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<% JMjjtrtt Agriculturist NOVEMBER..........1872. Notice. As twenty-five cents docs not pay the cost of paper and printing, wc will, after the first of January, 1873, charge fifty cents per annum sub¬ scription. All who subscribe before that time will be furnished at the old price—twenty five cents. Notice to Subscribers. Any one sending subscriptions or communications tor the Southern Ag¬ riculturist from Florida, Middle or South Western Georgia, Alabama, Ten¬ nessee, or the States west, will address us at Savannah, Ga. From North and South Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia north of the C. R. K., M. A W. R. R., and Atlanta & West Point Rail Road* will address us at Augusta, Ga. Remit by registered or P. O. order, for Clubs, for single subscribers, by mail at our risk. See our premium list. Those who have not renewed their subscrip¬ tion will please do so, and we hope each one will send one new subscriber, or more. Correspondence Wanted. VY r e desire correspondence from all parts of the South, upon Agriculture, Stock raising, Manufacturing, Emigra¬ tion, &c. Reports of the condition of the crops from time to time will be particularly interesting; short articles on these subjects will always be appreciated, by us and our sub¬ scribers. To Subscribers. As the Post Office regulations for¬ bid our putting the “Red Cross” on our paper to admonish you of the ex¬ piration of your subscription, wo take occasion to state that all in arrears ou the first of January will be suspended. Call ou your Post Master who has a revised list of our subscribers, and will receive and forward the amount of your arrears and subscription up to January, 1873. We hope you will pay up at once, and get a few new subscribers. We are giving you a paper for less than the cost of paper and printing. Our object is to give every planter souie thin°* to read for the least possible I cost* cost-, putting put u.g in our own labor as a | I contribution for the public good. Read the article headed “Buy Early,” on fourth page. “Why are we Poor?'’ Mr Editor.—I hear the question at the top of this page frequently asked during the year, by persons who, seeing our great natural ad¬ vantages as an agricultural people, wonder how we are nevertheless poor as wc are. We have the finest cli¬ mate in the world. We can raise successfully a larger variety of pro¬ ducts than any other country, ami “still wo are not happy,” because we are poor as Job’s turkey. I do not take into account the losses caused by the war, which swallowe d up at one gulp the accumulated cap¬ ital of three quarters of a century, i look for a more proximate cause than that, and confine my inquiry not so much as to why we are poor, as to why wc are not richer than wc are. I should be ashamed of myself if I came out of the war rich. I could not have done so and at the same time have done my duty to my country and inv countrymeu. Rut seven years have passed since the sad morn¬ ing at Appomattox Court House. Most of us went to work like men, and did not spend an hour in whining or groaning over our “fallen for¬ tunes.’’ Worthy of our proud record we looked our misfortune in the face, grappled with it, and resolved to re¬ conquer prosperity by our own toil. Rut notwithstanding ail our efforts wo are all poor, and many of us in debt. A number of causes combiucd to pro¬ duce this lesu't; but the greatest of them all, in my opinion, has been the effort to cultivated, greater number of acres than we could cultivate well. This lies at the root of the trouble. All cotton and no corn ; buying wes¬ tern corn and bacon and northern hay, running in debt to our factors and merchants, lien receipts, mort¬ gages and sheriff’s sales are the off shots from the main root—the plant¬ ing a large number of acres of poor land with hired labor aud borrowed money, and making crops that did not. nearly return the outlay. Let me suppose a case by way of illus¬ tration : Neighbor A B cultivated 300 acres of open land, 100 in corn and 200 in cotton. Suppose he raised six bushels of corn per acre, and made 000 bushels. Suppose be raised a bag of cotton to four acres, or 50 bags of cotton. The corn was worth, say $1 per bushel, or 8000 ; the cotton sold lor lde per lb., or $3750. Total—$4250. Now for the expenses : Interest, on investment in laud, sto k, implements, etc., say $10,000at 10per cent.......................................... each......... 2i<><>.00 Wages ol20 liamls, atf120 at l Meat tor 20 hands, 4000 lbs., 'c per ...................................... 600.00 Bread corn for 20 hands, S00 bushels. at $1 per bushel...................... 000.00 Corn ami fodder for mules and horses, eay 10 animals, at $100 each.......... IOuO Oo Loss bv death aud depreciation of stock, Implements, &e., say.................. 350.00 Incidental expenses...................... lt>0.00 Total..............................$5*00.00 4350,00 Value of crop................... Lose..................................... l have fixed the price of the crop ^bove thc average of the seven years, and I have made ho charge forthe cost ofsa i e j n freights, warehousefex penscs, commissions, insurance, Ac. ; nor have I made any charge for wages of an overseer or domestic j servants. But it may be said I have estimated the crops too low. 1 know I have not. 1 know, and so do you, Mr. Editor, numbers of farmers who are working land to-day who do not make a 500 lb. bale of cotton on four acres, and who do not make an aver¬ age of six bushels of corn to the acre. Of course they lose money every year, but just as long as they can get a merchant to credit them they keep on trying, hoping that they will do better next year, attributing their failure to the dry spell in July, or the wet spell in August, and never dreaming that il they had planted two hundred acres well, with good preparation, careful planting, judi¬ cious manuring aud improved culti tivatioo, that they could have raised thirty-five bushels of corn to the acre, and a heavy bale of cotton to two acres, and that too with a third less labor of negroes and mules. 1 allude, of course, to upland planting, nut to the fortunate few who cultivate allu¬ vial lands. I a'hide specially to my own State, Georgia, and I leave it to any intelligent and impartial observer of the crop operations on our upland plantations for a number of years, to decide whether the average yield per utimanured acre is higher in corn and cotton than I have stated it. If tlmn this be so, is there any wonder that wo are poor ? How can wc expect to be otherwise until wo learn that we must not plant any more land than wc c m manure well, plow deep and cultivate thoroughly ? Depend on it that this knowledge is the corner¬ stone of agricultural prosperity. One of Les Miserable*, in Ex. Madison (jo., Ga , July 21), 1872. Practical Hints. Food for Fowls .—A change >f food, Summer and Winter, is just as essential in the management of fowls as any farm stock. Oatmeal and middlings contain a high per centage of flesh-forming material, gluten, Ac. Indian corn possesses the greatest amount per cent, of oil-iuaking or warmth-giving qualities of any of the grains. Oatmeal, one of the best Summer foods, in Winter should not be tod alone. A change of food frequently is desirable, aud we prefer for the morning meal during the Win ter season alternate moves of mixed oat .and corn meal and mashed pota¬ toes. Middlings may be u*ed with equal piutit in place of the oatmeal. Mixing Soft Food .—In mixing soft foods for fowls, they should not be made very wet, but kneaded up us dry a« possible ; for forcing an excess of water into the crop is very liable to cause diarrhea. Drink ing Water for Pou 'try .— Fowls should nevei' be left without water, but we would advise letting them take it in such quantities demands. and at i-ucli times its their nature Give fre>h, clean water, ami sec that there is no snow in it in Winter time. Experience has taught that permitted fowls not j supplied with water, but to j peck snow to satisfy their thirst, will greatly reduce in flesh, and be re tarded in their spring laying. They should always be supplied with fresh, clean water for drinking. Statistics of the Egg Trade .— The yearly importation of eggs into England reached in 1861, 203' mil¬ lions; in 1861,335.1 millions; in i860, 430,878,880; in 1868,about600,000, 000 ; and it is presumed that in 1870 the sum total reached nearly three quarters of a billion.— Cauvlian Poultry Chronicle. llow Little Land will Keep a Cow .—On the first day of June last I commenced cutting clover fur owe cow confined in a yard enclosed by a high, tight board ft nee, with a stable attached, in which she has been fed. 8he had no feed but fresh clover from the first of June to the f i f lee nth of October, and all taken from one fomth of an acre of ground. She strained has averaged eighteen quarts of milk per day, from which my wife has made eight pounds of butter per week, during the four and a halt months. The cow is live years old, and a cross of the Ayshire and Durham. She has given more milk, more butter, and of a better quality, than she has ever done on pasture. On one eighth of an acre I have raised one hundred aud fifty bushels of sugar beets aud carrots, which, with the two tons of hay, will keep her handsomely the balance ot the year. The labor of cutting clover for the cow is less than driving her throe fourths of a mile to pasture. In the dairy districts, the usutl estimate is four acres to the cow, on the hay and pasture system ; whereas, by soiling and raising roots, five eights ot an acre is found to bo sufficient. I will state further, what i believe from nearly thirty years’ experience is, that there is no crop so valuable for selling ns clover—no crop, so many pounds of which, and of equal value (or milk and butter, can be produced Irom good an acre of ground. Sweet corn is a crop for late feeding, where clover will not grow, but not profitable for Winter leeding.— Ex. 7 he Strawberry lied .—Keep the beds intended for bearing next year free from weeds aud grass, and cut off all runners, and by the last week in the month, give them a liberal dress¬ ing of a mixture of woodscaitb and ashes This is an excellent month to make ii< w beds. 1 be best laud for a strawberry bed is a sandy bolt >m. where the soil is moist aud deep, and where there are no trees to absorb the moisture. L t this be thoroughly broken as deep as possible—sixteen cr eighteen inches at least. W hen this is done, apply plenty of well rut¬ ted stable manure, fully an inch thicK over the entire surface. L> t this be well mixed with the surface soil by lurking it in with a . j ado fork. Then level the surface aud aud lay off for planting in rows Irocn two to three feet apart. 8et the plauts eighteen inches apart in the row. Wh n the plants arc set out. mulch the wh«dc bed with a thick layer of straw, leaves er pine straw. A i cd planted now in the above manner will b* ar a good crop next Spring.— Ex.