THE CULTIVATOR. 
149 
ADDRESS OF THE HON. T. H. McCALEB, 
Before the Agriculturists and Mechanics' Association of Lou¬ 
isiana—delivered at Baton Rouge on the 8th of January, 
1844. 
It is not often that we have the pleasure of perusing 1 an 
address of this nature so well written, so appropriate, and 
so able, as this one from the pen of Judge McCaleb. Not 
so practical, perhaps, as some, it still happily blends the 
useful with the agreeable, and diversities its remarks to 
the planter, with the fruits and flowers of literature. 
While he asserts that the mechanic arts have made their 
greatest progress on this side the Atlantic, he candidly 
admits that to northern genius this advance is owing, and 
points to the cotton gin of Whitney, the card machine of 
Whittemore, and the steamboat of Fulton as proofs of his 
position. We never reflect on the fate of Whitney with¬ 
out a feeling of indignation that by a mere fiction or quib¬ 
ble of law, the states, the value of whose soils he more 
than quintupled by his invention, should have deprived 
him of the benefits to which he was justly entitled for his 
discoveries. We have but room for a single extract, and 
that is one, which, though relating primarily to the south, 
is, in its principles, applicable every where. We quote 
it with pleasure, because it is precisely the opinion we 
have advanced and maintained, in regard to the capabil¬ 
ity and duty of the south as well as of the north, as the 
readers of the Cultivator are well aware: 
“But it is in another department of industry that we 
exhibit a deficiency which is the more deplorable, be¬ 
cause there is the less reason to justify it. I allude to the 
system of planting for the most part adopted in some of 
the southern States of the Union. A great change for the 
better has been effected within the last two or three years; 
but much yet remains to be done to place us on a 
footing of independence. There is no reason why the 
planters of Louisiana and Mississippi should depend on 
the States north of us for almost all the necessaries of life. 
There is no reason why you should look beyond the 
boundaries of your own extensive domains for the arti¬ 
cles required for home consumption. It is a great mis¬ 
take, a very great mistake, that the labor of the south can 
be more advantageously employed in the cultivation of 
the great staples of the South, to the exclusion of the nu¬ 
tritive grains. It is a great mistake to say you will raise 
nothing but sugar, or nothing but cotton, and then depend 
upon a market for the supplies essential to your very ex¬ 
istence. Such a system may be admirably adapted to the 
encouragement of the industry of others, but it is destruc¬ 
tive to your own agricultural prosperity, and directly at 
war with all your efforts to maintain yourselves in a state 
of perfect independence. Any one who will for a mo¬ 
ment consider the annual fluctuations in the prices, not 
only of the staples of the south, but of those productions 
which you are compelled to purchase with their pro¬ 
ceeds, will be fully satisfied of the insecurity there must 
be in imposing implicit reliance upon markets over which 
you can exercise no control, and of which you must ever 
be more or less, the unresisting victims. How often has 
it happened when the price of sugar and cotton has been 
low, that the price of corn, flour, bacon, and other indis¬ 
pensable articles of western produce, have been compar¬ 
atively exorbitant; and who can fail to perceive that 
from such contingencies in trade, the planter is always 
liable to be the greatest sufferer. * * * Instead of 
struggling year after year to be able to tell your neighbor 
how many hogsheads of sugar, or how many bales of 
cotton you have made, devote at least one-half your labor 
to the cultivation of the nutritive grain and the raising of 
every species of useful domestic animal, from the “ hog 
that walloweth in the mire” to the noble “ war-horse, 
whose neck the God of battles hath clothed with thunder.” 
Turn out for pasture the lands exhausted by tillage thro’ 
a long series of years, and so far from destroying the her¬ 
bage that may appear upon it, try to do that, which, in 
the estimation of one of the boldest and best writers of 
the last century, would render you “ greater benefactors 
to the human race than all the politicians that ever ex¬ 
isted”—try to “ make hvo blades of glass grow where but 
one grew before.” Thus, even your detestable, obsti¬ 
nate coco-grass, the object of so many bitter curses, and 
the theme of so much pitiful lamentation, may be made 
subservient to your interests. Cut down the undergrowth 
of your wild lands, and let in the genial rays of the sun, 
and the teeming bosom of a fertile soil will present you 
its verdant landscape, vocal with the bleating of flocks 
and the lowing of herds. Act as a people with vast inter¬ 
nal resources would act under the operation of an embar¬ 
go law. Husband your own resources. Look to your 
own soil. Ask no favors from others, and grant what you 
please. Thus you may plant, and thus successfully de¬ 
fend the standard of domestic independence. With well 
filled granaries, you may laugh to scorn the attacks of 
hostile, fickle, or party legislation, smile at the whims 
and caprices of commerce, and turn with listless indiffer¬ 
ence from anxious speculations on the rise and fall ia 
stocks, or the fluctuations in the money market.” 
From the report of the proceedings of this association, 
as w r e find them in the Concordia Intelligencer, (one of 
the ablest papers in the south west, by the way,) we think 
the meeting and the exhibition both interesting and prom¬ 
ising. Mississippi and Louisiana have some most able 
and intelligent men engaged in the great cause of agri¬ 
cultural reform. Banded together in these societies, their 
labors are united, and will be more quickly and widely 
felt. We wish them every success. 
HORSE AND MULE TRADE. 
It is generally known that in all warm climates the 
mule is perferred to the horse for labor, and that large 
numbers are annually sent fz*om the United States to the 
West Indies, for the use of the sugar plantations, and for 
carriage animals. Some horses are also sent out for the 
same purpose, and the trade has usually proved mutually 
advantageous. A large portion of this trade is monopo¬ 
lized by the city of New-Haven, and furnishes a very re¬ 
spectable part of the export business of that city. Speak¬ 
ing of this branch of trade the N. H. Courier says: 
“Most of these animals (horses, cattle and mules) are 
sent out in large vessels, called by the craft ‘Horse- 
Jockies.’ The deck of the vessel is converted into a sua¬ 
ble, by placing a sort of roof eight feet high over it, and 
the horses are tied in parallel rows with their heads to¬ 
wards each other. The water for their use is carried in 
the hold of the vessel, and the hay pressed in bundles, is 
laid upon the temporary roof. When they are shipped, 
they are packed as closely as herrings in a box, so that 
during the whole voyage, they are compelled to stand 
up. At first this is very tedious to the poor brutes, and 
until they get their c sea-legs’ on, they suffer a greatdeal. 
Most of the mules are brought here in large droves from 
Canada, but often times they are driven from the west, as 
far even as from Ohio and Kentucky. In fact these ani¬ 
mals are sent here from nearly every state in the Union.” 
The breeding of mules for southern markets has been 
one of the most profitable operations of the west, and 
more good mules have been produced in Ohio, Kentucky 
and Tennessee, than perhaps in all the other states taken 
together. One individual, in Ohio, M. L. Sullivant, Esq. 
of Columbus, usually sells from his own farm 200 to 300 
annually; most of wdiich go to the Baltimore market. 
Grinding corn with the cob. —Mr. John Lewis of 
Kentucky, in a communication published in the Southern 
Planter, speaks of a mill lately invented for grinding un¬ 
shelled ears of corn. He describes it as follows:—“ The 
eye of the upper stone, instead of being circular, is en¬ 
larged on one side, and a removable tube, large enough 
to admit any ear of corn, is thrust into this side enlarge¬ 
ment. Into the lower stone, beneath the end of the tube, 
tw T o knives are fastened, so that at every revolution of the 
stone, the ear of corn is swept around over these knives, 
which slice it up and grind it into meal. It is a pa'enl 
affair, answers admirably, and is fitted to any common 
mill, patent included for fifteen dollars.” Mr. Lewis al 
so says—“Mr. Robert Wickliffe, of Lexington, has hai? 
lately a sort of mill erected, which grinds up oats in thtf 
sheaf or corn in the husks. I have not examined it, ba 
am told it makes excellent chop, ready for moistening oi 
feeding dry.” 
