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CROP BY A NEGRO IVOMAN —GRAIN ts. COTTON.
Editors* Southern Cultivator I send you
the following, giving statement of a crop made
by a negro woman this year on about 30 acres of
land ; also liberal calculation of supposed crop of
cotton made on same land with same amount of
corn. The labor, board, &c., of woman, cost
not exceeding SIOO 00. The crop was planted
as follows: about 10 acres in wheat, 10 in oats,
and 10 in corn. These are the expenses :
Labor 100 00
10 bu. seed wheat, $2 per bu 20 00
12 “ “ oats, $1 per bu 12 00
Feed for mule half the year 40 00
10 days labor, 1 extra hand, harvesting,
$1 50 per day 15 00
Feed for team, hands, &c., threshing grain, 10 00
One extra hand 3 days, housing corn, $1
per day
S2OO 00
PROCEEDS OF CROP.
70 bu. wheat, $2 per bu $l4O 00
200 bu. oats, $1 per bu 200 00
100 bu. of corn, $1 per bu 100 00
Pasture, SIOO 100 00
Straw $25, Shucks $lO, Peas $lO 45 00
Deduct from wages, for working potatoes,
garden, &c 15 00
S6OO 00
Expenses deducted 200 00
S4OO 00
Suppose, instead of wheat and oats, 20 acres
to be planted in cotton and 10 in corn, three such
hands as made the above crop will be barely
enough.
Labor will be S3OO 00
Feed for one horse all the year 80 00
“ “ “ “ half the year 40 00
Cotton seed to plant 20 acres 5 00
Bagging for 7 bales of cotton, $3 pr bale, 21 00
Hauling same to market 25 miles, at $1
per 100 35 00
Difference in tools between cotton and
wlieat T crop, 10 00
Difference in attention required for hands 50 00
$541 00
PROCEED* OF CROP.
7 bales cotton, 500 lbs. each, 18c $630 00
100 bu. corn, $1 per bu 100 00
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR.
400 bu. cotton seed, 18c 72 00
Shucks $lO, Peas 10 20 00
Deduct from wages, for working pota
toes, &c 50 00
$872 00
Expenses deducted 541 00
$331 00
Sixty-nine dollars in favor of oat and wheat
crops. The cotton crop is rather an over esti
mate, both in amount and price, for the present
year. We have said nothing of the difference
in the wear and abuse of the team. Should the
oat and wheat crop fail, the pasture will ahvays
pay for labor and seed. Should the cotton crop
fail, there is considerable loss. Most of fanners
say that ‘com, wheat, &c., are not ready money —
this may sometimes be so, but fat meat generally
is, vilich plenty of grain always makes. I 'would
rather plant only five acres of com, and play the
rest of the time, than to mortgage a cotton crop
before it is made, for provisions to make it.
A SUBSCRIBER.
Cadaretta, Miss., Sept. 14,1870.
——_— »♦« aw
MR. GIFT ON IMMIGRATION—FARMING IN WES
TERN NEW YORK,
Editors Southern Cultivator. —Esteemed
friend George W. Gift, is right in his plea for the
leguminosae, clover and cow-peas, as indispensa
ble to the rotation of crops, and to plow in to
quicken and fertilize the soil, making it both ab
sorptive and retentive of w ater and atmospheric
plant food. Guano and phosphoric acid are in
valuable for the compost heap, and do well alone
in light sandy soils. But a compact aluminous
soil needs the mechanical aid of vegetable ma
nure. It seems a little stimge to us at the north,
that the south should difficulty in
growing grass and clover as field crop,w r hen it
is such a constant task to keep out the grass
from the cotton crop. In Pennsylvania where
they have the hottest weather in summer, their
pasture lands never fail if they only give them a
light dressing of lime once in six years.
I w r as pleased to read in the October number
of the Cultivator, Mr. Gift’s masterly reply to the
veteran Davxd Dickson, on the question of coolie
labor. It was the more especially interesting, as
Mr. Dickson is one of the best practical planters
in the south; but it is his misfortune to judge
other men by himself. When perhaps not one