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38 AGRICULTURAL. DANIEL LEE, N. D., Editor. SATURDAY JUNE 85, 1559. HOW THE REAPING MACHINE WORKS. Cyrus H. McCormick, the inventor of the patent Reaper, has recently given the Theologi cal Seminary of the Old School Presbyteria n Church, located at Chicago, one hundred thou sand dollars to endow four professorships. The donor is a bachelor, and a Virginian by birth. —— CORN AS A SOUTHERN STAPLE. The people of the United States annually con sume over six hundred bushels of corn; and if proper attention were paid to the preparation of this staple for export to Great Britain, the in habitants oftlie British Islands would soon take one-third of all our crop for the production of beef, pork, mutton, and for the consumption of man and working animals. English farmers are actually using wheat to fatten neat cattle, be cause it is cheaper than oil cake, or any other food which they now import. As many of the thirty millions of the Queen’s home subjects as can get fat beef, mutton, bacon, and other meats, will purchase them, cost what they may; and no one can doubt that their means of gratifying their tastes, in this particular, increase much faster than their numbers. Every farmer in tliis countiy knows that corn is admirably adapted to the purpose of fattening all domestic animals: as agricultural chemists know that it contains more than twice the quan tity of oil found in wheat, oats, rye, or barley, or in any other cereal. There are, on a fair average, about eight pounds of oil in one hun dred pounds of sound corn. The South has many advantages for tho ex tensive Cultivation of this grain for exportation, a few of which we will name. 1. The heat of our tropical summers bring the plant and its seed to great perfection; so that, whether the grain is wanted for making bread, for feeding live stock, or for distillation, it yields the maximum of those organized substaaees which render it valuable. 2. From some experiments which we have made of drying corn in the sun, we believe that no kiln-drying is required in the climate of Geor gia, to put up corn dry enough to keep perfectly sweet tho year round, whether it remains in this country, or is sent to England, or Brazil. About one-half of the moisture in common crib corn may be easily expelled by drying it in the direct rays of the sun; and if it be then put into good cotton sacks, made nearly impervious to air and humidity by some cheap gum, like India rubber, to exclude dampness, no souring, nor fermentation of any kind, will take place, to im pair the fine quality of the grain, or of the meal manufactured from it. We have the cotton, to make all the bags needed, and can sun the com and put it up so that the producers of fat meats in England may have a sound article, superior to wheat, rye, barley, oats, or peas, for all fatten ing purposes, and save their bread-corn, particu larly wheat, for human consumption. Confident of success, the writer hopes to be able to sun-dry and put up one hundred bushels of new com, (the first that is ripe,) and send it to Liverpool to test his views on this great Southern staple in a practical way. 3. Georgia contains swamp lands enough, which ought to be drained, to grow thirty million bushels of com a year for exportation. This would equal her whole cotton crop, and make her an “Empire State” indeed. Our trade with Great Britain last year fell off some twenty-five million dollars, simply because we were unable to pay for all the products of British industry which this country would gladly have consumed. The intelligent and enterprising people of the cotton growing States ought to supply England with two hundred million bushels of corn a year for feeding live stock. American farmers use over four hundred million bushels a year, in a similar way. The prepared bags in which thoroughly dried com is sent to England, may be cheaply sent back again for use a second time; as the freight on an empty bag cannot be over a cent or two from Liverpool to Savannah or Charleston. 4. England now imports about one hundred mil lion bushels of wheat a year, or the equivalent in wheat flour. This fact shows the scarcity of bread-corn; and so soon as sound corn is found in all English markets, tho masses will learn to eat com bread quite as largely as it is consumed in the United States, by persons of European de scent. No ore can blame them for not liking musty and sour corn meal. We must send them a sound article; and their dealers in breadstuffs must learn to keep both maize and its meal dry in that damp climate. Most men know how lia ble shell com and its meal are to spoil even in our dryest weather, if kept in masses. They im bibe moisture from the atmosphere more readily than wheat and its flour; and therefore a bin of com will spoil, where one of wheat will keep sound. The best plan of preserving grain, flour, and meal is not so generally, nor so well understood in any country as it ought to be. The ancient Romans, Egyptians, and Assyrians, provided against years of scarcity and famine, with far greater skill in storing up masses of suu-dried wheat and barley than is now practiced any where. Com growers in our time may learn some useful ideas from man’s early necessities and economy in this matter. We can do something toward feeding the hungry in other lands, if we set ourselves at work in the right way. There is more money for American farms in the com plant, indigenous as it is to the continent, and our peculiar climate, than in any other three plants that can be named. Our European prejudices and education have kept us, as well as the in habitants of the old World, ignorant of many o* 5?a3E JKBS VXREBX9X. its advantages. True, our annual consumption will soon reach a thousand million bushels; but for hay, as grown from broad-cast sowing, how few appreciate its value! The pulling of com blades proves the lack of agricultural knowledge in reference to this American plant. Fodder obtained in this way, involves as great a loss of labor as would be experienced, relative ly, provided a cotton grower should discard his gin and hand-pull all lint from the seed, as he hand-pulls com forage for his mules and horses not to name other stock. The South loses over thirty' million dollars in hard and need less labor, every year, by practicing a wrong sys- ! tem of making corn hay. How many genera tions will live and die before a general reform takes place? Ten thousand pounds of good com i fodder may l>e grown on an acre, if one will on- i ly take a little pains with this important forage crop. CLOVER CULTURE AT THE SOUTH. Edgefield C. H., June 11th, 1859. 7b the Editors of the Field and Fireside—Dear Sirs: I see by your last issue that Dr. Lee, of the Agricultural department, offers to the sub scribers of the paper a few ounces of “ Orchard Grass Seed ,” upon “postage stamps” being sent to pay the postage. Wishing to turn my attention more to the cultivation of the grasses, I enclose to you a few stamps for some of the seed; and I would like to get a great deal more, if they can be spared, for which I would cheerfully pay whatever amount Dr. Lee may require. It woidd afford satisfaction to subscribers of the paper, in this region, if Dr. Lee would give U 9 a practical article on the culture of clover in this climate. Some of us, here, have matte experiments in clover, with tolerable success, and think that much more might be done, if we had a little more practical knowledge on the subject. Should clover be pastured with heavy cattle, or with anything else than hogs and sheep ? Would it not be best to cut and feed with it, as hay or green food ? And should not the clover have a good top-dressing early every Spring?— llow many years should it be permitted to grow before changing the crop? Is it practicable to save the seed in this climate ? And if so, how is this to bo done ? These and other points touching the culture of this valuable grass, both as to its uses for five stock, and for improving our lands, would be very acceptable to many of your subscribers. Yours respectfully, Ac., W. C. Moragke. A few years since, while attending a State ag ricultural fair in Alabama, the President of tho So ciety informed us that he had some sixty or sev enty acres of thrifty clover; and we have infor mation from several other gentlemen, which leads us to believe that the climate by no means for bids the profitable production of this most val uable and renovating forage plant. Everywhere it does best on limestone land. Clover seed was the main crop grown for market on the pretty large farm whereon the editor was reared. After the seed was thrashed out, breeding mares, young horses and mules, sheep and young cattle, were wintered, to a large extent, on the straw that remained. The value of tho straw depends in a good degree on the way in which the crop is handled and managed. Neither clover nor any meadows should have grown cattlo treading on them when the ground is soft and receives deep ’ foot prints. Sandy soils, and clover growing upon them, are little injured by cattle; but damp clay ground may be parched up, and both it and tho crop se riously damaged by allowing stock to run over it in wet weather, or when the surface is soft from excess of water. In reference to cutting clover for feeding in stables, horses, oxen at work, and cows giving milk, in place of permitting them to graze in pas tures, the practice is every way commendable. All working animals ought to have their neces sary food placed before them, that they may eat their allowance quietly, lie down, sleep, and rest. Nature soon recuperates their muscular and ner vous energies for renewed labor at the plow or elsewhere. Treated in this manner, a horse ’ j mule, or ox, will live long, and perforin from three to five times more work than if half his life is spent in search for food where little is to bo -found, after he has toiled in the yoke or other gear, all day, for an ungrateful owner. To yield much milk, cows also require a plenty of green forage in one place to save them from needless travel. Cool stables, dark enough to keep out flies, where all manures may be saved, are the places to feed domestic animals with the great est attainable economy and profit. Give them dry swamp mud, or muck, or some other good absorbent, for a bed to lie down on whenever they will, and haul out all their dung every few weeks, and plow it into the ground at once to decay, and produce near the stable more forage for stock. In this way, small clover, lu cerne, eow-peas, corn, barley, Ac., may be made to yield an almost incredible quantity of rich herbage at a trifling cost. Clover and all perennial grasses should be top. dressed with stable manure later in the fall, when the feeble rays of the sun, and consider able rain will allow the volatile and soluble parts of the manure to pass into the ground about the roots of plants, to nourish them. If one has not manure at the beginning of winter, he should apply it as soon as made. All our manure rots either in the soil, or on it, never in heaps about the barn or stable. By re-seeding every two years, (clover is a biennial,) or permitting the seedjto shatter on the ground, clover may be kept growing indefinitely on the same surface, if properly manured. It is possible that our climate may be less favorable to the growth of seed than that of the North; of this we shall know more hereafter. A good machine for separating clean seed from the chaff will cost some sixty dollars, un less the price has been reduced since the writer ceased to reside at the North. For horse use. it is quite as well to sow seed in the chaff. The best way to get out the seed is to tramp it out by horses, if the quantity is large; and pound it out with the flail, if small. It is very easily th when the seed is ripe and dry. On good land, the first crops may be cut when the heads are in blossom, for forage, and the second for seed. Lime. marl, and bone dust, in addition to stable manure, benefit clover very much.— Gypsum is a standing fertiliser with all large clover and wheat growers: for the two generally go together. Clover and peas, cultivated in sepa rate fields, are much )>ptter than to have only one plant, no matter which, on the farm. Clover will produce an increase of fruitfulness cheaper than peas or any annual plant. Its roots de scend two or three feet into a permeable subsoil in search of moisture, phosphates and sulphates of lime, potash, magnesia, and soda; while its leaves draw largely on the atmosphere for ali ment. A plant so rich in the flesh and bones of animals—so abounding in the elements of good milk, from which the bodies of all young mam malia are developed so rapidly—demands a strong soil for its luxuriant growth. On poor land, it will do nothing without manure. Sub soiling and deep plowing greatly promote the formation of its large and long tap root. Lucerne requires similar treatment, and will live from ten to twenty years without re-seeding. It is a little better adapted by nature'to endure our tropical summer heat and drouths than clover; but it yields smaller leaves, and less forage, per acre. We prefer both plants to either alone; just as we prefer a half dozen of the best Eng lish winter grasses to any one of the number. A variety of herbage is what God gives, cattle need, the land requires, and wise farmers culti vate. BURNET. This is an evergreen herbaeious plant, whose botanical name is Poterium Sanguisorba, and it is called in France Pimprenelle grande. Ac cording to a reliable English author, it ‘forms a large portion of the natural herbage of the South Downs, and grows wild on other chalky hills of England.” It possesses con siderable interest, alike in Britain, France, and Italy, both as a salad and a forage plant; and it gives the botanical name poterium or “cup,” to the whole genus, in consequence of its being used in cool tankards, or cooling drinks. It tastes and smells like cucumbers, and is therefore used to flavor other salads : and it produces slightly cheering, and even exhilarating, effects. It natu rally delights in a calcareous soil, yet thrives either in sandy ground, or fine gravel, or loam. Few plants are more hardy, or grow in cooler weather; it is therefore green all winter, and strictly perennial. It may be sown broadcast, at the rate of a bushel of seed per acre, or culti vated in drills a foot apart. It does not yield so much herbage as sanfoin, lucerne, and clover, but will flourish on poorer land than either, and de serves a fair trial at the South. We are indebt ed to Mr. Cii.vs. DeLaigle, of Augusta, for call ing our attention to Burnet; ho having cultivat ed it in a small way, in his garden, for many years Although it had been cut several times this spring for feeding stock, we gathered ripe seeds from the plants on the seventeenth of June. The seed is undoubtedly cheap in Liverpool and Havre, and may be easily imported. The famous South Down Sheep and mutton are produced, in a large degree, on the fragrant herbage of the poterium. No planter can well object to have the finest lamb for his own table, and a little to sell, or to give his friends; and it is our purpose to tell him how this may be accomplished in a cheap and simple way. Burnet has a long tap root, and appears, from all European authorities, about as tenacious of life as our wild blackberries and old field pines. For winter pasturage, it may be grown by the hundred acres, to advantage. The celebrated Arthur Young says, “Burnet is a good winter pasture; being of great service to the farmer, and a crop he may depend upon, without any ex p ense for seed or tillage, after the first sowing. It affords both corn and hay. Burnet seed is said to be as good as oats for horses. I know they will eat it very well; judge, then, of the val ue of an acre of land which gives you at two mowings ten quarters of corn and three loads of hay. It makes good butter: and never blows or hoves cattle.” We shall mix Burnet with white clover, blue grass, and orchard grass, for a pasture, — AMHERSTIA nobilis. This is the botanical name of an ornamental tree, belonging to the natural order of Legu minosce. It was found by the Countess Amherst, after whom it is named, in the Burman empire, in East India. It was growing in the garden of a decayed kioun, a sort of monastery; but its native place of growth is still unknown, as the trees, found in the garden have undoubtedly been planted there. The tree grows about forty feet high, somewhat resembling a Lagerstrce mia. The flowers are large, and of a tine Ver million color, diversified with yellow spots. This tree, when in foliage and blossom, is the most superb object, that possibly can be ima gined, and not surpassed by any plant in the world. The Burmese name of the tree is Thoka. Handfuls of flowers were presented as offerings in the cave before the images ofßudha. Along with this tree were found some trees of Mesua ferrea and Jonesia Asoca. It is not a lit tle remarkable, that the priests of these parts should have manifested so good a taste, as to select three such trees, as ornaments to their objects of worship, which can hardly be sur passed in beauty. This new and highly orna mental tree has not yet found its way to America, but as it is raised in the English greenhouses about London, it is to bo hoped that it soon will be introduced, and its hardiness tested. The Amherstia is probably' a native of the mountains of the Burman empire, thus coming from the same latitude as the Lagerstroemia, and may prove as hardy as the latter. Cotton Planter and Soil. Dwarf Pears. —“ We have repeatedly laid down this rule as a guide, that no one should plant extensively of dwarfs who was not satis fied by previous experiment, or by observation among his neighbors, first, that the climate is adapted to their growth; secondly, that the soil is right; thirdly, that the stocks are of the best sort; fourthly, that the cultivation is as good as carrots and cabbages usually receive.” Country Gentleman. COTTON CULTURE IN CUBA. The Havana correspondent of the Charleston Courier , writing under slate of June 10th, says: “ The British Consul General will be en route to: England before this reaches you, to promote the interests of the Cotton Growing Company, in England, and other European countries. So your cotton growers must be on the look out, or Cuba will drive them from some of the Euro pean markets. Ido not write this in jest, but with more of sorrow than any other feeling.” That a well concerted and powerful effort is about to be made to grow cotton on a large scale on that fertile island, is a fact worth con sidering. Coolie labor, obtained at a mere nominal price, is to be use dto cultivate the plant; and as the supply of the Asiaticos is ten-fold larger than that of the Africans would be, if free trade existed alike in both, slave holders have far more to fear from this new source of com petition than is generally' believed. In the same letter this correspondent says: “ The French ship Alexandre arrived on the 27th ult., from Macao via St. Helena, in one hundred and ninety-five days, with three hun dred and ninety-seven “ Asiaticos free colonists ,” consigned to Messrs. Fernandez k Scliimper, of this city. There were thirty-seven deaths on the passage. The American ship ‘Live Yankee’ arrived 2d inst., from Macao via the Cape of Good Hope, in eighty-eight days, with seven hundred and eighty-eight Asiaticos. She had but twelve deaths on the passage.” When every “ live Yankee ” is able to bring seven hundred and eighty-eight laboring people from China in eiglity-eiglit days, ready to engage at once in the cultivation of cotton, in every West India island, and in Central America, it is easy to see how a powerful competition may grow up in our immediate vicinity in the pro duction of this great Southern staple. Our ex clusion of both Coolies and negroes operates as a bounty on the importation of both Africans and Asiatics, into Cuba, to grow the crops which might enrich our own agriculturists, our com merce, and our manufacturers. We copy from the Courier, another paragraph from the pen of the same writer: “ On the 30th ultimo, about half past 5 P. M. quite a crowd was attracted to the wharf to see a bark towed in by the Regia steamer Jir, whose crew only consisted of two or three per sons ; she proved to be our old acquaintance, the J. J. Cobb, of New York, which sailed last December on a pretended legal voyage to the coast of Africa, but which legal voyage, there is ample proof on board of her, was for a cargo of slaves, which had been landed and the bark was then abandoned. She was found derelict twen ty-five miles from land, the pan of Matanzas bearing S. S. W., by the schooner Cumberland, of New York, who brought her to this port, where she now is. The bark Ardennes, about which so much was said and written near the end of last year, is also expected daily to arrive from the coast of Africa, with a cargo of Afri cans. Tlius, the ‘stars and stripes’ have again, in two instances, been used as a shield to pro tect the Spaniards in the African slave trade.” Taking all the facts together, as presented in the current history of Cuba, they furnish much food for grave reflection. Beyond all question, a double slave trade exists—carried on lx tween China and Cuba by “live Yankees;” aud be tween Cuba and Africa, under the folds of “ the Stars and Stripes.” The present policy of the United States creates and sustains this double traffic in persons held to service; and who will say that our system has improved one odious feature of the slave trade as it existed sixty years ago ? What is to be the final result of the constant importation of cotton growers from Africa and Asia into all parts of the New World, where the climate is adapted to the production of this great staple, except into the Southern States? We present the naked facts as fur nished from a reliable source, for the considera tion of intelligent readers. We may close our eyes, but that will not extinguish the light of day, A KENTUCKY STOCK GEOWEB. Mr. A. Aitchkson Alexander, of Kentucky, has a farm of some two thousand acres lying between Lexington and Frankfort, on limestone land, well set with blue grass, and devoted to stock husbandry. He has, on an average, three hundred and seventy head of blood ed cattle, and fifty mares, some of them of great value. Last year his sale of stock, at auc tion, brought $12,238. This year his auction sales have been less—yielding $5,881. No horses or mules are included in these sales; being confined to short horn cattle, Southdown and Cotswold sheep. For two years, Mr. Alexander has made no new importations. His imported stock have improved in quality, on the excellent grazing fields which he possesses. The old race horse, Lexington, still lives in health and vigor. Mr. A. paid $15,000 for him, and is raising very superior colts from him and blooded mares. He is regarded as the most successful breeder in Kentucky, where stock-growing has become not only a business, but a passion with many per sons. ■ m A Cow Story. —Among the travelers toward the western part of Kansas, this spring, were several gentlemen from this city; and among these were four or five, constituting a separate party, who started with a fine cow. About two weeks ago, the friends, in Alton, 111., of one of the members of this party received a letter from him, dated “Kansas, two hundred miles from home,” in which he spoke of “ old Brindle”—say ing that she made the party a great deal of trouble, &c. A few days after the receipt of this letter, the gentleman to whom it was addressed, living in Middletown, was astonished at finding, early one morning, a cow exactly like “old Brin dle” standing at his gate. He could hardly be lieve the evidence of his own eyes, but ex amination convinced himself and family that it was the very cow herself. How long she re mained with the party atter the time of writing the letter, two hundred miles from Inline, is un known. Certain it is that she had found her way home, across the country, for at least that distance—not stopped by rivers, creeks, swamps, or anything else. The story seems fictitious, but it is undeniably true, as any one who wishes can .assure himself. Alton Courier, May 31. [Written for the Southern Field and Fireside.] AGRICULTURAL LETTERS FROM HANCOCK— NO. 4. BY AS OLD MEMBER OF THE PLASTERS' CLUB. i Farming at the South—Skinning System — Com-, posting System—Difficulties and Failures — Foreign Manures. Mr. Editor: One of the leading designs of j writing this series of agricultural letters, has been to attempt to advance the interests of agri culture at the South, by presenting the best sys tems, now extant, in the culture of leading pro ducts, by men of acknowledged experience and ability. Where, however, the theories, or prac tices, of these men contravene the doctrines of agricultural chemistry, or a wholesome philoso phy, we shall feel free to enter our dissent, and accord to them the privilege of defending their opinions through the same medium in which they have been attack ed. Friendly interchanges of opinion, for the sake of truth, often result in good to the cause of science; but heated con troversies, for the sake of victory, much better become the hustings and the politician, than the laboratory and the philosopher. To one acquainted with the different agricul tural sys terns of the world, that of the South presents a marked difference, in many particu ars, from those of the old world and the North ern States. Indeed, so new is our system, that we may be said to have borrowed but little from the time-honored experience of the older coun. tries. The necessities of the case, slave labor cotton culture, cheap land, and a warm climate, impose upon us a different system from all other countries. Under this view of things, how im portant to have agricultural schools and teachers of our own, that a system may be originated and enforced, well calculated to develope all the resources of our land, and keep our soil from depreciating so rapidly, as has been the case, under the operations of the early farmers ? The agriculture of the South has already pass ed through several phases without having reach ed a point which promises success, over the vast difficulties surrounding it. First, we had the skinning system, which consisted in scooterising the land for a few years, up and dow n the hills, until the soil was all washed away, and then leaving it to grow up in stunted pines. This process was generally performed by a cer tain class of small farmers, who would sell out as soon as they had accomplished their object, and move over the river to the next pur chase, as it was called. Wc have an occasion al specimen of these skinners left in Mid dle Georgia, and even in Old Ha ncock, which is doubtless as free of them as any other county. We passed a farm last year, where the cotton rows ran parallel with the fence, up and down the hills, without any guard drains. A washing rain had just succeeded a plowing, and the middle of the cotton rows had been washed out to the hard sub-soil, leaving the roots ex posed to the burning sun, and the land bereft, of nearly one-third of its soil. Added to this wretched culture, under the old skinning sys, terns, no one ever dreamed of applyiug manures to the land, or of repairing the wastes which were so rapidly exhausting their soils. A better system succeeded this, which might properly be termed, the composting system, be cause planters began to see the valuo and im portance of manure; and those who did not choose to sell out and leave their old home steads, began earnestly to improve their soils, by husbanding the droppings of their horses and cattle, and applying them to the impoverished soil. The Planters’Club of Hancock, originating about this time, brought together the master minds of the county, to detc rmine what might be done to save their lands from being mined by an injudicious system of farming. This re sulted in much good and many improvements. Agricultural journals also began to be taken. The Albany Cultivator and American Farmer were household words, until they were separat ed by journals better adapted to the agriculture of the South. The friendly pine favored these growing aspirations for making manures, and stalls and pounds were overcharged with this litter, for the purpose of absorbing and retain ing the • fertilising salts, which they so much needed for their crops. Better improvements soon sprang up, such as lull-side ditching, ro tation of crops, with rest, subsoiling, horizon talisiug, 4c., all of which mark this era, as one much in advance of the former. But we have to confess that the sanguine ex pectations of our cotton planters have never been realised under this composting system.— Either the system itself was a bad one, or it has never been carried out in a proper manner. With considerable experience ourselves, in making and hauling out manures, and with ex tensive means of observation among our plant ers, we are constrained to confess, that it does not subserve the same purpose for improvement of the soil at the South, as in countries where land is higher and labor cheaper. With com paratively few acres to cultivate, the farmers of old and new England have very short distances to traverse in hauling manures, or the materials to make them. With the necessity imposed of keeping up their stock, either in pastures or in stalls, the year round, they are able to accumu late a larger quantity, and a much more valua ble compost than ours. And then; with land worth from fifty to two hundred dollars per acre, they can afford to pay much higher rates for ma nure, to keep it up to the highest point of fer tilization, than we can with lands averaging not more than six or seven dollars per acre. A southern planter cultivates from twenty to thirty acres per hand. Mr. Daniel Dickson, of this county, with his broad sweeps and sandy land, goes as liigh as thirty-six acres. A large plantation in middle Georgia generally consists of a number of small farms, which have been pur chased from time to time, of those who wished to move westward. Out of these broad acres he picks and culls the best lands for cultivation, leav-