18 
CULTURE OF PINDARS. 
tingencies may concur in reducing the crop, it 
wiJl rarely happen that more than fifty bushels 
will be realized, even in the most favorable sea¬ 
sons. But as the seasons for rearing hemp-seed 
are variable and uncertain, it would not be safe 
to calculate upon more than 30 bushels as an av¬ 
erage for five or ten years in succession. When 
hemp is planted and thinned out, as herein di¬ 
rected, the single stalk left in a hill branches out, 
and grows to a great size. It is very important 
that the thinning process should take place at as 
early a period as possible, consistently with the 
directions given above, in order to afford the seed 
plants sufficient space for branching, while they 
are yet in a vigorous and growing state. If this 
is not done in due season, there will be a consid¬ 
erable diminution in the product. 
Hemp intended for seed should be cut soon af¬ 
ter the leaves begin to turn yellow. At this pe¬ 
riod there will be much seed that has not yet 
become ripe, but more will be lost by the shatter¬ 
ing out of the seeds already ripe, by birds, wind, 
etc., than will be gained by the ripening of oth¬ 
ers. In cutting, the stalks should be agitated as 
little as possible, as hemp-seed shatters out very 
easily. The mode of sowing and thrashing out 
the seed has been fully explained in my essay on 
the cultivation of hemp. A. Beatty. 
Prospect Hill, Ky ., Nov. 1843. 
CULTURE OF PINDARS. 
From the experiments I have made in cultiva¬ 
ting the pindar or ground-pea, I think you would 
do well to call the attention of your southern 
readers to that subject. I planted, the 18th Feb¬ 
ruary last, three acres in pindars, in rows five 
feet apart, the peas about twelve inches apart, in 
a common small furrow made with a bull-tongue 
plow, on perfectly level ground, having first bro¬ 
ken up and harrowed it well. The weather af¬ 
terward in March was very cold, wet, and unfa¬ 
vorable, and killed many of the peas which had 
sprouted, so that I had a very poor stand ; they, 
however, grew finely, and interlocked across the 
rows, and covered the ground pretty well. On 
the 27th October, 1 began digging (for fear of 
frost) by loosening the ground a little round the 
bunch with an iron fork with three prongs, each 
above thirteen inches long, and then pilch the 
fork under the top root and pry it up ; a hand 
follows and lifts up the bunch, most of the peas 
adhering to it, and shakes the sand (dirt we have 
none) all off, and lays it out straight to cure like 
hay; when sufficiently cured, tie up in bundles 
the proper size for a cutting-box, and stow away 
for winter food for horses, cows, &c., than which 
there can be nothing better or more nutritious. I 
cut a bundle of pindars, peas, tops, leaves, and 
roots, and then a bundle of rice with the grain all 
on, and thus mix them together, to feed my work¬ 
horses, and milk-cows, and find them ail doing 
better than on any food I have ever tried here. 
The pindars that are tom from the vine are part¬ 
ly left on the top of the ground, and can easily be 
picked up after a rain ; I then turn the hogs in and 
they gather the balance, and fatten as finely on 
j them as on corn. Our poorest land will yield 
j fifty to eighty bushels of the peas, and over a ton 
! of hay per acre, and, altogether, I regard it as 
one of the finest crops the southern farmer can 
raise. If we could afford to give an entire crop 
to the land, I am persuaded it would be quite as 
good as a crop of your best red clover to fertilize 
it. There has been a mistaken policy pursued, 
almost universally, in cultivating the pindar, by 
covering over the top with earth when they be¬ 
gin to bloom; this is not only unnecessary, but 
positively injurious, although the top, or vine, 
grows straight up at first, yet when it is time to 
seed, the small fibres on the end of which the 
pea grows arise, the vine inclines to the ground 
until it finds a proper location, and then extends 
its branches two, three, or four feet in length in 
every direction, touching the earth. The only 
cultivation requisite, is to keep the ground loose 
and clear of weeds and grass, and as level as pos¬ 
sible, so that the fibres on which the pea grows 
can penetrate the ground easily. I intend, next 
year, to plant pindars in hills, or, rather, in checks, 
two feet apart each way, which will cause them 
to grow in upright bunches, yielding more hay, 
and will be easier dug, and, I think, will proba¬ 
bly yield as many peas. 
For the last three weeks I have kept sixty sheep 
on five acres of sweet potatoes. They have eat¬ 
en all the leaves and most of the vines, and have 
evidently improved very much. This does not 
hurt the potatoes, and the land gets all the bene¬ 
fit of the manure. 
We had our first white frost on the 28th Octo¬ 
ber, but so very light as to hurt nothing: since 
which we have had no more, and probably will 
not before next full moon, 6th December. Last year 
our first frost was the 18th November, and very 
severe ; in 1841, the same as this year. Last 
spring we had frost as late as 29th March. We 
do not generally have frost after the 10th Febru¬ 
ary. We have had an unusual quantity of rain 
the past summer and fall, which injured our little 
crops here very much, particularly sweet potatoes 
on very level land. 
The grape is about receiving that attention it 
so justly merits here, from a neighbor of mine 
who possesses the proper degree of energy, indus¬ 
try, and practical knowledge, (having spent his 
youthful days in the Rhenish vineyards,) to suc¬ 
ceed with anything he attempts. He came here 
and settled in the woods last February, and 
has already ate grapes of his own raising; be¬ 
sides, he is a farmer in every other respect, and 
his improvements already, are well calculated to 
put us all to the blush. I trust his example 
will have a good effect on the whole neighbor¬ 
hood ; we have needed such stimulu*here bad 
enough. I have no doubt he has collected more 
manure, and made more compost for the benefit 
of his land, in the last nine months, than every 
man within nine miles of him has done in the 
last nine years. There are others, however, here, 
who are not neglecting entirely their agricultural 
interests. John J. M‘Caughan. 
Palmetto Farm , Mississippi City , 
24^ November, 1843. 
