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94
AGRICULTURAL.
DANIEL LEE, M. Editor.
SATUBDAT AUGUST 18, 1859.
HINTS FOR THE GEORGIA LEGISLATURE.
The Legislature of Massachusetts gives her
agricultural societies $12,000 a year. That of
New York gives SB,OOO in money, and prints
the Transactions of the State Society at an equal
expense, for the equal benefit of all the county
societies. The Legislature of lowa appropriates
to its county and State Societies $15,000 per
annum. Many other Legislatures do likewise.
Has not the Legislature of the ‘ Empire State of
the South" treated similar associations for the
advancement of agriculture rather shabbily ?
FINE PEARS.
We are indebted to our esteemed friend, the
Hon. Yelverton' P. King, of Greensboro’ Ga.,
for a box of fine Pears, which were raised by
him, and are sent to us as an evidence of what
may be done in their cultivation at the South.
They would convince the most skeptical that the
fruit may be grown in the greatest perfection in
this State. We have no hesitation in pronounc
ing them the most delicious pears we have ever
tasted. They are large, firm, and superior in
flavor and succulence, to .those grown in the
Northern States. Indeed, they are so full of
juice that it literally streams from them when
they are pared.
We are much obliged to our friend for this
present of fruit—which is more acceptable be
cause the product of a “Southern Field”—as
well as for the kind words of cheer and commen
dation with which it is accompanied.
m - .
NOTES OF TRAVEL-AGRICULTURAL SUGGES
TIONS.
in the Editor's family having called
him unexpectedly to the District of Columbia,
where some of his children reside, his readers
may be willing to hear something about the
farming and crops between Augusta, Ga., and
the federal metropolis.
Corn has suffered less from the want of rain
in South and North Carolina, and Southern Vir
ginia, than in those parts of Georgia through
which we have recently travelled. Cotton stands
quiet unevenly on the ground, being thin, small
and nearly worthless in some places, and good
in others. Corn appears to be somewhat better
than an average growth, although generally
backward from late planting. Tobacco growing
between Weldon, N. C., and the Potomac river,
presents an excellent stand, and the plants are
healthy and well cultivated. The production of
this staple might be profitably extended farther
South; and we suggest it as one whose grow
ing consumption, from the equally expanding
folly of the age, is likely to keep up the price of
the article to a renumerating figure. It is a
very exhausting crop, and should not be raised
on any but manured land, or on land recuperated
by nature through irrigation or other means.
We never cross the. swamps on the Congaree,
Wateree andPedee rivers, in the daytime, with
out being struck with the great advantages
which they present for making some of the
finest pastures for cattle, horses, sheep, hogs
and goats in the world. Their occasional inun
dation, instead of being a detriment, is really a
great benefit by adding fresh deposits of rich
material for producing the most nutritious her
bage. In some parts of these swamps, the
water will stang long enough to kill grass, unless
the rim of the basin at their natural outlets is
cut down a few feet to hasten the fall of the
overflow, and tlio appearance of dry land re
cently covered with water. Cane and several
wild grasses grow in spite of all the dams of
logs, fallen trees, brush, leaves and mud that so
much obstruct the natural and rapid discharge
of the surplus water. Open all the natural chan
nels, and cut down the rock or earth at the
outlets of these swamps, and their drainage, suf
ficiently for grazing purposes, would be as
effectual and cheap as profitable. Thousands
of acres of pastures equal to any in the world
might thus be had, and become to the State of
South Carolina mines of wealth more valuable
than any in Australia or California. The ex
pense of occasionally reseeding spots where the
grass was killed by the deposition of too much
mud, or by too long an overflow, would be a
trifle as compared with the extreme fruitfulness
of these flat bottom lands. It would be more
expensive to clear the large timber and thick
undergrowth from these wet flats, than to per
form a similar labor on dry uplands ; but the axe,
bush-hook, and fire in a dry time, would soon
let in the sup sufficiently greatly to augment
the evaporation of all surface water, and enough
to dry the ground in most places so that grass
would grow most luxuriantly. The important
fact in all operations of this kind is this: quite
moist ground favors, not injures, the growth of
plants adapted by nature to the support of the
whole bovine race; and it is worthy of remark
that neat cattle and swine separate much more
water from their blood through their kidneys
than any other domestic animals. Swamp lands
and half aquatic grasses and other herbage are
congenial to the constitutions and habits of hogs
and cattle, save only that miasam affects them
injuriously. But swamps properly drained, and
growing grasses only, are not unhealthy for
stock; although it is best to have them not
sleep in low grounds.
They should spend their nights in lots on high
upland which needs manuring. In traveling, we
frequently notice farmers who carelessly permit
their cows to remain in their pens late in the
morning, which is a cmel and disgraceful prac
tice. The writer was brought up to milk sever
al cows night and morning, and always to have
them in the field grazing by sunrise. It is bet
ter to bring them up in the middle of the day
and milk them, than to keep them late in the
yard till the dew is off, the flies active and biting
XKX gOtraJKKM IXKLD Ul J7IJUSBXBK.
to annoy them. The mismanagement of stock
yards is very common. Some are made on a
side hill, where the dung and urine are washed
into a ditch or branch and lost. Others are in
the woods, where the earth, saturated w ith ma
nure, cannot be cultivated. - The true way is to
make a cattle-yard on level, or nearly level
ground ; to plow it frequently, the better to ab
sorb all fertilizing salts and gases, and when the
land is sufficiently manured to produce a crop of
turnips or wheat, to turn the stock into another
small lot Movable fences are not expensive,
and every farmer should learn to make the most
of all the droppings of every animal that eats as
much as a chicken, or more. One of the great
est defects in Southern husbandry is the bad ar
rangements for saving and using manure. Much
is lost by exposing it to the direct rays of a hot
sun ; but more, probably, by its being subjected
to the washing and leaching of rains. There is,
however, a still greater error committed by those
who generally neglect to yard their stock at all.
The amount of manure wasted in roads, swamps,
woods or forests, involves an annual loss of
many millions of dollars. Twenty head of cat
tle, and even half that number, will soon enrich
an acre of land, if kept thereon. All know the
value of a rich soil, while but a few ever prac
tice the art of making fertile fields with the
greatest economy. There are some who shade
their cows and their manure by the use of large
cotton cloth sheds or tents, which are removed
w’hen the land is cultivated. These temporary
shades are better than trees, which draw the
strength of the land when a crop of cottoni
corn or wheat is to be grown. Sheep, in particular,
need shade at the South, and even protection
from dews at night and showers is an advan
tage. Where boards are cheap, sufficient shade
and shelters may be had at a moderate cost, with
out cloth of any kind.
We have been pleased to notice an increase
of clover and timothy fields in Virginia, and an
improvement in working animals and dairy
stock. With an increase of clover is seen the
use of lime and marl, and doubtless the latter
enables the soil to grow these plants more suc
cessfully. Careless farmers have left rye in fields
standing in small stacks some six weeks after it
was harvested, to be destroyed by birds and ver
min, while a few good managers are plowing in
clover, preparatory to seeding the land to wheat.
It needs two good plowings to fit most ground
for the seed, besides thorough harrowing. The
clover had best be in full blossom when the first
plowing is done. Few men plow deep enough
or early enough to get a first rate seed bed ready
for the young plants. It is only the best culti
tivators that pretty uniformly raise superior
crops of this grain ; for it requires strong, or
well manured land, and almost perfect tillage to
produce heavy yields of wheat from year to
year on the same farm. We know those that
average about thirty bushels per acre. Clover,
lime, and manure stand out as prominent fea
tures in the agriculture practiced on these mod
el establishments. Their average is from fifteen
to twenty barrels of corn to the acre. Sheep
do better than cattle in the piney woods.
1 •
ANIMAL HEAT.
There is no subject connected with animal
life and health more important than the laws
which govern the production and degree of heat
known to exist in the bodies of all animals.—
Seamen visiting the polar regions, where a spirit
thermometer indicates a temperature of ninety
degrees below the freezing point, find their sys
tems demanding in their daily food, more nutri
ment than would suffice in a less severe climate,
and that they crave very fat bacon, or pork, or
oily fish, to obtain carbon and hydrogen in the
most combustible and concentrated form. Ac
cording to the experiments of Despretz, one
ounce of carbon evolves, during combustion, as
much heat as will raise the temperature of 105
ounces of water at 32° to 167"*, being a gain of
135°. If we multiply the 105 ounces of water
by 135° elevation in each ounce, the aggregate
heat evolved from the burning of a single ounce
of carbon, is proved to be 14.207°. In the cli
mate of Germany, it has been found by experi
ment that an adult man consumes in his food,
on an average, 13.9 ounces of carbon in 24 hours,
which is converted into carbonic acid; and if
we multiply 14,207° of heat evolved by one
ounce of carbon by 13.9, we have 197.477.3° of
heat as the quantity disengaged in the body of
an adult in 24 hours. JThis amount of heat will
cause 136.8 pounds of water at freezing point to
boil; and it will raise 370 pounds of water at
32° to the temperature of the human body, or
98.3°.
The constant combustion of so much fuel in
the system would soon heat the bones and flesh
red hot, if no heat was radiated, and none car
ried off by insensible and sensible perspiration.
Twenty-four pounds of water on the body, if
converted into vapor, would absorb and render
latent the whole of 197.477° of heat generated
by 13.9 ounces of carbon. As all food contains
combustible carbon, and all drinks, water, we
see how the one warms, and the other cools the
living machine; so that whether under the ver
tical rays of the sun near the equator, or near
the poles, a man is neither melted by the in
tense heat of the one place, nor frozen by the
intense cold of the other.
Baron Leibig calculates that, under ordinary
circumstances, an adult vaporizes about 48
ounces of water from the skin every 24 hours,
which leaves heat sufficient to vaporize 21
pounds of water, or 336 ounces to be radiated
from the surface of the body, and to escape in the
warm air constantly expelled from the lungs,
and in the warmth of the excrementitious mat
ters. In this calculation, no account has been
taken of the heat produced in the process of
transforming the hydrogen in one’s daily foo'’
into water, by oxidation, within the body; anu
it is also known that bones and flesh require
less heat than water to raise any given weight
.AUGUST 13, 1859.
to any common and increased temperature. —
To render the supply of oxygen in the limited
quantity of air taken into the lungs in cold
weather and in cold climates, adequate to burn
carbon enough to prevent freezing from the ra
diation of heat, the atmosphere contains in every
cubic inch or foot of air the more of this vital gas
as it is condensed by cold. Hence, a lung full
1 of atmospheric air in Greenland gives to the
arterial blood more than twice as much oxygen
1 for the combustion of carbon and hydrogen, and
the generation of animal heat, as the same lungs
would supply in the State of Georgia. It is
known that the oxygen which enters the blood
through the organs of respiration, either remains
in the system, or escapes as carbonic acid, or as
water from its union with hydrogen. In com
mon respiration, when the air enters the lungs,
it contains only one part of carbonic acid in
2.500 ; but when it escapes from the lungs, j
it has one part of carbonic acid in 25; or just
100 times more than it had before the blood
from the veins had parted with its dark color
and its carbon. This combustible substance is
not burnt in the organs of respiration, nor in
those of digestion to evolve heat locally, but in
every part of the system where the arteries and
veins approach each other so closely that the
blood passes from the extremeties of the former
into those of the latter. In this way, animal
heat is uniformly and evenly distributed over
the whole system.
— —
PEA HAY AND CLOVER HAY.
As pea hay and clover hay are among the
most nutritions forage substances known to
scientific agriculture, we give an analysis of
each made by Boussixgault :
Pen Hay. Clover Hay,
Carbon 46. SO 47.40
Hydrogen 5.00 5.00
Oxygen 85.57 87.80
Nitrogen 2.81 2.10
Ashes 11.82.. 7.70
100.00 100.00
It will be seen by the above figures that pea
hay contains a fraction more nitrogen, and con
sequently of flesh-forming pow T er, than clover
hay. But the pea vine analysed was not our j
dolichors, or cow pea, but the English pea. i
which is probably a little richer in nitrogen.—
Both clover and the hay made from pea leaves,
stalks and vines, are nearly equal to wheat in
their muscle-forming value, and six times more
valuable than good wheat straw. We give the
preference to clover and lucerne over the pea
tribe of whatever species, mainly because the
former do not require plowing and reseeding
every year, as do the latter.
It demands considerable skill in hay making
to cut and cure either clover or peas in the best
manner. The stems of these plants, when full
grown, are large, a little waxy and full Os wa
ter. To dry out most of this, and yet not in
jure the hay by the loss of leaves, by dews nor
rains, bleaching and leaching it, is quite an art.
The art consists mostly in placing the clover or
pea yines in a condition for the dry atmosphere
to evaporate the excess of water rather than
the direct rays of the sun. The green plants
are cured in bunches, and in winrows, till half
dry enough, when drying is completed in small
cocks turned over morning and night to lessen
the bad effects of dew. A luxuriant growth of
peas or clover requires a week or more of favor
able weather, if the plants are cut at the right
time, to have the forage of the best quality.—
Let the air circulate freely through the entire
mass of green herbage, after it is mown, by
lifting and opening the bunches with a fork,
rake, or tedding stick. Keep the green side up at
night to take the dew, and double and treble
the bunches or cocks as the hay cures ; for in
this way you lessen the outside surface to be
damaged by the sun, dew, or rain. Where one
stacks hay of any kind, or corn fodder, it is
wise to make large rather than small stacks, to
have as little outside, weather-beaten surface of
damaged forage as possible. We have known
120,000 pounds of clover hay put into a single
stack; and »rom ten to twenty thousand pounds
are as s- .all as we care to make any liay stack.
We g.eatly prefer barns, stables and sheds for
all forage crops to any kind of hay or fodder
stacking; so that neither rain, nor dew, nor
sunshine can damage the plants after they are
dried for long keeping.
*•*
SOWING WHEAT.
Editors Genesee Farmer: —There is no ques
tion in my mind, that drilling in seed wheat is
on all soils better than broadcast sowing. So
much greater a proportion of the seed is likely
to germinate, that a much less quantity of grain
is required to sow an acre. The use of a drill
also saves all the labor of harrowing where the
soil is well prepared before-hand. In fact, it is
better not to harrow'the land after drilling in
the wheat, as the slight ridges left by the drill
are gradually crumbled down by the rain and
frost, and form a protective covering to the young
and tender plants in autumn and winter.
But every farmer can not afford to buy so ex
pensive an article as a drill-machine, and some
soils are too stony and cloddy to allow of its
use. Others again are of a light sandy descrip
tion. On such soils, broadcast sowing answers
very well, if followed by the roller to crush the
clods or render a light soil more compact and
prevent its washing by heavy rains. But on all
well prepared loams, it is of no advantage to
use the roller, the frosts of winter performing
the operation more gradually and beneficially;
and on such soils the roller is of most benefit
when used in the spring; it then compresses the
roots of the plant into the soil, after the disinte
grating effects of the frost are over. Wheat
grown on a loamy soil, the surface of which is
left very smooth and compact in the fall, is lia
ble to be winter-killed by being heaved out in
the winter and early spring by the frost, which
on a more ridgy and uneven surface breaks
down and crumbles the projecting Soil. But on
sandy soils, however compact they may be, who
ever heard of wheat being winter-killed ? The
surface moisture that falls on such soil is too
qujpkly absorbed for the frost to have time to
produce any evil effect. A. B.
Charlotteville, C. W.
[Written for the Southern FieUl and Fireside.]
AGRICULTURAL LETTERS FROM HANCOCK
BY AX C»LI> MKMIiF.It OF THF. PLANTERS* CLVB.
The Turnip—As a field crop — lts analysts —
Product per Acre—Stock liaising—Value of
their Manure.
Mr. Editor : We are pleased to find that
Southern agriculturalists are beginning to pay
more attention to the turnip crop than heretofore.
You still find among them, however, many old
fogies, who denounce it as very poor food for
stock, having but little nutriment in it, and being
composed mainly of water. Now, how are we
to estimate the value of a crop ? Not by the
per centage of nutrition it contains, but by the
amount of nutritive matter made per acre and
per hand. In other words, the cost of its pro
duction. Taken by this rule, we may find the
turnip crop of as much value as any other that
can be raised in this country, particularly as it is
now becoming an important consideration to ob
tain a winter supply of food for stock. This
will become more and more apparent, as people
are convinced that without stock they cannot im
prove their lands. All will admit that “tattle can
be well kept in this country during at least eight
months of the year. The three winter and first
spring months require more attention and more
food than cotton planters can generally allow a
large stock. Now this very item is filled by the
turnip crop, and it can be demonstrated that no
other root can be raised at the South with as lit
tle labor, and produce so much nutriment per
acre.
Hardy C. Culver, Esq., of this county, raised a
field the last season—not a patch—which he
estimated at near one thousand bushels per acre
as the product. We never saw such turnips
grow before, and they were Ruta Bagas mainly,
at that; and on thin land, that would not have
produced over ten bushels of corn per acre with
out manure. He prepared his land well, and
sowed in the drill, putting in guano at the rate
of about 100 pounds per acre. One hoeing and
thinning, and one plowing with a sweeper, was
all the work they received. Mr. David Dickson
has raised them in considerable quantities in the
' same way for several years. Stable manure and
| super-phosphate of lime will answer a better
; purpose than the guano we doubt not, and
should be tried the present season. Nothing
answers a better end than bone dust applied to
this crop, and we doubt not, that phosphatic
guano, if a reliable article, would do even better
than this.
Messrs. Culver and Dickson have demonstra
| ted, at least, that large turnip crops can be pro
j dueed in Georgia, as well as in Old or New
England. And we have this advantage over all
northern countries, that the hardier varieties,
such as the Swedish or Ruta Baga. need not be
housed; but will remain in the field during the
winter, to be gathered whenever needed. A
better plan would be doubtless to let the stock
gather them themselves, upon the plan of the
Norfolk farmers. Having fences with move
able pannels, cows, hogs or sheep, might be
enclosed on a small area at a time, and when
the turnips were exhausted, remove to another,
and thus the cattle would not only be fattened
but the land much improved. A good plan
would be to let the sheep enter first and eat oflf
the tops and stubble, then the cows which could
eat the bulbs above ground, and the hogs could
make a finish of all below the ground. At the
same time, all the food which would be fed to
them in the Stalls could be hauled out at but
little cost and fed in these hurdles, greatly to
the advantage of the soi 1. But we are digres
sing.
An analysis of the turnip shows from 88 to
92 per cent, of water, the remainder consisting
ot dry nutritive matter. The Ruta Baga con
tains from 12 to 14 per cent, of sugar, starch,
fatty matter, Ac. Notwithstanding this fact,
however, Prof. Johnston states, in his agricul
tural chemistry, that “the piece of ground,
which, when sown with wheat, will maintain one
man, would support one and a quarter if sown
with barley or oats, four with potatoes and
eight with turnips, in so far as the nutritive
power of those crops, depends upon the starch,
sugar and gum they contain.” The amount of
glutin and albumen produced in an acre of tur
nips, according to the same authority, would be
as four to one compared with wheat, Indian
corn, &c. These references are founded upon
the assumption that in England, an acre of land
that would produce 25 bushels of wheat and
30 of Indian corn would produce 30 tons of
turnips, in which there would be 6,000 lbs. of
starch, sugar, Ac., one thousand lbs. of glutin
albumen, Ac., two hundred of oil or fat, and
450 of saline matter. Even admitting that
in this country turnips will produce only half as
well as in England, it leaves a large margin for
profit in their cultivation, compared with the
cereals. We would not rely upon turnips alone
for fattening hogs, but combined with com or
peas in moderate quantities, they will answer an
excellent purpose. They will, however, with
out any other food, keep hogs in a good growing
condition. As a food for milch cows, there is
nothing that can equal them in the production
of milk. Taken in any view, we regard the
much neglected turnip as a crop that will pay
for the labor and expense of production, equal
to any other grown in this country. In some
parts of Europe, the wary farmer expends SSO
per acre on the preparation of land manure, Ac.,
for a single crop of turnips. And one of Eng
land’s greatest statesman has said that she
could do better without her Navy, than her tur
nip crop. It will not do, then, for our wiseacres
to denounce in such unmeasured terms, a crop
they have never tried to cultivate systematically,
or if they have, in such a small way as to be
capable of no great results.
In one of your late numbers, Mr. Editor,
you notice the fact that in the six New England
States, the four middle, and Maryland and
Virginia, there has, between 1840 and 1850,
been a falling off in horses, mules, neat cattle,
swine, and sheep, of 8,383,385. The no less
startling fact has also been announced that
during the same period, there has been a great
depreciation of the production of the land per
acre. Has the stock failed because the land has
ceased to produce food sufficient for them, or has
the land failed because there is not, and has not
been, a sufficiency of stock to resupply the
waste that is constantly going on ? This pre
sents truly a foreboding picture to the American
who is wont to dwell so eloquently on the future
glory of his country, and but for a fact which
history teaches, would be absolutely paralyzing,
viz: that in England there is land which has
been in cultivation a thousand years, far more
fertile now than when in its virgin State. This
gives us hope that when a dire ncessity drives
us to it, we will begin to look around with phil
osophic eyes, and remedy the evils which now
threaten us. Till then, the few who foresee
these evils and hide themselves, will have to
cast about them for the best means within their
reach, to improve their soils, and make remuner
ating crops. In this, more than any other
profession, knowledge is power, and money too.
We believe that by a judicious policy, the
planters of the South can make as much cotton
as they do, and improve their lands, instead of
wearing them out. From the best estimate we
' can make, not far from $50,000 will be spent by
; the people of Hancock the present year, for for
eign manures. A much larger sum will be ex
pended for mules, horses, bacon, wool, cheese,
and even hay, for a portion of these articles and
animals are purchased annually from abroad.—
Now we are just as certain as we are of any
fixed principle in domestic economy, that this
great outlay for foreign manures, and animal pro
ducts is injudicious, impolitic, and ruinous in its
tendency to the agricultural interests of the
South; because, not only are the profits of cot
ton culture greatly depreciated by the money it
takes to supply this immense waste, but the lands
are depreciating and becoming less able to stand
the draught made upon them. Our policy con
templates an increased attention to stock hus
bandry, to supply the demand of our own coun
try, at least in all their animal products, and at
the same time, and from the same source, raise
our own guano, which is another term for ammo
nia, instead of purchasing it at such high rates,
from the Chincha Isles.
We recently noticed, on the farm of Mr. Bird
song, a rich plat of land in a most luxuriant
growth of corn. The stalks were large and vig
orous, the blades dark, and the ears large, and
generally two to a stalk. We supposed, from its
appearance, that it would produce four or five
times as much corn and fodder as the land
around it. We had noticed this fact in several
previous years, of cotton as well as corn. Upon
enquiry, Mr. Birdsong told us that seven years
ago he kept his cows penned on this place, and
every year since, a most remarkable crop had
been the result. It is known that the urine of
the cow is more valuable than most other ani
mals, and more lasting in its effects. It is esti
mated in Germany that one large ox will ma
nure one and one fourth acre of land thoroughly,
and a cow one acre. But suppose a man has a
hundred cows, and pastures them in the day, and
pens them at night on twenty-fire acres of land
on the folding system, and this land lasts half as
well as Mr. Birdsong's—his would be one hun
dred acres in four years, which would produce
more cotton and corn during that time, we have
no doubt, than $2,000 worth of guano, and leave
the land in much better heart, to say nothing of
the beef and leather resulting from the same
source. P.
Sparta, Ga.
—
WONDERS OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
The difference of level between high and low
water mark at Cairo is fifty feet. The width
and depth of the river from Cairo and Memphis
to New Orleans is not materially increased, yet
immense additions are made to the quantity of
water in the channel by large streams from both
the eastern and western sides of the Mississippi.
The question naturally arises, what becomes of
this vast added volume of water? It certainly
never reaches New Orleans, and as certainly
does not evaporate; and of course it is not con
fined to the channel of the river, for it w’ould
rise far above the entire region south of us.
If a well is sunk any where in the Arkansas
bottom, water is found as soon as the ■water-level
of the Mississippi is reached. When the Miss
issippi goes down, the water sinks accordingly in
the well. The owner of a saw-mill, some
twenty miles from the Mississippi, in Arkansas,
dug a well to supply the boilers of his engine,
during the late flood. When the waters re
ceded his well went down, till his hose would
no longer reach the water, and finally his well
was dry. He dug a ditch to an adjacent lake
to let water into his well; the lake was drained,
and the well w r as dry again, having literally
drank ten acres of water in less than a week.
The inference is that the whole valley of the
Mississippi, from its banks to the highlands on
either side, rests on a porous substratum which
absorbs the redundant waters, and thus pre
vents that degree of accumulation which would
long since have swept New Orleans into the
Gulf but for this provision of Nature, to which
alone her safety is attributable. In fact, if the
alluvial bottoms of the Mississippi were like the
shores of the Ohio, the vast plain from Cairo to
New Orleans would to-day be part and parcel
of the Gulf of Mexico, and the whole valley a
fresh water arm of the sea. 'Were the geologi
cal character of the valley different, the con
struction of levees, confining the water of the
Mississippi to its channel, would cause the rise
in the river to become so great at the South that
not sufficient levees could be built. The current
w r ould be stronger and accumulation of water
greater as the levees are extended north of us.
Such results were reasonably enough antici
pated ; but the water, instead of breaking the
levees, permeates the porous soil, and the over
flow is really beneath the surface of the swamps.
Such, it seems to us, are the wise provisions of
natural laws for the safety and ultimate recla
mation of the rich country south of us. 'We
believe that the levee system will be successful,
and that the object of its adoption will be at
tained. The porousness of the material used in
making them lias caused most if not all the cre
vasses. Men may deem it a super-human task
to wall in the Mississippi from Cairo to New
Orleans, but our levees are the work of pigmies
when contrasted with the dykes of Holland.—
The flood-tide of the Mississippi is but a *ripple
on the surface of a glassy pool compared with
the ocean billows that dash against the artificial
shores of Holland. The country to be reclaimed
by our levees—all of which will not for fifty
yoars cost the people as much as those of the
Dutch when originally built—would make one
hundred such kingdoms as that over which a
Bonaparte once wielded the sceptre.
Memphis Avalanche.
i» i '
Our interior exchanges continue to record the
extremely high temperature of last week. Du
ring that period, at Placerville, “the thermome
ter usually indicated from 98 deg. to 106 deg. at
mid-day, and at Upper Placerville on Wednes
day last it actually rose to 115 deg. in the shade.”
At Columbia “the thermometer ranged from
105 deg. to 111 deg. in the shade.” At Lonora,
“ the thermometer has ranged from 102 deg. to
113 deg. in the shade.” In Shasta county, “in
some places, in brick buildings, the mercury
rose to 118 deg.” In Mariposa, on the 22d and
23d of June, “the thermometer ranged in the
middle of the day, from 110 deg. to 118 deg.”
On the 23d “the heat between the Stanislaus and
Tuolumme rivers was excessive; the thermome
ter was 119 deg. in the shade. The wand was
avoided, as it was heated so that it felt as if ac
tually burning the flesh, as if it were rushing
from a hot oven. In one team of ten horses,
three fell in the road from heat. Two died, but
the other recovered by pourihg sweet oil in his
throat. At Burton’s public house, at Loving’s
Ferry, birds flew into the bar-room to get wa
ter, so tame wore they made by the thirst
caused by the extreme heat. Birds were seen
to fall dead off the limbs of the trees in the mid
le of the day from heat, as if they were shot.
The wind was of that burning heat never be
fore experienced by the settlers there since their
arrival in the State.”
San Francisco Papers, July Gth.