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(X>m€ TO GRIEF.
Editors Southern Cultivator. —I read in
your last number that the Decatur County Agri
cultural Association is indignant against Com
mercial Fertilizers. “He laughs best who laughs
last,” and I would feel like indulging in a little
hilarity on this occasion—were it not a very seri
ous matter. 1 spent four months of the past sum
mer in IVcatur and Early, and know exactly the
temper of the planting community in those coun
ties on the concentrated manure question. The
j>eopleof Georgia are out several millions of dol
lars for vile nostrums —quack remedies to cure
unproductiveness in overworked lands —and
their savageness against the humbugs is quite
natural and pardonable. Two years ago and
more, I besought the people not to be led astray,
and endeavoured to demonstrate the fallacy of
attempting those short cuts to fortune in plant
ing, which arc now receiving such universal con
demnation throughout the entire country. My
ideas were scouted as the dream of a theorist,
whilst the system of the old practical patent for
tune maker were adopted everywhere. The sto
ry of the four acre lot, and the sixteen acre .lot,
and the typographical error from Boussingault,
knocked the pins from under me. Stable ma
nure is a humbug ; too heavy and bulky for dis
tant fields, and when there, lasts too long; clover!
pshaw, that stud' will never grow ; and, as for
rest, rotation and turning under green crops, we
have no time nor patience for that tedious busi
ness. Besides who knows that it will be of any
service, even should we do it. That was a theory.
Using fertilizers was a matter which practice had
demonstrated. My side lost and the other side
won —what V Many dollars out of the pocket, and
tiro (jood years of time lost.
The Bainbridgc people demand a perfect fertil
izer. I will give them a short formula. When
ever you have a clay subsoil, sow oats at the
proper time; after plowing in the oats harrow
the surface smooth and scatter ten i>ounds of
red clover seeds, brush them in lightly. After
the oat crop is cut, sow one hundred pounds of
land plaster to the acre. Do not cut the clover
crop that season, and never pasture it. The sec
ond year cut the clover crop when in bloom, but
before it is ripe , sow another bushel of plaster.—
Let the second crop or aftermath go to enrich the
ground. The next year you may cut another
crop of hay and sow plaster as before, but before
frost turn everything under with one of Brinly’s
two horse clean land plows with rolling cutter.— ,
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR.
Divide your land into five equal fields —annually
one to be in cotton, one in corn, one in oats and
two in clover. Let cotton follow clover, then
corn after cotton, and oats after corn as before —
subsoil before cotton. Save every thing like ma
nure and put ft on your cotton. If your land has
a sandy subsoil, substitute peas for red clover
and follow the same system, using the plaster
Ac., but turning under twu) crops of peas each
year. I am not going to argue how expensive
this will be or liow tedious, or anything of the
sort. I have answered your query. This is a per
fect manure ! and the only one you will ever be
able to find. You may devote the remainder of
your livfcs to practical analytical chemistry, geol
ogy aral botany, with a year or two to vegetable
physiology, and you will not improve on wliat is
here given. Let nitrates and phosphates, acids
and alkalies alone and go after nature awhile.
This, Mr. Editor, is probably the last paper I
shall be able to write you for some time, as I
have undertaken the task of Editing the Practi
ced Planter , published in this city. What kind
of a paper I shall make, my readers must judge.
I will do my best to make it safe and conserva
tive, but will pitch into anything I don't like.
Wishing the Cultivator the great success, its
position and usefulness entitle it to, and its rea
ders (and yourselves personally) prosperity,
health and happiness, I hid you farewell.
GEORGE W. GIFT.
Memphis , Term., November 2nd, 1870.
Our readers, we are sure, will join us in rc_
gretting the loss of Mr. Gift as a valuable con
tributor to the pages of the Cultivator. In the
new enterprise in which he has embarked we
most heartily wish him abundant success. We
may confidently say in advance that he will
make the Practical Planter a lively, vigo
rous paper—that he will work hard to build
immense dunghills upon every farm in the land—
and woe be to the unlucky commercial fertilizer
man that dares to put foot upon one of
them.— Eds. So. Uult.
COTTONSEED.
Editors Southern Cultivator : —Again the
“ Cultivator” has reached me, and I am refresh
ed and improved by its perusal. I cannot resist
the temptation to reply to friend “ Chattahoo
chee,” who is so much disposed to make fun of
cotton seed. Referring to his first paragraph, I
say yes, cotton seed properly managed, will
without doubt, create a great revolution in
Southern farming.