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102 nish—and one-third to the laborer, being divided among the hands that produce; the cotton seed to be returned to the land, and all crops left in the field ungathered, to go to the owner of the land. Now as to commercial manures, &c. lain written fre quently to know of whom 1 purchase, and what kind I use. John Merrytnan & Cos., ot Baltimore are •my agents, but there are other parties who who will do justice. Mon ey is so plentiful at the North, that speculators purchase each cargo of Guano as soon as it arrives, and. hold it, for an advance, so that the planters and farmers must act up on some uniform plan. The only plan I see now, that will do any good, is this: Send your check on to Balti more, with instructions to purchase any manipulated or mixed manures. Many of them, no doubt, have merits, but the planter had better do his own mixing. Then he will know what he has got, and save the profit. The best manures bring the crop of bol'.s on cotton early, and a a drouth then, with half a crop, would check. die growth; whilst the cotton with an inferior manure, and but few bolls, would be injured ; the rains setting in would injure the first far more than the last. (?) The manures lamno w using are composed thus: Peruvian Guano, Bones, Salt and Plaster—one hundred pounds of the last. Bones are but of limited supply ; resui t mu-t be had to some of the the phosphatio Guanos, of which Uohijpbia paid best, but is now exhaust-d. The true plan, is to try all manures on their own merits—then do your o*u selecting and com pounding. There are some of the phosphatio Guanos that I have not tried, but my opinion is, that they are too high to pay a profit. Manure should yield at least double the cost, to pay for* capital, labor, taxes and all risks of worms, drouth, flood, &c. Yerv truly yours, DAVID DICKSON. Hancock County, Jan. 2, 18G7. <. -»» The price of Sloan’s Homestead Architecture, we gave from memory in a succeeding page as $4.00. We find by a catalogue since received, it is $4.50. It is cheap enough at that. ■»—»+> <+■ A GII.VSS FOR SANDY LAND, Editors Southern Cultivator. —Gentlemen, if your Raleigh Correspondent, M. UJ. P. will have the kindness to give me his address, I think I can furnish him with a grass that will exactly fill his bill. I found it at Natchez, on the the Mississippi River, in fBIB. It was growing wild on the town common, and not cultivated at all. I found no person that could give me the name of it, but was told by seve ral persons, that it was brought from Spain, during the occu* pnney of that place as a garrison, by the Spanish Govern ment. It was the residence of the Governor General, whose official title I have forgotten. But his name was Minor. I also saw there,the old gentleman, that was the stock manager of that Government. This grass grows finely pn pine land, in the woods, without any culture whatever, under the green pine trees. It grows as thriftily at the root of a large green tree, as it does fifty feet from it. I planted it in the green piLe woods, where it now grows, about thirty years ago. It has been regularly pastured, on from that time, until this, and is as good now, as it ever was. Fifty acres of it will feed all the stock of a large plantation nine months in the year. But all stock prefer fine Bermuda, Crowfoot or Crab grass to it, when they can get it. It is now grow ing almost all over Georgia, and without notice orcuTture, as our people seem to know, or care nothing about grass! It is now out of seed, which cannot be had September, or October. JOHNS. THOMAS. Milledg eville Georgia , March , 1867. S()UTHERN CULTIVATOR. A LETTER FROM AN EXPERIENCED COT TON PLANTER. The Lesson of Last Year's Experience —More Corn and less Cotton. Columbus, Miss., Dec. 20th, 1866. Editors Avalanche —As we have gathered our crop, I propose to give you the result of our operations this year. A gentleman from Middle Tennessee and myself were planting together in this county. Owing to the extreme wet weather in the spring and early part of tiie summer, we were notable to cultivate our crop as well as we de sired. We had to haul, in the months of April, May and June, two thousand bushels of corn three miles, with the same stock we used in cultivating our crop. We had also to haul eight thousand pounds of bacon lour een miles. Our work stock was very inferior, many of them being mules that were in use before and during the war. Not withstanding all these difficulties, we made and saved a little more than three and half bales of cotton, each weigh ing five hundred pounds, to the hand. We gave our negroes one third of the crop, and also furnished food and a portion of clothing to the laborers. This was perhaps too much, as a rule. Our negroes work ed very well, considering they were free. No bee negroes ever will cultivate cotton and corn as well as the slaves did. Our com crop was not good. This owing partly to the bad weather, but mostly to the fact that we neglected the corn to save the cotton from grass. I am now satis fied that if wc had planted one-third less cotton, and more corn, we would have saved nearly as much cotton and a great deal more corn, became we would have cultivated both better. We were more successful than many of our neighbors, because we planted less cotton to the hand than they did. This was because they planted nearly all thejr land ill cotton. lam satisfied, from experience and observation, that those who plant large crops of cotton to tne neglect of corn, and expect to rely upon free negroes to cultivate them, will, in eight cases of ten, fail. Sixer eight acres of cotton to the hand is as much as canjbe made and saved on the uplands of Mississippi. Corn is made with so much less labor than cotton that all the land planted in corn, after six acres are planted in cotton to the hand, is so much clear gain. The great difficulty with our people has been, and I fear will continue to be, that they will devote themselves to cotton growing to the neg lect of other things, and if they do, ruin, even greater than the present, will come upon us. Cotton requires such continuous labor during the whole year, and is subject to so many casualties, that it is not safe to rely on it as the sole means of providing ourselves with the necessaries and comforts of life. There is danger that our own misguided policy may do us more injury than any mere political movement. Since our cotton is heavily taxed, ought we not to raise that which is not taxed ? As I have said before, the “best and wisest protection which we can have against high tar iffs and high taxes on our cotton, is to manufacture the cotton which we raise,” and. I might add, to produce the food which we consume. If we escape general confiscation, then there is danger that the policy which we have been pursuing (and I fear wiil continue to pursue) will produce general starvation. In 1860 this county produced fifty-one thousand bales of cotton, weighing each four hundred pounds. This year the product will not, I think, exceed fifteen thousand four hundred pound bales, and a large portion of this will be required to buy corn and meat. I think it very probable that Mississippi is in a worse condition to-day, so far as the necessaries ot life are concerned, than she was on the day of the surrender. It is all owing, I think, to our attempt to raise too much cotton, in which we have failed signally, and change ot policy can alone save us——raise our own supplies and let cotton be the surplus. Yours, truly, WM. J. SYKES. [Memphis Avalanche. We know of no Terrell Grass Seed in market.