93 
as a legitimate means of the appropriation. Nothing 
would he less like a good general than to trust to his 
eloquence to persuade the enemy not to invade his ter¬ 
ritory ; his true course would be to make himself strong; 
and if labor should become honorable and popular here, 
it must be effected by raising the mental condition of 
that class who labor. Many benefits would result from 
such a change. You want to bring to the aid ot the 
farmer and the mechanic a most powerful auxiliary, by 
enabling him to apply more science and skill to his eve¬ 
ry day business; you would create in him a conscious¬ 
ness of his own true dignity; you would raise him above 
petty tricks and frauds, and greatly lessen the drafts 
upon his earnings to pay the price of litigation. I am 
well convinced that increased intelligence with the la¬ 
boring class of mankind, is the only true remedy. For 
one, I have always considered that man the greatest, 
and the best, who, by his own exertions, adds the most 
to the aggregate of human happiness, and I regret with 
you, that modern habits seem highly to encumber the 
earth with a very useless set of men. You well say that 
labor is the origin of wealth. Every thing that adminis¬ 
ters to the necessities, the comforts, the pleasures and 
luxuries of men, results from labor. Extend then the 
benefits of education to the farmer, the mechanic, and 
producer; and if any man has a child endowed by na¬ 
ture with more than ordinary mental powers, let him 
early encourage that child in the pursuit of useful in¬ 
dustry, and bestow upon him all the advantages of edu¬ 
cation that his situation permits; the more equal the 
distinction of wealth, the greater the sum of happiness. 
Wealth and character are usually more equally distri¬ 
buted where idleness is considered a vice and industry 
a virtue. I am, dear sir, ypurs truly, 
WM. SMITH. 
To preserve Roots in Winter. 
Leesburg, Loudoun Co., Va., May 22, 1838. 
Sir —The farmers of this county have for the last 
two years turned more of their attention to the example 
set by their northern friends, in raising roots. I, for 
one, was quite successful in raising the last year, but 
lost nearly all during the winter, for the want of a pro¬ 
perly constructed root-house. My motive in writing 
this, is to beg the favor of you to give, in your next No. 
an approved plan for one, on a small or large scale, as 
your judgment may suggest. Two winters ago I used 
my cellar for the purpose, but during all damp weather 
the smell from the turnips was disagreeable, and caused 
a constant apprehension of sickness. 
I am quite a convert to the profitable use of potatoes 
in feeding milch cows and hogs, and am now preparing 
for a large crop, which I hope I may be enabled to keep, 
from the information I may derive from your valuable 
paper. Very respectfully, your ob’t serv’t, 
W. C. SELDEN. 
Remark. —Root collars should be constructed under barns, 
or other out-buildings, with a view to occasional ventilation. 
When the out-building is upon the slope of a hill, the en¬ 
trance may be made large enough to admit a cart, or other¬ 
wise the roots may be deposited through a hatch-way, or a 
trap-door in the floor. But the main crop may be best depo¬ 
sited in pits, in dry situations, of three feet or less in width, 
the roots to be raised to a ridge in the centre, well covered 
with earth, and ventilating holes made in the crown of the 
pit with a bar, to let off the raritied air. Roots should not be 
housed or placed in a pit when wet with rain.— Loud. 
Rotation of Crops. 
Clinton College, Tenn., April 27, 1838. 
Hon. Jesse Buel —Dear Sir,—Under the l ead of 
“ Rotation of Crops,” in the last number of the inesti¬ 
mable Cultivator, you remark, “We would accept it as 
a particular favor, and the public would no doubt be 
greatly benefitted, if some gentleman in the south ra¬ 
west would furnish us with the courses adapted to those 
sections.” Fully impressed with the importance of the 
motto, “ Help one another,” and conscious of the great 
value of free inquiry and communication, I am prompted 
to comply with your request as far as I can; though I 
should much prefer that the spirit of agricultural im¬ 
provement in this quarter were sufficiently up to stimu¬ 
late some one better qualified than myself to give you 
the desired information. 
Indeed, agriculture in this part of the Union has 
heretofore been so little studied, that the rotation of 
crops best adapted to the nature of our soil and climate 
is perhaps yet unknown among us. We have, how¬ 
ever, some who wish “to improve the soil and the 
mind,” and who have devoted some attention to the im¬ 
provement of our agriculture: consequently, I am able 
to give you what I deem our best rotation, which has 
yet been practised here. And here it is but justice to 
remark, that for improvements of this kind, our people 
are almost, if not entirely, indebted to the Cultivator 
and Tennessee Farmer. 
In the outset, it may be stated, that experience has 
sufficiently proven, that the articles of cotton and to¬ 
bacco cannot he cultivated to much advantage in any 
part of our state, and that in most parts they are of no 
profit at all; hence they may be left out of our rotation 
of crops. Our surface is vegetable mould, strongly im¬ 
pregnated with lime, resting upon a clay substratum. 
It is true, we have some mountain land, of a sterile, 
barren nature, void of lime, and possessing hut little 
mould; hut the generality of the inhabited and tillable 
land is of the kind before given. Thus, nature made 
our soil fertile, but it has been much deteriorated by 
neglectful culture: still none of it is so far exhausted, 
that it may not be reclaimed by clover alone. And this 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
country and climate being by nature adapted to the pro¬ 
duction of stock and grain, the rotation should consist 
of wheat, rye, oats, Indian corn, clover, beets, turnips, 
potatoes, &c.; while our wood lands should be well set 
in timothy and herds grass for meadows, and blue grass 
for pasture. Then suppose a farmer have 150 acres of 
land which he tills. It should he divided by fences into 
three equal parts ; one of which should he sown every 
year in wheat, rye or oats, (clover and timothy, mixed, 
being sown with or upon the small grain.) Then the 
rotation would stand thus in succession: 1st year, small 
grain; 2d, clover and timothy; 3d, Indian corn; 4th, 
small grain ; %nd so round again. Thus all the tillage 
of any portion would take place every third year; and 
by this plan our lands improve in fertility at a rapid 
and cheap rate; the clover being always ploughed in 
when it is two years old. We can here enrich land 
cheaper and faster with clover than by any other mode 
of manuring. It is well to remark, that if the farmer 
choose to sow rye or oats instead of wheat, during the 
year of transit from corn to clover, he can do so with 
propriety, for clover will prosper among them as well 
as wheat; but the point of material importance is this, 
he ought not to harvest more of them than enough for 
seed. Because, if he will graze them, from the time 
they are eight or ten inches high, with horses, cattle or 
hogs, (especially the latter,) his stock will thrive on 
them nearly or quite as well as on clover, while they 
are manuring his land. The grazing should be conduct¬ 
ed in the same manner as upon blue grass, clover, or 
any other pasture.* * * § 
In this way, his oats and rye afford as much imme¬ 
diate profit as if they were to ripen and to be harvest¬ 
ed; besides, the farmer reaps a future profit in the im¬ 
proved condition of his soil, from the circumstance that 
the stock fatten the soil while fattening themselves. 
It is for the interest of the farmer not even to put a 
third of his land in corn, as the above system imports; 
but of that third a portion should be occupied in beets, 
turnips and Irish potatoes, for these products prosper 
well here, and are more economical in the rearing and 
fattening of stock than corn. Then, the farmer would 
till fifty acres yearly in corn, beets, turnips and pota¬ 
toes, and each portion of ground would be tilled hut 
once every three years. 
It may he well to suggest that all the stable and yard 
manure should he put in the hills or drills of corn, beets 
and potatoes, instead of spreading it broad cast.j By 
applying it to the hills, or immediately where the plants 
require it, all that is put on the ground is of immediate 
benefit to the crop, and thus too you are enabled to sup¬ 
ply each plant more abundantly than a given amount of 
manure would otherwise do. Your turnips, if sown 
broadcast, must of course be manured in the same 
way; but if in drills, the manure should be also in the 
drills. By thus manuring in the hills or drills, your im¬ 
mediate crop is increased to the highest perfection in 
your power, while you are thus enabled to keep less 
ground to obtain a given amount of produce, so that 
more of your land can be in clover, yielding a profit, 
while it is undergoing a cheaper and more speedy ferti¬ 
lization. Lime should be spread broadcast upon the 
high points of the field, where the soil has been washed 
away. 
Thus, hastily, I have given our best rotation, and I 
must conclude by asking you some questions. 
1st. What are the best authorities on horses, sheep, 
and swine ? Can they he had in Philadelphia; if not, 
where ? $ 
2d. What is the price of Berkshire pigs, and how 
could they be transported to Nashville, Te.?§ 
3d. Is the constitution of the State Agricultural So¬ 
ciety of New-York published in pamphlet form or other¬ 
wise ? If so, please send me a copy. If not published, 
the western country would be benefitted by the publica¬ 
tion of it in the Cultivator. || 
With high regard for your efforts, I am, sir, your ob’t 
serv’t, _ FRANCIS H. G ORDON. 
The improvement of the Mind leads to the im¬ 
provement of the Soil. 
Farmington, May 19, 1838. 
J. Buel, Esq.—Dear Sir—One of your correspond¬ 
ents. Mr. Robinson, asks what can be done to elevate 
the condition of the cultivators of the soil? 
i he zeal he evinces in his communication to you on 
the subject is worthy of all praise, and his suggestions 
may be the means of awakening a spirit of inquiry, and 
thus he the means of effecting much good. 
* This is a new, but, we are inclined to think, a good, sug¬ 
gestion. 
f We must dissent from our correspondent. Manure is in¬ 
tended not only to benefit the crop to which it is applied, but 
subsequent crops. And where does the corn crop want it? In 
the circumscribed space occupied by the lull? The roots, 
which take up the food, soon extend beyond these limits; and 
we think that if dunging in the hill gives the greatest imme¬ 
diate, spreading the manure broad cast imparts the greatest ul¬ 
timate, benefit, even to the corn crop; and that it benefits 
most if spread, and commingled with the whole stratum of 
soil. 
f “ The Horse,” by the British Society for promoting use¬ 
ful knowledge, is one of the best works upon this animal.— 
The same soeiely have made a valuable publication on sheep. 
Both of these books can be obtained, no doubt, through Ju¬ 
dah Dobson, bookseller, Philadelphia. We know of no dis¬ 
tinct publication upon swine, though most of the British ag¬ 
ricultural writers treat of them. 
§ See Bement’s letter in No. 3 of the Cultivator; for price. 
They might be sent to Nashville by water, via Lake Erie, the 
Ohio canal, &c. 
|j This request shall be complied with. 
It is true, the farmer’s calling has been despised, and 
mainly, as I believe, because the ignorant and refuse of 
the people were principally the operators, and because 
the profits of the business were so small, as not to 
tempt the active and enterprising to engage in it. If 
I am right in this view, the remedy is plain; it is, to 
induce men of intelligence to enter into the business, 
and to make it in a pecuniary point of view profitable. 
Now if the mass of the people can be made to see 
that the cultivation of the soil is equally profitable, or 
more so, than mechanical business, we shall find no 
lack of hands, and of the right sort too, to engage in it. 
Science, applied to agriculture, has, in England and 
Germany, effected this object. The new system of hus¬ 
bandry introduced there is not only enriching their soil, 
but it is gradually making it the most profitable busi¬ 
ness of all. The dissemination of knowledge here then, 
and the inducing educated men to enter upon the busi¬ 
ness, are the means to be used to produce the desired 
results. Newspapers devoted to agriculture are the ve¬ 
hicles to be used to convey this knowledge to the peo¬ 
ple ; these should be encouraged; every subscriber 
should induce his neighbor to take one, and use every 
honorable means to increase the subscription list and 
extend the circulation, that the conductors of such 
works may devote time, and labor, and knowledge, 
and talent, to make them worthy of patronage. 
I have thought, instead of forming agricultural socie¬ 
ties, (the benefits of which for the most part are tempo¬ 
rary,) a more permanent source of good would be to 
endow agricultural schools, where young men would be 
sent to acquire knowledge, and to study the art as a 
science, where practice should be united with precept, 
where professors of every branch of rural economy 
would lecture, and where every means should be used 
to instil into the minds of the students a love of the sci¬ 
ence, and to fit them to be useful to themselves and to 
the community. To such institutions the rich would he 
induced to send their sons, as not only invigorating their 
minds and bodies, hut as a means to acquire an accom¬ 
plished education. The poor, as giving them an use¬ 
ful education, and to enable them to make their way 
through life; and thus should we rear up educated men, 
well imbued with this peculiar knowledge, many of 
whom would choose agriculture as their business, and 
devote their lives to the improvement of their profes¬ 
sion, and thus produce the results your correspondent 
seeks for. 
It is by knowledge thus applied in Europe, that ag¬ 
riculture has made such advances there, and with the 
enterprize and perseverance of our people may we not 
hope to overtake our fatherland, and even rival it in im¬ 
provement. 
And why should we not have such schools to teach 
the art scientifically ? Is it not the first and most im¬ 
portant employment—that on which all others most em¬ 
phatically depend, and a thorough knowledge of which 
is more difficult to obtain than almost any other, and re¬ 
quiring a capacity, too, to master it, of as great a stretch 
as any other ? but having once acquired such an educa¬ 
tion, the field is open for talent and enterprise in which 
a rich harvest of honor and usefulness may be reaped; 
and the successful occupant of which may acquire more 
solid renown than the great leader of armies, or the 
statesman at the head of the councils of the nation. 
If you should find any thing in these suggestions of 
any value, you are at liberty to use them in the way 
you shall deem best. My object will he obtained if any 
thought I have expressed shall prove a stimulant to 
others to aid a cause which in its results will be so cheer¬ 
ing to ouncountry. 
I think I can already see a spirit arising in our land 
which will not scorn to labor until our land shall be¬ 
come eminent in this branch of knowledge. 
Respectfully yours, EGBERT COWLES. 
Mode of preventing or curing the Murrain. 
In p. 68 of our last vol. we published a communication 
from J. Smealie, descriptive of a fatal disease which 
prevailed among cows. Our remarks upon it will be 
found in p. 79. That communication induced a Ma 
ryland farmer to inform Mr. S. how to save his cows 
After repeated trials of the prescription, Mr. Smea¬ 
lie has had ample proofs of its efficacy, and has sent 
us the correspondence, which we insert below.— 
Thus, it will be seen, the Cultivator has been a means 
of saving several valuable cattle; and the letters 
which follow, we have reason to believe, may be the 
means of saving hundreds more.— Con. Cult. 
Union Town, Carroll co., Md., June 12, 1837. 
Respected Stranger, —In the last Cultivator I saw 
your letter, describing a disease which prevailed among 
your cows. My object in writing to you is to inform 
you of a preventive of disease, which I have used for 
the last two years with success. It is simple. You 
may try it if you think proper. I tie my cow in the 
stable, then let a strong man hold her by the nose and 
horn, then take the paddle we commonly use for greas¬ 
ing the wagon, dip it in the tar bucket, taking up as 
much as will stick to it, say from a gill to half a pint, 
open the cow’s mouth, and put it as far back on her 
throat as possible without hurting her; hold the paddle 
in her mouth long enough for her to work the tar off' of 
it. I do the same to every cow, and repeat the opera¬ 
tion every two or three weeks the year through, at the 
same time rubbing a quantity of tar about tbe cow’s 
