THE CULTIVATOR. 
135 
Correspondence, Inquiries, &c, 
Farming in the Southwest. 
We make the following extract from a letter written 
by “ Uncle Jo” Lawrence Co. Tennessee, in acknow¬ 
ledgment of the receipt of a set of the back volumes of 
the Cultivator, ordered by him. We should be glad to 
give the whole of the letter did our limits permit, for 
we like such “off hand” farmer’s letters; they always 
tell. “ Uncle Jo” may rest assured that there is no ne¬ 
cessity of a corn crop of 25 bushels per acre : and the 
crops reported from Kentucky, since an improved sys¬ 
tem of culture was adopted, fully show this. The corn 
crop of Tennessee now exceeds that of any other State ; 
by a rotation of crops and the feeding of more cattle 
and swine to make the requisite manure, this crop, if 
desirable, might be doubled : 
“ If you raise 100 bushels of corn per acre, and we get but 25, 
why in the name of common sense should we not abandon our 
plan and adopt yours ? Is it good sense to persist in known and 
willful error, merely to be thought consistent? I for one will 
try your plan, especially in corn, and if it fails, I may then have 
some grounds for complaining of your advice, and with ease 
can return to my own ruinous and impoverishing system. I do 
not believe there is one half of the folks in this part of the coun¬ 
try who hear of your large crops of corn, that believe a word 
of it. Some say the Cultivator is a Yankee machine for making 
money, and its statements, chaff, stuff, fudge, &c. They ask 
‘ do you believe half ‘ them’ Cultivators say? Ah! I tell you 
them editors will print any thing for money.’ It is true, there 
are many things new to us in your papers, and in your systems 
of farming, and if you are right, we are certainly wrong. 1 
know you are right in one thing, and that is your description of 
our manner of doing business; true sir, true as preaching. 
One idea entirely new to many of us, I will mention; that is, 
your manner of making so much corn per acre with less labor, 
and not plowing or breaking the roots. We have been taught 
that deep plowing of corn, and barbarously mangling the roots, 
was the very life of it; but the new way says you might as well 
cut off the tops as the roots in order to make the corn grow. 
Our way says your cultivators for stirring and loosening the sur¬ 
face, will set and plant the grass and weeds; but your way says 
it is the best method to kill grass and weeds. Notwithstanding 
these prejudices, I am determined to have me a cultivator made 
as nigh like some of those figured in your volumes as I can, and 
give it a fair trial. I expect to make my bread by farming, and 
I wish to adopt the easiest and best plan. We are in a bad fix, 
and so is our husbandry; poor ground, light crops, foul lands, 
bushes, weeds, briars, &c., bad currency, hard times, money 
scarce, much in debt, produce low, and hard to make. I tell 
you, sirs, we farmers must improve our systems and do better, 
or we must stay or go to the foot of the hill. The banks have 
failed, government has failed, and for relief we must now look 
to ourselves and an improved agriculture.” 
Sugar and Starch from Corn. 
A correspondent, “ Viator,” has suggested that Indian 
corn might be profitably cultivated for the sake of the 
sugar and the starch the stalk and the grain would af¬ 
ford ; and requests, if any of the readers of the Culti¬ 
vator are acquainted with any facts having a bearing on 
the subject, they would be kind enough to communicate 
them for publication. He wishes to ascertain, if known, 
the quantity of corn stalk juice it would take to make a 
gallon of molasses; and whether the “starch which 
may be obtained from the corn when the ears have at¬ 
tained their full size, and the kernels are filled with 
milk, would not justify the expense of manufacturing.” 
If any of our readers can give information on this sub¬ 
ject, we should be glad to receive it for publication in 
the Cultivator. 
During the revolutionary war, molasses was frequent¬ 
ly made from the corn stalk, and while it could be kept 
from fermentation, it was highly prized; but it soon 
became tart, an evil doubtless easily corrected by lime, 
as is now practiced in all sugar manufactories. Corn 
was tried in France for a source of sugar, but the beet 
was found to be preferable, and maize was abandoned. 
According to Humboldt, molasses is sometimes made in 
Mexico from corn stalks as it is in other places from the 
sugar cane. We question, however, whether corn will 
ever be cultivated for the sake of the sugar ; if the grain 
can be converted into starch as Viator supposes, the 
case may be different. Viator has overlooked an im¬ 
portant product of corn which it is possible might be 
made available. We have seen barrels of a fine lamp 
oil taken from the vats of a large distillery. It was as¬ 
certained that a bushel of corn worked, gave over a pint 
of oil; was easily purified, and burned, as we can testi¬ 
fy, with a clear bright flame. If molasses, starch, and 
oil could be produced from corn, it would add to the 
already high character given it by Arator, (John Tay¬ 
lor,) who pronounced it to be “meal, meadow, and 
meat.” — ’ 
To expel the Clothes Moth and Cockroach. 
A “ Subscriber” at Long Green, Md., requests some in¬ 
formation on the mode of expelling the pests named above 
from places where they have obtained a footing. Clothes 
presses that are perfectly close, may be fumigated with 
sulphur, which will destroy all insects, if thoroughly 
performed. Tobacco and camphor will prevent injury 
to clothes, if quantities are placed in contact with cloth¬ 
ing of any kind in their place of deposit; unwashed 
wool is never attacked by the moth larvae ; and it has 
been used successfully to effect their expulsion, by pla¬ 
cing locks of wool as sheared from the sheep, in places 
infested by them ; still when once the moth has estab¬ 
lished itself, it is not expelled in ordinary cases, with- 
out much care and difficulty. 
The cockroach may be destroyed by mixing with In¬ 
dian meal about one-third its quantity of white or red 
lead, and moistening the mixture with molasses so as 
to make it moderately adhesive ; this being placed in 
places infested with them will be greedily devoured • 
and by repeating the dose, the whole will be destroyed! 
Other poisons, such as arsenic, or sublimate, may be 
used mixed with molasses, but where lead, or any oth¬ 
er poison is used, great care is required to prevent dan¬ 
ger or death from its being eaten by others than those 
for which it was intended. 
Chess from Rye. 
George Muntz, Esq. of Butler Co. Pa., has forward- 
ed us an account of an instance on his farm, of the 
transmutation of rye into chess :— 
“ He harvested from a field a crop of wheat ‘ clear of cheat.’ 
turned in the stubble in August, and about the middle of Sep¬ 
tember commenced sowing with rye, plowing it in. When all 
was sown but two acres, a heavy rain lasting some hours came 
on, and it was three or four days before the field was fit to com¬ 
mence working upon, and the sowing and plowing was recom¬ 
menced after that time while the ground was still wet and clog¬ 
gy. The rye first sown, gave a fine crop of good grain; that 
sown after the rain, as fine a crop of chess, with but little rye 
mixed with it. It was observed that the chess was in the great¬ 
est quantity in the part sown first after the rain, and decreased 
as the ground became drier before sowing.” 
We give the foregoing, not because we deem the con¬ 
version supposed, possible, as our readers are well 
aware, but because the facts stated may be of use in 
cautioning farmers against sowing lands with any grain, 
and particularly the less hardy kinds, while the soil is 
in a wet and unfit condition. We have repeatedly known 
failures both of grain and corn from this cause, and 
where the regular crop fails, weeds are sure to supply 
the place. — 
Turning Cattle into the Highway. 
“ Messrs. Editors —I sat a few days since in my old arm chair 
perusing the back volumes of the Cultivator, when I came 
across the farm account of Mr. Asa Carter of Jefferson Co. N. 
Y. I perused it with a good degree of interest and good feeling 
till I came to where he says he pastured his young cattle on the 
commons, when suddenly I felt my indignation getting the bet¬ 
ter of my good feeling, and I turned away from it with a feeling 
not unlike contempt, and thinking that in that respect at least, 
I could find a better teacher than Mr. Carter. It appears to me 
the man must lack one of the most essential elements of a good 
neighbor, who will turn his cattle into the road to filch their 
living from his kind neighbors. Cattle thus turned out, become 
unruly, and are every where except where they should be; and 
are kicked, stoned and dogged by all, unless they are endowed 
with an uncommon share of patience. We have to put our¬ 
selves in battle array, and daily examine our fences by the way- 
side, or wo be to our corn fields. Who would choose that man 
for a neighbor who makes it a practice to keep a dozen head of 
cattle in the road, and half as many half-starved, lantern-jaw¬ 
ed, piked-nose, saw-horse breed of hogs that will go through a 
fence any where, where they can put their nose through ? The 
way to have good neighbors, is to keep no more cattle and hogs 
than you can keep well, and keep them at home; keep good line 
fences, and your cattle out of the commons, and my word for it 
you will have a good neighborhood. An Enemy to Litigation.” 
[We have not had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Carter’s 
farm, but we are aware that in many parts of the west¬ 
ern and northern counties where there are large quan¬ 
tities of unenclosed lands, large stocks of cattle run at 
large, finding in the woods abundance of pasturage, and 
it is possible Mr. Carter’s “ commons” may be of that 
kind, and our correspondent’s “ indignation” so far mis¬ 
placed. The remarks are, however, applicable, as the 
almanac makers say, to more latitudes than that of Jef¬ 
ferson County ; and the evil complained of, is one that 
should be abated wherever it exists.] 
Lucerne. 
“Messrs. Eidtors— Were I a writing character, I would tell 
you of a piece of lucerne planted the first week in September, 
has been cut once, and is now ready to cut again, to feed my 
milch cows. It is the first attempt at field culture in this coun¬ 
ty. A few individuals have had their beds in the garden edged 
with it, but no one has ventured to try it in lots. Mine has 
turned out so well, that I think many will give it a trial next 
year. We should be pleased to have some directions in your 
paper about saving the seed. M. Rounsaville.” 
Lexington, N. C. June 2, 1841. 
A deep dry soil, one containing considerable sand, is 
found best for the lucerne. In France, where it is cul¬ 
tivated extensively, the two great requisites are “ a 
rich and dry soil.” It may be sown in drills or broad¬ 
cast, but the first is preferred, as it gives an opportuni¬ 
ty for hoeing. In Kent, Great Britain, where it is much 
used for soiiing milch cows, it is sown broadcast, and 
as the roots run deep, after the first year it is manured 
and cultivated with the harrow, which stirs the soil with¬ 
out injury to the plant. The seed is saved in the same 
way as clover seed, but is separated from the chaff either 
by hand, or in mills, much more easily. It is an invalua¬ 
ble plant in soils and climates adapted to its culture, and 
if experience should show it to succeed in the south, its 
acquisition for the feeding of cattle, where the common 
grasses are rarely found, will be an important one. 
South Downs and Berkshires. 
C. C. Hamilton, Esq. of Cornwallis, Kings Co. No¬ 
va Scotia, asks us if we can “ inform him through the 
medium of the Cultivator, the price of pure South Down 
bucks delivered, at the city of New-York ; and if there 
are any other late improved breeds of sheep imported 
suitable for the climate of Nova Scotia : also, the price 
of Berkshire hogs, delivered as above.” South Down 
bucks may be had at from $25 to $50, and Berkshire 
pigs, 8 weeks old, at $20 per pair. 
We do not know of any breed of sheep, which we 
think would be more likely to prove successful in No¬ 
va Scotia, than the South Down, or more intrinsically 
valuable. They are hardy, make fine mutton, and yield 
wool fine enough for any ordinary purpose, and are a 
well formed, fine looking animal. 
Mr. Hamilton informs us, that the Provincial Legis¬ 
lature of Nova Scotia, at its last session, formed a Cen¬ 
tral Agricultural Board, and handsomely endowed it ; 
besides giving £75 to each county, to be expended by 
the agricultural societies. The friends of agriculture 
in Nova Scotia have made an excellent beginning, and 
they are fully justified in expecting many important re¬ 
sults in aid of that great source of national wealth from 
the expenditure. 
Straw Cutter for Horse Power. 
Jacob Glatz, P. M. Marietta, Pa. inquires" wheth 
er there is such a thing as a Straw Cutter that goes by 
horse power?” We know of none built expressly for 
this purpose, but there are thousands about the country 
worked by horse power, and nearly all the approved 
kinds may be worked in this way. The man who has 
a horse power, can easily make it available for sawing 
his wood, thrashing his grain, cutting his straw, &c. 
Green’s or Willis’ Straw Cutters, can be easily adapted 
by any mechanic to horse power. 
Com—Protection against Drouth. 
A correspondent, “ Pearl,” in Hinds Co. Mississippi, 
after entering a demurrer to the opinion expressed by 
Mr. Garnett and ourselves, in the first number of the 
current volume, that “ frequent stirring the earth is the 
best protection against drouth,” goes on to say : 
“In the driest year I ever saw a crop made, (1832,) I saw 
corn in a field where a part was plowed, and a part a plow had 
never been in, only a row dividing ; and the plowed part was so 
dry that every step you took the dust would rise, and your shoe 
be covered with the light soil. In this part the corn was badly 
fired, or rather the stems were dry some three or four inches 
high, while the others were green to the earth. I pointed out 
this field to an old planter who believed in frequent plowing 
to cause moisture to rise, and he acknowledged he could not ac¬ 
count for it. Again, in the same year I cultivated a piece of 
cotton with the sweep and harrow, another niece as usual, with 
the plow, only a path through the field dividing; and this same 
individual admitted without hesitation, the first piece stood the 
drouth the best. But with all this, I say use the plow occasion¬ 
ally, not to prevent the drouth, for when very dry, it appears 
to me the more the damp earth is exposed, and the dry earth 
turned in, the more the crop must suffer; and the more the roots 
are disturbed, the less nutriment the plant must receive. I 
have seen the finest kind of corn growing by the side of a large 
log where there was no chance of plowing near on one side, and 
the other not at all, and I believe the shade of the log prevent¬ 
ed the moisture from evaporating; then there is no absolute 
necessity of plowing for moisture, and will not the dry earth on 
the surface afford more shade to the earth than by turning it 
under ? I am decidedly in favor of leaving the earth as near 
level as possible, and keeping it light and mellow, but cannot 
see how stirring the earth will make moisture rise.” 
Notwithstanding the statements of our correspondent, 
we must still be permitted to believe that there is no so 
certain a method of preventing plants in all ordinary 
soils from suffering with drouth, as by frequently stir¬ 
ring the earth. We do not recollect that we have as¬ 
signed as a reason for this process, that it made the 
“ moisture rise,” though this is literally true ; since, in 
common soils, the capillary attraction is always propor¬ 
tioned to the fineness of the particles, as every farmer 
and gardener is aware. We believe in stirring the soil 
in drouth, because our experience has demonstrated the 
utility of such a course ; while we admit we have never 
cultivated a very light sandy one, which may possibly 
be affected as described by our correspondent. In sea¬ 
sons of great drouth and heat, however, we have found 
that heaping the hot dry earth around plants aggrava¬ 
ted the evil. The atmosphere contains moisture at all 
times, and this is yielded to frequently stirred lands in 
much greater proportions than to that not moved. This 
is easily demonstrated by placing a quantity of earth on 
plates, and expelling the moisture at a high tempera¬ 
ture, then pressing one close and compact and leaving 
the other light and porous, and exposing both to the a.c- 
tion of the atmosphere during the night, when it will be 
found the porous mass has imbibed more than the oth¬ 
er. There is another reason why frequently stirred 
soils have more moisture than those not stirred. All 
soils contain more or less decomposing vegetable or ani- 
mal matter. In the conversion of the carbon of this 
matter into carbonic gas, in which state it becomes food 
for plants, the oxygen of the air effecting this change is 
absorbed and the hydrogen set free, and this entering 
into a new combination, water is the result. This, the 
following extract from a communication by Dr. Dana, 
than whom there are few better authorities, will clearly 
show : “The amount of water proceeding from this 
source is truly astonishing. It has been found by actu¬ 
al experiment (see Nicholson’s Journal,) equal, per 
hour, from an acre of fresh plowed sward, to 950 lbs. 
While the undisturbed ground gave not a drop ;” and 
Liebig, in his late great work,admits in effect, the same 
result. If the effect observed in the vicinity of the log 
is attributable to the cause assigned by our correspond¬ 
ent, would it not be advisable to have in dry weather, 
corn shaded with a luxuriant growth of weeds, (for 
which indeed, some have contended,) to prevent its re¬ 
ceiving injury from evaporation ? 
. Carbonic Gas in- Wells.—J. S. Scatter, of Glen- 
ville, Alabama, has furnished us an interesting account 
of the expulsion of this gas from a well. It was neces¬ 
sary to dig a well at a particular point, and after sink¬ 
ing it about 20 feet, a rock was struck which it was ne¬ 
cessary to penetrate, but the well filled so rapidly with 
carbonic gas, that the laborers found it impossible to 
work, and were once or twice drawn up so exhausted 
that they were with difficulty restored. Throwing "wa¬ 
ter into the well was tried with little benefit; when it 
occurred to the owner of the farm, to try forcing a cur¬ 
rent of air into the well. A blacksmith’s bellows was 
brought, a leather tube fitted to its nose long enough to 
reach the bottom of the well, and by briskly plyin^ the 
