A MEXICAN COTTAGE —COTTON CROE EOR 1843. —IMPLEMENTS EOR THE SOUTH. 
3G5 
ing the yoiuig corn, or roots when it is run through 
the rows. After the harrowing., my ground re¬ 
ceives at the commencement, i find this instru¬ 
ment quite sufficient to keep the ground in first 
rate order. 
Under this mode of management, my crops have 
averaged about 70 bushels of shelled com per acre. 
I am still undecided as to the best distance to 
plant corn; or whether hills are better than drills. 
C. Baker. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
COTTON CROP OF 1843. 
Log Hall, Miss., November 19,1843. 
I have long since made up my opinion that the 
cotton crop will not exceed 1,800,000 bales ; and I 
am strengthened in this, from recent information, 
by letters, estimates I have seen, and conversations 
with planters, merchants who have travelled, and 
from facts in my own neighborhood. A writer in 
the Charleston (S. C.) Courier, of Oct. 28th, gives 
the dates of the killing frosts for the five past years, 
and shows when it occurred before November, 
that the crops fell short of the above estimate. 
The killing frost of this year was four days earlier 
than for the five preceding years, which, with the 
crop being nearly one month more backward than 
last year, must make its injury very far greater. 
The frost on the 18th of October, destroyed all 
bowls where the cotton was not matured, north 
of 33° in Georgia and South Carolina, thereby ren¬ 
dering the crop short 200,000 bales, as given me in 
a private letter, from a large planter and a very 
intelligent gentleman, under the date of Nov. 8th. 
There is another count in the matter, the crop has 
opened later than usual, more bad weather than I 
ever saw, thereby throwing the picking season far 
behind our usual time. 1 can point out good and 
attentive planters, that have not one half gathered 
now that they had last year; others, that the crop 
is much lighter; and in all this region no man has 
gathered near his former average work. 
M. W. Philips. 
AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS FOR THE SOUTH. 
We trust that the writer of the following letter 
will excuse the use we make of it, as it is a sam¬ 
ple of many we are continually receiving, and our 
object in publishing it, is for the good of the south. 
We know that the south is in want of improved 
agricultural implements, suitable for their peculiar 
crops, and system of cultivation, and that a finer 
field does not exist for the genius of some of our 
northern mechanics to display itself than that re¬ 
gion, and we are confident that if a few of 
them would go out there, and study the necessi¬ 
ties of the planters, that they could not but do 
well in manufacturing agricultural implements for 
them. The plows of which Mr. Potts speaks, 
would not suit, we think, exactly, and we shall 
forward some drawings of our own to him in a 
few days, for criticism. We are of opinion that a 
satisfactory implement may be made for $10, not 
to exceed 55 or 60 lbs. in weight, and which will 
completely clean the space between the rows of 
cotton and sugar, in passing through them up on 
one side and down the other a single time each way. 
Parish of Iberville, Nov. 22 d, 1843. 
In No. IX. of your paper, page 257, you enu¬ 
merate, among the agricultural implements. ex¬ 
hibited at the 16th annual show of the American 
Institute, “ Three-share plows turning three light 
As your periodical is 
taking a wider range 
than is usual with agri¬ 
cultural publications, 1 
herewith send you the 
cut of a Mexican Cot¬ 
tage ; the style is com¬ 
mon in the Tierra Ca- 
liente, and is adopted 
alike by the lower class¬ 
es and Indians. It. is ta¬ 
ken from a work just 
published by Mr. Win¬ 
chester, called Mexico 
As It Was And As It 
Is,.: by Brantz Mayer, 
Esq., abounding, among 
other things, with some 
notices of Mexican agri¬ 
culture, products, and 
stock. I may speak of 
these more particularly 
hereafter. W. E. L. 
A MEXICAN COTTAGE.— (Fig. 62.) 
