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238 AGRICULTURAL. DAMDL LEE, H. Editor. SATURDAY. DECEMBER 17. 1559. HINTS ON FARM ECONOMY. Some weeks since, being brain-weary from writing and leading, we left the editor s room ot this paper for a long walk over the farms near Augusta, to soc what might be found worthy of a paragraph. Good luck soon brought us in con tact with Mr. J. M. Miller, driving alone in his buggy, and secured for us a seat by his side. — He drove for our accomodation first to Dr. Turner's farm near the city, a part of which was advertised for sale, and will make a valuable j meadow and pay a large interest on the cost of | the property. He then drove by Mr. X. B. Moore's place, that we might see how he cures peavine hay. A friend in Athens, who is very successful in making a plenty of excellent hay from this luxuriant plant, informs us that he fol lows the plan first recommended by Mr. Moore some twelve years sicco iu the Cultivator, which we remember, but thought it not unlikely he had improved since. Instead of finding his pea vines put up in small heaps of the size of a • flour barrer to cure, according to the old plan, they were iu good largo haycocks, that would shed rain in wet weather and expose but small surface to the bleaching effects of dews iu lair weather. We did not see Mr. 31. and cannot say how much he dries the pea plant before lie puts it into cocks, nor how often lie opens them after the dew is off iu the morning. But it took us, this year, eight days to cure and make the first quality of pea hay, which is now as good as hay can be. We presume Mr. Moore's practice dif fers but little from our own: if it does, our col umns are open for liis correction. After putting the lialf cured plants into small stacks as a par tial protection from rain and dew, these stacks or cocks are opened every fair day as soon as the dew is off, with a common hay fork, and left open and light for the sun, air and wind to dry out the surplus water. At night, if it is not likely to rain, the open hay is merely turned over, that the dew may not fall on the suu-dried surface. Tlio intention is to expel the moisture from the thick stems of the plant as speedily as possible, without losing its nutritious leaves and liner vines. So soon as the plants are thorough ly cured, the hay should be hauled into a barn or house that has a tight roof. Finding this a very excellent winter forage for all kinds of stock, we venture to commend pea hay, made from peas sown either broad cast or in drills as a field crop, without corn, to be cut with scydies by hand, or with a machine driven by horses.— As the stems of ripe plants are both hard and large, we doubt whether any common reaper will cut them, where one wishes to harvest peas for seed; but cut early, when the woody fibre is immature and soft, as for hay, then the reaper will, perhaps, do admirably, as iu cutting grass, i This paragraph is written, because there is a de ficiency of good forage on almost every farm that we visit. Mr. Miller drove next to his own farm. Ou the way there we passed a herd of spotted, speckled and ring-streaked eatUe, with large heads and horns, big, ungainly legs, and small, gaunt, raw-boned bodies, which struck us as being about die worst looking samples of Pha raoh’s “ lean kino” that we ever met with. It turned out that this was a drove from the wire grass counties of this State, of so-called fat ani mals sent to tlio Augusta market. The pur chaser had put them iu a pretty fair pasture; but come when it may to the tables of the best hotels in tho city, their beef will boa hard, tough, wire-grass, wirery mixture of grizzle membrane, tendon, fascia, bone and eartilege, requiring at once the jaws of the lion to masti cate, and tho gizzard of an ostrich to digest it. A servant opening the gate as we arrived at Mr. Miller's place, we drove into a large field of ripe peas, which were truly worth seeing. While the growth of peas was extraordinary, the sev. eaty-flve or eighty fat hogs, which would aver age some 250 or 300 pounds of meat, or dressed each, luxuriating on the peas, were still more noticeable. This field lias been made rich by often receiving a liberal dressing of the leaves, vines and roots of the pea plant, improved great ly by all the droppings derived from the con sumption there of every pea grown in the field. The land gets all but the fat in the hogs, which is nothing but coal or carbon and the elements of water. There is sound farm economy in thus making and spreading large quantities of manure over 100 acre fields, and never hauling a pound of the plants that yield the manure ono yard, or the manure itself; and yet, such hogs as Mr. Miller raises, will sell readily for over twenty dollars a head by the thousand. We saw in the same field between fifty and sixty wethers, feed' ing on peas. They were a tolerably well form ed lot of sheep, but so small as to show that they and their progenitors had grown up on short allowance. They wero selected from a flock driven from one of the wire grass coun ties. They arc smaller than wethers reared in Upper Georgia which we have seen, and pur chased to some extent. There must be a part of the year when the natural herbage fails in the Southern part of the State, and sheep and cattle growers there should remedy the defect. We went to seo the ewes in another field, and found them healthy and doing well, but showing too little wool for desirable breeding animals. On entering this field, we noticed at once that a crop of wheat had been cut by a reaper, and one of crab grass by the same machine. It worked well in both cases, and, if our memory is not at fault, both crops were satisfactory. Ou going to the bam, wo saw the first hay rakes that we ever met with on any farm iu Georgia, and hoped to find a good horse rake or two, but did not. It gave us pleasure, howev er, to see a capital hay press, which turned out 400 lbs. in a bale, and pressed about four bales ¥»£ SOVXXKBS FIKI.H MB ! in an hour. It is a strong cotton press, used for 1 putting up hay in a convenient form for storage, market and cheap handling. We remarked that he should make some small bales of 200 lbs., as many a poor man in every city, who keeps a horse for draying, or a cow, will buy 200 lbs. of hay, when he could not conveniently purchase twice that quantity at a time, nor a wagon load of unpressed hay. Much of the retail trade in every article is a matter of necessity with the masses. We suggested to Mr. Miller the propriety of converting 100 acres of liis low-lying pastures into a meadow of English grasses, believing that some of his rich river bottoms will give aii aver age of five thousand pounds of excellent hay a i year, worth at $1.20 per hundred, sixty dollars. Twenty dollars per acre will make this crop and keep up the fertility of the land. If so, the net profit will be S4O per acre, and ten per cent, in terest on a valuation of four hundred dollars per acre. The annual consumption of so much abo lition hay from tho North, and at a price which renders the land worth from one hundred to two hundred dollars an acre that produces it, strikes us as not exactly the right way to attain South ern independence. Between Augusta and Sa vannah, ou either side of the river, there are hundreds of thousands of acres of unimproved swamp lands that may now be bought at a low figure and made at once into superior meadows. They are equally adapted to the production ol tho finest pastures in the world, and yet they now yield little or no income to any person whatever. We go for developing the home re sources of the South, and humbly ask others to join in this great enterprise. Our present plan tation economy is defective, narrow and partial, alike in its sphere of action and in its results. We are attempting to raise a grand agricultural superstructure on too small a base. Experience proves that planting alone will not do. It not only ignores, but violates the fundamental prin ciples of good husbandry. Restrained within proper bounds, it will forever remain a source of incalculable wealth, and confer great commer cial and political power. Profitable and endur ing planting demands rich land; and wise stock husbandry can alone furnish such land at tho minimum price, in all time to come. — “THE INEVITABLE CONSEQUENCE OF CUL TIVATION BY SLAVE LABOR.” Our readers will be interested in the article j headed “The Present Condition of American : Agriculture,” which we copy from that excel lent weekly, The Southern Field and Fireside , whose agricultural department is edited by Dr. Lee. We are glad to see so well exposed, a j miserable libel on the State of Virginia, and the stale falsehood that “sterility and decay” are “ tho inevitable consequence of cultivation by slave labor.” That any such consequence is the natural result of slave labor, nobody believes who really knows anything of the matter. On the contrary, slave labor being directed general ly, by a degree of intelligence far surpassing, as we believe, the average of that which directs the farm labor of the free States, we expect to | find better, more successful, more profitable cul ture, and more rapid strides in agricultural im provement, and wo are not disappointed. If there is better farming, or more successful plant ing, or more rapid improvement of lands to be found anywhere, than in the slave States, we have yet to discover where it is. It is mere ignorance, or despicable malice, to charge that that is the result of slave labor which every well-informed person knows to be owing chiefly to scarcity of labor of any sort. Labor seeks everywhere the most profitable field of opera tions. Tho agricultural labor of the Southern States has in years past sought new lands rath-, er than improve the old. Precisely the same thing has taken place iu the New England States. Whole towns, thousands and thousands of acres, in Massachusetts, have been depopu lated and have gone back to their primeval con dition, because it was thought more profitable to emigrate and cultivate the fertile lands of the West. It is only because tho higher profits of cotton and sugar culture have drawn off • the slave labor from the tobacco and grain grow ing portions of tho South, and from the old to the new cotton lauds, that “ sterility and de . cay” are apparent anywhere. It is only because we have not slaves enough to fill the space they ought to occupy. The suggestion of Dr. Lee in this connection is worthy of consideration. It is one that we have repeatedly urged as the true econqmy of the planting States, viz: that the system of hus bandry be so modified as to embrace sheep hus bandry, mule raising, and stock growing gener ally. That each individual planter would shortly find such a system more productive, than the exclusive planting system, we do not doubt. That properly pursued it would result in improvement of land and consequent in creased production, we have as little doubt.— , That such a system would enable the States i who hold slaves to occupy and make productive a much larger portion of their territory with the same amount of labor is a consideration of still greater importance. We do not fear, so much as Dr. Lee, the influence of free soil votes and free soil sentiment in Virginia and Maryland.— When tho “ irrepressible conflict” shall be forced upon us, whether sooner or later, we do not doubt that these States will stand as one man in their true position. But the high price of slaves, caused by the eagerness to enlarge the cotton culture, is warring against tho interests ol these States by subtracting their necessary labor, and against the true policy of tho more Southern States by concentrating the slave in terest on too limited a portion of their territory. The union of slave States against aggression, to be most effective, should bo based upon interest as well as sympathy. Wo are pleased to see so old and able a paper as tho American Farmer coincide with views expressed in this journal in reference to South ern policy. There is sound philosophy in the remark: “ Tho union of the slave States against aggression, to bo most effective, should be based upon interest as well as sympathy.” If we pur chase all the slaves of tlio border States which now hold this kind of agricultural laborers, their interest in the institution, so important to the cotton, rico and sugar producing States, ceases at once and forever. We now take from them all their annual increase of slaves, and a part of the stock that remains. This is more than they can spare and not become free States. Indeed, their agriculture demands a steady increase of field hands instead of the decrease now wit nessed. Cave Srixg, Ga., Dec. 6, 1859. Dr. Lee — Dear Sir: For some ten years past I have been reading your articles in the Southern Cultivator, and my only object in sub scribing for the Field and Fireside, was, because you were at the head of the Agricultural depart ment. I have read these articles with zest and interest, and they have afforded me great profit and delight. Regarding me, therefore, as one of your disciples in agricultural science, I hope vou will not consider it presumptuous in me to . draw upon your kindness, to answer the follow ing inquiries for my personal benefit. I have a field of some twenty-five acres, which I desire to appropriate to the use of pasturage for my stock. It lies beautifully, with here and there occasional undulations, and will retain the entire voidings of stock. It has been in culti vation about twenty years, and for the last five years, since it came into my possession, has yielded some twenty bushels of corn, sis hun dred pounds of cotton and thirty dozen of oats to the acre. The soil is sandy loam, with some gravel and a sandy foundation. It is what we term “gray land.” I desire to sow this field in clover, or grass, or both, and you are requested to inform me as to what will be most suitable, whether clover or grass —if grass, what kind? Please state how I ought to sow, how the land ought to bo prepared, and how the seed should be put in. The field was in cotton this year past. It is free of trees or stumps, so that I can apply a harrow or roller, as may be desired. — Please answer this at your earliest convenience, either privately or through the columns of the Southern Field and Fireside, and oblige Yours truly, A. J. King. The field you describe may be a little too sandy and dry for grass to flourish and be prof itable thereon. Orchard grass, blue grass and oat grass -are the perennial English grasses which we should try on such land—giving the preference to the first named, if one only was sown. Clover, lucerne aud orchard grass are the plants best adapted to such land, which ought to be manured to yield good crops. Pre i pare the ground at once as for wheat: harrow thoroughly and sow one bushel of orchard grass seed per acre. Mr. Peters, of Atlanta, adver tises in our paper seeds of this year’s growth.— In the month of February sow a gallon of clo ver seed to the acre on the same land. Roll in the grass seed, but do nothing to the clover seed. In place of the clover seed, sow four pounds of lucerne on ono acre of the ground, to test its value by the side of clover. «n mm MAPES’ SUPERPHOSPHATES. There lies before us a letter from Mr. Mapes, ; of recent date, in which he requests us to pub lish a little less than three columns of printed matter, containing numerous commendations of his so-called superphosphates, and several mis j statements in reference to the value of the min eral phosphate of lime, as it is found among primitive rocks. His agent at the South has called at our office, and represents that wo have done injustice to the oldest manufacturer of su perphosphates in this country, by publishing Prof. Johnson’s analyses of his commercial ma nures, made under the direction of the Connec ticut State Agricultural Society. This agent also states that, while some other manipulators of superphosphates have made a quarter of a million of dollars in four or five years, Mr. Mapes has been some ten years at the business, and realized a smaller fortune. New York is a pretty large city, and it is quite possible that some sharp fellow has beat Mr. Mapes in the trade of selling dirt at an enormous profit; but no man in America has equalled him in the practice of agricultural quackery and humbug. His theory of “ pro gressed atoms ” was evidently invented to aid in selling his special manures, under the pretense that such atoms of phosphorns, sulphur, potash, and ammonia as he uses, are worth more, as food for plants, than atoms of the same name and character, sold by others, which had been less frequently vitalized in plants or animals. Prof. Rogers measured the stratified rocks under and above the coal deposits in Pennsyl vania with great care, and found them over forty thousand feet in thickness. Such is the depth of the strata in which the remains of plants and animals are found; and it is known that the ele ments consumed to form the tissues of these liv ing beings were the samo in the beginning that they now are. The elements of water formed as large a share of the plants that gavo exis tence to anthracite and bituminous coal, as they do of the agricultural plants now cultivated. If Mr. Mapes’ theory is true, then the substance now called water has never remained two years the same, but has been steadily advanced from year to year by the vital influence of plants du ring all the vast unknown geological ages that have elapsed since water, air, and earth pro duced the first plant. Now. there is not a par ticle of proof to show that water, which is so important an element of plants and animals, has ever changed at all. When pure, as it was in the beginning, so is it now. The same is true of pure carbonic acid, and the other substances that feed plants. This false pretense has done its talented author far more harm than good. We do not blame him for trying to distinguish himself from common men engaged in the man ipulation of valuable fertilizers. This ho might do by making a superior article, without any quackery about “progressed” water, nitrogen, phosphorus, flint, potash and carbon. By thus attempting to humbug the agricultural commu nity, he unwittingly gives his competitors in the manufacture of superphosphates a great advan tage over him. He appears to have forgotten that ‘‘honesty is the best policy",” and therefore he is forever in hot water. It has often been said in his praise that he was the first in this coun try to recommend the use of highly concentrated manures; but this claim of priority has no foun dation in fact, as possibly wo may take the trou ble to prove at another time. His contributions to agricultural literature are all of a recent date, and consist, mainly, of elaborate and ingenious puffs of something which he had to sell. Such writings are about as useful and trustworthy as the stories told by a horse-jockey when trying to dispose of a bad horse for a little more money than would buy a good one of another man. NEW YORK STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. | We have received a pamphlet containing the Act incorporating the New York State Agricul tural College; a brief history of the institution, the names of its trustees and other officers, and the plan of its collegiate studies, and farming operations. The whole subject has been ma turely considered, and from our knowledge of the gentlemen who have the interests of agri cultural education in charge, we ehensli the be lief that this farmers’ college will soon take rank as a model establishment of the kind. Major M. R. Patrick, its President, is a graduate of the government school at West Point, a man of talent, energy, and firmness, a capital disciplin arian, yet genial, courteous, and conciliating, ?nd withal, an excellent practical farmer. He will command, at once, the entire confidence of the Board of Trustees, professors and students- The college is located on a large farm near Ovid, iu Seneca county, between Cayuga and Seneca Lakes. ——— ■ BRITISH MANUFACTURERS. The well-informed London correspondent of the National Intelligencer, in this letter of Sept. 22nd, writes as follows: As respects the immense manufacturing pow er of this country, and the vast annual additions to its produce, it lias loDg appeared to us that nothing can give bounds to that power, or fix limits that prodnee, but a want of raw materials. As civilization and commercial intercourse, each operating to increase and promote the other, ex tend into new countries and new climates, new raw materials and additional supplies of old ones for manufacturing purposes will bo produced, and new wants of manufeetured articles will be created. The ruder domestic manufactures of other countries will give way to the cheaper and better supplies of English goods, and every ad ditional foreign producer of the raw material will be a new customer of the goods produced. Thus there arises, and will continue to arise, a con stantly increased craving on tho part of English manufacturers for a larger supply of raw mate rial, rendering it imperatively necessary that ■ every means should bo taken to provide it. It will also follow, of course, that this craving will be most urgent with respect to those man ufactures in which improvements in quality and cheapnets in price have been most rapid and de cided, This cotton trade is evidently the most prominent in this class of manufactures; so much so that, although the supply of cotton has always been largely increasing, the English man ufacturers never appear to have enough. I The following table shotes the guality of each of the lead - j ing articles of raw material imported into England in 1833, and other years since that date: Year. I Cotton. Wool I Bilk. I Hemp A Flax. I j j | Juto. 1 lbs! tbs. | lbs. cwts. | cwts. 1888.. 1 80.-t.656.057 88,046.087 8,400.560 527,550 1,180.000 1844.. 616.1U.000 65,700.000 4,100.000 0T3.000 1,558,000 1850 ... 668.576.000 74,800,000 4,900.000 1,048,000 1,822,000 1836.. 894,751.000 99,800.000 6,600,000 1,267,000 1,298.000 1856.. 1,028,886,000 166200,000 7,800,000 jl,502, 000 1 1,687,000 1857.. 969.818,000 129,700,000 12,000,000 1,400,000! 1,866000 1858.. 1,084 “42,000| 126500,000! 6,200, 000 11,624,000; 1,281,000 ■ ■ ■ . . - ' ( I This table shows a very striking contrast in the increase of the supply of flax as compared with other raw materials during the last quarter of a century; and further back the contrast would bo still greater. The supply of cotton, wool, silk and hemp may be said to be three times greater now than it was in 1833, and the steady and rapid increase warrants a reasona ble pre3umtion that the future supply will meet the increased demands of those great branches of industry. But the case is very different as regards flax. There is less grown at home, bo cause the land has been appropriated to more valuable crops; and the principal imported sup ply has been derived from old Kuropean sources, where more and more land is every year want ed for the growth of food for the rapidly increas ing population. In the case of cotton, much of the additional supply is received from the com paratively new cotton-fields in the United States, and no inconsiderable quantity lately from India. Austria furnishes the greater part of the inci dental supply of wool, and India and the Cape of Good Hope have sent a respectable portion. The new sources of China and India yield most of the additional silk now consumed, and near ly all the increased receipts of hemp have arriv ed from India. On the contrary, tho supply of flax is looked for from the same sonrces that it was a century ago, where, as we have stated, imperative causes not only prevent an additional quantity being raised, but rapidly curtail the area formerly appropriated to its cultivation. There is, perhaps, nothing else connected with English trade which exhibits so stationary and stagnant a character. Whatever may be the cost and cares of India to Great Britain, and whatever may be in tho womb of the future respecting that important region, it will be evident, from tho following brief table, with tho raw material for her textile manufactures, India has very amply performed her part. The imports from India in 1833 and 1858 were as follows: Cotton, lbs 32,755,000 132,720,00 Wool, 3,721 17,333,000 Silk > 980,000 3,652.000 Hemp and Jute, cwts .. 34,000 839,000 We are told that the soil and climate of a large portion of India is admirably adapted for the growth of flax. Tho Punjaub is regarded as the most favorable flax country, and the ri sing port of Kurrachee as the best port for ship ment, from whence the freight would be nearly as cheap as from St. Petersburgh, with the ad vantage of being open all the year. The British manufacturing towns of Belfast, Leeds, and Dundee areas much interested in the linen trade as Manchester is in that of cotton: and wo trust the enterprise of the former towns will do os much to encourage the growth of their staple raw material in India as that of the latter has done for the cultivation of cotton. There is no doubt that with a good supply of flax the linen and baggmg trade of Great Britain might speed i u an( l we are equally without a doubt that the necessary impulse is about to be given to this only lagging branch of British com merce. The expectation of receiving any considerable quantity of flax from British India is not well founded. The climate is not adapted to the plant, as is that of Ireland, Scotland and tho north of Europe generally. Cotton, wool and silk for common go ods, and hemp for bagging, are the textile raw materials for the general use of civilized man in all nations. Note the increase of wool exported from India, from 3,721 pounds in 1833, to 17,333,000 pounds in 1858. Let southern wool show a like gain in the next twenty-five years, in the quantity sent to Eng land. ——•— . [For the Southern Field and Fireside.] BOOK FARMING. Mit. Editor: —lt has ever been a puzzle to me to hear men, and some of them men of no mean pretensions to intelligence, condemn book farming, and yet in choosing a lawyer or phy sician, make it a point that he shall be a man of much book learning. I say it is hard to re concile the reasoning of such persons, for if in formation should be a prerequisite in the last case, I do not see why it should not be in the first. What is book farming more than the ex perience of farmers reduced to writing? If I am told how to make blackberry wine, or do anything else, does the information becomo less valuable when conveyed in writing; ? I certain ly think not. And may it not be, that some of these book farming opposers are indebted for what they may know to the very thing they arc condemning? Perhaps some father has be queathed to them a system of agriculture learn ed from experience, and fortified by long and incessant reading. Ido not say that a man can not plow his ground and put in his seed with out a knowledge of what is contained in the books, but I do say, he ought not to move with the pole boat speed, when lie should be keep ing up with the steamboat. But while I confess tho experience of others should be the guiding star in our farming oper ations, I do not deny that as a general tiling writers are too indefinite in their details, an oversight that often proves fatal to the very les son they would teach. Then let tho experi mentalist give a minute description of his expe rience, the quality and locality of the land on which the experiment was made, whether level or undulating, quality of manure used, tho dif ferent seasons on the crop—in a word, stato ev ery thing w ithout the omission of a letter, and then tho reader will know precisely what to do, and also how to account for a failure, in case there should be one—and more than that, wc will hear no more of the crusade against book farming. Respectfully, V. L. ADAPTATION OF FERTILIZER 3 TO SPECIAL OBJECTS. BY PROF. E, EMMONS. The tendency of all real improvements in the cultivation of land, is to speciality. This is par ticularly manifest in tho changes which tho im plements of husbandry have undergone in the last twenty years. The efforts of both mechan ics and husbandmen have been, to produce an instrument best adapted for a particular end.— Thus the plow has been improved not only gen erally, but it is often made for a particular use and to perform certain kinds of work. Now, improvements which require merely mechanical skill, are always in advanco of those which re quire considerable knowledge of tholawsof veg etation, or of the economy of the vegetable and animal kingdoms. The knowledges of the best adaptation of fertilizers is among that kind of information, or of research, which is not well understood, and about which very little discrim ination is made. To bo sure there is much talk about long and short manures; about guano, and the phosphates, marls, 4c. f and the question is discussed, wliat quantity should be used? But after all, the questions and discussions arc very general and do not touch points which are often of considerable importance. We will put a case: What manure is best adapted to tho cultivation of Tobacco, so that it shall grow ear ly and rapidly, and at the same time mature in perfection before frost? The latter is the spe cial point to be attained; and in order to secure the ripening of the leaf in time, it will not do to use the strong manures, such as ashes, or those w'liich contain a large proportion of the alkalies, especially potash; and yet, potash is one of the elements which give the highest price to Tobac co. This seeming paradox in vegetation is ex plained by the peculiar effects of potash upon the whole plant. It keeps up its growth so long as the extra amount of potash remains in the soil, and thereby carrieß it forward into the pe riod of frost. A large, vigorous green plant is produced, but the amount of this particular kind of food encourages tho constant production of leaves, and the plant will not stop to ripen even the oldest parts of its foliage; it will continue to grow as long as its magazine of food remains, and there will be no concentration of elaborated juice in the leaf. When we consider the special effects of man ures in tho points we have indicated, we may di vide cultivation or crops into two classes. In tho first class, we may place those crops which it is necessary should be ripened before frost; and in the second, those which require no spe cial attention as to tho timo of ripening. In the first class we place tobacco, cotton and certain vines, as the grape. In tho latter the grasses. In the case of cotton and tobacco, it is a well established doctrine, that they must get a good stand and be put within tho reach of sufficient food to secure a good sized plant. When these points are secured, soil, with its ordinary amount of fertilizing matter, is sufficient to ef fect the maturity of its foliage. It will no longer put forth new leaves which will command the circulation of its sap, but the circulation of sap with a sufficient amount of nutriment, will go to, and be retained by the full grown foliage, and its ripening will at once begin. The expendi ture of nutriment is no longer in the direction of new leaves at the top of the plant, but the pro cess of accumulation actually begins in the old, full grown leaf, and this accumulation may be proved by its increase in weight. It is indicated in tobacco by a chango of color ; a change which is quite imperfect, while the plant is growing vig orously under the infiuonco of strong fertilizers, however late it may be in the season. Good to bacco is never made by curing, but bad curing may spoil good tobacco. It is the soil and sun which make good tobacco; the curing perfects the process, or gives it a fancy price. The spe- . cial object to be attained in the cultivation of to bacco, is tho use of such a fertilizer, in such a quantity, that its power shall bo exhausted by such a timo in the season, that the ripening pro cess may begin early. Guano fulfils the condi tion required on old lands and. in this climate. The comparatively small amount used, leads to an early expenditure of it 3 principal influence ; and hence when this is done, the leaf begins to ripon. It is no longer stimulated to put forth new leaves, and the process of accumulation or retention begins in the old leaves. Leaving the subject of tobacco, wo may turn for a moment to facts relative to the Vine. In