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428 (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.