172 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR 
is neces.-sai'v lot' the consumption ot the inhab- 
itants. By inattention to the plain indications 
of nature, tiow much useless labor is expended! 
The attempt to raise cotton, as a crop, above 
Laurens, is really and truly a poor compensa- 
tion to the husbandman. The beautilul rolling 
lands and level bottoms lying within this range 
oi country, if judiciously cultivated in grain 
and grass, with no more cotton than household 
■wants may demand, would crown the labors ol 
the year with a fully equal reward. More 
money would thus, fellow-citizens, annually 
come to ynur hands trom the grain and stock 
which y ju would be able to grow and rear, than 
ever you have been able to realize trom grain 
and cotton. And then what a change would be 
affected all around you. Horses, mules, cattle, 
sheep, and hogs, and in abundance — milk, but- 
ter, cheese, honey, and the wheat cake at every 
house — each family well clothed in the winter 
and summer from the fleece and cotton of every 
farm, spun and wove at home ! Would you 
not then indeed be happy and independent? If 
the temporal blessings ot God can ever make a 
people contented, yours would be that happy 
iot. But the advantages of such a course of 
farming would not stop here. The whole ap- 
pearance of the landscape would undergo a 
magical change, hardly surpassed by the won- 
der-working powers of Aladdin’s lamp; your 
old washed and sedge fields, seamed with gul- 
lies, would disappear; and your hills clothed in 
living green, or bending under the golden har- 
vests, would present a scene full of interest. 
Instead ot dilapidated buildings and fences, and 
perishing orchards, your buildings and fences 
would be substantial and yourorchards flourish- 
ing. But you ask me how this would be brought 
about? The answer is obvious. You would 
have more time to devote to improvement than 
you now have. In a course of crops, such as I 
have recommended, a part of the Spring, Sum- 
mer, and a small part of the Fall, would be 
necessary tor their culture. Four, five, or pos- 
sibly six months of every year would be unem- 
ployed in your crops, and would be devoted to 
improvement. Every man will be able to form 
some opinion of what he could thus accomplish. 
But this is not all the advantage which you 
might expect. Land set in grass or cultivated 
in grain does not require one half the labor 
which a grain and cotton crop demands. But 
the money, v'hence is that to come? is the 
question in every mind. From your surplus 
corn, wheat, oats, rye, barley and hay; from 
your pork and bacon, which you will have to 
spare, as the result of plenty, wherewith to 
raise, feed and fatten large stocirs of hogs ; from 
your cattle, horses, mules and sheep, raised and 
fed by your grain and grass ! Let your prac- 
tical Farmers, many of whom I am proud to 
see at this meeting, compare the results of a 
grain and grass growing crop, with one of grain 
and cotton, and the result will be 25 if not 50 
per cent, in favor of the former. Will you still 
persist in old habits, and not at least make a 
trial of that, which, although perhaps new to 
you, yet comes thus recommended? 
To bring about such results here, and to ap- 
proximate as near as may be in every other 
part of the State, how important are Agricul- 
tural Societies! They are your lights. They 
point you to the good; they warn you of that 
which is bad: they tell you mio, as they have 
often done before, that true independence is to 
be found in the abundance resulting from your 
farm.s. Raise, my countrymen, everywhere 
io South Carolina, your own hogs, sheep, cat- 
tle, horses and mules — clothe your own house- 
holds by the domestic wheel and loom — manu- 
facture your own shoes — supply your own ta- 
bles with flour, potatoes, butter and cheese of 
your own crops, herds and dairy, and you can 
bid defiance to all the tariffs in the world How 
much we are tributary, by our own negligence 
and want ot thrift, to the Eastern States, has 
been lately pointed out most clearly by a gen- 
tleman whose zeal in the cause of his country, 
as well as Agriculture, has not been and will 
flot be surpassed. From his essays you will 
learn with amazement the immense sums an- 
nually paid lor butter, cheese brooms, shoes, 
potatoes and onions, all of which we could easi- 
ly manufacture or produce at home. Well 
may we complain ot our burdens under such 
circumstances. A part of them, we have but to 
will should cease, and like the Pilgrim’s burden 
at the foot of the cross, they will roll off and 
sink for ever Irom our view. 
The time is now at hand when every South 
Carolinian must prepare for the deadly strug- 
gle, which it is to be feared is soon to take 
place. The institution of slavery, whether 
wise or not, it is madness in us to discuss with 
men who “seeing will not see, and hearing will 
not hear!” IL is here so intervoovemcith every 
po,rt of society, and so essential to life itself, that its 
destruction luould be ours. Its existence and con- 
tinuance depend upon our agriculture. As long 
as slave labor is valuable, so long will slave pro- 
perty be cherished. The instant it ceases to be so 
it will be throvm aside. Look therefore calmly 
on the things around you. Your cotton is be- 
coming annually a less valuable crop. Some- 
thing in the cotton growing country must in 
part supply its place. May not the economy, 
which I have already suggested, stand us in 
great stead in this point of view ? And will 
not the cultivation of provision crops, for which 
the rice growing country and towns of the sea- 
board will furnish a ready market, further eke 
out our wants? I have no doubt, if all South 
Carolina above the first falls in our great rivers, 
would become essentially a farming and manu- 
facturing country, that v^e might, in a few years, 
vie with even New England To aecomplish 
this, it is necessary that the whole resources of 
our State should be understood, as well as her 
industry properly applied. The Geological and 
Agricultural survey has in part, and will, I 
hope, fully develope them. All the region of 
country covered by York, Spartanburg, Union, 
Laurens, Greenville, Pickens, Anderson, and 
the upper part of Abbeville, might be essential- 
ly improved by the lime which can be obtained 
from the immense quarries ot Limestone to be 
found in York, Spartanburg and Laurens. To 
the farmers of the beautiful section of Carolina 
to which allusion has been made, the lime will 
afford incalculable riches, when its application 
to soils and crops comes to be properly under- 
stood. Through the Agricultural Survey and 
the Agricultural Societies, this information will 
be obtained and disseminated. My belief is, 
that in the section of country to which I have 
alluded, the Limestone existing within it, is 
more than enough to restore its original fertility, 
and probably to increase it tenfold. To you, 
then, brother Farmers of the Mountain Districts 
of South Carolina, there seems to be no ordinary 
stimulant to excite your industry and direct 
your efforts to improvement. The earth points 
to her own bosom, and tells you from it to ob- 
tain that which will clothe your fields with 
abundance, and fill your coffers with a more 
certain wealth than the mines of Mexico or 
Peru. In the adjoining Districts, then old Pen- 
dleton, the earliest and most successful effort 
in Agriculture was made by the Farmers’ So- 
ciety. The union of such names as North, 
Pinckney, Huger, Calhoun, Grisham, Griffin, 
Maverick, Harrison, Reese, Earle, Whitner 
and Norton, in sueh a Society, could not fail to 
make it useful. Its existence for more than 
twenty years is the evidence that farmers, when 
once informed, and acting together, can and will 
persevere to the attainment of most valuable 
results. It is an example worthy of all praise, 
and ought everywhere to be imitated. Here I 
am glad to see the proper spirit is also at work; 
and your Agricultural Society, mingling to-day 
with the State Society, in offering Premiums, 
points out the beginning of what is to be a glo- 
rious day for Greenville! Glorious! because 
it will confer greater blessings upon her worthy 
population. 
The people of the cotton growing Districts 
between Laurens Court House and Orangeburg, 
have not the same means of fertilizing their 
lands. Still, in judicious cultivation, the ap- 
plication ol animal and vegetable manures, 
they can do much to restore their exhausted 
wastes. The analysis of cotton and the cotton 
plant, shows, I am told, that the food peculiar 
to its nutriment and growth is the phosphate of 
lime, and that this can, in a greater or less de- 
gree, be supplied on every plantation by burn- 
ing the bones, which are cast away as an in- 
cumbrance, and applying small quantities of 
the ashes l ^ each plant. This, beyond all ques- 
tion, de.serves the 'attention of out Agricultural 
Societies, all of which should unite in request- 
ing Professor Ellet to give to the public his 
chemical analysis of cotton and the cotton plant, 
and his observations upon that which is essen- 
tial in the soil to its growth. Such an act on 
his part will add another to the many claims of 
usefulness which he has upon this State. If to 
this we shall fortunately add, through the Agri- 
cultural Survey, or the Agricultural Societies, 
a correct analysis of our soils, and some hints 
as to the kind of crops best adapted thereto, I 
have no doubt that we have the means within 
our reach of reclaiming our exhausted lands in 
the cotton Districts above Orangeburg. The 
application of the Cow Pea as a manure has 
been often suggested, and will, when properly 
applied, succeed as well with us as the clover 
has in more Northern and Western lands. 
When sown broadcast, and turned under while 
green, it will furnish a fine vegetable mould for 
the ensuing crop. On every plantation, how- 
ever, a little industry will gather from the woods 
the alluvial deposits, the cow-pens and stables 
a supply of manure, which will do more to re- 
pay labor than can be found in felling the forest 
and preparing forest land for culture. Here the 
advice and encouragement of Agricultural So- 
cieties become all-important, and here their 
utilitj has been so often tested, that it can be 
only necessary to refer you to the Districts and 
sections of country where they have longest ex- 
isted, for the evidence in their favor. The 
country from Orangeburg to the seaboard, in 
her inexhaustible beds of marl, has that which 
will make her lands more productive than they 
ever have been ! 
How much there is to encourage us, in every 
section of the State, is apparent from even these 
hasty remarks. To Yankee enterprize, could 
a richer field be opened? Cannot, will not 
South Carolinians enter upon, possess and en- 
joy the good which is their own, and which lies 
open and inviting before them? It is true, it 
requires labor, perseverance and intelligence ; 
but success challenges and demands these,every- 
where. The Clergyman, the Lawyer, the Phy- 
sician, the Merchant and the Mechanic, must 
have these requisites to succeed; and still, with 
us, all of these possessions may be found as 
successful as in any other part of the world! 
Why may not the Farmer succeed? He 
can — he may, and he will ! It is only to will 
and determine to be laborious, industrious and 
persevering in agricultural improvement, and 
you will be successful. My fellow-citizens, 
here let us make the resolve, that let others do as 
they may, we will spare no pains to improve the 
fair inheritance which God has given us. It is 
‘ to be observed in Agriculture, as in everything 
else, that success does not depend on a single ef- 
fort; many an experiment must be tried,and tried 
again. Even success can be improved ! The 
successful Farmer is not the growth of a day. A 
life of successful and active enterprise does not 
rrjore than suffice to make such an one. But 
as in every other occupation successfully fol- 
lowed, every day’s improvement and success 
furnish fresh incentives to other and greater ef- 
forts to further improve and succeed. 
No higher pleasure, no more innocent and 
healthful pursuit can be conceived than that of 
the Farmer. If his own hands hold not the 
plow, yet m superintending, in witnessing the 
successful fruits of energy, industry and enter- 
prise, in observing the continued blessing of 
“ seed time and harvest,” and the rr.ercy of God 
in his rich gifts of annual abundance, he finds 
enough to make his heart sing with joy, and 
