American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1869-05-22
What They say Of US Alphabetically,
From the Mobile Reeister.l


In the recent excursion of the ILL
nois Press Association to our city,
the Agricultural press of the State
was represented by Henry ID. Emory,
Esq, and Prof Rodney " elch, edi
tors of the Prairie Farmer, one of
the ablest and most influential of the
agricultural journals of the West.
We had the pleasure of a short in
terview with these gentlemen, and
only regret that it was so short. In
their paper of the Sth instant we
and the first instalment of their i'm
pressions of the South, and as we
are sure our readers will be gratified
to know what is said of our country,
our system of agriculture, etc, by
learned and scientific agriculturists
Of the West, we copy the article en-
tire. 1t will be found eminently lib
eral, and, as n whole, we think it
quite just;
AMONG THE COTTON FIELDS.
1t having been our happy privilege
to accompany the Illinois Press AS
sociatiOn in the late excursion from
Chicago to Mobile by way of Cairo,
and over the Illinois Central and
Mobile ana Ohio Railroads, we pro-
pose to give our readers the benefit
OF some of the observations we made,
and the information we gained from
settlers, in relation to the agricultur-
al capabilities, and the present agri-
cultural status of the country
through which we passed. AS our
readers are appraised from week to
week of the crop prospects of the
Northwest, we shall limit our re-
marks in this article to the region
situated south of the Ohio river and
along the line of the Mobile and
Ohio Railroad; and shall reserve
what we have to say of the eXcur-
sion as a pleasure trip, for another
article.
CHARACTER OF TIE COUNTRY.
Throughout the whole region from
the Ohio river to the Gulf of Mexico,
the surface of the country presents a
somewhat similar character. The
soil is largely clayey loan, strong
ly inclined to clay in the lower por
tons, and to sand in the higher
Nearly all of it is undulating, afford
ing much better natural drainage
than is found on our prairies but fol-
the most part, there is fine growtl
of timber. In the northern portion
the cottonwood, black jack, ant
sweet gum abound; through Tennes
see the chestnut is plentiful, and il
lower lands, all along the route
there is an abundance of cypress ant
ASH Further south, particularly OF
the sandy lands of Mississippi, there
are many yellow pines, intersperse,
with holly, and from the Alabam;
line southwark, the giant live-oa
and gorgeous magnolia give beauty
10 the landscape.
WHAT CROPS ARE RAISED.
Through the small portion of Ken
lucky that we passed, there wer
many small but excellent fields o
winter wheat, considerable Lane
ready for corn, while there wer
numerous beds of tobacco plants
showing that the cultivation of tn,
Indian weed was not to be neglected
In Tennessee, there was considerable
wheat which also looked promising
but by far the greater breadth o
land in cultivation was in corn ant
cotton. We also saw many orchard
Dn fine condition for fruting, AM
many new ones had been recent,
planted out. In Mississippi AM
Alabama the grain fields disappear
ed, and in their place we found corr
fields, most of which had been ono
plowed, while the great proportion
OF the plantations was given to cod
son. This last crop is regarded a
promising in most districts, thougI
The season here IS some twenty day
later than usual.
HOW THE LAND is TILED.
Ths'methods of tilling the soil il
this pmtOn'is Of the most primitiv
kind. With rare exceptions, th
ouly blowing is done with a sinal
horse or mule, to which is attache
u rough made plow. A promincn
implement dealer and scotsman i
Mobile Informed us that most of tin
piows sold by him were of a elias
that c0nld be offered for five dollar
or under. he had sold but three G
four corn-plantcrs during she season
and the great demand was for farl
implements of the cheapest kind
such as would receive little injur
from exposure, and the destructio
Of which would occasion but littl
loss. In many places we saw cor
planted OH fields that were i'm eotto
last year, where the only preparatio
nj the ground was to turn a shallo
fhrrow outward from one side of tn
sotton ridge, and on this the cor
was planted, ON uneven ground, r