THE CULTIVATOR. 
Ill 
the instructions which you gave to my queries in the 
July Cultivator. I am truly yours. 
A. SUMNER. 
If the idea is worthy of notice you can use it; if not let 
it take the fate it merits. Your most ob’t se’t. 
J. Buel. G. M. LEWIS. 
Remarks. —Tf the pitch pine boards or plank of South Ca¬ 
rolina Will last a century under ground, they will constitute 
an excellent material for underdrains—and we should use 
them to the exclusion of logs. Let the top of the box be co¬ 
vered crosswise, and not longitudinally, with plank, and take 
care to sink the drain low enough into the impervious stra¬ 
tum, if practicable, to catch the water coming from above, 
and to fill the lower portion of the drain with porous mate¬ 
rials, that tlie water corning from the higher ground may 
settle into it and pass off. If spouts or springs rise in the low 
ground, these fountains must be reached and conducted oft by 
underdrains; and if the wet lot is large, cross or diagonal 
drains may become requisite.— Cond. Cult. 
Beat this, Eastern Farmers. 
Mr. J. Buel —Sir—I have noticed in some of the num¬ 
bers of the Cultivator, what your eastern farmers call 
brag crops, or raising a great quantity of grain on a 
small piece of land. I will give you a statement of one 
or two crops of wheat, &c. that have been raised in this 
vicinity the last year. A Mr. Arland, who emigrated 
from N. Y. to this section of the country last season, 
rented 40 acres of land adjoining the town of Dixon, and 
the following crop was raised by himself and wife, (by 
the way he is a German, and the women you know, as 
well as the men, are cultivators of the soil.) 
20 acres of corn, averaging 40 bushels to the 
acre, which sold for 75 cents per bushel, 
making. 
15 acres of oats, averaging 35 bushels to the 
acre, which sold for 62i cents per bushel, 
making. ^ - 
2 acres of spring wheat, which produced 82 
bushels of good clean wheat, worth.?!.77 
per bushel,. 
300 bushels potatoes, worth in the fall sea¬ 
son of the year about 37g cents per bushel, 
What was sold from his garden amounted to 
something like 50 or 60 dollars, say. 
Making in all the sum of..'. 
For the use of this 40 acres he paid $4 per 
acre,... 
His own labor during the raising and se¬ 
curing the crop, also his wife, is worth.. 
Paid hands during harvest, threshing, &c... 
$600 
00 
323 
00 
143 
00 
112 
00 
60 
00 
$1,243 
00 
$160 
00 
300 
00 
90 
00 
$550 
00 
Making a clear profit in six months of the beautiful sum 
of $693. 
Who would not he a farmer on Rock river? The 
above is no exaggerated story, the facts are known to 
all who are acquainted with the farm and the farmer 
who produced the crop. 
Now Sir, will you be kind enough to turn the other 
ear, and I will stuff that with such a crop of wheat as 
none of the eastern farmers can boast of. A gentleman 
by the name ofjSaml. Reed, living in Buffalo Grove, 12 
miles N. W. from this place, had a piece of wheat of 14 
acres; shortly after harvest he threshed out one acre 
of this piece, and it produced fifty bushels of good clean 
wheat. I happened there at the time he was threshing. 
He has since informed me that the whole piece ave¬ 
raged 50 bushels to the acre, making in all 700 bushels. 
This wheat was sold for $2 per bushel, a great part of 
it for seed, he being one among the best farmers of our 
country, and very particular about his seed. Is there 
a farmer in any of the New-England or Eastern States 
can raise 700 bushels of wheat from 14 acres? Think 
of this you that are toiling among the stones and stumps, 
and pull up stakes, come to Rock river and raise wheat, 
get rich in ten years, and live on the interest of your 
money the rest o'f your life. 
A Sucker Raised but Yorker Born. 
Dixon Ferry, June 25th, 1838. 
The Curculio. 
Scottsville, Jllbemarle Fir. 5th July, 1838. 
Sir —I like a good idea, come from what source it 
may. A few days since, a stage coach companion and 
myself were comparing the relative advantages of our 
respective regions of country. In speaking especially 
of the peach and apricot—which with us is barely worth 
cultivation, being destroyed by the insect, which saps 
the tree at the foundation, and I presume perforates the 
fruit and renders it gummy. He informed me that a 
remedy was in practice in his neighborhood, which very 
effectually prevented the depredations of this relentless 
foe to our trees. It is simply paving around the roots 
of the tree, so as to prevent the insect getting below the 
surface of the ground. This may be done in a variety 
of ways: with small stones, usingsa wooden box to an¬ 
swer as a curbing, extending some 12 inches from the 
root of the tree : by the application of a well made mor¬ 
tar of lime and sand: or by sawing a hole in the centre 
of a wide plank, fitting it closely to the tree, then filling 
the interstices with putty: or, lastly, by what I regard 
the best plan—mixing tar and sand, to a proper consis¬ 
tence, excavating the earth to the depth of two inches, 
twelve inches around the tree, then-filling up the exca¬ 
vated portion with the cement—this, with a trowel, can 
be smoothly laid, and accurately adapted to the body of 
the tree. Whether the theory he correct I know not: 
there is plausibility in it; it is to §ome extent new to 
me. and he informs me unpublished, so far as he knew. 
Remark.— This preventive, ifefficient, can only be adopted 
on a limtied scale. But we doubt its efficacy. The curculio, 
which does the mischief, is a winged insect, with locomotive 
powers. Hogs and poultry, which destroy the insect, are the 
best preventive. All stone fruits are subject to a like calamity, 
though in a less degree.— Cond. Cult. . 
Hoyt’s Improved Patent Drill Barrow, 
Operating upon the principle of keeping the seeds 
constantly stirred up at the bottom of the seed box, and 
forcing them out, instead of leaving them to fall out by 
their own gravity. 
Description of the Cuts. 
Fig. 40, an iron shaft, § of an inch in diameter, 7 in¬ 
ches long: on one end a double pulley and six springs 
or arms, of iron or steel wire, attached. 
[Fig. No. 41.] 
Fig. 41, seed box, of wood, 9 inches long, 7 inches 
deep, 5 inches wide, represented with one side removed, 
to'shew the situation of the springs or arms inside of 
the box. 
[Fig. No. 42.] 
Fig. 42, bottom of 
seed box of tin, attach¬ 
ed to which by a screw 
in the centre is a brass 
wheel, 2 inches diame¬ 
ter, 3-16 of an inch in 
thickness, with holes of 
different sizes, in the 
outer edge numbered 
from 1 to 7 : this wheel 
turns on its centre, and 
the hole to be used is 
turned exactly to the 
centre of a large hole 
in the bottom of the 
box, and secured by a 
thumbscrew; the shaft 
is set in motion by a 
band from the running 
wheel of the barrow, and passes the spring arms a aaa 
a a across the hole in the brass wheel, and stirring up 
the seeds falling into it as it passes with sufficient force 
to eject any seeds which may not fall out: a valve is 
placed at the lower side of the brass wheel, which is 
kept shut by a spring, and prevents any seeds from 
falling out, except just as the springs are dropping into 
the hole, when it is opened by the turning of the shaft, 
lets out the seed, when it instantly closes: the distances 
between the hills is regulated by the size of the whirrs. 
[Fig. No. 43.] 
Fig. 43, harrow complete. D, frame; B, cast iron 
wheel; C, seed box; E, share for clearing away in ad¬ 
vance of the plough; F, plough, and the end of the tube 
through which the seeds are passed to the ground; G-, 
iron rods, to turn the dirt on to the seeds and the wheel 
passing over it completes the planting; A, a screw to 
regulate height of handles. 
This drill may be used for turnips, carrots, beets, 
beans, and all like garden and field seeds. 
Climate, &c. of South Florida. 
NUMBER ONE. 
Key West, South Florida, June 12, 1S38. 
Mr. Buel—Sir — I am desirous of furnishing for your 
paper, a series of articles upon the character and con¬ 
dition of South Florida; and I send you this my first 
number for consideration. Should it find sufficient fa¬ 
vor in your sight to secure it a. place in your columns, 
the subject will be continued with much pleasure. It 
is designed to speak of the country as it is—neither to 
exaggerate its favorable characteristics, nor to omit a 
sufficient detail of the objections which are justly charg- 
ab!e to this as well as to all other places under heaven. 
The fact, that South Florida is* the only part of the 
United States that possesses a tropical climate, is suffi¬ 
cient, it would seem, to give it a peculiar interest in the 
minds of our intelligent countrymen, both for the ad¬ 
vantages which would result to the nation from its set¬ 
tlement, and the satisfaction it would afford to amateurs 
in agriculture in general, and horticulture in particular; 
and for the healthful retreat which it holds out to our 
northern invalids, where they may temporarily with¬ 
draw from the severity of their winters, cr permanently 
settle and make for themselves a delightful and even 
luxurious home. 
The little information I possessrespecting South Flo¬ 
rida, has been gathered during a short residence of on¬ 
ly sixteen days at the Cape, where I intend to settle 
permanently, and a stay at Key West for the last two 
and a half years, where most of the inhabitants of the 
former place have resided since the commencement of 
the war. Of all these people I have made diligent in¬ 
quiries; and upon their united testimony, carefully sift¬ 
ed and balanced, together with my own observations, 
are based the views and statements now offered to the 
public. 
If it be objected that this information must necessa¬ 
rily be too limited and uncertain to command the read¬ 
er’s confidence, he may be assured that they who have 
written the most, and been the most liberal and posi¬ 
tive in their praises and denunciations of this country, 
are even less acquainted with it than myself. 
It is true, as has often been alleged, that South Flo¬ 
rida abounds with inundated lands and swamps, and 
contains hut a small proportion cf what is generally 
termed good soil. Nearly all the interior is an unex¬ 
plored region of fresh water lakes and wet savannas, 
whose extent is certainly great, though altogether con¬ 
jectural. But even in these are wood lands, whose va¬ 
lue and extent are also unknown. The lands bordering 
upon the bay at Cape Florida, (a sheet of water per¬ 
haps twenty-five or thirty miles in length, coastwise,) 
are chiefly dry and fit for immediate settlement. The 
same may be said of a great portion of the coast to the 
northward of that place. But to the south, after pass¬ 
ing the limits of the bay, the coast becomes low and 
subject to occasional inundations, in some places by the 
sea, in gales, and in others, by the fresh wafer from 
the interior, throughout nearly its whole extent around 
Cape Sable as far to the northward as Cape Roman, 
and from thence there is hut little improvement in the 
coast south cf Tampa Bay. This belt of dry land at 
the cape is not more than from three to perhaps six or 
eight miles wide; yet here the first settlers of South 
Florida will undoubtedly make their location. 
Having premised thus much, I will now venture the 
assertion that that class of people for idiom I now prin¬ 
cipally write, can nowherefind another place so fully 
adapted to their wants as Cape Florida audits vicinity ; 
and I proceed in the sequel to prove this assertion. 
The class referred to are inhabitants cf the northern 
states, who prefer their own republican government to 
all others, and therefore would not willingly leave it, 
hut the state cf whose health, impaired by the rigors 
of their cold and fickle climate, requires their removal 
to some country where those evils are not felt—who 
have few motives of pecuniary gain to gratify; no de¬ 
sire to dwell in populous towns in slavery to fashion, 
folly, and artificial wants; no itching for speculation in 
lands and paper village lots, cr for the sudden amass¬ 
ment of money in any way; but who desire, and have 
refinement, and taste, and philosophy enough to spend 
their days in the quiet and virtuous enjoyment of rural 
life, enclustered in an independent little world of friends 
and neighbors, where summer reigns perpetual in undy¬ 
ing verdure—or again, those of cur countrymen who 
from natural temperament and taste prefer our southern 
clime; or who, though industrious, intelligent, and va¬ 
luable members of society, are struggling with the evils 
of poverty, and harassed with anxiety for the present 
and future wants of their growing families—who dread 
the approach cf winter for the multiplied expenses which 
it demands, where the means are already scant, and 
rack their brains in sleepless nights to devise some 
change for the better which never comes; and who 
would joyfully fiy to our southern clime, could they hut 
see their way clear to a comfortable subsistence—these 
compose that numerous class of people of whom I speak, 
and whose patient attention I now desire to engage. 
The climate —particularly at the cape, and adjacent 
isles, has been sufficiently tested to put to rest all ques¬ 
tion of its salubrity. That vicinity has been inhabited 
by a population averaging perhaps about forty in num¬ 
ber, for the last forty years ; and their united testimo¬ 
ny is extravagant in praise of its peculiar healthiness. 
They assert without exception that there has never 
been a case of sickness there of any kind; and they fre¬ 
quently compare that place with Key West, giving a 
decided preference to the former, in which they are ne- 
