THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
132 
mate, and sascepiible ol a moneyed return vast- 
ly transcending the culture ol'cotton. 
We have everything to encourage us in our 
career. May the humble institution we have 
this day planted, tend to develope the resources 
of this section of our country, comparatively, 
even to ourselves so little known, by enlarging 
the sphere of our knowledge, exciting a.spirit ol 
generous emulation, and by its giving to one of 
the most useful arts God has given to man, 
•sorntthing of that precision wnich belongs to it 
as a science which, from its certainty and truth, 
can hardly be called an experimental one. 
From the Ameiicati Agriculturist. 
SOUTHERN PRODUCTS. 
I have been a subscriber to your periodical 
from its commencement, and a careful reader of 
the various articles which have appeared in its 
pages, and with nothing have I been more pleas- 
ed than withi.iose communications which, from 
time to time, have been inserted, recommending 
to tiie attention ot our farmers and planters new 
and valuable objects oi cultivation. These 
communications are worthy ot the most pro- 
found consideration of every cultivator of the 
.soil. The articles on madder and indigo parti- 
cularly commend themselves to attention. In a 
country so widely extended as ours, stretching 
as it does from the Gulf of the St. Lawrence al- 
most to the tropics; embracing, too, every varie- 
ty of climate, there can surelj’^ be lound a cli- 
mate and a soil adapted to aimo.st every plant 
useful by its employment in the arts, or to the 
sustenance or luxury of man. 
Every year we import largely the agricultural 
productions of other countries, which we might 
just as well, and, indeed, better raise at home. 
We purchase annually large quantities of olives 
and olive-oil Irom France and Italy, and figs 
from the Levant, and we buy many millions of 
pounds of tea from China. There are nume- 
rous other articles, too, of which the same re- 
marks might be made with truth, but which do 
not at this time occur to my mind. The pro- 
duction of these articles at home is to be desired 
and encouraged by every well- wisher of his 
country; for f think it must be conceded by eve- 
ry intelligent man acquainted with the agricul- 
tural interest throughout the United States, that 
our farmers and planters have confined their at- 
tention to too few objects of cultivation. At the 
South, particularly, has this been the case. 
Cotton, sugar and rice, have been the staple ar- 
ticles of che Southern planters, and to the pro- 
duction of these have they directed their whole 
energies. The consequence of this has been an 
ot/W-prod action ; and when we consider the im- 
mense section adapted more particularly to the 
cultivation of jotton, it would seem that the dan- 
ger of over-production in that article more espe- 
cially, is yearly increasing. The same is true 
ot the western country. The facility with 
which w’heat, and every other species of grain 
adapted to the climate, is raised, is so great that 
there has been, still is, and under pre.sent cir- 
cumstances, there must be, a production far ex- 
ceeding the demand. Now the South and West 
are essentially agricultural regions, and for a 
long time must continue so; and to me it is ve- 
ry doubtful whether they ever become extensive- 
iy manufacturing countries. At least, it w'ill 
be conceded that a large manufacturing interest 
will not arise there, until the population be- 
comes much more dense than it is at present. 
This state of things will surely increase the 
danger of over-production, ivhich at present ex- 
ists, and which is the true cause, in my opinion, 
of the low prices which wo have had for a con- 
siderable time, of almost every article of agri- 
cultural produce ; and these low prices must, I 
fear, continue, and indeed must fall still lower: 
for if we go on producing at the rate we have 
done, and are now doing, we shall not only be 
unable to consume our productions at home, but 
we shall also find it more than difficult to obtain 
any market abroad sufficient to absorb our sur- 
plus. To many of your readers these asser- 
tions ol mine may seem not only bold but incre- 
dible, and I am fully aware that a general rise 
in produce has taken place during the past year. 
But I am sati.ffieu of the tiuth and soberness of 
my ideas; lor, as you well know, I have tra- 
velled extensively, and I have examined most of 
this country pretty thorot ghly, and I thinkyour 
own experience, gathered I'rom long and distant 
travel, will bear me out in what I assert. The 
results of the crops throughout the country for 
the next five or six yeais will, 1 am confident, 
su.?tain my position. 
I assume, then, that an over-production does 
at present exist, and will continue in an increas- 
ing ratio. Is there, then, any remedy? and if 
so, what is it ? It seems to me that the true and 
sufficient remedy is to be found in extendingour 
articles of cultivation, and extending them, too, 
until we raise in this country everything which 
our climate and our soil will permit us to raise 
at a reasonable profit ; and it becomes the duty 
of every good citizen to lend his aid in accom- 
plishing this very desirable object. But for this 
purpose individual effort is not sufficient. The 
people in their collective capacity should assist. 
The legislatures ot the different States should 
do something, and do it carefully, energetically, 
and thoroughly If che legislature of the nation 
could be induced to extend its powerful aid, it 
would be no more than a duty it owes to the 
people. But 1 fear that it is too much to expect 
from that degenerate body. At any rate, the 
State legislature might and could be induced to 
act, and their mode of action should be this. 
Take, for instance, the olive tree, the indigo, 
and tea-plants. 1 have no doubt chat there are 
very extensive regions of the South exceedingly 
well adapted to their successful and profitable 
cultivation. The olive has been grown in Ala- 
bama; the indigo plant was at one time exten- 
sively cultivated in various districts of the 
South ; and I am credibly informed that the tea- 
plant has been successfully cultivated td a small 
extent in two instances, one in North Carolina, 
and another on an island on the coast of Geor- 
gia. Nor is there any reason why either and 
all of these should not become great staples at 
the South; for the climate is well suited to their 
production, and if the cultivation should become 
extensive and profitable, it would not only re- 
lieve the South ol the pressure of that great evil, 
an over-crop of cotton, by dividing the direction 
of the energies of the planter, but would also 
prove a source of increased and increasing 
wealth to that region. 
Their legislatures, then, should act in this 
way. Intelligent and capable agents should be 
sent out to obtain information on the subject of 
the cultivation and preparation lor market of 
these articles, (if such information cannot be ob- 
tained at home, and in the case of the tea-plant 
it cannot.) and on the return of these agents, the 
information they bring wuth them should be ex- 
tensively circulated among the people; and the 
plants themselves should be wudely distributed, 
and if necessary, experiments should be con- 
ducted at the public expense; and, above all, 
liberal bounties should be ofered for ihe en- 
couragement of the cultivation. In this way, 
the cultivation of indigo, olives, and tea, would 
in a few years obtain a firm foothold at the 
South, and her people would not only find them- 
selves supplying our own country, but export- 
ing to other countries. By such encourage- 
ment the silk culture has grown up and already 
taken firm root, and will, I may venture to pre- 
dict, in a lew years produce results very diffe- 
rent from those anticipated shortly after 
“The days when we went mulberrying, 
A long lime ago.” 
The present, moreover, is a most favorable 
time to take active measures for commencing 
the cultivation of the tea-plant especially, for 
our own cuuntry is just entering on better times, 
and we are about forming new and interesting 
relations with the Chinese. But these remarks 
do not apply merely to the cultivation of the 
olive tree, and the indigo and tea-plants, worthy 
as they are of Ihe attention of the South. Nu- 
merous other articles of agricultural production 
might be pointed out, and will doubtless occur 
to yourself and your readers, to which my ob- 
servaiion might be applied with equal truth. 
Let some or all of your numerous intelligent 
subscribers at the South investigate this subject 
with the attention it so well d ?serves, and strong- 
ly petition their legislatures to consider and act 
upon it; and the result, if the matter be persist- 
ed in, can hardly fail to be most important and 
beneficial to our Southern agricultural brethren, 
I have not, by any means, exhausted this sub- 
ject either in its bearing on the South, the West, 
or even our own more rugged and inclement 
North; and should you permit me again to oc- 
cupy a space in your columns, I shall endeavor 
to point out some other and equally important 
considerations as connected with this most inte- 
resting topic. 
In conclusion, I would fain hope that you and 
your numerous intelligent correspondents, will 
go on poiniing ouito us other new and valuable 
objects 01 cultivation, adapted to the different 
sections of our wide-spread but common coun- 
try, and I trust that you will arouse the atten- 
tion of the agricultural public in every way in 
your power, and by so doing you will oblige 
and interest more than one 
Northern Farmer, 
From the Transactions of the' N. Y, State Agricultural 
Society. 
ON THE CULTIVATION OF DYEHS’ MADDER. AS 
AN ARTICLE OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURE, 
(Rubia Tinctoria) 
By M. B. Bate HAM, one of the Kditors of the 
New Genesee Fanner. 
The quantity of madder consumed annually' 
in the United States, and imported from abroad, 
is perfectl}'^ astonishing to those who have given 
no attention to the subject. Unfortunately, our 
public records do not give very exact inlorma- 
toin on the subject ; but Mr. Ellsworth, as the 
nearest approximation be could obtain, gives 
the amount as five thousand tons I Estimating 
this at the low av^erage price ol ten cents per lb., 
it makes the round sum of one million of dollars 
paid annually to foreign countries for an article 
that can be produced as good and as cheap at 
home — paid, too, by a people loaded down with, 
indebtedness, and disgraced bj' the forfeiture of 
plighted obligation ! 
The cuitivation of madder has heretofore been 
represented as a tedious and laborious operation, 
requiring much care and skill, as we'l as outlay' 
of capital. The directions have been mainly 
j gathered from foreign works, detailing the me- 
thods practiced by the plodding Dutch in Hol- 
land and Germany. These accounts hav'e ap- 
peared so frightful to Americans, that none of 
them have dared to undertake the business ; and 
Yankee enterprise and labor-sav'ing ingenuity 
have never been exercised upon it. 
It is true, the crop requires three or four years 
to arrive at maturity', and needs considerable la- 
bor and some knowledge; but the quantity of 
land it occupies, and the amount ol labor it re- 
quires, is far less in proportion to the value of 
the crop than those of any other farm-crop that 
can be named. 
These assertions are fully corroborated by the 
experience of an enterprising American farmer, 
Mr. Joseph Swift, of Erie county, Ohio, who 
has been engaged in the culture of madder for 5 
years past. A detailed account of Mr. Swill’s 
mode of culture and its results, was obtained at 
his residence last winter, by the writer of this es- 
say, and published in the New Genesee Farmer 
for March, 1843, 
From'this account it will be seen, that after 
having informed himself on the subject, and be- 
coming satisfied that the business was practica- 
ble and profitable, he at once planted nine acres 
— a quantity that would astonish Mynheer Van 
Hollander. This he allowed to grow lour sea- 
sons, and the crop was harvested and sold in the 
fall of ] 842. The following are some ol the re- 
sults of his experience. The product of his best 
land was at the rate of 2,000 lbs. per acre; and 
he is certain that, with his present knowledge, 
he can obtain 3,000 lbs. per acre— which is more 
than the best average crops of Holland or Ger- 
many. The quality was superior to the ave- 
rage of imported madder. 
