178 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
not, is it not clear that as 20 is to 1, in the same 
proportion mu.st and will be the number of 
overseers whose greatest boast will be (their in- 
terest guiding them) “ the number of bags made 
to the hand.” 
I perceive with pleasure (though but an over- 
seer) that the spirit of improvement in agricul- 
ture, is daily spreading in Georgia, and trust, 
with the aid of your valuable paper, that the day 
is not distant when something like the following 
questions will be asked an overseer, previous to 
employing him ; 
Who did you live with last year? 
Does he take the Southern Cultivator? 
Do you take that paper ? 
How many men worked in the field? 
How many women worked in the field? 
How many boys under 14 years of age? 
How many women had chi'dren that year? 
Did anv of those children die ? 
Were the negroes generally healthy ? 
How much pork did you raise for sale, be- 
sides your own consumption? 
How much corn? 
How many bushels peas ; do. potatoes ? 
How many acres of turnips ? 
How much small grain did you house ? 
How many pounds of wool? 
How many beeves did you kill; and did you 
save all the hides ? 
How many acres did you cultivate to the hand? 
How many acres to each horse and plow? 
How many acres did you manure; and in 
■what manner; and of what sort; stable or marl, 
and what quantity to the acre? 
Time and manner of cultivating the various 
products of the farm? 
Let a man be also asked his reasons for the 
success or failure of a crop. 
You will confer a favor, Mr, Editor, by giving 
statistical information on the following heads, 
besides others -w'hich may suggest themselves to 
your mind. 
What is the number of male slaves in each 
county of the state ? Do, females ? 
What is the number of boys under 14 years 
of age, in each county of the state? Do, girls? 
If possible, number of cotton plantations, with 
number of acres planted. Number of acres corn 
planted. Number acres of wheat and other small 
grain. Number of horses, mules, cattle, hogs, 
sheep and goats. 
Amount of export, and the various articles. 
Amount of import, and the various articles. 
Manufactures, founderies, &c.,— with prices 
annexed to exports and imports. 
Number of agricultural societies in the state. 
Number of persons who take the Southern Cul- 
tivator, 
Should this communication prove acceptable, 
if furnished the above statistical information — 
you may again hear from, 
A Georgia Overseer. 
Florence, Stewart Co. 
Married Men. — The more married men you 
have, says Voltaire, the fewer crimes there will 
be. Examine the frightful columns of your 
criminal calenders— you will there find a hun- 
dred youths executed for one lather of a family. 
Marriage renders a man more virtuous and more 
•wise. The father of a family is not willing to 
blush before his children. 
From the Transactions of the N. Y. Slate Ag. Society. 
ON THE IMPROVEMENT AND PROFITABLE CUL- 
TIVATION OF CLAY LANDS. 
[Remarks of John P. Beekman, President at the Co- 
lumbia County Fair.] 
Fellow-Citizens : — The third exhibition of the 
Fair of the Agricultural Society of Columbia 
is ended. We have now met to receive the 
usual adaress, and then to distribute the several 
prizes to which that exhibition has led, to tho.se 
who have just won them. Here our labors, as 
a Society, for the year are closed ; but I trust, to 
be individually renewed, with increased exer- 
tion, and better success for the future. Compe- 
tition, such as this Society engenders, cannot 
but be useful to the Farmer; * for here he has 
the evidence of the skill of his neighbors before 
him, and it he will not profit by the lessons 
these teach him, depend upon it, he is not a man 
for times like these. 
The march of society is onward, and more 
has been done in the fast forty years for the im- 
provement and happiness of mankind than in 
many centuries before. The life of the Farmer 
is that of constant exertion, but when his labors 
are rewarded and his hopes cheered by fruitful 
returns, and all the comforts that necessarily 
follow, he will look back with pleasure on the 
past year that has ensured him the reward of 
his toil. This gratification is not lessened by a 
feeling of independence that springs from well- 
conducted efforts, nor by the estimation in which 
he sees himself held by an intelligent commu- 
nitv. Under such circumstances, he proceeds 
with renewed energy to his work; and whether 
by the evening-fireside or under an August sun, 
he feels the same buoyancy of spirits, the same 
ardent desire to press forward its execution. 
Seed-time and harvest, summer and winter, 
follow each other in quick succession, and so 
do the seasois of our lives: but when our sum- 
mer is gone and winter is come, we wdll at least 
have the consolation to think that our lives of 
industry and sobriety have not shortened our 
days or lessened our enjoyments — and that old 
age will find us with no premature infirmities, 
with a reputation well established, and a com- 
petence to support declining years. 
If the life of the farmer is a life of toil it is a 
life rich in the comfort it aftords, and richer still 
in the independence which springs f-om it. He 
lives not alone for himself— he lives for the 
benefit of mankind. No country can prosper 
without him, no government exist without him ; 
he is the lever that sets in motion all the ele- 
ments that conduce to the existence, comfort 
and happiness of man. He has cleared your 
forests, made your roads, furnished the materials 
for building our villages and cities. He builds 
your school houses, erects and supports three- 
fourths of your temples of worship; and if edu- 
cation, civilization, religion, or good govern- 
ment is to be settled or promoted, you are sure 
to find in him a firm and steady friend. Gene- 
rally kind and humane, the poor have in him 
a friend on whom they can depend ; and its 
habits of industry, sobriety and morality, ensure 
stability to republican government, and furnish 
examples upon which the lives and habits of the 
rising generation are formed. The product of 
his industry supplies us not alone with the ma- 
terials for trade; but on him, under Providence, 
we depend not only for existence, but for the 
thousand comforts that follow from labors so 
bountifully blest by our Maker. 
To encourage this man in his great work, we 
have met this day ; and if aught we have said, 
or can say, can add to his wealth, intelligence, 
respectability or usefulness, we have long since 
been repaid a thousand-fold in the benefits he 
has conferred upon this whole community. 
Last year, fellow^-citizens, when I had the honor 
to address an audience like this, the principal 
subject of remark was upon the construction of 
the plow, and the necessity of good and care- 
ful plowing to increase our just expectations 
for ample returns for our labor. 
The subject to which I would now call your 
attention is, the improvement and profitable 
cultivation of our clay lands. 
It is not necessary, on the present occasion, 
tnat 1 should go into a close analysis of the dif- 
ferent kinds of soil, bu' to state that the lands in 
this section of the State are composed princi- 
pally of flint, lime and alum, or in other words, 
clay. The best lands for arable husbandry 
havea proper mixture ofthose three ingredients ; 
and when they are so blended, they constitute a 
soil that admits of the most profitable cultiva- 
tion. 
In some parts of our State they are so mixed; 
but this is the case in a small portion of our ex- 
tensive country. Here we must take things as 
we find them; and as in this section, for many 
miles up and down the Hudson river, but not 
more than a mile or two in width, we find a 
streak of clay bounded on the west principally 
by a streak of sand ; on the east by one of flint 
or gravel; it becomes us to inquire whether 
anything can be done with this clayey portion, 
which is now our poorest land, to reclaim it, 
and make its cultivation more profitable. Che- 
mists tell us that the most profitable lands are 
those which are composed of three-eighths of 
clay, three-eighths of pulverized limestone, and 
two-eighths of sand, or about this proportion ; 
ard an excellent soil for wheat is composed of 
three-fifths of sand, two-fifths of three earths, 
lime, flint and clay. I do not use chemical 
terms in speaking of these earths. I use only 
the English words, that I may be easily under- 
stood, for the object of this address is to be prac- 
tically useful. 1 wish then, that you would 
bear in mind that it is the proper mixture ot 
these ingredients, clay, sand and lime, that con- 
stitutes our most fertile soils; and it follows 
that, when either of these three substances is in 
more than due proportion to the other, or the 
earth is entirely composed of the one, so sterili- 
ty proportionately as’necessarily follows. It is 
not alone agricultural chemists who have made 
these observations, but our best farmers have 
long since discovered that a soil judiciously 
mixed, if I may use the term, is the most con- 
genial to the easy and profitable culture of all 
grasses, grain and fruits. 
One of the most noted chemists, Berghman, 
tells us, as corroborative of the preceding re- 
marks, that these three earths enter into the 
composition of plants, or in other words, plants 
are made from them in different proportions ; 
and he tells you how much of earth enter into 
the composition of wheat, oats, barley, rye, po- 
tatoes and clover. 
It therefore admits not of a doubt — because 
the man ot science and the practical farmer, 
unknowm to each other, and by different modes 
of reasoning, bring the results of their respective 
observations to the same point. 
The one tells us that these three ingredients, 
lime, sand and clay, constitute the best land; 
and the other tells us, that he finds by analysis, 
that these several soils enter into the composi- 
tion of the plants themselves. So far, all is 
right. Now, what practical deductions can be 
dravm from the above facts ? Plants, we all 
know, derive their nourishment from the soil 
they stand in, and the air by which they are sur- 
rounded. If the soil which they stand in does 
not admit of an easy egress of the roots of the 
plant through it, and likewise afford it that food 
most congenial to its growih, the air by which 
it is surrounded can do little to bring it vigo- 
rously forward. 
Clay, unmixed, we know, becomes hard by 
heat; and it is of such quality, that the admix- 
ture of water with it makes it unpleasantly ad- 
hesive. In summer, therefore, it is apt to be- 
come dry and hard; and in spring and fall or 
wet weather, too tenacious of water and holds 
it too long for plants to thrive in. Our object 
is, therefore, to prevent it from baking in dry 
weather, and in wet to permit the moisiure to 
pass through it, that neither excess may be in- 
jurious to the growing plant. 
There is a single remedy and a simple reme- 
dy for all this; and that is, to follow up our first 
suggestion, confirmed by both the philosopher 
and farmer. Open and mix the soil, so that the 
roots of plants pass freely through it, and the 
