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coast as well as at Demarara, to protect the blacks who might willingly enter into these engagements, from the possibility of wrong or injury. To no higher practical end could the naval force which excites Mr. Hutt's antipathy be directed, and, under judicious regulation, the moral and physical condition of the laborers, instead of being deteriorated, would, in reality, be improved and elevated, by the boon which the West India Association solicit at the hands of government and the country. If the experiment were tried in British Guiana, it might, if successful, be extended to the West India islands.

In the meantime, the southern planters of America, stimulated by the prices which now prevail, have every inducement to extend the cultivation of cotton with, if possible, increased power and capital. Probably the next crop may, in its amplitude, compensate for the shortness of the last one, and the outery which now exists for other fields of cultivation in various quarters of the globe, would, in the event of such a result, correspondingly abate. But at the same time they will read the signs which are every day passing around them very imperfectly, if they do not perceive a fixed determination, on the part of the merchants and the manufacturers of this country, and its government, to rely less exclusively than heretofore on the cotton of the United States.

Experientia docet.

2. WEST INDIA MODE OF SUGAR CULTURE.

[The following essay received, several years ago, the prize of one hundred guineas, offered by Lord Elgin, then governor of Jamaica, for the best practical treatise upon the subject. We have supposed it might interest our planters to know what systems their neighbors have been adopting, though no great prac tical good be derived from the information.—ED.]

Commence by subdividing the old cane-fields, or such parts of them as may be suitable to receive the plow, into sections, by substantial and durable fences, and in the most convenient manner to save fencing and promote draining. Fences may be growing fences, or ditch and penguin. As ditches may be necessary in many parts, in carrying out the principle of draining and retaining water for stock, they will be found beneficial, and inay be planted on the top of the bank with any of the growing fences found on experience to be the most substantial, durable and least expensive, and least likely to harbor rats.

The next important duty is to drain the land by under-drains, which can be dug by machinery, the tiles necessary for draining being made on the spot, by machinery. These points accomplished are the most expensive outlay at the commencement, but will be attended by a durable benefit. The next duty is to manure the land as high as you possibly can, by penning it over with horned stock, or sheep, or stable, or cattle pen dung, given in any way by which its virtues are saved to the soil, covering the pens immediately after they are removed, with a coat of loam, or if stiff clayey land, with lime or mari. This done, close-plow the land with a common single "Wilkie's" plow, seven inches deep, following in the same furrow with the sub-soil, going to sixteen inches into the sub-soil, or deeper, if possible. Then roll and harrow the land, extracting the weeds and grass, and open it into cane holes with a deep single plow, cleaning out the holes with a deep double-breasted plow. Your next duty is to plant them, giving the canes an opportunity of growing in their favorite manner in clusters, or stools, and not in single file along the row. As you plant, cover the bank and cane-bed with cane-trash, dry grass, or any other suitable covering, with a view to keep down grass and weeds, and to protect the soil from that exhalation, which, in tropical climates, is so rapid and so detrimental to land. By these means the plant canes will give very little trouble until they are fit to take the bank, which can be given with the plow. Cane land, so managed, will require very little labor in weeding or hoeing, the principal part of such work being performed with suitable light plows, drills, harrows, scarifi. cators and other agricultural implements now in use in the United Kingdom. They not only eradicate grass and weeds, but turn up the soil and scatter seeds and manures of every kind, thereby saving a world of labor.

The principal part of the plowing and other field work, should be performed by horses, in which case three plowmen, six boys and eight good plow horses,

with the assistance of steers occasionally to break stiff land, or in sub-soiling it, will be sufficient to plow, sub-soil, roll and harrow, drill, scarify, mold and hoe, all the various crops on the model sugar farm, with the aid of a small gang occasionally to plant, weed, trash, heap and turn out manure, fencing, &c.

While on the subject of plowing, it may be as well to remark, that as the plow is now coming into general use throughout the island, and its beneficial effects freely admitted and tolerably well understood,all that remains for me, is to point out some improvement. The team of horses or steers should be brought as close as possible to the beam of the plow, and exactly in the center. They should then walk with a quick step without stopping.

It is proved beyond a doubt by the British farmers, that the work is better performed and with greater ease to the stock, when the horses in the plow go at the rate of three miles an hour, than when traveling at the rate of one mile in the same space of time. Repeated stoppages and going slow, are fagging both to man and beast, and detrimental to the quantity and quality of the work. Oxen may be so trained, as to perform excellent work without flogging.

They ought to be stall-fed during the plow season, on a mixture of hay, corn and grass, and kept exclusively for the plow. The same rule should be extended to the plow horses, with the addition of being well groomed twice a day. When the plow does not take the ground, or is otherwise out of order, the means of repairing and altering it should be on the estate.

RATOONS

Should be plow-molded every year, during which operation any of the chemical or lately discovered manures may be applied, such as are found by experience to be congenial to the nature of that specific soil which is drawn by analysis. By analyzing the soil and the compost, or other chemical manure, it is soon found which description of manure will be most beneficial; or well-digested cattle pen or stable manure, harrowed into the bank so broken, and covered over with the trash so taken off, when clearing for the plow. This may be done by a couple of smart boys going before the plow, raking the trash on the bank last cut by the plow, and so on in rotation to the end of the piece; or a raker drawn by one horse may be invented to remove the trash. By this simple process, canes may be kept ratooning as long as you like. The plow-molding, with the application of manure in the bank, may be done at an early stage, that is, when the sprouts make their appearance.

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As the canes are covering the ground, or soon after, the soil may be again disturbed, either by a light single one-horse plow, or by a scarificator, harrowdrill or horse-hoe, or such of them as the sugar farmer, on experience, finds to be most beneficial. By cutting the rooty fibers of the canes that push out in collateral directions, fresh ones immediately replace them, and take up such nourishment as they can find in the newly cut bank; a reinforcement of suckers will be the result, while fresh stability is added to the mother cane. to this end I recommend dung and manures annually for the ratoons, which, if properly done, places them pretty nearly on an equality with the plant canes, and planters of experience know that the cheapest sugar is that produced from ratoons under the old system, and it will be doubly so under mine. When you determine on throwing out a piece of ratoons, I recommend a rotation of crops, such as Guinea corn, Indian corn and green crops of the most beneficial descriptions, for benefiting the land and affording food both for man and beast. They may be of plantains, cocoes, cassadoes, ochres, peas and beans; yams, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, melons and turnips, if you can succeed in this hot climate. Next comes artificial grasses, to be planted before or after the green crops. this stage, you have the sample estate dividend in the different crops-canes, corn, fallow and green crops, and a part in artificial grasses, sufficient to make hay for the stable, cutting grass for the pens, and sufficient feeding for your stock. By this rotation of crops, you improve and benefit the land and produce good crops at a very moderate expense, and with one-fourth of the manual labor necessary under the old system. The greatest attention should be paid to making manure in the field and at the works-the drainings of the stables and cattle-pens should be preserved, and carted out to the field where most required. The compound qualities of this manure are very powerful. A few boys and mule carts would materially assist in carting out manure-bringing feeding for

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the pens and stable, and carting loam, lime, marl, or any other ingredient deemed necessary to improve the land. After the first two years necessary to lay the foundation of this work, a small plant will be sufficient-say, at the utmost, from 20 to 25 acres a year, which, after a routine of crops, and for years fed on by horned stock, horses, sheep, poultry and hogs-the land being in the first instance fenced, drained and sub-soiled-should, with moderate penning, give splendid returns in plants and ratoons.

DRAINING AND SUB-SOILING,

Being of the greatest benefit in producing large crops and improving the soil, I may as well give an idea of their merits. The old system of draining by open trenches, was detrimental to the land during heavy rains, as a quantity of loose soil and manure were washed away into the gulleys and rivers. The land not being sub-soiled, the rain could not penetrate far into the soil; the land became caked with a few days of hot sun, which proved detrimental to vegetation. When any quantity of moisture was retained on the surface, or in the upper strata, it heated and scalded the canes, while in the fall of the year or wintry months, it chilled them-in either case, checking vegetation and producing booty and woody joints, and thereby poor returns. The land being underdrained and sub-soiled 16 to 18 inches deep, the moisture soaks down through the soil into the sub-soil, from whence it escapes by the under drains, leaving its chemical benefits in the soil while passing through it.

By this means, in a dry season, the canes or other crops receive sufficient coolness and moisture by evaporation from the sub-soil, which for the most part being stiff and clayey, continues cool and moist. It is a well-known chemical fact, that all the essential airs necessary for the preservation and benefit of the animal and vegetable world, are contained in the clouds and reach the earth in wind and rain. Rain water being highly charged with them, is deposited in the soil, giving a lively impulse to vegetation, and aiding the manures and natural stability of the soil-that is, when the land is under-drained and sub-soiled.

The drains are to be cut 30 inches deep, then lay a course of tiles on the bottom; after which, lay 12 inches of broken stones, to be covered on the top with sods, flat stones, slate tiles or boards, to prevent the loose soil from getting amongst the stones and injuring the drain. The tiles prevent the stones from sinking into the clay, by which means the drains will be of long duration.

The sub-soil plow must enter 16 inches deep, leaving two inches on the top of the drains, clear of the plow. The land must be sub-soiled across the drains.

MANURING, ETC.

A flock of sheep, consisting of from 200 to 300 head, and as many working steers, horses and mules, as may be necessary to carry on the trial sugar farm, with the assistance of some breeding stock necessary to supply it, and constantly fed on the sections of the cane fields thrown out to rest, and producing artificial grasses and green crops, would be sufficient to make 250 hogsheads.

Land so dressed, with a due regard to the laws of agricultural chemistry, and receiving an annual supply of manure, either simple or compound, such as are found by analysis or experience to agree best with the description of the soil, should average 21⁄2 hogsheads (West India hogsheads average 18 cwt.) per acre through the crop, that is, from plants and ratoons. In this case, a field of 100 acres would be sufficient, putting in an annual plant of 25 acres and supplying the ratoons with manure. In addition to the necessary number of plow and cart men, very few field laborers would be required to plant, clean and trash the canes. The sugar farm should raise its own stock thus situated, and breed as many stock and horse-kind as would be sufficient to carry on his farm successfully.

European farm laborers, if properly managed, are fully competent to perform a large proportion of the work necessary on this sugar farm.

BOURBON AND COLORED CANES.

The saving of labor being a matter of vital importance, permit me to remark that the Bourbon cane, so much admired for its superior yielding, is a very expeusive cane, giving great trouble, and before it comes to maturity, requiring a great deal of labor.

It is a delicate cane and very slow in its growth, requiring many cleanings before it covers the ground, and seldom takes a start until the fall of the year. It furnishes a scanty supply of dry leaves to cover the land and keep it cool. It gives a smaller proportion of tops to supply the cattle pens with feeding and to make manure, and it suffers more from trespass. It gives a smaller proportion of fuel compared to the other canes, and in every sense of the word, it is not, in these bad times, so good a poor man's cane as the Montblanc and blue canes and black transparent canes. From the prejudices that formerly existed against the colored canes, they have been planted on light sandy soils and in galls, in which the Bourbon cane could not long exist. But if these inferior canes were planted in your best lands, well manured, I am convinced they would, on an average of five or seven years, pay better than the Bourbon cane, and would, in this given period, in plants and ratoons, make as much sugar at nearly one-half of the expense. For example, they grow rapidly and cover the ground quickly, they throw a great quantity of dry trash on the ground, and have a large bushy top that affords ample shade for the roots.

Comparatively speaking, they require very little weeding and trashing; they give ample protection to the land, by a deep cover of trash; they suffer less from the trespass of stock, hogs and rats, and the people do not eat them as they do the Bourbon cane. They give a great quantity of feeding for stock and supply for the cattle-pens, and a larger quantity of trash from the mill than is necessary for fuel to manufacture the sugar. The overplus is a valuable ingredient for making manure, which may be fermented in cattle-pens, or in pits where it may receive dundar. The drainings of the stable and cattle-pens, the refuse of skimmings, the washings of cisterns, and all the sweepings and cleanings about the works may be added, and ashes, &c.

The white or Montblanc caue, comes next in quality to the Bourbon, and may be successfully planted in the same piece, say every alternate row or two of Bourbon, and one of white cane. By this mixture, the extra trash from the latter assists in making up the deficiencies of the former.

The white and other colored canes suffer less from drought and poverty of soil, and ratoon better and much longer than the Bourbon cane, as they do not empoverish the land, but tend to improve it with proper culture.

A great deal more may be said in carrying out these leading principles into practical detail, but they are too numerous for this paper.

3. COTTON BLOOMS, FROSTS AND CROPS.

The subjoined table will be read with curiosity, if not with profit, by our planting friends. It shows the date of bloom and frost, with the crop of each

season, from 1836 to date:

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*Of which 200,000 bales were left over from preceding season.

Taking the above as a criterion, we may as well prepare for a short crop. In Central Georgia there are no blooms yet, and no prospect of any before the 18th to the 24th of June. Judging from this, we are destined to have another short crop. True there has been more ground planted than usual; but, in many sections, immense tracts of rich cotton lands, which last year were cultivated, are under water, and cannot be planted this season.

4. SUGAR AND ITS USES.

The French people are great eaters of sugar, always carrying some of it about with them, in their pockets and reticules, and, generally, putting five or six lumps

into each cup of coffee. M. Chessat reports that sugar, when used as the exclusive, or principal article of diet, produces quite opposite effects in persons, according to the difference in their systems; for, while it fattens some, it creates bile, which induces a diarrhea, and a wasting of the solids, in other persons. The celebrated Bolivar had, by fatigue and privations, so injured the tone of his stomach, that he was unable, at times, to take any other food than sugar, which, in his case, was easy of digestion. His personal friends assure us, that, in some of his last campaigns, he lived, for weeks together, upon sugar alone, as a solid, with pure water as a liquid; but, probably, in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand, this diet would soon have brought the person adopting it to his grave; for, on those whose digestion is feeble, a large, or exclusive, allowance of sugar adds to their grievance, because the excess of nutriment, not being generally absorbed by their weakened system, becomes converted to bile, and causes great debility and wasting of the body. In seventeen experiments, made on dogs, M. Chessat observed, that, when the sugar diet fattened them, there was a general tendency to constipation meanwhile; and, on the contrary, when it produced an excess of bile in other dogs, their bowels were relaxed, Why English children suffer, in their digestion, after eating largely of sugarplums, comfits, &c., is chiefly owing, however, to those delicacies being composed of the refuse of starch works, mixed with plaster of Paris, pipe clay and chalk, and having, indeed, as little sugar as will suffice to give them a palatable sweetness; and they are often colored with gamboge; and, sometimes, with red lead, verdigris, and other mineral poisons.

Everywhere, the beasts of the field, the reptiles, the fish and insects, are found to have a great liking for sugar and honey. Mr. Martin says he has tamed the most savage and vicious horses with sugar, and has seen the most ferocious animals domesticated by being partly fed upon it. The tamers of lions and tigers owe their power over them chiefly to a judicious use of sugar, and other sorts of sweets, and, also, of lavender water, and various other perfumes, of which feline animals are remarkably fond. In the sugar season, in the West Indies, the horses, mules and cattle, soon acquire a plumpness and strength by partaking of the leaving of the sugar canes, after the manufacturer has done with them. In Cochin-China, the elephants, buffaloes and horses, are all fattened with sugar. We learn, from the Memoirs of Dr. Edw. Dartwright" (1843), that this ingenious man used to fatten sheep on sugar. To birds, this diet proved so nourishing, that the suppliers of the European poultry markets find that sugar, along with hemp seed and boiled wheat, will greatly fatten ruffs and reeves in the space of a fortnight.

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5. ROSES.

The rose, in all countries, and in all times, has been held as the queen of flowers. The name, as it comes to us, is from the Greek rodon; it has relation to the color, red. The Greeks took their impression of the rose, and all matters of taste in the vegetable kingdom, from the Egyptians, Persians, and other nations of Asia. Everywhere it is the type of beauty and love. The Greeks had more taste than imagination, and they found, in their beautiful fables, the luxu riant growth of Oriental fancy. They have this tradition. The god of Love made a present to Harpocrates, the god of Silence, of a beautiful rose, the first that had been known, to engage him not to discover any of the secrets of his mother, Venus; and hence it has become a custom to have a rose placed in their rooms of mirth and entertainment, that, under the assurance thereof, they might lay aside all restraint, and speak what they pleased. Thus did the rose become a symbol of silence, and sub rosa, under the rose, denote as much as to be out of danger of any disclosure.

In India, and other portions of the East, the rose was commingled with sentiment and song. Its beauty and its perfume made it, in their imaginations, a match for the sweetest of nature's music, and hence the nightingale was married

to the rose.

Flowers are delightful to all. The tasteful Athenians, who had a market for the sale of them, were obliged to pass sumptuary laws to restrain the extravagance of purchasers.

Such was the passion over every mind in the East for flowers, that from them has been made a universal language of friendship, affection and love. It is one of no difficult acquirement, and fragments have been diffused far and wide.

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