f is a handle, to carry and hold the instrument by.

g is a small spirit level, securely fastened to the lath by two screws. In using the instrument let the operator provide himself with a number of small stakes, eight or ten inches long, and an assistant (a small boy will do) to carry the hinder end. Then let him determine his starting point and put down a stake, directing his assistant to place the hinder leg against it; then let him determine the grade he wishes to run, and whether up or down, and adjust the instrument accordingly; then move the fore leg to the right or left until the bubble indicates a level, and put down another stake against the foot of the sliding leg, and proceed as before, directing his assistant to place the hinder foot in the precise spot occupied by the fore one. It will be seen that the instrument can be adjusted to any change of grade that may be required, in a few seconds.

JAMES H. FORMAN.

CHUNENUGGEE, ALA., January 17, 1853.

SIR: I had the honor some weeks since to receive from the United States Patent Office the Annual Agricultural Circular, to which I should have done myself the pleasure of responding at an earlier period but for ill health, and circumstances quite beyond my control. I shall not attempt an elaborate reply to each interrogatory contained in the Circular, supposing the information sought in relation to the husbandry and agriculture of the country should be confined to the locality where certain articles are grown, and then practical, reliable information may be obtained. Were I to discourse about hemp, sugar, and tobacco culture, it would all be theoretical, for I live in a famous cotton region, where that great staple is more certain, and subject to fewer casualties, than in any portion of the Union with which I am acquainted, for there has been no failure, and my neighbors have made good average crops uniformly for the last fifteen years. Hence, cotton is the all-absorbing idea; but little attention is paid to anything else; consequently, we are the most dependent people in the whole Union, although nature has scattered her bounties and blessings with a more lavish hand here than upon any portion of the habitable globe. Could we subsist on cotton, could it be metamorphosed into an article of diet, then would we be the most independent people in all Christendom. But not being able to do either, how unwise, how absurd, is our system of agriculture? In a country where the Cereals attain the greatest perfection, with the most prolific soil, yielding in its natural state, viz: without any fertilizer, from 40 to 60 bushels of corn, from 15 to 20 bushels of wheat, and from 30 to 50 bushels of oats-yet with these great advantages for stock-raising, nine-tenths of our planters depend alone on the West for their meat, mules, and horses, and even their flour. "No State in the Union possesses, in a greater degree, materials for a proud independence than does Alabama. These materials, however, are yet in a crude state, and nothing but a strong decoction of Northern fanaticism will ever bring to light their wealth and beauties."

We should have learned, long ere this, that depending on the North and West for our supplies, tends more and more to impoverish us and

corn frequently still standing upon the stalk in the field as it grew; the wheat covered, in the fallow-field, by the harrow being passed twice over it, and in the corn ground by the single or double shovel plough, or sometimes, when the corn has been cut and shocked, by the harrow alone; but little difference, if any, being observable in the result. The cornground wheat usually receives clover seed in the following March at the rate of one gallon to the acre, sown broadcast, and plaster of Paris either at that time or the preceding fall, at the rate of a bushel per acre. I have also applied the harrow to wheat in the spring when I sowed clover seed, with, at the time, apparent injury, but decided ultimate benefit.

Our harvest commences ordinarily about the middle of the last week in June, and lasts ten or twelve days; being usually over by the close of the first week in July. Cradling is still the prevailing mode of reaping, three to four acres, carefully cut, to the cradle, being accounted a fair day's work; but the reaper has been for several years used by some farmers--the preference having been generally given to Hussey's; but in that I think public sentiment is undergoing a change in consequence. of the very great advantage of McCormick's of depositing the wheat to one side, thus avoiding the loss of time at that busy period resulting from occasional failure to get the wheat out of the way, and enabling a small force to accomplish a decidedly greater amount of work. It is understood, also, that McCormick's reaper is less liable to choke, from whatever cause. The variety of wheat preferred for strong land, or fallow land generally, is a red wheat called the Zimmerman; for corn or thin land generally, the Mediterranean or white wheats. The drill is rapidly taking the place of the broadcast in seeding; Demmock's being decidedly preferred to any other yet used here.

An average crop from corn-ground and fallow, for a period of ten or twelve successive years, actually saved, threshed, and delivered into the mill or to the merchant, from good land, well cultivated, does not exceed, I think, fifteen bushels to the acre; but the yield varies very much, from 25 to 30 bushels down, a fair prospect being sometimes blighted by rust or fly.

In the former of these evils, no preventive or palliation even is known; for the latter, grazing by sheep is, by some, esteemed a remedy or preventive, the habit of the close grazing of wheat, particularly the Mediterranean, having latterly decidedly increased.

The greater part of the wheat raised here is sold to the miller in the neighborhood, ground, and sent as flour to Baltimore; the price being regulated by the price of flour in Washington, deducting the cost of transportation, about 45 cents per barrel. I obtained for my wheat from the year 1837 to the year 1847, an average of one dollar per bushel; since that the average has been considerably less. Five bushels of wheat are allowed for a barrel of flour, which is believed to be rather an excess; the offal usually offsetting the cost of the barrel. This year the price has varied from 80 cents in the summer to $1 in December.

Many persons prefer to apply their manure as a top-dressing, either in the shape of unrotted straw or of muck, to the wheat in the fall or winter; others plough it under for the corn crop in the spring; twenty fourhorse wagon-loads being considered a good dressing in the latter case, and half that in the former. I have applied guano to wheat, at the time of seeding, at the rate of 300 pounds per acre, with decided benefit, but

are governed in their mode of planting by surrounding circumstancesthe quality of the soil, the manner in which it lies, whether flat or rolling. Upon exhausted lands, or where the soil is thin, planting in hills. at four feet distance, leaving only one stalk, is the surest mode, and, if well cultivated, seldom fails to yield an average crop; but on our slough lands and creek bottoms, bedding with the turn, ploughing and drilling the corn upon a high bed, leaving the rows from five to five and a half feet wide, and leaving the stalks from twelve to fifteen inches apart in the drill. Corn planted in this way on our black lime lands, with good cultivation, ordinary season, will yield from forty to sixty bushels.

Oats, Rye, Peas, and Beans.-Oats, with us, are becoming a very important crop; nothing is surer, and our lime lands yield them in great abundance, supplying in a great degree the place of corn, of which our farmers are generally scarce, always straitened in the latter part of summer, appropriating, as they do, all their best land to the growth of the long staple; indeed, they only plant with the view of making a scant supply, and, if they run short, and the river keeps up, they can get a few sacks from New Orleans, and, although heated and sour, they will try to make out with it. The horses can do upon oats, and the negroes upon potatoes and peas-a fine system of rural economy, but such is the husbandry of South Alabama.

Rye. Our climate is less adapted to the successful culture of rye than any of the Cereals. It is only cultivated for grazing purposes, and is valuable as a green pasture for stock during winter, especially for milch cows, sheep, colts, &c.

Peas are cultivated by most of our planters. They renovate the soil and fatten the stock, and would be of great value but for their mysterious modus operandi, occasionally, of killing all the hogs and cows upon the farm, as has occurred with my neighbor, Captain Arnold Seale, the past and present season. I say mysterious, for I have been in the habit of raising peas and fattening my stock upon them with perfect impunity for the last twenty years, and I am not aware of ever having lost a pig or yearling by their use. Beans are only planted for table use, being a fine, wholesome vegetable.

Clover and Grasses.-But little attention has been paid to exotic or foreign grasses. Our summers are too long and hot, it is supposed, though I have at this time a small patch of the red clover growing on my prairie plantation that looks flourishing and fine; and it shall have a fair trial. Our native, or spontaneous grasses, with proper care and attention, would prove an invaluable treasure. The experiments of Major Seymour Powell fully demonstrate the correctness of this impression, and prove most conclusively that the crop of crab-grass grown on a prairie field after the corn is laid by, if well saved, would be worth more than the corn. To test the matter, he measured several acres. Off the first acre he gathered thirty bushels of corn, which, at the market price, 75 cents, brought $22 50. Off the same acre he saved 2,675 pounds nice hay, worth from $1 to $1 25 per cwt.-say $26 75. The second acre yielded 3,780 pounds hay, worth $37 80, and bushels of corn, worth $28 40.

Foreign or imported hay is now selling in Montgomery and Mobile at $1 25, and our citizens are paying thousands of dollars annually for

hay inferior to that growing spontaneously over all our fields. Things far-fetched and dear-bought only suit the South.

Dairy Husbandry.-But little attention paid to that. Some few improved breeds have been brought to the country, but have not received sufficient attention. But few make butter for market, and many buy Goshen butter.

Horses and Mules.-Very few attempt to raise horses or mules here. They look to the West, and from the West they get them, or do without. Sheep and Wool.-Very little attention is paid to sheep-raising. Had we a market for the wool, and the canine race destroyed, sheep-raising would be a profitable business-they do well in this climate.

Cotton. So much has been said and written upon the subject of cotton that I fear it would be a work of supererogation for me to enter into details in relation to its mode of cultivation. I am sensible of the fact that the seasons have more to do with the crop than any system of culture. I have never failed to make a fine crop when the summer was dry. The average crop in the lime lands is about one thousand pounds, though as much as two thousand, and even two thousand five hundred pounds, are frequently gathered off an acre of hammock or slough land. I will not trespass further upon your time, and only regret that I am not able to make a better report of our stewardship as agriculturists in a -country so highly favored by a kind and beneficent Providence.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

N. B. POWELL.

CLARKSVILLE, HABERSHAM COUNTY, GEORGIA,

November 20, 1852.

DEAR SIR: Below I have endeavored to answer your Circular of interrogatories in as condensed and correct a manner as the nature of the inquiries will permit, although there must be some allowance made for differences of the opinions of different individuals with whom I have conversed upon the subjects embraced; and with the view of giving the most reliable and correct information, I have taken the average opinions upon the questions propounded, and have little doubt as to their general

accuracy.

Wheat.-No guano has ever been used for any purpose in this county. The average product per acre is not more than eight bushels, although, with proper cultivation, over twenty bushels per acre have been raised. The seed is usually prepared by soaking it twenty-four hours in a solu tion of sulphate of copper, (blue-stone,) as a preventive for smut, and with the most perfect success. About one bushel of seed per acre is the usual quantity sown. The usual method is to sow upon land which has been cultivated in corn, and plough it in with a one-horse turningplough, all which is done in a very slovenly and imperfect manner. The yield, I think, is increasing, as occasionally some one individual prepares his ground as it should be, and is rewarded well for his labor in a good yield, which has its influence upon his neighbors. The best preventive for the ravages of the Hessian fly is to kill all the grass before sowing by early and good ploughing, and also not to locate the field

intended to be sown alongside or contiguous to a grass field. Best and absolute remedy for weevil is to expose the grain, after being threshed, two or three days to the sun by spreading it on a scaffold prepared for the purpose. Average price 87 cents per bushel.

Corn. The average product per acre in this county does not exceed twenty bushels, although there are some lands which produce from eighty to one hundred bushels. Major Edward Williams, of Naucoochee valley, in this county, has succeeded, by judiciously manuring a field of twenty five acres, twice in raising it from twenty bushels per acre to eighty-one bushels, which was the largest yield of upland corn exhibited at our State fair for the year 1852. The cost of production is probably about twenty cents per bushel. The best system of culture is to manure well, during the winter, the land intended to be planted, and to deposit the manure in small heaps upon it and cover them with earth until the time of ploughing arrives; cultivate by ploughing once, and afterwards pass through from time to time with a cultivator, to kill the young grass and weeds.

The best method of feeding is to have the grain both ground and cooked. I should suppose the manure from ten bushels corn, fed to hogs, and properly applied to the land, would, before being expended, add ten bushels to the crops raised upon the ground to which it was applied, over and above what it would have produced without it. The ground is generally prepared by ploughing once with a one-horse plough; but our farmers are beginning to plough deeper than formerly, and some of them to subsoil plough with great advantage. The usual distance between the rows is from four and a half to five feet, and two feet in the drill.

Oats.-Average yield per acre, probably about thirty bushels; quantity of seed sown per acre, one bushel; considered an exhausting crop. Barley.-None raised.

Rye.-Average yield per acre, about ten bushels; quantity of seed used, about one bushel per acre; not considered an exhausting crop.

Peas are cultivated as a renovating crop by some, and with very evident beneficial results. It may be called, as a renovator, the clover of the South, as it serves the same purpose here that clover does at the North, both for hay and manure.

Dairy Husbandry.-Very little attention paid to the business as regards the improvement of cattle, or the making of butter or cheese; cost of raising cattle to the age of three years, probably about four dollars per head. The usual price at that age is about ten dollars per head. Our cattle are generally turned into the mountain range in April, where they remain and provide for themselves until the 1st of December. I am unable to give any information as regards blooded cattle from personal experience.

Horses and Mules.-The raising of mules would, beyond doubt, prove very profitable, as they can be raised in the mountains as easily as cattle, and with as little care and cost as regards feeding. Mules and young horses are usually broken to labor by harnessing them by the side of a gentle old horse or mule for a day or two, when, with gentle and careful treatment, they will work kindly afterwards.

Wool-growing A number of gentlemen in this county are commencing the raising of fine-woolled sheep with a fair prospect of its proving