212 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
make farmers think and act for themselves. Further 
details would burthen the reader, and trespass upon the 
pages of the Cultivator, but we cannot refrain from giv¬ 
ing - the concluding paragraph, in which Mr. Hannam 
recommends to his countrymen to husband their own re¬ 
sources, in which we cordially agree, and think the 
advice would be useful to American farmers. 
“ It has been shown that, by a proper economy of 
manures which are now wasted or neglected, we may 
increase the 'production, and decrease the cost of food; that 
our farms, our towns, and particular localities , are sources 
from which an abundance of these manures may be ob¬ 
tained; and that they have been made use of, in some 
cases, with eminent success, and may, by the use of pro¬ 
per means, be employed in other cases with equally 
beneficial results. It remains, therefore, for us to hope, 
that the suggestions which have now been offered on 
their economy, may not be altogether fruitless; but that 
the same energy of spirit which induces the agriculturist 
to explore the caves of India, and the battle-fields of 
Europe, the coasts of Africa, and the islands of the Pacific, 
for the elements of fertility, and which carries the ma¬ 
nufacturer to the plains of Saxony and Australia for the 
materials of our garments, will lead us to cultivate our 
own resources, and make use of the vast stores which we 
possess, of the raw material of the bread of the people.” 
(p. 113.) • A Practical Farmer. 
$5* The above work has been republished by Cary & 
Hart, booksellers, Philadelphia, and may be had at the 
bookstores. Price 25 cents. 
NOTES OF A BOTANICAL TOUR—No. II. 
Mr. Tucker —In my last, after ascending the Cumber¬ 
land Mountains, Tennessee, which are at that point (on 
the road between Nashville and Knoxville,) thirty miles 
across, I made some remarks on their fitness for sheep. 
In continuation I will give you some extracts from my 
journal: 
April 15.—Frost last night. Continued on the moun¬ 
tain, going up and down hills and along ridges, having 
occasionally a glorious view of distant mountains, until 
I arrived at the Crab Orchard, at the foot of Spencer’s 
Hill, or rather mountain. This is one of the highest 
points of the Cumberland range, a mountain raised on a 
mountain. It was about 3, P. M.; a clear fine day— 
went on the highest peak where, seated on a rock, I had 
a fine view of mountain, plain, and river. The Rhodo¬ 
dendron —laurel of the south—and Kalmia latifolia —ivy 
and calico bush of the south and laurel of the north, grew 
in the clefts of rocks at the summit, accompanied with 
several vacciniums, (huckleberries.) Here also, were 
the showy flowers of the Ladies’ Slipper, Cypripedium 
acaule. Growing on the loose rocks at the foot of the 
hill, was the true Phacelia bipinnatifida of Michaux. Its 
bright blue flowers are quite pretty, but when han¬ 
dled the plant emits a rather disagreeable odor. On the 
western part of the Cumberland mountains, met Robinia 
hispidc (honey locust) in flower, and afterwards saw it 
frequently on the Allegheny mountains, near the Warm 
Springs, and other places. I should have mentioned that 
beneath a ledge of rocks near the summit of the hill I 
found a new species, the Streptopus maculatus (nobis.) 
16th.—Left my kind host about 10, A. M., and at the 
distance of five or six miles called to see a fine waterfall 
of about 90 feet perpendicular. After the water falls it 
descends along a deep gorge among the mountains. At 
the distance of 11 miles from the Crab Orchard, arrived 
at the eastern foot of the mountain, and soon drove into 
a fine farming section, and stopped at a house kept by an 
old revolutionary soldier, who was the first person I met 
in the state, who understood wherefore I was collecting 
plants. He informed me that about 20 years or more 
before a botanist, an elderly man, had spent several days 
at his house, from which he made sdVeral excursions to 
collect the plants of that neighborhood. It was proba¬ 
bly Lyon, an English botanist, who made his head¬ 
quarters at Ashville, North Carolina, who is said to have 
made an excursion of some weeks to the Cumberland 
mountains, shortly after which he died, as was sup¬ 
posed, from a cold taken in his excursion. He was 
buried at Ashville, anil his collections and papers fell into 
the hands of those who valued them not and were lost. 
1 met with but few before or afterwards, who had the 
least idea of the object of collecting specimens. The 
chief end and aim of most persons is to obtain property, 
and they are puzzled to contrive how money can be made 
from a dried plant, a shell, an insect, or a mineral. 
“ What is the U3e of a dried plant or flower?” “ It must 
be to make medicine!” How often I have been told— 
“You are getting these to take to the north and make 
medicine to send back and sell to us.” “You must be 
well paid for being to so much trouble and taking so 
much pains.” Another quite common opinion was, that 
I was collecting them “to print calico.” 
17th.—Passed through the village of Kingston to Mrs. 
Lucy's, 20 miles from Knoxville. Roads muddy from a 
heavy rain last night. People have just finished or are 
still engaged in planting corn. Shortly after my arrival, 
four young men, travellers on horseback, came in who, 
according to the usual southern custom, ride all day 
withoot stopping to dine or feed their horses. Horses will 
do well, and keep in good condition, under such treatment, 
as I can testify from experience. At Knoxville the land¬ 
lord told me that I would find a German botanist at Dan- 
dridge on my route to the Warm Springs in North 
Carolina; and on the 19th, through mud, rain, and cold, 
| over hills and rocks, I came to Dandridge, a little village 
among hills and rocks of limestone, on the French Broad 
river. Dr. Rugel, the botanist, was not at home nor did 
he arrive until next day towards night, when he came 
in loaded with plants. We were soon well acquainted 
and exchanged specimens. He was a real German stu¬ 
dent, careless of his appearance, very industrious, and 
the best prepared and equipped for collecting and pre¬ 
serving specimens of any person I ever met. Still his 
knowledge of American plants was very limited. I soon 
agreed to spend several days at Dandridge, and then we 
would make an excursion to the Smoky mountains, whose 
summits were in full view about forty miles distant. On 
the rocky lands of the French Broad, found Philadelphus 
hirsutus, (syringa,) Viola tricolor, Arabis, a species lately 
described by Mr. Sullivant; Sisymbrium canescens, CIkb- 
rophyllum taintureii, Hydrophyllum macrophyllum, Me- 
conopsis dephylla. I went about five miles from Dandridge 
down the river, and obtained an Indian plate of limestone 
(about the size of an ordinary dining plate) with scollop 
edges. It was found a short time before in a small 
mound beneath the head of an Indian skeleton about six 
feet long. The back of the skull rested on the plate with 
a very rich square piece of lead ore by its side. The field 
containingthe mounds had just been planted with corn and 
was part of a rich alluvion at an elevation sufficient to 
prevent its being overflowed by the river. Yet time 
was, within a comparatively modern period, when it 
was all beneath the water, since the ground was strewn 
with as well as contained, beds of numerous shells 
mostly of one species, the Io spinosa, which is now found 
living in the French Broad, but is by no means as com¬ 
mon in a living state as it must have been at a former 
period. Not far distant from the small mound contain¬ 
ing the skeleton, is a large conical mound, hollowed out 
at the top, apparently for the purpose of containing 
warriors, from which they could fight with greater secu¬ 
rity, or as a place to which they might retreat. At the 
distance of a few rods, is a large excavation in the 
ground, from which the earth to form the mound was 
taken. I saw the remains of several skeletons, male and 
female, which had been plowed up, and the person who 
tilled the field told us that more or less of them were 
plowed up every year. They are contained in small 
mounds which were scattered in every direction over the 
field. Fragments of Indian pottery were also common. 
Extending across both the upper and lower end of the 
field, are the remains of ancient ditches. The afternoon 
that I visited this interesting spot, was warm and sultry, 
and the person who accompanied me (Dr. Hill) was in 
a state of ill health, so that we were unable to give the 
place a very thorough examination, 
S. B. Buckley. 
West Dresden, Yates county, N. Y, 1845. 
