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From tlio Southern Farm and Home.
The Comparative Value of
Oats and Indian Corn as
Forage Crops,
Whatever the practice may be,
the generally-adopted thcrery is that
it is the best policy of the Southern
planter to raise his own provisions
for man and boast, and keep the
money at home that he would be
obliged to send abroad to buy them.
This being admitted, theoretically at
least, the question arises how this can
be done in the safest, surest and most
inexpensive manner.
Of all the cereals, it is unques
tionably true that Indian corn is the
most expensive crop that we can
raise, whether wo regard the cost of
cultivation or the risk of a partial
or total failure of the crop from the
frequently destructive droughts in
June and July. Could wc always
count on a lull crop every year, when
the cost of making it is counted, it
will still be found to bo very ex¬
pensive ; but as the fact is that not
more than one year in four or five do
wc raise a full crop, it will readily bo
seen tliat it would tic greatly to the
planter’s advantage if he could find
a substitute in whole or in part for
corn, which docs not call for so much
labor and expense in cultivation.
We believe that, notwithstanding its
cost and its liability to be cut oil’ by
drought, it pays to raise o$r corn
rather than to send abroad to buy it,
and wear out our mules and wagons
hauling it home from the nearest
depot; but are satisfied that so far as
we use corn as food for mules and
horses, wc oouM find a substitute in
oats which arc better and more whole¬
some food for animals, and which do
not cost one-fifth of the labor that
must bo expended to make a corn
crop.
Until recently the oat crop in the
Southern States has had litt le or no
attention. It was regarded as a sort
of make-shift to make up for a
deficiency previous in the corn crop of the
food for year, few or to provide green
a weeks, and then it
was sown on the poorest laud, aud in
the most slovenly manner. The re¬
sult was a few bushels of wretched
graiu, or a lew bundles of very poor
Latterly forage, hardly worth harvesting.
more attention lias been
paid to this crop, and we are happy to
say that now its value is very gen¬
erally recognized, and the large
yield of this year lias served to en¬
courage this appreciation of its im
portatice.
Now is the time to prepare for the
oat crop. Next month is the time
to put the seed iu the ground. The
earlier in October the seed are
sown the better the crop. This, at
least, s our own experience. The
land should bd as well prepared as for
wheat, aud it should be manured as
liberally. Wo recommend sowing
fully three busi.cls of seed per acre,
covering rolling with a harrow, and then
with a heavy roller.
The oats known m Georgia as the
“Irwin ^ oats” a species sold for many
years near Columbus, Ga., as the
rust and smut-proof oats, and an oat
for sale by Mark W. Johnson, of
Atlanta, as a rust-proof oat, arc
strongly recommended as excellent
varieties. We do net believe that
there is such a thing as an infallibly
rust-proof oat, but wckaow that the
kinds wc have named escaped rust
when all other oats in the same neigh¬
borhood were destroyed by rust.
Where the land has been well pre¬
pared, and well manured, and the seed
has been well put in the ground,
from forty to fifty bushels of cleaned
oats arc not an unusual yield from
laud which, with the same manure,
would not yield more than fifteen
bushels of corn.
Working animals can be kept fat
on half a peck of oats and a bundle
of feeder, or the same quantity of hay
three times a day, and we are con¬
vinced that their health is promoted
by this kind of food, as compared
with corn. We never heard of a
horse or mule which was fed on oats
being effected by colic.
We must raise corn for bread, anil
it is well to have a little also for tlio
animals ; but we think that the main
food of the stable should ho oats.
Tityrus.
How Plaster Acts on Soils.
In relation to this subject, the ag¬
ricultural editor of the New York
World says:
A writer in a contemporary worries
himself as to who will solve the ques¬
tion “how plaster acts,” aud says that
it “absorbs ammonia. Unless we
know that there is ammonia in the
air for it to absorb, that Statement does
not help the matter.’’ We supposed
that every one knew that there is
seldom a time, especially near large
cities, when the atmosphere docs not
contain ammonia. As the rain de¬
scends, this ammonia is brought
down, and when it reaches the earth,
if it finds any plaster (sulphate of lime)
there, it is immediately taken up, and
the water assists the combination.
Wherever vegetable or animal sub¬
jects are decaying, ammonia is thrown
off; hence the value of plaster on
the barnyard manure heap. In the
same manner it is of value when
sown or laid where clover is to he
plowed under. Again, the air we
breathe is composed largely of nitro¬
gen; ammonia is a combination of ni¬
trogen lieved by and hydrogen, and it is be¬
some scientific men that am¬
monia is formed in the atmosphere
under certain conditions of that ele¬
ment. Whether it is or not we cannot
determine, but we do know that it is
constantly dreds of being thrown off from bun
factories aud gas works from
the constant decay of millions of car¬
casses, irom the vast sewerage and
privies of our cities, rnd from the
barnyards of thousands of careless
farmers. We know, also, that when
fields we are too thoughtless to spread our
wit!* plaster, nature, more gen¬
erous to us, gives iu our air an excess
of carbonic acid, which unites with
the volatile but fertilizing alkali, and
it is also fixed when brought down by
the rains. We must confess that we
cannot see where there is any great
problem to be solved about plaster.—
It is simply composed of sulphuric
acid and lime; the first unites with all
the ammonia it can find; the second
having parted with its sulphuric ae d
taken up carbonic acid and aids to
dissolve the silica in the soil, ^e
think it is the cheapest, and at the
same time one of the best instruments
forgiving fertility to our soils, and its
use cannot be too general. It it ever
fails, we believe the cause to be
more the fault of the user than the
plaster. In itself it lias no elements
which can be called fertilizers, and it
only acts through its own destruction
as an individual substance. Hence,
to be of value, it must come iu contact
with these substances which effect a
separation of the chemical elements
which compose it; any decomposing or
fermenting vegetable or animal matter
in a soil will afford these. If they
are absent in a soil or atmosphere, be¬
plaster is of little value: but we
lieve they are seldom absent, and, if
supposed to be, a crop of field peas or
clover turned under will soon give
food for the plaster to work upon.
--—--♦ 4fr ♦
Fall Oats ys. Spring Oats.
The Banner of the South says :—
“Thu experience of the present season
indicates very clearly that Fall is the
proper season for sowing oats—aud
early Fall at that. We have had op¬
portunity of making ver) general in¬
quiries among planters, and also of
some personal observation of the mat¬
ter whereof wo speak. The investi¬
gation is not a new one by any means
and tho experience of the great ma¬
jority will affirm the statement that
Spring oats are an uncertain and pre¬
carious crop, not often returning fair
profits on the labor and expense of
sowing them. It is unfortunately the
most general and practice to sow only in
the Spring, this practice is owing
chiefly to the fact that it has been the
most convenient to perform work at
that time. We have always been apt
to do everything when it was mo. t
convenient, and not when it was best
to do it. Fall sowers are rare, be¬
cause the Fall is occupied with cot¬
ton.”
Spring oats this season have failed
very generally, according to our re¬
ports. Fall oats, on the contrary,
have made excellent crops, and where
they were sown on fair land and with
good prepurati >u, the yield has been
highly satisfactory.
The red or yellow rust-proof oat has
sustained its reputation very general¬
ly and given another proof of its
qualities as a non-rusting and prolific
variety. This seed has been sown to
so large an extent, during two years
past that they should now tie in reach
ot everyone for the mxt cr.'p at mod¬
erate prices. But at any price in
reason No other they should be had aud sown.
worth variety wc have known is
tho labor of sowing iu compari¬
son with these.
We lately -witnessed the harvesting
°f an extensive crop of this variety
tiie larger pari of which was sown
among cotton in August and Septem¬
ber last, aud covered in by the last
plowing of the cotton with a sweep.
By the side of these was an area of
Spring oats, sown in the mouths of
January, February, and March. The
laud was precisely between, the same, and with the
enly a turn row the being ail
previous treatment same,
in cotton last year and manured with
the same fertilizer. The late sowings
were not worthy to be compared with
the Fall sowings, though being sown
more thickly and on good soil they
were good Spring oats. They were
dew and shoit heads, but with a good
stand and well worth harvesting. The
Fall oats were heavy and rich, and
will yield double per acre to the
Spring sowing. Between the two
crops, standing side by side, the ad¬
vantage was, by immense odds, iu
favor of the Fall oats.
It must be remembered, too, in
comparing, that the sowing in the
Fall costs nothing more than the seed
since they were covered by the usual
plowing of the cotton, while the
Spring sowing costs an extra plowing.
The fall crop affords pasturage during
the Winter to those who wish to
use it in that way, while the Spring
crop cannot be pastured at all, al¬
though it was very luxuriant during
the late Fall and early Winter, and
in some parts of it heads appeared
very generally in November and De¬
cember. Freezing during the Winter
did not appear to hurt, even where it
had headed. The heads were killed
down for the first time, but the same
spots that had headed out most ircely
yielded the largest harvest.
Tho Vegetable Carden- —Should
the weather be showery during this
month, there arc some seeds which
may be sown; and if our previous ad¬
vice as to preparation for a Fall and
Winter garden has been taken, there
is still time to make one. Sow tur¬
nips, radish, lettuce, onions, spinach,
beets, salsify, carrots, parsnips, and
English peas during the early part of
this month, and lose no time in sowing
the seed of the curly kinds of cabbage,
tor the planting out in early Spring, or
it plants are large enough in No¬
vember, they may be planted out
then in some sheltered spot, where
they can be protected from severe
frosts Onion seed sown* now will
germinate ami grow all the Winter.
English peas will mature before frost
if the early varieties ajc sown, and if
they are mulched. Destroy a]l weeds
before they shed their seed. 'Turn
under every particle of vegetable mat¬
ter that will decompose before Spring.
Guard against the depredations of
the green-worm which preys on the
plants cabbage and turnip, by dusting the
aslu and occasionally plaster with piaster, or
s mixed.
I'kivo the seeds of okra, beaus, as¬
paragus, the best and etc, taking care *o select
hours in earliest plants. A few
Fall, spoilt Saving so< d during the
will enable any one who has a
well-stocked garden t-> supply him¬
self wito an abundance of pure and
iresh seed for next Spring, besides
saving the money paid for imported
seed, which are not altvays genuine.—
Ejt.