THE CULTIVATOR. 
115 
Agricultural Papers. 
Messrs. Editors —To adopt the language of the more refin¬ 
ed sex, “ Hove an agricultural paper most dearly.” It is so, for 
the reason that it treats of matters with which I am connect¬ 
ed professionally—it informs me of the progress towards per¬ 
fection, which is making not only through th$ length and 
breadth of our own beloved country, but throughout the civil¬ 
ized world, of that art, above all others, the most noble and 
useful, agriculture. This is quite natural. The lawyer, if he 
has a soul capable of expanding beyond a “ good fee,” will 
fondly and anxiously desire the amelioration of all laws which 
govern and bind the civil compact, and his bosom will swell 
with pleasurable emotions, at every advance which is made 
towards perfection in this important particular. This is true, 
also, of the physician of elevated mind. Does he not feel a 
pleasure, when reading in the periodical devoted to his pro¬ 
fession, of the improvements and new discoveries which are 
daily made to heal the diseases and mitigate the pangs of his 
fellow mortals ? And does not increase of skill depend very 
much on his acquirement of this progressive knowledge ? 
This is surely so. How is it with the good divine and the 
philanthropist. Is it not the inmost desire of their hearts, that 
civilization and Christianity may cover the whole earth ? And 
were it not for the periodicals and papers devoted to these noble 
objects, how meagre would be the information, and how tar¬ 
dy would be their advance! The man of science thrills with 
unqualified pleasure, when reading in the paper devoted to 
his pursuits, of the progress being made in those matters to 
which inclination or necessity may have impelled him to de¬ 
vote himself. Now, why is all this so ? The cause is to be 
found in that natural and deep-rooted desire of the human 
breast, that the moral and physical evils of the world may be 
lessened ; that yearning after perfection in all that pertains 
to man’s temporal condition ; and the means by which these 
exalted ends maybe attained, are regarded accordingly. This 
is precisely the reason, why I love an agricultural paper: be¬ 
cause it is a means and the most efficient of all means, to 
elevate to dignity, and practically promote that noble calling, 
of which I am proud to acknowledge myself an humble 
member. 
I see in the pages of the Cultivator, the surest evidence 
that that formidable obstacle, which, until recently, existed in 
our country, to retard the advance of agriculture, is broken 
down and destroyed. I refer to the ridiculous idea which 
prevailed, in the northern states more particularly, that the 
profession of a farmer was ignoble and vulgar. Also, of the 
downfall of another prejudice equally formidable and ridicu¬ 
lous, that 4 book farming' was injurious ; that it was a sort of 
a 4 will o’ the wisp’—a false light, which led men through 
senseless experiments into bogs and swamps. Aye, true, in¬ 
deed it is, that ‘ book farming’ has led men into those miry 
regions, but not in the sense above conveyed. Instead of be¬ 
ing an illusory light, it has proved itself a safe and substantial 
one : alight which has conducted men through the supposed ir¬ 
reclaimable swamp, where dwelt only the croaking frog, where 
grew nothing but the profitless brake, and from which was emit¬ 
ted exhalations destructive of health and life. ‘Book farming’ 
is the very light which has pierced these foul vapors, dispersed 
them, and in in their place is exhaled the breath of sweet 
flowers, and “ tasted spicy and delicious fruits.” Has not 
‘book farming’ taught us to grow four blades, where was on¬ 
ly one? Go to the fields of him who has kept pace with ag¬ 
ricultural improvement, by reading and experiment, and then 
to those of the ignorant dolt, who fancies that perfection 
in farming was acquired by his grandfather, and that he has 
inherited it, and mark the contrast! and if it will not con¬ 
vince that agricultural papers are safe and substantial 
lights, then there is nought in demonstration. 
But let us come at once to a plain and obvious point in this 
matter. What is book farming ? Is it any thing more or less 
than a record of the experience of farmers in all that per¬ 
tains to the cultivation of crops, management of their stock, 
and the result ot investigations of scientific men in those laws 
which govern and influence the vegetable kingdom ? This is 
all, and nothing more. Who and what are the three hun¬ 
dred men whose communications are seen in the last vol. of 
the Cultivator, but practical farmers; and what they have 
chostn to publish, is it less to be believed than if they 
had “talked it off?” Surely not. Well, then, the upshot 
of the. whole matter is just what is above stated, that 
the written and published experience of farmers is that which 
constitutes ‘ hook farming ;’ and, therefore, how silly and un¬ 
founded is the prejudice against it. 
But. permit me to refer, briefly, to the unfounded prejudice, 
just alluded to, which is destroyed, and happilv, among the 
things that were, namely, that the farmer’s calling was vul¬ 
gar, and beneath the educated and “ well born.” 
It is very true that this prejudice did exist to that extent, 
that farmers themselves quailed under its influence; and their 
sons were driven into other occupations, seemingly for the 
purpose of saving the family from further degradation, and 
to elevate a part, at least, to the level of those pursuits, fanciful¬ 
ly conceived to be so much more exalted and reputable. It 
was also thought that the profession of a farmer was too hum¬ 
ble to be a lever to elevate to political and other distinctions: 
that it was too simple, because it apparently; required only 
physical drudgery to conduct it; that the natural sciences 
were too remotely connected with it, to bring into exercise 
any of the intellectual powers, or cause profound investiga¬ 
tion. But what a mighty change has been effected in all these 
particulars throughout our country! Do farmers in gene¬ 
ral feel it any longer necessary, with a view to their elevation 
and respectability, that their sons should be sent behind the 
counter, carry the pill bag, or “ take to the law ?” No. Do 
not those slippery gentlemen, called politicians, now take off 
their hats to us, after election, with as much grace, cordiality 
and respect, as before it ? Yes. Are not statesmen themselves 
tillers of the soil, proving that the occupation is not incom¬ 
patible with the highest political distinction. But why pro¬ 
ceed to adduce further testimony, when such abundant evi¬ 
dence is before me in the columns of the Cultivator, to prove 
that the profession of the farmer is no lono-er considered ig¬ 
noble and beneath the attention of men of learning and ta¬ 
lent. But think you, Messrs. Editors, that very many of the 
contributors to your invaluable periodical, or others equally en¬ 
dowed, twenty-five years ago, would have been caught with 
their names appended to agricultural essays ? Ijhink you will 
accord with me, in giving a negative answer. It is now appre¬ 
ciated as an honor by any man of whatever profession, to 
come before an assemblage of farmers ; to extol agriculture 
as man’s noblest pursuit; to dwell on the virtues it inculcates; 
to be able to grasp the keys of science, open the doors, and 
expound the sublime and mysterious operations of nature. 
Yes, it is at last ascertained that science has something to do 
with the successful cultivation of the soil; that the farmer’s 
great book of instruction, is the book of nature, and how pro¬ 
found ! and that in proportion as he acquires a knowledge of 
the laws and influences which govern the vegetable kingdom, 
so far does he become possessed of the true theory of agricul¬ 
ture ; and that he who departs least from those laws, is best 
rewarded in its practice. 
Since we cannot all dive and explore these mysteries, we 
are necessarily dependant on those who have ; and hence, 
how vastly important is an agricultural paper, to spread be¬ 
fore us, in the cheapest form, the result of their profound in¬ 
vestigations. What is the true philosophy of all knowlege ? 
Is it not to elevate to dignity and perfection, the moral and 
intellectual powers of mankind; to mitigate the physical 
evils incident to his temporal condition, ana thereby promote 
his happiness ? This is indeed a truism. Of the countless 
means to effect all this, I consider an agricultural journal one 
of the most important, for it is designed to lessen our physical 
toils, and to increase the rewards consequent of them. But 
I forbear, gentlemen, to encroach further on your valuable 
columns. 1 was prompted to say something on the subject, 
upon reading the “Hints to Correspondents,” by Mr. Chris- 
man, of Virginia. The gentleman is very correct in saying 
that “in all experiments in agriculture, it is important that the 
character of the climate, and the character of the soil should 
be known.” I have observed with considerable regard, from 
time to to time, an omission to state these and other impor¬ 
tant particulars, by correspondents of our agricultural jour¬ 
nals. It seems to me doubly important that these matters 
should, hereafter, be more strictly attended to, for the reason 
that the Cultivator circulates the length and breadth of our 
vast country. Let every correspondent give the county 
and state of his residence; and, allow me to add, let all be 
extremely cautious in communicating the results of their ex¬ 
periments. They should, in all cases, be most thoroughly 
tested, lest they mislead. It was observed by the elder Pitt, in 
one of his famous orations, “that confidence with the aged, 
is a plant of slow growth.” So it emphatically is with many 
farmers yet, in regard to agricultural papers; and peradven- 
ture they are only once led astray, by foliowiug some new, but 
ill tested experiment, the plant of confidence will be slow to 
revive, and in many cases wfither entirely. Let us look well 
to these matters, my brother correspondents, and by so doing 
we shall preserve the deservedly high character which the 
Cultivator has attained. Let us endeavor to exalt it to a text 
book, that in case of controversy or doubt, a reference to it 
will be considered the last “ court of appeal.” 
Your friend, L. A. MORRELL. 
Lansing, Tompkins Co., N. Y., Feb. 13, 1841. 
Culture of Tobacco. 
Messes. Gavxord & Tucker—I n looking over your val¬ 
uable paper, I observed you expressed a wish that some of 
your subscribers would give an account of the management 
of Tobacco. Having been a planter for many years, I will 
offer to you what information I have on the subject. In the first 
place, to raise the plants is of the utmost importance, for 
which purpose we select a warm exposure on a south hill 
side in the woods, (newground being always preferred,) dean 
off ail the wood and rubbish, rake off all the leaves, and then 
pile on pine brush, say about from two to three feet thick, all 
over the bed, and then set it on fire ; (the brush should be got 
and put in place any time during the winter, and the beds 
seeded as soon as the frost is out of the ground;) after the 
brush is burnt out, rake off all the large coals, and dig up the 
bed with hoes, taking care not to go below the soil, and tak¬ 
ing out all roots as you go; then rake off the bed with a gar¬ 
den rake, and sow the seed; then go over the bed with a 
light brush, (with the hand) and be careful not to put the 
seed too deep in the ground, after which tread the bed all 
over with the feet, so as to make the ground close and com- 
act; and then cover the bed all over with a light covering of 
rush, to protect the plants as they come up, from late frosts; 
pine brush is the best for that purpose; after the plants get a 
good size and there is no further fear of frost, take off the 
covering of brush, and you will then find it necessary to take 
out the weeds from the. plants,«which must be done with the 
hand, (the hands must take off their shoes so that they will 
not bruise the plants.) After removing the weeds you will then 
put over the bed a top dressing of very fine manure, which 
vou may continue from time to time as you think proper; the 
beds require constant picking, as we term it, to keep down the 
weeds; the plants will be ready to remove about the last of 
May or first of June, when they are to be drawn out after a 
rain and transplanted in the ground previously prepared, in 
the following manner. 
The ground should be of the best quality, and a good clo¬ 
ver fallow, plowed in the fall, manured and cross plowed in 
the spring, (just before planting) well harrowed, and then 
laid off with a plow at three feet each way; every square 
thus made to be scraped with the hoe to a hill, in which 
the plant is to be set; after which it is to be worked very 
much like corn, with the plow, cultivator and hoe; it will 
take three months to ripen, when it will be fit for housing. 
I should have stated, that during the time it is growing it 
will put out suckers from every leaf, which must be broken off, 
talcing care not to break the leaf from the main stem. It will 
also put out a blossom from the top, which we call in the first 
stage buttoning, and which must be broke off at about two or 
three feet from the ground, so as to make the plant spread 
and prevent its running up too spindling; when the plant is 
ripe, it will assume a spotted and yellowish appearance; it is 
then cut and suffered to lay in the sun for a short time to 
make the plant fall, and then can be picked up and carried in 
carefully to the house without breaking. It is then put on sticks 
and hung up in the house to dry; when dry and during a 
moist time in the spring, or late in the winter, it is taken down 
and the leaves stripped from the stalk, tied up in bundles, 
keeping the different qualities separate from each other, and 
then put down to condition, as we call it, that is, it is put in 
large bulks and weighted down, where it will go through a 
sweat; you must watch.it, and as soon as you find it begin to 
heat, take it out, hang it up in the house to dry, and after it 
has thoroughly dried, the next damp spell take it down, just in 
order not to break, and put it again in bulk; it is then ready for 
packing, and I would advise any of your correspondents, or 
others that make tobacco, to use one of Mr. Murray’s presses 
for packing tobacco ; they can be had of Mr. Murray, on 
West River, A. A. County, Maryland, and are the best ever 
used; they are in common use in the tobacco growing parts 
of Maryland, and preferred to any other; they will pack from 
ten to twelve hogsneads a day, and by the old plan we could 
never pack one a day. If this information will be of any 
use to you, you can use it, and I shall be pleased to have con¬ 
tributed my mite to a good cause, and you may hear from 
me again. A Planter. 
The Elms, March 10, 1841. , 
We shall be glad to receive the plans, &c. spoken of in 
the note, which accompanied the above. Eds. 
Cotswold Sheep. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker— Permit me to give you a 
short statement of a small flock of Cotswold Sheep, which I 
purchased last summer from those imported by Messrs. Cor¬ 
ning & Sotham. 
My purchase consisted of eleven ewes and a buck—eight 
of the ewes were yearlings, having lambs this season. They 
have been fed through the winter on hay and turneps, no 
grain whatever, being given to them until after lambing, 
when a few oats were fed to the ewes. Unfortunately for 
the rapid increase of my flock, 8 of 10 of my lambs were 
bucks. 
About three weeks since I sheared them—their clip ave¬ 
raged 8flbs. per head. My buck sheared 12^—and one ewe 
ll|lbs. 
1 had the misfortune to lose, early in April, what I consid¬ 
ered my best ewe—a very large and handsomely shaped ani¬ 
mal—whose pulled fleece weighed lllbs. I have her lamb of 
last spring, which promises to be as good as herself. The 
remainder are all in excellent health, and in capital order— 
and the ewes good milkers. The ewe I lost was, at her death, 
as fat a sheep as I ever saw, even when thoroughly fed for 
the butcher—and I fear that was the chief cause of her death, 
which was sudden, being apparently well a few minutes pre¬ 
viously, for, on examination, I could find nothing that would 
would indicate disease I am, very respectfully, 
j. McDonald McIntyre. 
Albany , June, 1841. 
Letters from West Tennessee,—-No. 2. 
Messrs.. Editors —Our latitude is, I believe, just 35°—some 
eight degrees nearer the equator than your city of Albany. 
There is, of course, all the difference in the world in the 
climate—very perceptibly so. We have seldom much winter 
before Christmas, nor <fe> the farmers make any calculation 
for frost before the latter days of October. Snow sometimes 
falls to the depth of one or two inches, though even this i3 
rare. 
A greater fall than this has been known, but it is exceed¬ 
ingly unfrequent. And of such power are the sun’s rays at 
mid-dav, that with a clear sky a few hours will dissipate it all. 
I have known it to lie upon the ground for several days, but 
the fact of its rapid dissipation is of most general occurrence. 
One or two inches, is for the most part, the depth of frost 
in our coldest months. Indeed, you can form your own esti¬ 
mate of this fact, when I state that it is very rare to pass the 
month of January, without some plowing done. During 
the past winter, which was unusually severe, the thermome¬ 
ter on some occasions was as low as 12 degrees of Fahren¬ 
heit’s scale—but such extreme weather as this was of short 
continuance. 
We have a great deal of rain, however, in the winter and 
spring, which retard farming operations very much. The 
summers are, of course, hot, but not so oppressively so as might 
be supposed. I have suffered more from heat in the north¬ 
ern states than here, owing to the fact of a more general pre¬ 
valence of refreshing breezes in the south, and owing, too, to 
another cause, that here, we make it a matter of more atten¬ 
tion to be shielded from the sun’s rays. Any undue exertion 
in the heat of the day is overcoming. 
April and May are lovely months—and nothing, I am sure, 
can surpass a Tennessee autumn. Indeed, and in truth, a 
lovelier climate than southern Tennessee and northern Mis¬ 
sissippi, there can be none upon the broad surface of the 
American Union. North Mississippi is quite new and is 
now in rapid progress of settlement. ’Tis but some five or 
six years since its purchase from the Chickasaw Indians, 
and already large and flourishing towns have sprung up as if 
from a stroke of magic. Holly Springs, the county seat of 
Marshall county, is quite a large, wealthy and agreeable town 
—its growth has been rather too rapid, some think, but this is 
a fault of Mississippi generally, and is one cause of the pres¬ 
ent depression there. 
I have heard gentlemen who have traveled considerably 
in the south and south-western country say, that this part of 
Tennessee and the northern counties of Mississippi is the ve¬ 
ry choicest country of all they had seen, either as regards fer¬ 
tility of soil, loveliness of climate, intelligence of people or 
convenience to market. The great “ father of waters,” the 
Mississippi river, affords a very rapid communication both 
north and south. Louisville, Cincinnati and St. Louis are 
but three or four days’ journey distant, and New Orleans, 
which is some eight hundred miles below, seems as a neigh¬ 
boring market town. 
The general appearance of the country here is rolling, and 
in some places rather broken. The soil is purely alluvial, and 
totally destitute of stone. The clay stratum is twenty or thir¬ 
ty feet deep and often deeper. But for the most part, at 
this depth a light sand and gravel is encountered. Stone 
lying upon the surface, is a very rare sight here. Various the¬ 
ories are afloat regarding this broad scope of alluvial country, 
known generally as the Mississippi Valley. Some suppose that 
the bed of the. river has, in the lapse of’ages, been changed: 
this doubtless is true, but a theory supported by many and ap¬ 
parently upon good ground, is that the Gulf of Mexico had 
once its bed between the Alleghany and the Rocky mountains, 
and that it has receded thence—these, however, are specula¬ 
tions for the curious. 
Memphis is situated upon what is called the fourth Chicka¬ 
saw bluff. This ridge terminates there abruptly at the river, 
and the highest point may be some 60 or 70 feet above the 
bed of the river. According to Bancroft’s United States, it 
was near this place that De Soto, the Spanish adventurer, 
crossed the Mississippi in 1541. One of the counties in North 
Mississippi is called De Soto, and its seat of justice is called 
Hernando ; an appropriate tribute to the discoverer of Mis¬ 
sissippi. Fayette Co., Tennessee, May, 1841. E. H. K. 
