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* * ^ ^ * > 4 " ^ THE 4 (HDEA JOI RV4I. ? ~ " ''* ' ' """ -J a=a?aMi^?*' [WEWSERIES] VOL. II. "ri1|| === =-??? ? MH1II CAROLINA, HEDNESDAA, FEBRI7ARA 3 ISJ. ^ ? J* '* NO. 0. ; Published every Wednesday Morning, by ? THOMAS W. PEGUES, 1 Publisher of the Laws of the Union. At three dollars in ad vai.ce; three dollars and fifly ? cents in six months; or four dollars at the expi- c ration of the year. (] Advertisements inserted at 75 cents per squaro for \ the first, and 37 1-2 for each subsequent insertion.? g The number of insertions to ho noted on all advertiso monts, or they will be published until ordered to be ?, discontinued, and charged accordingly. One dollar j per square will be chargod for a single insertion. Semi-mo.4i.nly, Monthly and Qurtorly advertise. onoli in. /, mcnts will bo cbargeu tnosame as now v..v? .? sertion. o All Obitnary Notice? exceeding six lines, and ^ 'Communications recommending Candidates for pubic Offices of profit or trust?or puffing exhibitions, ^ "will be charged as advertisements. ^ Accounts for Advertising and Job Work will be " presented for payment, quarterly. a U*A11 Letters by mail must be post paid to insure punctual attention. t f?'? ?? t AGRICULTURAL. ii ?? V From the Carolina Planter. j] ANNIVERSARY UKATiuu, r Of the State Agricultural Society of South v Carolina, by Gen. Geo. McDujfic; read j, before the Society, on the 26th Novem- s* ber, 1810, at their annual meeting, in ^ the Hall of the House of Rcpresenta- ., tives. tj [concluded.] I cannot, therefore, recommend a more p important reform to our planting commit- v - nity, than to get out of debt with ali prac- a ticabie despach, if already involved in it, s, ?i ?f/%r thp future never to be in- t. UliU JMUHV/ IU1 M volved in it again. Such a resolution, fl generally adopted and firmly maintained, v would do more to promote the indepen- p dence and substantial prosperity of an v agricultural State, than all the quackeries tj of legislation united. Imagine for one moment, the great moral and political t, change which would be produced, if it g could be truly announced at this moment, Sl that every cultivator of the soil, within j, the wide limits of South Carolina, was en- 0 tirely free from the shackles of debt. It tj would be a glorious day of jubilee. The ^ fatal spell of pecuniary influence would v be dissolved at once, the shackles of de- 0 pendence would fall from the arms of the Si indebted, and every citizen would walk v abroad in the majesty of genuine indepen- a dence and freedom. n j But let us consider the effect which b this general and habitual freedom from v debt, would produce upon the progress of r. individuals in accumulating wealth, and v '1 " ?^ r\C f |\n A upon me aggregate piuspumj v?? l( whole class of planters. Taking expe- n rience for our guide, it can scarcely be doubted, that those who have uniformly p kept out of debt, and have never pur- ^ chased property till they had the money 0" in hand to pay for it, have generally accu- v mulated fortunes more rapidly and much \z more certainly than those who have pur- 0 sued the opposite policy. Every step they a take is so much permanently gained.? a They are exposed to no backsets; they rj arc affected by no vicissitudes in trade, tl and stand firm and unmoved amidst those tl great, and now frequent and periodical g, convulsions, by which those who are in p debt are always shaken and often over- jr whelmed. c; Instances will no doubt occur to every fc>, one who hears me, of men who have ha- s< bitually made smaller crops than their L, neighbors, and who have yet in a series of | a| years, grown wealthy much faster, by this \ very simple rule, which I once heard laid jE down by a friend. He never made large rj cotton crops, and was regarded as a bad a planter. And when asked how he got tf rich so much faster than his more ener- r( getic neighbors, he replied: "My neigh- p bors begin at the wrong end of the year. r( They make their purchases at the begin- n ning of it, on a credit; I make mine at the jr end of it, and pay down the cash." And Si here I am reminded of a saying of the I late John Randolph, of Virginia; a man p not more remarkable for his genius and p eccentricity, than for the profound philo- u sophical truths which sometimes escaped v him, like the responses of an inspired ora- a clc. In the midst of one of his splendid g rhapsodies in the Senate of the United s. States, he suddenly paused, and fixing his tl eye upon the presiding officer, exclaimed, h "Mr. President, I have discovered the phi- c losopher's stone. It consists in these four 1 plain English monosyllables: 'pay as you b oo.'" Now, I will venture to say, that 0 this a much nearer approach than alche- v my will ever make, to the great object of a its visionary researches. And in recom- \ mending this maxim to the cotton planters u of the State. I have still kept in view, not h only the individual interest of each plan- o ter, separately considered, but the com- u mon interest of the whole community of c planters. For this reform, like the others o v J have suggested, independently of the si direct benefit it will confer on each indi- c vidua] planter, will benefit the whole, as a b class, by checking over-production. One e rreat cause of the incessant struggle to nake large cotton crops, to the neglect of ivery other interest, is the reckless habit >f contracting debts, which I am depre:ating. Negroes are purchased upon crelit, and the planter is thus furnished both vith the means and the motives* for unduly ind disproportionately enlarging his coton crop. As cotton is the only crop that vill command money, and as money is he most pressing want of a man in debt, very thing is directed to that object; so nuch so, that it is the standing apology or neglecting to pursue a sounder system if economy. The saying has, indeed, ecome proverbial among planters, "if I vere not in debt, I would not strive to nake such large cotton crops, but would levote myself to raising my own supplies, md making permanent engagements." Let me, therefore, advise, admonish and teseech all our planters, as they regard heir own peace of mind, their own true nterest, the dignity and honor of their ocation, and the substantial welfare of he State, to avoid the entangling cmbarassments of debt. Let them regard those | pho may offer them credit with no friend/ eye, but as enemies in disguise, who eek to lead them into temptation. If they ave conti acted the habit of anticipating heir incomes, even for a single year, let icm reform even that. Yes, "reform it L/V/?^Uah " TliAn xxt11 ] flioin n^Aononfu Kn X 11^11 YT 111 Itivil wv laced on immovable foundations. Then fill they stand unshaken and unterrified midst those periodical storms and convulions which are the inseparable concomimts of a false and artificial system of uctuating credit and currency. Then fill South Carolina find it an easy task to erform the high and solemn duty of preentiug those convulsions, by reforming vat currency. There is another reform in our agricullrai economy, to which every planter in iouth Carolina is invited by the most pervasive considerations, public and private. L is to adopt and steadily pursue a system f permanent improvement, not only, in le soil, but in the building and fixtures of is plantation, and to abandon the improident policy hitherto generally pursued, f exhausting the soil in the too eager deD # O ire to realize a large present income, fithout any regard to the future. It is bsolutely distressing to contemplate the memorials of this wretched policy exhiitcd in every part of the State?a policy fhich, while it denies to the present geneation almost all the rational comforts fhich alone make wealth desirable, leaves j posterity an exhausted soil, ruinous lansions, and a barren inheritance. Now, it would not be too strong an exression to say that every dollar judicial/ invested in the permanent improvement f his estate by the planter, would be :orth more to his children than two dolirs invested, as is usual, in the purchase f more negroes to cut down the forest nd destroy the soil. We have reached point in our agriculture, which impoiouslv demands a fundamental change in lis respect. However the virgin soils of le South-west may palliate the folly of ich a course, the alternative is distinctly resented to us, of permanently improvig our estates, or of deserting them. We annot contend with the planters of Alaama and Mississippi, in a wild and deructive system, by which even they have ink under embarrassment and ruin, with II their advantages of soil and climate.? Ve can make up for our comparatively tferior soil and climate only by a supeor system of husbandry. While they re exhausting their soil and preventing nn< ii1 inAfnoon r\f tilAi r? f 1 ntrnn kir o its naiuiai iu^i^u3v> yji iiiuti o/a?ga uv u ickless system of pushing and driving, :t us improve the fertility of the one, by jsting and manuring it, and increase the umber of the other, by moderate workig, and by providing every thing necesary for their health and comfort. And have no doubt that a South Carolina lanter who shall limit his cotton crop to ve bales to the hand, and rely mainly pon the natural increase of his negroes, nil leave a larger estate to his children, t the end of ten or twenty years, than a louth-western planter who follows the ystcm generally pursued in that quarter, tough he should make eight bales to the and, and annually apply his surplus inome to the purchase ot land and negroes, i'hough they are really struggling for the enefit of their children, there is no class f men who do so little for posterity, and nil leave so few monuments behind them, s the cotton planters of the South.? Vhat sort of an estimate must be placed pon wealth, and to what rational end can e desire it, who, with an income of ten r twenty thousand dollars a year, brings d a family of children imperfectly edu ated, in a log cabin, with scarcely the rdinary comforts of such a dwelling? A Lranger travelling through our country ould not be persuaded that it was inhaited by a race of wealthy, hospitable and nlightened planters, so few of the monu ments and improvements that indicate i wealthy and prosperous community woulc meet his eye. And if, by one of those great political revolutions which over whelmed the ancient Greeks and Romans our race should be merged in a race ol conquerors, and our name only descend to posterity, what classic memorial, whal substantial monument would bear testimony that this "delightful region of the sun" had been once inhabited by a civilized and enlightened people, eminently distinguished for their industry, their wealth, A?ao/)ai?i r\f a 11 LI llig liU^UWUl VI "IVII <u?ui.uvivuoi In thus urging a more provident regard to the future in our general economy, it will be perceived that I have still kept in view the important object of diminishing the aggregate cotton crop of the country, by giving a more useful direction to a portion of the capital and labor devoted too exclusively to its production. It will also be perceived that I have made no disclosure or recommendation of any improvement by which large cotton crops may be made. I have intentionally abstained from any suggestion of this kind, believing that every one may be safely left to his own impulses and his own resources on this point, and regarding over-production as one of the greatest evils to which the cotton planting interest is exposed. Indeed, if 1 could now reveal a process by which our common soils could be made i * i._i n _aa__ A. AI - to produce two Daies 01 couon 10 me acrc,I should have great doubt whether the revolution would be a blessing or a curse to that great interest. I am aware that as I have obtained some reputation for making large cotton crops, it may be supposed that I preach one doctrine and practice another. But such a supposition would do me injustice. With the largest cotton crop I ever made?that of 1839? I combined all the other branches of economy I have here recommended. I have now a surplus of 1500 bushels of corn made that year, hogs sufficient to supply my wants, that have been fat enough to slaughter since July, and very large stocks of cattle and of sheep, the latter of which supply all the wool required for the winter clothing of my negroes; and a stock of young horses and colts fully adequate to meet the exigencies of my plantation. After making due provision f<?r all these objects, it is of course the true interest of every planter to make as lai^e a cotton crop as he can without overworking his operatives. In doing this, however, he should never lose sight of the great object of improving the productive power of his estate, instead of exhausting it. To this end, it should be his constant effort by manuring and resting the soil, and by superior cultivation, to produce a given result from the smallest possible number of acres. It is scarcely possible to overestimate the value of this rule in the actual condition of the old planting States. Every resource for making manure should, therefore, be improved to the uttermost, without begrudging the necessary labor and attention. No labor exerted on the plantation is half so well rewarded. Every description of stock should be regularly penned every night in yards constantly covered with straw, leaves or other litter. The quantity of manure that can be thus mauc in a year is quite inconceivable to those who have not made the experiment. Corn should be habitually planted in old land, of a quality least adapted to cotton, and every hill should be thoroughly manured, scrupulously avoiding the miserable economy too often witnessed, of losing one half its utility, to save the inconsiderable labor required to apply it properly. I can bear personal testimony that by these means the crop per acre can be invariably doubled on soils originally strong. My corn is principally produced on level lands that were considered to be exhausted when they came into my possession, and yet by thorough and careful manuring, I have reduced the number of acres cultivated in corn fully one half, making more certain and abundant crops than I did before with double the number of acres and more than double the labor of cultivation. All the manure not required for the corn crop, should be applied to the most exhausted of the cotton lands, and it should be made an invariable rule, both in regard to corn and cotton, to list in and bur}'-- all the stalks and vegetable matter found upon the soil. My experience justifies the belief that this process alone, if commenced before the soil is too far exhausted, will perpetuate if not improve the fertility of originally strong and * " ' -1- ~~ <-*4 ? > v* 11r level lands, tnougn cunsi.ain.ijf v/uiukhvu m cotton. In fact, vegetable matter, as it was the principal element in the original formation of soils, so it must be in their restoration and preservation. Nature beneficently provides it to our hands; but we too often destroy it as if it were a nuisance, while we vainly employ our speculations and direct our researches so as to find out some more scientific means i of improvement. In proportion as the J quantity of land required for corn and > cotton is diminished by the means pro. posed, will that be increased which is Jeft j fallow, and for small grain. These, after f one year's rest in good soils, and always | before they become covered with broom t sedge, should be fallowed in the autumn, . carefully turning in all the stubble and weeds, with two horse ploughs adapted [ to the purpose. On the process of cultivation, one or two remarks may not be inappropriately made in this connexion. One of the most prominent obstacles both to a system of good cultivation and to a system of permanent improvements is the common practice of over-planting. It may be not unaptly denominated a system of wear and tear, in regard to land, negroes, horses and mules. As one of its inevitable conseI t . j !./ _! quences, a planter aimosi ccriainiy nnas himself, when the seasons are in any degree unfavorable, in that uncomfortable condition usually expressed by saying "he is desperately in the grass." No man deserves the name of planter who gets into this predicament, except in very extraordinary seasons, any more than he deserves the name of General who carelessly permits himself to be surprised and surrounded by an enemy. For though the one may work his way out of the grass, as the other may cut his wary out of the toils of his adversary, yet it is the hard knocks and sweat of the laborers in the one case, and the valor and blood of the ! soldiers in the other, that imperfectly atone ! for the incompetency of the manager and | of the commander. It is my confident belief that when even one half the crop is permitted to become grassy, the future cultivation of the whole will "require double the labor that would have been otherwise necessary, and with all that, it will be impossible to make a full crop, especially of cotton. In our climate and soil ! in the upper country, the only means of I avoiding an immense destruction of im| mature bolls, by the autumnal frosts, is to push the growth of the cotton from. the I beginning, by thinning and preparing it to I mature as early as it can be safely done, and never permitting its growth to be delayed for a single day by want of working. For what is lost in this way can never be recovered; and I have no hesitation in saying that six acres of cotton to the hand, ' properly cultivated, will produce a greater i result with one half the labor than ten acres to the hand, cultivated in the rough; j and imperfect manner but too common I I ouon in this Sfafp. anH orpnprallv nrpvalp.nt in some others. In adopting it as a rule, therefore to plant no larger crop than he can cultivate in the most perfect manner, a planter will best consult every view of sound economy, and even the prcdomi! nant desire to make a large cotton crop. ! In the cultivation of a cotton crop, I know no rule more important, and which is more generally violated, than that of doing your work thoroughly well, cost what labor it may. More labor is unprofitably wasted and more crops injured by bad cultivation from neglecting this rule than any other cause. The last strokes of labor required to complete any operation are uoubly, often ten times as valuable as those used in the previous stages of it; and yet these are the very strokes usually omitted, in an improvident haste to "get over the crop," as it is expressed. The very causes which generally tempt managers to slight the work?wet weather and grass, for example?are those which most - ' J 1 A. _i I imperiously aemanu me sinui uusw vuuw of the rule I have laid down. One of the consequences of over-cropping and bad working which is most to be ; deprecated,S is the necessity they create, : and the apology they offer, for permanently injuring the soil by excessive ploughing, and what is still worse, ploughing in improper seasons. I believe that it may be truly said that in the upper countiy at least, double the quantity of ploughing is done in cultivating cotton, that can be justified by any sound theory. Every ploughing which turns up fresh soil to the burning rays of a summer sun must tend to exhaust its fertility. But it is more important to remark, that nothing which folly can inflict on the soil, wilL so certainly reduce it to a more caput mortuum as (he murderous practice of ploughing it in wet weather. There is but one way for a planter to avoid these evils, and that is by so planning and so conducting his operations, as to be habitually ahead with his work. I have thus, gentlemen, drawn up a hasty and imperfect sketch, presenting for your consideration the most prominent of those measures and maxims which I deem to be essential for accomplishing : that reform in the agricultural economy of South Carolina, so imperiously demanded by the circumstances in which she is now placed. Our cultivated lands arc in a course of exhaustion, and we have scarcely any forest lands to clear.?. Though these seem to be public misfortunes, they may be converted into blessings if we will but realize our true condition and properly improve the occasion. By a law of our nature?expressed by a proverb of immemorial antiquity?necessity is the stern parent of almost every great and useful improvement. No authority less imperious could have drawn mankind from the comfortless caverns of savage brutality to the happy mansions of social and civilized life. While Providence seems to have ordained it as a law of human improvement, that communities should not go forward much in advance of their necessities, he has benevolently endowed them with moral and intellectual faculties always equal to the emergencies in which they may be nlnnnrt TVInv top not- oonfiHpntlv hnnp r*-?" ? ?j " w ""V ^ ' therefore, that the planters of South Carolina, under the awakening influence of the great law to which I have alluded, will summon up all their energies to carry our agriculture to a point of nigh perfection, that will fulfil all the requirements of our actual condition? Gentlemen, I sincerely hope and devoutly pray that some of us, at least, may . live to see the day when this ardent hope of every patriotic citizen will be fully realized, and when South Carolina will be as proudly distinguished by all the enduring monuments of a prosperous agriculture, as she ever has been by an enlightened population sincerely devoted to the principles of constitutional liberty, and unconquerably resolved to deiena them. From the Christian Intelligencer. THE HUGUENOTS. The horrors of ihe Parisian massacre of. the Huguenots on Bartholomew's day, August 24, 1572, have generally beeu imputed to the treacherous dissimulation, and ferocious bigotry of Catherine de Medici, the Queen Regent of France, in connection with the sanguinary ambition of the Guises, who then were so powerful at ber court. Notwithstanding, a letter from Catharine to Pope Pius IV. written about ten years prior to that "deed of darkness," has recently been discovered and published, which proves that at that period she had very little attachment to the superstitions of Popery. One paragraph comprises historical facts of great importance; and the original is quoted, because a letter from a Popish Queen to a Roman Poutiff, decidedly in favor of Protestantism, is a curiosity. The origi1 1 .L T1 IT M - 4 T> 1 _ nai is iuunu in me ivoyai ijiorary ui i m is, Volume 8476,among the Belthume Manuscripts. The Queen Regent thus wrote. "Considering, most Holy Father, how great is the number of those who have separated themselves from the Roman Church, it is impossible to subjugate them, either by law or by military force. The Nobles and the Magistrates, by their example, draw the multitude to that faith"?meaning the doctrines of the Reformed Churches. "Happily, in this " withdrawment from Rome, no monstrous opinion has sueceeded, either Antibaptist or Antitrinitarian, All of them"?the Huguenots?"recognize the twelve Articles of the Apostles" creed; which, if it could be granted to them, it would be the best means to consolidate the two Chur* ches. To secure that result, would it not be useful to multiply Conferences, and to command the preaching of peace and charity. There must also be the endeavor, by an unhappy obstinacy, to avoid the further separation of those who still adhere to the Catholic Church. I would also propose to you, Most Holy Father, to suppress all worship of images; to administer baptism only with water and the word"?doubtless intending merely the form of words taught by the Lord Jesus Christ?"the Communion should be in both kinds?the psalms should he suTig in vulgai tongue for those who approach the holy table?in fine, the festi. val of the Holy Sacrament should be abolishcd." The precedieg extract from the letter of Catharine de Medici to Pope Pius IV* unfolds the great extent of principles of the Reformation; the very excellent character of the Huguenots of that period: the reasonableness and necessity of the Protestant demands for additional amendments; and the profound conviction aniong all orders of society, that Image worship is idolatrous; the Mass is antichristian; the use of the Latin language in public worship is wicked; and that the llomah Festivals are corrupting and abom r? if ? ininnftflnl ilnmmPllt Ilinuic* i? lo u r VI y luijiwt ?uut on behalf of the Reformers of the sixteenth century. Hvooenot. ? Whooping Cough.?It is not generallyknown, that when a child has this troublesome and dangerous complaint, if thebackbone, from the neck downwards, h. rubbed with garlic, previously waitnot by the fire, and the patient being aiplaced near it, a cure is effected in a vcr\ short time.