 
are worked down, or the young ones overstrain- 
ed ; that the breeding women miscarry, and the 
sucklers lose their children; that the mules are 
broken down, the plantation tools destroyed, the 
stock neglected, and the lands ruined. So that 
he has the requisite number of cotton bags, all 
is overlooked; he is re-em|doyed at an advanc- 
ed salary, and his reputation increased. Every 
body knows that by such a course a crop may 
be increased by the most inferior overseer, in 
any given year, unless his predecessors have so 
eniirely exhausted the resources of the planta- 
tion, that there is no part of the capital left 
which can be wrought up into current income. 
And this seldom happens, lorsuch planters usu- 
ally allow their overseers or other agents to 
purchase freely what is wanted, so that most 
losses are repaired — at their cost, to be sure; 
but they keep no accounts, and never think of 
expenses. The amount of their reasoning on 
the subject, is, that a good crop has been made, 
and therefore they must be prospering. And so 
they go on to their ruin. But they liave pre- 
viously ruined many who might have been fine 
overseers. Having once had the sole manage- 
ment of a plantation, and imbibed the idea that 
the only test of good planting is to make a large 
crop of cotton, an overseer becomes worthless. 
He will no longer obey orders ; he will not 
stoop to details; he .scorns all improvements, 
and will not adopt any other plan of planting, 
than simply to work lands, negroes and mules 
to the top of their bent, which necessarily proves 
fatal to every employer who will alio wit. 
It seems scarcely credible, that any man 
owning a plantation, will so abandon it and his 
people on it, entirely to a hireling, no matter 
what his confidence in him is. Yet there are 
numbers who do it habitually ; and I have even 
known overseers to sti u'ate that their employ- 
ers should not give any order, nor interfere in 
any way with their management of the planta- 
tion. There are also some proprietors of con- 
siderable property and pretension to being plant- 
ers, who give their overseer a proportion of the 
crop for his wages ; thus bribing him by the 
strongest inducements of self-intere.st, to over- 
strain and work down every thing committed to 
his charge. The number, however, of those 
planters who resign themselves and other pro- 
perty to the tender mercies of their overseers, is 
rapidly diminishing, partly by their being com- 
pelled to sell out, and partly bv the impulse 
which the times have given to agricultural im- 
provement. It is beginning to be distinctly un- 
derstood, that planting is a profession by w hich 
no one can thrive, who does not understand and 
diligently pursue it; that, in fact, it \s, a. science, 
intimately connected with, and requiring for its 
full investigation and application, a knowledge 
of almost ail other sciences. And I am happy 
to add, that no science has advanced more rapid- 
ly, within the last ten years, or seems more 
likely to advance hereafter. Long as agricul- 
ture has been practised, it is yet in its infancy, 
I as regards its perfection; and no field opens a 
wider sfhere for genius, or affords a higherpro- 
mise of lame, than the study and practice of it 
on scientific princi| les. 
But here, again, we encounter the difficulty of 
overseers. Few ol' that large and increasing 
class of planters who manage their own busi- 
ness, can dispense with agents and sub agents. 
It is impossible, on a plantation of any size, for 
the proprietor to attend to all the details, many 
of which are irksome and laborious, and he re- 
quires more intelligence to assist him, than 
slaves usually possess. To him, therefore, a 
good overseer is a blessing. But an overseer 
who would answer the views of such a planter 
is most difficult to hnd. The men engaged in 
that occupation who combine the mo.st intelli- 
gence, industry and character, are allured into 
the service of those who place all power in their 
hands, and are ultimately spoiled. He is (or 
rather was, for there is a manifest change going 
on) esteemed but a second-rate man among his 
fellows, who will condescend to take orders 
from his employer, and manage according to 
the system of another person. And until this 
idea is wholly eradicated, and the real intelli- 
gence of the country, and the true owners of its 
wealth, can control its agriculture in the minut- 
est details, the advance of improvement must be 
seriously clogged. What could be done in war, 
if the orders of the General in Chief were not 
scrupulously obeyed, from the second in com- 
mand, through every grade, to the soldier in ths 
ranks'? So it is in planting. The planter 
must understand his business, and he must have 
agents to carryout his views, from the pitching 
cl his crop to the weaning of a pig. I therefore 
set it down as the first requisite of a good over- 
seer, to obey orders : not resistingly, sullenly, 
and with a protest; but cheerfully, promptly, 
and with a full comprehension of their spirit, 
and desire for their success. An overseer who 
does this much, is worth having, though he may 
possess more than an average share of the faults 
of his class. Let him, if he wishes, give his 
opinion freely, and his reasons lor it ; but the 
matter once decided, let him abide firmly, and in. 
good faith, by the old adage, “obey orders, if 
you break owners.” 
The next requisite of an overseer, is capaci- 
ty to understand and execute orders in the proper 
manner. Without this, of course, his best in- 
tentions will not avail you. 
The duties of an overseer acting under the 
orders of his employer, are, first, to attend to the 
proper management of the negroes ; to see that 
the tasks allotted them, are such as they can 
perform with reasonable industry ; and to take 
care that they do perform them, and do it pro- 
perly. The employer should regulate the tasks 
himself, in the main, and examine the work; 
but there are a great many details to which he 
cannot look, and in which the overseer himself 
will require assistants among the laborers. The 
overseer should attend punctually to the sick, 
giving medicine in strict conformity to direc- 
tions; and, in the absence of the employer and 
physician, should be capable ofusing judicious- 
ly simple remedies himself. He should cheer 
and encourage the sick. He should especially 
take care of the old, the young, and the com- 
plaining, for the treatment of whom his employ- 
er has, of course, a system suited to his general 
plantation operations. And lastly, in reference 
to the management ol negroes, it is the duty of 
the overseer to enforce discipline and subordina- 
tion, and with as little and as mild punishment 
as possible. The overseer whose constant and 
only resort is to the lash, and who expects to 
remedy by that all the malpractices which he 
should by his foresight and attention have pre- 
vented, is a brute, and deserves the penitentia- 
ry. 
The second leading duty of an overseer, is to 
carry the keys of the plantation, and to feel him- 
self wholly responsible for everything upon it. 
Pew negroes, however well disposed, have firm- 
ness to resist temptation. It should be placed 
as little as possible in their way; and they 
should not be allowed, if it can be avoided, 
turn a key. If they are hone^, keep them so. 
