DEVOTED TO SOUTHERN RIGHTS, MORALITY, AGRICULTURE, LITERATURE, AND MISCELLANEOUS NEWS. JAMES H. NORWOOD, EDITOR.] To ihinc oicmelf be true; And it must follow as the night the day; Thou const not then be false to any man.—Hami.et. VOL. 1. DARLINGTON C. H., S. C., WEDNESDAY MORNING JULY 16, 1851. [NORWOOD k DE LORSE. PI BLISHERS. NO. 20. THE DARLINGTON FLAG, 18 PUBLISHED EVERT WEDNESDAY MORNING, AT DABMNGTON, C. H., 8. C., BY NORWOOD * DE LORME. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION: In advance, (per annum,) - - - $2 00 At the expiration of six months - 2 50 At the end of the year .... - 3 00 ADVERTISING : Advertisements, inserted at 75 cents a square (fourteen lines or less,) for the first, and 37i cts. for each subsequent insertion. Business Cards, not exceeding ten lines, inserted at $5, a year. J55T* All business connected with the Flag, will be transacted with the Proprie tor at his Office, one door above the Dar lington Hotel, or with the Editor at his law Office AamcmTimB. How blest the farmer’s simple life. How pure the joy it yields! Far from the w’orld’s tempestuous strife, Free ’mid the scanted fields.—Everett. From the American Farmer. South Carolina, June 30, 1825. Sir—I have been a constant reader of your paper, and have derived both improvement and pleasure from its columns. The earnestness with which Ifevc sought for communications hea- d<5r“ cotton culture,” has frequently admonished me, that I was as much bound to communicate my experience, as were any of your correspondents, from whoso labors I have profited; and who, being less backward, are there fore more deserving : nor will I lie lon ger deterred from such communication because I am conscious I have not reached perfection in the culture of a particular plant The buoy is some times as important to the mariner, in showing him where he ought not to go, as is the pilot, at another, in directing him where he may. The cultivators of cotton have contributed less than other planters to make your paper val uable. These observations will serve to augment the numlier of good in tents on their part, if nothing more. The cotton plant, while in the seed leaf, is very tender, perhaps as much so ns any other of the most tender of our garden vegetables; when it has ar rived to what vve call the cotton leaf, it is probably more hardy than any of them. The product of an aero of rich land is increased, in my opinion, more by the length of time it is allowed to grow, than from any other single cir cumstance: hence it is advisable to plant as early as the absence of the frost will admit; and being in its ear ly stage very tender, too mnch care and labor, in preparing the ground for the seed, can hardly be given. My method is to plant in drills, on beds made with the plough and hoe, or plough and horse-rake, or harrow, ac cording to the nature and circumstan ces of the soil. Laud that will pro duce ten bushels of corn to the acre, can yield five hundred pounds of seed cotton. The drills on such land, I make three feet apart; and thin out the cotton to the width of the hand between the stalks. If the drills were marer, the product might be some what greater, but the use of the plough would be more difficult From land that has yielded me seventy-MR bush els of com to the acre, I have weighed twenty-three hundred pounds of seed cotton. This was planted at seven feet distance between the drills, and thinned out to three feet between the stalks; these extremes embrace the en tire distances of which I have any ex perience and by which I am governed. When I have land sufficient for these changes, my course of crops is cotton, corn and small grain. My first pro cess is, to run furrows as deep, with a Freeborn, No. 1 1-2 plough, as two mules can draw it, at the distance from each other that I mean to have my cot ton rows. Into these furrows I draw, with the weeding hoe, (we call it “ list ing,”) all the stubble and vegetable reen the rows; having plaister on it, I break up intervals ttetween the deep as possible, with the same Description of plough. When this is done in old land, or land pretty clear of stumps, I prepare and finish these beds, thrown together with the plough, generally, with the horse rake, by (piling them on the beds back- wards and forwards, until the surface be pulverized sufficiently to receive the seed. When in new ground, abound ing in Ipnps, the cloda arc broken, and the surface prepared, with the weeding hoe. If the land be very stiff cloddy, I prepare the beds with harrows, instead of the horse-rake.— My harrows are made in two parts, at tached together by hooks and hinges, and when put together, form an angle less than a right angle triangle; when at work, the joints or hinges, being over the middle of the beds, admit the teeth to touch and work the whole sur face, sides as well as tops of the beds, at once. When the beds are too dry and hard, I find it advantageous to se cure on each leaf of the harrow, a block of wood, more or less heavy, ac cording to the nature and state of the ground; these are worked easily by two mules. My horse-rakes are made with a piece of timber two feet and a half long, five inches thick and twelve inches wide, worked of!' at the two ends, and hollowed out in the middle, so as to be in a semicircular form, five inches by six inches when finished; in to the hollow edge two rows of iron teeth, half an inch thick, three quar ters wide, to show five inches, are in serted; the front row placed opposite the intervals of the back row; the rows three inches apart, and teeth four inches in the rows from each other; on the top of the semicircular piece, fasten two pieces of oak four feet long, three by two in size, resembling some what the hind bounds of a wagon, with a nose-iron, where the two for ward ends are joined together, for the swingle-tree; above these attach two handles, like a common plough. This horse-rake I have found very advanta geous, not only in preparing the beds for the seed, but also in covering them when dropped in the drills. When the ground is in proper order for work, they finish the beds in a beautiful and most regular manner. The seed may be covered with them better than in any other way; and as they expedite the work very much, it rarely happens that I may not wait for the ground to Im? in the best possible state for cover ing. A man and one mule may pre pare with in from six to ten acres a day, and can cover as much, accor ding to the state of the ground and the width of the rows. The beds be ing thus made, and the season for planting at hand, I proceed to open the drills; this I do with a drill plough. It is made, by fastening to the bottom of a piece of two inch plank, ten in ches wide, two feet and a half long, square at the hind end and pointed at the front one, a piece of oak, by way of keel, of the same length, one inch thick at the bottom edge and three at the upper. The bottom edge is armed with an iron plate half an inch thick, so pointed and squared at the front end, as to enter the socket of a coul ter of the common form, the upper end of which is wedged securely in the beam—the upper fixtures are like those of a plough secured to a plank by a helve; the keel ought not to be more than two inches deep. This plough is very light, and is worked by one mule, walking the top of the beds, and can open as many drills in a day as a horse rake can cover. For several years last pasl, I have omitted to cover the seed at the time of dropping it. In stiff land, the ad vantage results from lessening the chances of the soil being “caked” over it by hard rains, through which the cotton cannot penetrate, and which must be raked in some way, or re planted. In light soils, the rains which fall after the seed is dropped, will cov er them sufficiently—but if this does not happen, by having a proper num ber of horse-rakes, each lieing capable of covering ten acres in the day, the whole crop may be covered in two days, and of course commenced at the very moment when the ground is in the best possible state for the opera tion. By this mode of covering, the whole surface of the bed is stirred and dressed nicely, later after the seed is dropped, and in a more expeditious manner than any other 1 have seen tried. Having planted my cotton, which I ought, perhaps, to have said, I invaria bly begin on the last of March, or first day of April, I begin thee ulture of it as soon as the progress of other busi ness will admit, whether it has got up or not The first operation is to hoe it This is done for the first time, by shaving down the beds, as near to the plant, and as light as possible ; if there be weeds or grass too near the plant to he removedThy the hoe, they must be picked ontTOth the fingers: this is indispensable, to save time and labor afterwards. Immediately after the cot ton is hoed, t. e. a sufficient quantity to admit the plougha, not waiting to complete the first hoeing, I commence the first ploughing: tills I* done by running one furrow as close to the cotton and as shallow as possible, on each side of the rows, throwing the furrow-slice from the cotton. All the com I have not heed previous to the hoeing of cotton, (I prefer there should be none,) I now hoe; and then com mence the second hoeing of the cot ton. This is done by chopping through the rows of cotton, either with the comer of the hoe, or to its full width, if the soil bo rich, leaving the cotton in hunches of four stalks between the chops, stirring the beds on both sides, and filling up the chops with fine soil, drawn up from the sides of the beds. Now follows the second ploughing: reverse the furrow-slice of the first ploughing, by throwing it towards the the tedious operation of “ laying off” the rows. Corn grows kindly after cotton, and with less labor. Cotton succeeds to small grain advantageous ly, because of the quantity of vegeta ble matter left for “listing” into the deep furrows intended to be the base of the cotton beds, and which, with the irec of the plaster, amply repays both la bor and cost. I will add a little on the subject of manure. We frequently hear much surprise at the qgM|tity of manure that is used by parwupr individuals; in deed there are but a very few, if any planters, who have not at some time or other, complained of the scarcity and cotton, by one furrow on each side of the difficulty of procuring it. Later the rows, the moul-board next to the cotton of course ; the balks, or “ mid dles,” are then to be flushed up, cither with shovel, skimmer, or double iron mould-board ploughs, according to the state of the weather; if it he dry, I experience and more attention induce me to say, there is nothing in the sou thern countiy more abundant; at least the materials with which to make it: nor can we be ever in want of them, until black-jack leaves and pine-straw prefer the two first—if wet, the last is become scarce; a circumstance which best. Thus I proceed, alternately hoe- ' every traveller,, passing through our ing, always drawing up the soil after State would be apt to place at a very the first hoeing and ploughing; always remote period indeed. In truth every with the mould-board to the cotton af- man who shall use the means within ter the first ploughing, until the limbs have grown so much as to prevent both hoe and plough from passing between them without breaking them off. This his power, will only find the supply limited by his ability to collect and apply it. Generally, when we have carried into the field the droppings of our eat- happens generally about the first of tie in our cow pens, and our horses in August, by which time I have usually the stable, we laud ourselves for the hoed the cotton eight or nine times, improvement we have made in good I find it necessary to hoe such a por- husbandry ; and in fact this is gaining tion of the corn, at the end of each much, for since my recollection, nei- hoeing of the cotton, as will give to it ther was thought of—the first having a sufficient quantity of work to keep it served only to making a turnip patch, clean. I also endeavor to have each ai >d the last remained a constant mi series of ploughing began at a little noyance throughout the year. Now, distance farther from both cotton and Irom these alone, we may elaborate as corn, than that which preceded it; 1 much good manure as we can haul in- thus cutting the principal roots of both, to the fields in season for planting. In at each plowing, farther from the stalk making this manure, it is only necessa- than it was cut before. By this pro- ry to he willing to collect from the cess, I believe, the small fibres are in- woods, leaves of any kind, pine straw creased, and additional mouths opened, as good as the best, ami place them in through which the plants draw their ! our cow-pons anti stables, to find the nourishment. I conclude, from examination of the roots, that they grow in small knots when cut, and issue from these, and from between these and the stalks, small fibres, other than would issue if they were not cut; of course they ought not to he cut back, or a second lime nearer to the stalk than they w'ere previously. The last operation in the cultivation of cotton w ith the plough, should be to run a furrow w ith a bull- tongue, or with a coulter plough, in the middle between the rows, and as deep as may be; ploughs being very narrow, may be passed between the rows without injury, later than any other. Except this furrow, I endeavor to cultivate as shallow' as jmssihle. Cotton should be thinned after the first hoeing. At the second hoeing, I chop through the drills, leaving it in hunches ; at the third hoeing I reduce these bunches to two, or even to one stalk, if the plant bo forward, or the hoeing backward and the weather fa vorable ; afterwards the thinning should lie continued so as to prevent it from being crowded: according to the rich- hones of which are valuable, ness of tho soil, I leave it more or less > «l* letting them rot on tho quantity of excellent manure increas ing beyond-our expectations. If top soil of any kind be scattered among them, so much tho better. This may be bad from the corners of the fences, the sides of the roads, ponds occasion ally dry, and such parts of the planta tion as from situation will never be cul tivated. There are but a very few plan ters to whom any one of these sources of supply would not bo abundant; no one can exhaust all of them that are convenient to him. I might add weeds: can any one apprehend a scarcity of these ? and pond grass, which last, w ith plaster, I have found admirable for sweet potatoes, on very poor land.— Should care be taken to carry into tin- fields of light sandy soil, that which has been collected where clay abound ed, and vice versa, so much the better: w ith or w ithout such care, he who will try it, will find bis time and labor re paid with usurious interest. It is not for planters to complain of the want of manure, until they have proved how excellent even are the car casses of their dead boasts, the very Instead surface, is prevented from escaping during the process of fermentation, and arrested and retained by the top soil and leaves. I have used each of these component parts of the compost separately; and so completely was tho fertilizing quali ty distributed, I could discover no dif ference in their effects. While the mounds are kept well covered, and properly patted with the spade, so en tirely is the evaporation prevented, there is no smell perceived near them: every cotton planter knows how of fensive a large bulk of rotting cotton seed becomes, exposed to the sun and rain. Additional supplies of manure are to be bad from feeding our cattle in pens. Colonel Taylor lias shown in his A ra ter, bow much may be done in this way with dry corn stalks alone. I have derived as much benefit from keeping my cattle out of my fields, by this system of feeding them in pens, as from the large quantities of manure made in them. But those processes require labor to collect the materials, and labor to distribute the manure; and that which is still more difficult to regulate time also. When l have done all that my labor and time will admit of in these ways, to complete the course of manuring, I sow such parts of my lands, each year, in oats, that I have not been able to manure other- w ise. From these, I collect only seed enough for the ensuing year, and plough in the rest, having first plaister- ed it. The seed is gathered, by strip ping it with the hands, from the stems •standing in the field. I think this is the easiest and most expeditious method of saviug out seed that l hare seen tried. The oat straw is best turned under by attaching a skim-coulter, or iron bolt, to tho beam of the plough, with the outer end turned down; this should project from the beam horizontally, a little forward and beyond the mould board. Oats sown for manure, or in deed for any other purpose, need no other labor than simply sowing; this being done in the cotton field immedi ately before the hands la-gin to pick cotton; or in the corn field la-fore it is gathered, will come np very well. It is only necessary to sow them before either operation is commenced to have them raise well. It was my intention to say some thing of my manner of applying ma nure. I have, however, already said more than I had intended. For the encouragement of those who are w il- ling to make some additional efforts, allow me to add, by the means above hinted at, 1 have converted considera ble portions of my fields, which were literally exhausted, into as productive soil as any I now cultivate—and this has been accomplished sinse 1808, by D. R. WILLIAMS.” distant in the drills ; of this each plan- :dike disgraceful to our rare and -lan- ter must necessarily judge, and con- ■ gerous to our health, if we will not earning which many differ. In my opinion, the aggregate pro duct of a field of cotton is very little affected in quantity by thinning; par ticularly if it be rich soil; but the quality of the staple, which is of as much importance as tho quantity, cer tainly is very materially. My experi ments on this part of the business have satisfied me this opinion is correct As early as the first of August 1 top the cotton. This is done by pinch ing off the bud. 1 sometimes extend make the best use of them, by com pounding them with six times their hulk of top soil—at least bury them in the field, where they will distinguish tho place by superior fertility for many years. If any man, living in a poor sandy soil, will fill a single furrow- across one of the plats in his garden with black jack leaves, taken from the woods, even in a windy day of March—bed on them, ami plant a row of (teas, he will require no farther encouragement to this to the limbs also; w-hen the plant make a larger experiment: fortunately, is large and flourishing, and the pods 1 ‘ backward, I think it may be done ad vantageously. If the season be moist, the plants luxuriant in growth, apjiear- ing full of sap, snekering is very pro per; but if these indications have sub sided, by the plant appearing more every additional act to increase their fertility will be rewarded with addition al returns. By a process analagous to the above, I make, every year, an excellent com post, by substituting cotton seed for animal dung. Beds, rather mounds, w-oody, and the leaves have become formed with alternate layers of cotton small, or are decreasing fast, suckering top soil and leaves of every kind, is unnecessary, or may be omitted I or pine straw* in the fields, immediately without much loss. 1 do not doubt that topping and succoring tend to in crease the quantity of the crop some, and the quality much, and therefore should be done as extensively as cir- cumstances will admit; the last, how ever, is so tedious, and our crops are now so large, but a vesy small portion of them can be thns treated. When I have open land sufficient, I have found it advantageous to follow the cotton crop with one of corn, and this last with small grain; taking care to plough the com, the while the ginning is going on, in such number and place as the size of the field may mqnirfRpflin whole covered up with the soil nearest to the mound, and patted dose with the spade; I have found, on opening these in the spring, to be used for cotton or corn, very rich manure. This mode of using the cotton seed, is economical of la bor ; advantageous, by distributing it throughout the field, to be manured at a period most suitable and convenient; and very abundant in quantity. I think one wagon load of cotton seed thus . „ , two or three last times, the way I mean to have royi disposed of, is as valuable as ten in the cotton rows when the field is nexti usual way. The entire evaporation of planted with chiton—thus ^voiding ♦ *>e oily and other matter of the seed, * * From the Washington Republic. TRADITIONAL ERRORS. Every day the labors of learned men are exposing the falsity of traditionary facts, and weeding history of the er rors which seem to have been sown wide-spread in every department of human knowledge. Nothing in fact is reliable but scientific truth and even many of them or at least what have passed current for such have been pro ved false. But of all the uncertainties of tradition there is nothing so uncer tain as the sayings of great men. The reni ritii rici Cn-sar and the pithy des patch of Berry announcing his victory on Lake Erie are matters of record, and may be trusted in; but the dying words of Lawrence, don’t give np the ship,” have been denied. As for Cromwell’s directions to his soldiers to trust in Providence and keep their poweer dry there is no evidence of its its Cromwellian origin Wellington has said that he never heard of the tamous words, “Up guards, and at em which have been currently attributed to him ever since the battle of Waterloo until he saw thorn in a newspaper. AD the surviving British officers of the attack Non ew Orleans some twenty-five years ago, published an affidavit to the renowned watchwords. “Beauty and , booty,” wore never used on that me morable. occasion. General Taylor too, denied ever having said, “Give em jessy,” or even. “A little more grajs? Captain Bragg^’ Some wiseacre attempted a few years ago to prove that Gettygal Putnam was a coward and a bully, Y>ut luckily for the reputation of Oldrut he found a defender in ou(, present Secretary of State, who, in a masterly article in the North American Review, clearly established the right of the gallant soldier to his traditionary fame. One of the latest and most sur prising instances of the detection of a traditional mistake, is thediscovery by that genial philoaopher^Ae learned Sig- nor Riccabocea, that Bacon is not tho author of that popular apothegm Knowledge is power!” that in fact no thing of the kind ever had an existence in his writing nor in those of any other philosopher. It is a mere cryptologi cal fungas that suddenly sprung up once upon a time and as suddenly be came a petrifaction in men’s mind’s.— We imagine there are very few persons in the world who will not be amazed when they find that Lord Bacon never even beard of that great Baconian a- pothegm knowledge is power. Signor Kiccaboccaastonished even that erudite Englishman, Parson Dale, by telling him the fact and wo doubt if there be a “learned pundit among us who will not also be astonished to learn it. As for ourselves we have been willing to bet any reasonable sum that could com mand that we could point out tho ap horism in Bacon’s works not that wo ever saw it there, but having seen it so many thousands of times atttributed to the great philosopher that we never doubted it was bis property. But ns Dr. Riccobocca said to his abashed pupil that be a warning to us never to fall into the error of the would-be schol ar and quote second-hand. Balwer Lytton in his new novel, put the mat ter at rest in the following note : “This aphorism has been probably assigned to Lord Bacon upon the mere authority of the index to his wor k I, is the aphorism ol the indcx-niakcMrcr- tainly not of the great master of induc tive philosophy. Bacon has it is true repeatedly dwelt on the power ofkiiovv- ledge, cut with so many explanations and distinctions that nothing could he more unjust to his general tneani* than to attempt to cramp into a sentence what it cost him a volume to define Thus if in one page lie appears to con found knowledge with power in an other he sets them in the strong antithe sis to each other as following “Adeo, signanter Bens opera potent he et sapien- tke discriminavib But it would be as unfair to Bacon to convert into an ap horism the sentence that discriminates between knowledge and power, as it is to convert into an aphorism any sen tence that confounds them. THINGS WORTH READING. Don’t live in hope with your arms folded. Fortune smiles on those who roll up their sleeves, and puttheir shoulder to the wheel that propels them on to wealth ami happiness. He who waits for good luck to come to him is destined to