»^i_M j-i r ~i ~r i^ r )?n 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 197 
cut a :aec^ ol wheal, and gave him three days 
to do the work:. The hireling came on the day 
appointed, looked at the work he had agreed to 
do, and said he could do it very easily in two 
daj s, and he would therefore go a hunting. He 
came the next morning, and had another look 
at the work he had agreed to have done in three 
days, and concluded that by hard work he could 
accomplish his task in one day, and he would, 
therelore, attend to some business he had at a 
dram-shop. The third morning he came for- 
ward and had a careful survey of the field of 
wheat. His decision was, that there was not a 
man on earth that could cut that field of wheat 
in one clay, and, therefore, he would not try 
himself!” I am, dear sir, yours, &c., 
Clod Hopper. 
For the Southern Cultivator. 
CROP OF COTTON IN SOUTH AL.\BAM.\. 
Mr. Editor;— The past season has been fa- 
vorable for our cotton and provision crops. 
Our prospects of an abundant production were 
never more flattering than they were during the 
last summer, until the appearance of the cater- 
pillar in August'. In many fields on the Ala- 
bama river, below Claiborne, they were very 
destructive; having appeared before any part 
of the crop had matured: and although their 
progress for a time was very slow, they eventu- 
ally passed through entire fields, leaving scarce- 
ly any trace of vegetation. Fortunately this 
was not the case generally. There were in- 
stances of contiguous plantations, on some of 
which their ravages were thus marked, and on 
others very little injury was inflicted by them. 
Until within a few days past, the weather had 
been peculiarly favorable for picking. For the 
last five days it has rained without intermission, 
and there is, of course, an entire suspension of 
field work. The loss which must result from 
this change of the weather, it is apprehended, 
will be great on the river plantations, as there 
is yet a con=iderable portion ot the crop not 
gathered. An inundation of the fields, which 
we have every reason to anticipate, will destroy 
all that has not already been secured : and the 
hopes of the planters, whose crops were not 
early matured, or who have delayed their pick- 
ing from other causes, may be thus frustrated 
Prom the combination of various causes, the 
production ot the crop will not exceed an ave- 
rage of the last four years ; and with the present 
prices, how small will be the profit of the year’s 
labor! There is but one alternative left to us, 
and that is, to cultivate less cotton, and direct 
our attention to the raising of stock, and to do- 
mestic manufacture, for our own supply. We 
must diminish the quantity ot cotton for home 
and foreign markets, and purchase less. No 
other system but one approachiug to a non-in- 
tercourse will rescue the Southern planter from 
the destruction which seems to await his future 
labors. He must hereafter depend more upon 
his own resources, and he will be more inde- 
pendent of the labor of others. 
Claiborne, Nov. 25, 1844. 
“ Millions for de-/erece as the nigger said 
when a bull chased him across a ten acre plan- 
ation. 
From the American Farmer. 
A FARMER REWARDED BY PERSEVERANCE, 
We do not recollect to have ever read an ac- 
count of the good effects of persevering industry, 
that has given us more pleasure than the fol- 
lowing, nor has the degree of pleasure been a 
little increased, bv^the reflection that the recipi- 
ent of the reward belonged to the agricultural 
class: 
BEEN ELSHENDER, THE MOOR FARMER. 
There is something so lively and agreeable, 
and so thoroughly practical, in the following 
article, which we find in Littell’s Living Age, 
of the I7ib of last month, and which is there 
credited to Chambers’s Journal, that we have 
particular pleasure in transferring it to the Ca- 
binet. It presents to our view a beautilul il- 
lustration of the philosophy of farming. The 
man whose main object is the maintenance of 
his family, must be careful that his experiments 
and his enterprises shall eventually prove suc- 
cessful— they should, therefore, be of very limi- 
ted character, compared with what those may 
be, of the large capitalist — our friend Eben, for 
instance. Where the means are abundant, we 
can scarcely imagine a more pleasing and ra- 
tional employment than that of improving worn 
out or impoverished, or naturally repulsive 
soils. It is a delightful spectacle to observe 
the man of gloomy mind, roused up to success- 
ful action and public usefulness, by an object 
with which the healthiest and strongest might 
almost fear to grapple. Reference has occa- 
sionally been made in the Cabinet to the ad- 
vantages of long leases. We are aware that 
these are less strikingly obvious in this country 
than in England, where there is not so strong a 
probability that economy and thrift will soon 
enable their possessor to make himself his own 
landlord; and in the case before us, we at once 
perceive that nothing could have been done 
without a long protracted engagement. — Farm- 
er's Cabinet. 
Ebenezer Alexander, or, as he was usu- 
ally; called, Eben Elshender, a native of the 
north of Scotland, was originally a manufac- 
turer, but not being successful in this line, and 
falling into low spirits, he went to spend some 
time at a village where an elder and more pros- 
perous brother had a bleaching establishment, 
in the hope of recovering the tone of his mind 
by means ot country air and exercise. The 
place seemed at first sight unlikely to cheer up 
an invalid of the mind, being situated in a high 
and sterile district, with northeast exposure and 
far from all other human haunts; but things 
turned out much better than might have been 
expected, and we shall tell how this came about. 
Eben, in his wanderings in the neighborhood, 
was speedily attracted to a hollow in the neigh- 
boring moorlands, which might be considered 
as the only place within several miles, present- 
ing the least charm for the eye — a brook, fring- 
ed by a line of willows and a strip of green, 
formed the simple elements of the scene, and 
from Us situation it had a look of seclusion and 
warmth. He was led, by what he saw here, to 
surmise that elevation is not an insuperable 
difficulty in cultivation, provided there be shel- 
ter; and soon becoming convinced of the fact, 
his active mind in no long time conceived that 
he might employ himself worse than in endea- 
voring to clear a little possession for himself, at 
a nominal rent, out ot the neighboring lands. 
He looked around, but, excepting the few patch- 
es in the neighborhood of the village, the region 
was one either unbroken heath or ol moss of 
great depth, broken into pits, and filled with 
water even at midsummer. Nothing, therefore, 
could seem more hopeless. On the left only, as 
he looked northward, a large flat, lying far be- 
neath him, and black and barren, or covered 
brown heath, but looking to the sun, seemed to 
offer the semblance of a cultivated field, and he 
had determined to visit it. He did so, but found 
it very unpromising. The surface, though ap- 
parently smooth at a distance, was rough and 
uneven; the soil was either stony and shallow, 
or a deep quick moss, wet everywhere even in 
summer, and with no fall by which it might be 
drained. A rivulet skirted it on the east, and 
was the natural boundary in ihatdireclion ; but 
a swell many feet in height rose on the bank, 
and closed in the surface ot the proposed farm 
Iromalmost the possibility of beingdrained ; and 
there weresimilar embankments onthe northand 
west. Still it was a large surface, not materi- 
ally uneven; it lay beautifully to the sun, and 
he could but think that, if drained, and shelter- 
ed, and cultivated, here might be an extensive, 
perhaps, a valuable farm, ft would not require 
deep cuttings, as in moss flows, nor extensive 
levellings as in very unequal surfaces. He de- 
termined to think further. 
He spoke of his purpose to no one, but h'e 
brooded over it for days, again and again visit- 
ing the ground, and last he waited on the agent 
of the proprietor. Even from him he exacted 
a promise of secrecy, if nothing should follow 
upon his offer; and then lor a lease of thirty 
years, offered a shilling an acre for four hundred 
acres of that unbroken waste, with power to re- 
new his lease for thirty years more, if he should 
so incline, at five shillings per acre; but with 
liberty, also, to quit at the end of five years, 
without being liable indamages from any cause. 
Many landlords seem to fancy that though 
land is of no value in their hands, they have yet 
a right to be sharers in the profits produced by 
the intelligence, labor and capital of others, and 
that they are extremely liberal in forbearing to 
share for a few years in what had never existed 
fur them, and yet will at the end ot those few 
years, be a valuable inheritance to them and 
their heirs forever. The landlord in the p; esent 
case was wiser. He saw that he was about to 
receive immediately, lor a small portion of this 
moor in cultivation, almost as much as the en- 
tire moor brought as .an inferior sheep walk, 
and that at the end of thirty years, it would ex- 
ceed the original income of the entire posses- 
sion; while this attempt at cultivation, if suc- 
cessful, woula be an example of the utmost va- 
lue, and might give his village that neighbor- 
hood which it so much required. Not only, 
therefore, was the offer of our friend accepted, 
but wood for buildings voluntarily offered, and 
a proper allowance lor useful and well-con- 
structed drains. 
The villagers were astonished to hear that 
they were to obtain such a neighbor, but happy 
even in the hope of it. Enclosed as the place 
was by banks, which instead of admitting it to 
be drained, would, if broken, inundate it with 
water, it looked to them like a huge frying pan, 
and of course there was not abstaining irom 
some little quiet jokes. This last was indeed 
the worst aspect of the affair. There was a fall 
for draining within the farm, but not without 
it; there was no final outlet. Still, our friend 
determined on pursuing his experiment: and 
as a first measure determined to give his pos- 
session a good name : he called it Glen-Eden! 
He next marked off the site for his steading 
on a very slight but bare and valueless knoll, 
being desirous at once to sit dry and to spare 
his good land if there were any. As he felt 
that nothing would be more apt to encourage 
him than the comfort of his home, as soon as 
his turf-cottage was roofed in, he had a floor 
laid down in one end of it, and raising up slight 
ribs of wood by the walls, and continuing them 
overhead, had the whole neatly covered by a 
thin boarding, which, with the addition of a lit- 
tle carpet and a slight curtain, festooned over 
his couch — 
A conch ordained a double debt to pay, 
A couch by night, a sofa all the day — 
made his end of the tenement seem a palace 
and enabled him to look on the storm or the sun- 
shine with equal consciousness of snugness 
and security to health. Good fires soon made the 
other end very tolerable to his servants; and being 
washed with lime, though not plastered, it form- 
ed a very cheerful temporary residence. He 
had the rankest of the heath pulled and secured 
for thatch or fuel, intending to burn the rest on 
the ground as soon as the ground should be dry. 
He next laid out the fields, and ordered them to 
