Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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?' ' T VOL. IT. fT INTERESTING FROM PALATKA. j .1 ?- |i ,?,* The Trip up the St. John'*?Wreck of i the JTIaplc Leaf?Picket Captured? J?latters about Town. i Palatka, April 4th, 18G4. With a first class steamer, a fine day, ' in time of peace, and with select com- ] pany, I know of no better place on this continent to tike a pleasure trip than the St. John's river between Jacksonville and this place. The stream is broad, lake- ' like and roomy, the waters deep, and J almost, alive with the web-footed tribe. On evary favorable spot along the stream has been a plantation and a comfortable dwelling, but now abandoned. The 1 scenery along the banks is ever varying, and sometimes the tall unbroken pine forests loom up grandly in the distance; 1 the orange and lemon groves, some of them in blossom and others loaded with fruit, are beautiful to the eye and tempt- : ing to the taste ; and it would seem as if heaven had been specially indulgent to this sunny clime. And then it adds to -the curiosity and excitement of the day if you can have as companions du voyage a little fleet of porpoises, rolling, tumbling, rising, diving, swimming, and, in -nhort, going through all sorts of evolutions and locomotions, every one of which causes them to advance. As far as circumstances would permit, the luxuries of vrach a trip we enjoyed on the 2d inst., arriving in Palatka a little before the *un had gone down. About 12 M, we passed the wreck of the Maple Leaf \ and over the identical pot where the rebels anchored the infernal machine which caused her sudden destruction. As lightning never strikes twice in one place, no one seemed to apprehend any danger. When our commander heard of that disaster, the gunboat Norwich was sent to her, to make examination and save any part of her cargo that could be taken away. The people ? some of our conciliated citizens ? had been to her and taken four boat loads of goods away. This we learned from prisoners we left aboard on her hurricane decks, as our means of transportation would not permit us to take them away. Strange as it may seem, these prisoners refused to accompany their friends to the shore, preferring to remain in our hands. As our : eouvov. the Norwich, came in sight of the | %f ' ? Maple Leaf \ on the 2d inst., a squad of rebels was aboard of her plundering, as buzzards pick a carcass, and, setting fire to her, they made their escape. A boat's crew went aboard and extinguished the flames. After this our voyages arc to be made by day and not by night as heretofore. On the night of the 2d inst. Provost ! Marshal Smith and a small force, on the Harriet Weed, went 30 miles uj> the river and captured a rebel picket composed of 12 men. Thirteen horses were taken at the same time. As a partial offset to tliis, one of our pickets, composed of one Sergeant and three men belonging to the 40th Mass. Cavalry, has disappeared. We j know nothing of what has happened to ! them, but the strong probability is, they were quietly surrounded and had to sur- ; render unconditionally. The fact is. this ! country is full of small squads of rebels . posted in places it is necessary they should hold at present. The rebels have turned drovers; and when they have removed some three or four hundred thousand head of cattle from this section to the northern portion of the State, these pickets, acouts and cattle-drivei-s will probably be removed. Skirmishing, which involves *?1 1 *AAl - l 4-l.nf n# Dill IlUlt! 1USS C.\t:cpL luau vx wuinuguw, takes place almost daily along the line.? OoL Barton has been reinforced. Montgomery is somewhere about, and a feeling of security generally prevails, yet it is ?piite likely that a bloody action may come off here in a few days. Our forces found for some distance along the lines and back among the buildings numerous sitle-pits and other preparations for de THE FREE SOUTH?BEAl fence. But the exploits of the "Linkum gunboats" had probably taught the enemy that they were of 110 value. Col Barton has had the fine residence of Ex-Governor Mosley, situated a little out of town, burned down, and the splendid orange and lemon grove which surrounded it felled to the ground. Military necessity required this to be done. It was a favorite .place of shelter and ambush for rebel pickets ; they are really responsible for the destruction of that fine property. Another large building near the landing has, for the same reason been taken down and removed out of the way.? The Ottawa's guns can now sweep nearly all parts of the town. On the evening of the 2d another advance was made upon our pickets, which caused quite a waste of powder?"only that and nothing more." iuc viuupo lieic tug pguoouuj oimaigu and are all in fine spirits. The site of the town is one of the finest on the river. As all the camps are within the fortifications, many of the officers are quartered in buildings. The f ade trees and forest near by are full of birds, and they sing as sweetly and appear as gay as if there was no war. [ For the Free South. J Capital aa4 I.abor. During the past week there has been much discussion among planters on the subject of Gen. Birney's order published in your paper last week. Although I heartily endorse the feeling which prompted the order referred to, we still think it would have been better to have left the matter where Governor Saxton placed it. The government, as it may be unwisely, has, through its agents, sold the lands. The purchasers are, however, men of character, and are not disposed to oppress the laborers even if they could evade the very ample provisions of Governor Saxton's orders on the subject. Let us enquire what a negroes wages are ; First: At forty cents a task for listing, etc., lie may, if he pleases, earn 31.00 per day of eight hours. Second: He has the use of as much land to raise all the provisions he may need for his family. Tliivd: He may keep pigs, chickens, turkies, etc. Fourth: He may raise in his garden, melons, and other vegetables which bring in the market, enormous prices. Fifth: He pays no rent. Sixth: He has the free use, in the cultivation of his own crops, of the animals and implements of his employer. Seventh: When the cotton is ripe he receives from two to three cents per pound for picking. These privileges, I venture to say, are greater than those enjoyed by any laboring class in the world, and the labor required is certainly of a very light character. Tens of thousands of white men in all parts of the world would deem themselves fortunate if allowed such a chance. Au industrious negro and his family, say of a wife and four children may earn tive hundred dollars a year and never in that time, do as hard a day's work as a northern day's laborer does three hundred days in the year. - i*i- ?i Compare tne coniuuons unuer \>mcu men are now working with that ordered by Gen. Banks in Mississippi, and mark the contrast. Some people tliink that cotton-growing is a certain and easy business. That Jill that is to be done is to prepare the ground, plant the seed and when the cotton opens, pick it and sell it for a dollar and a half a pound. They forget that only a year ago, three fourths of the growing plants were destroyed by worms. In some iustances fields of promising plants being swept bare in a single day. They forget that a man cannot be expected to employ capital within military lines and take no thought for to-morrow. Let our Governor then watch as he IFORT, S. C., APRIL 0, 1SG4 has always done, with jealous pare, the ic terests of the freedmen, lint, at the saui time, remember that capital is made pre ductive by labor, on the other hand, labo is energized, and enriched by capital.- i SiiyfroHtion* to Cotton Growers. We extract the following suggestion from a report made to the State Agrncnl tural Society of South Carolina, in 1841 by a committee on Sea Island Cotton The report wra written by W. B. Seabrook of Edisto. * Before proceeding, however, to weigh tier matters, it is deemed important t< notice a few erors in management whicl ought to be promptly remedied. We hol< then, that Cotton lands should be listet immediately after harvest, and not post poned to a later period* secondly, tlm too little seed is sown; thirdly, that tin thinnings of the crop are too rapid 01 sudden; fourthly, that due attention is no paid to draining?nor, fifthly, to the se lection of seed for planting. Food for plants can only be received ir a soluble or gaseous form. In animal 01 vegetable matter there is no nutriment; until it is reduced to a condition fit to b< absorbed by the minute vessels of whicl the cellular substances of the roots ant leaves of plants are composed. To effeel this, air, neat, and moisture, are indis pensable. When the sward is drawn to gether in the fall, the rains and frosts ol winter prepare it for that process througi 1- * - A WVIIAW* ill A mnwvnih WUlt'll lb piU?co nucu tuc niuiuiu ui oj;nu( exerts its power. Then decompositior fairly begins, and is continned dnring th( period of the growth of the plant, Oi the other hand, whenever listings are pui off, as is the usual practice until February the tender roots of the Cotton becom< encased in a body of dry inert vegetabh matter. Tbe plants not only do not ben efit by the manures which lie beneath th< , swara, but their tap-roots are obstructec at the very time when they should be as sisted in their descent. If, therefore, th< colour of Cotton in its infancy be yellov or otherwise unhealthy, the want of food for the reason already assigned, will b found to be the true cause. Hence too th< absence of bottom fruit, and one promj nent source of new growth. It is for thi reason, the uon-conversion of vegetable matter ints gcnine or humus, which ha; long been supposed to constitute the pab ulum of plants, that new ground does no produce a good crop of Cotton the firs | season. It will yield corn, because th< I surface becomes aliment by its contac i with the air. If, however, the width of j foot in an extended line be well broker up, so as freely to admit the access of air in order to bring about fermentation, nev land will give nearly as large a return th< first year as the second. Where decom position begins laie in me season, uuu the heat which then prevails, it is likeh I to be too rapid, and, as from this cans* there will be excess-of stimulus, the inju ry to the Cotton plant will lie nearly ii proportion to that excess. In this state whilst drought checks, and, if it continm long, entirely arrests the nutritive agents a few heavy showers of rain again pu them in such active and powerful motion that the appearance of new shoots an* libres, the then evidences of a secon* growth, is followed, according to the law of vegetable physiology, by the loss of a] the embryo fruit. But, admitting tha the listings take place at the proper time if the manures be placed, as is now prae ticed, in a narrow line directly below -th tap-root, the same consequences, thoug; in a modified and less injurious form, wi inevitably follow. Let them, therefore, b j broad-casted, for in that way only can th hazards of the old system be avoided, j Before the introduction of fine Cottons I it was usual to sow about one bushel c i seed per acre. Now so great is the desir I for fame in the markets, that, from th * * i -V U toilsome task of selecting seeds, wmc must be personally done, the grower se dom uses more than a peck to the acre and not unfrequently one quart. Th result, is, that his plants, of a peculiarl delicate constitution and unprotected b art, are unable to resist the rude assault of easterly winds in the spring. Wher they come up tliickly, they serve as mn tual props to each other, and it is seldor that the injury from external causes is s great that all of them become affected By the shade too which their leaves cor jointly afford, their growth is advanced and by so much is the progress of th plant in its sphere of operations hastened The protection of Cotton from wind, ei pecially at the beginning of the seasor is a matter of such importance, that ever planter who understands his duty has thicket of shrubs and small trees aroun his fields. Of late it has been found ( essential advantage to plant corn betwee % / NO. 14. i- [ cotton, on every fourth, fifth, or seventh e i row, according to the fertility of the soil. ( ; This is done as soon as the ground is bedded. The corn in its comparatively adr vanced state, not only serves as a shield to the diminutive plants in its vicinity, but without, it is believed, detracting from the value of the Cottou crop, except where the land is weak, its product is s j decidedly greater than single rows usual 1 ly furnish in a regular field of tliat grain. That bottom fruit cannot be produced ' | unless the crop is thinned in due season, is obvious: but that to pull up a large - proportion of the plants very early is the proper plan, the experienced grower knows . to be untrue. It is undeniable that, un5 der ordinary circumstances, Cotton will 1 not show its procreative powers until it 1 has attained a certain growth or age. I Plants on rich land will liegin to "form" before those on poor land, but neither t the former nor the latter will disclose the 5 i rudiments of fruit until they have put on ; their coat of bark?the work mainly of time, of abundance of aliment, or of both. If there were no disturbing causes, one plant to the "hill," at the beginning of the thinning season, would be in exact accordance with the wish of the grower, for there is no doubt that, when unchecked, its isolated position from infancy establishes a strength of constitution favorl | ably to early vigor- and maturity. But I i as the elements frequently wage war against . i his crop, his business is to act on the .; defensive. II In the opinion of our most experienced t ' cultivators, the first hoeing, which should , lie completed in April, ought to be deep l and directed chiefiy to the process of pnl} verization. At the second operation, one i half of the plants, (where the ground is t poor, from three pecks to one bushel of seed to the acre having been sown,) if L healthy, should be taken out, and one 1 half or more of the remainder, the next I time the field is worked. Afterwards, if > the weather, the natural or artificial \ strength of soil, the growth of the . crop and other auspicious indications, a justify it, two or only one plant to the ? hill should be left. On this head two general rules ought to be strictly observed: I ?1. Never to thin in windy or chilly s weather, and, 2, not to seperate the plants . so far at any one time as to expose them s before the bark is on to the direct action g of the sun's rays?in other words, check 3 ; not the growth, which will be the case it . these precautions be not noticed. (To be Continued.) t 3 Three New States. fc In the House on the 17th ult, bills were j passed to enable the Territories of Nevada, Colorado and Nebraska, to organize Shite v governments and to enter the Union. The 3 bills require in each of these Territories an election of delegates to a Convention, j which shall submit a Constitution agreed 3 upon to the people for their ratification " or rejection?said election to be held on J the second Tuesday of October. The Cone stitution must be republican, and not re, pugnant to the Constitution of the United * States and the principles of the Declara| tion of Independence. Slavery shall be i prohibited therein by an ordinance fors ! ever irrevocable, without consent of Con^ gress. "When the Constitution is ratified } by the people, the President is to declare by Proclamation the admission of these e States on an equal footing with the original States, each of which is to be entitled to one member of the House, until the e ' next apportionment, and two Senators in the Congress of the United States. ?, " - Gen Bvtlek in England.? Opinion in Englaud with regard to Gen. Butler apb pears to be undergoing a change. The I- London S(tectator concludes a review of Parton's Life of Butler as follows: e "This biography leaves on onr minus ^ no doubt that the Union posses? es in Gen ^ Butler a man of rare and original capacity, s extraordinarily fitted for constructive ade ministration, and without any tendency l" to cruelty, though with that indifference n to the feelings of others so often marked 1? in very strong men. Of all the men who fill our European history the one he is !" most like?strangely like?is Frederick l' the Great." e I- tf^The Emperor of Kussia has decreed the freedom of the serfs of Poland, y They have taken no voluntary part in a the insurrection, and their fidelity has d thus been rewarded. Thus in the new >f and old world rebellion seems to work in. n favor of freedom.