Southern cultivator. (Augusta, Ga.) 1843-188?, December 01, 1870, Page 419, Image 9

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ill a thousand, has his faculty for doing the most work, and growing the largest crops with the least labor. As Mr. Gift says, there are thou sands of square miles of the richest soils in the Mississippi valley, now lying waste for the want of men to clear, drain and cultivate them. The Chinese being born and reared to industry in a hot climate, they cannot fail to be the right kind of immigrants to labor profitably in such a region. Mr. Dickson may suppose that the less cotton there is grown, the higher will be the price ; but Mr. Gift looks at things on a broader scale, and lie does not allow cotton to bellie summumbo num of southern prosperity, lie says “we buy guano because it is easy to handle, and waste our manure because it is laborious to save and apply it We scratch a line in a field and scat ter corn in it, thereafter we scratch a little more, and the summer sun burns up the poor plants, which is the last chance for our poor starved stock.” Dr. Jackson in the Cultivator recom mends corn cobs for manure; they make nice kindling wood, and nearly all the chemical value of their elements is in the ashes. When tile drains first came into use it was supposed that they were not needed in a field that had suffi cient descent to take off surplus water. But it is now known that tiles perform a double office; they not only relieve the soil of surplus water, but they also aerate the incumbent soil, and the air carries with it carbonic and nitric acid and ammonia. A soil thus tiled will also become more friable and retentive of moisture to sustain the crop in a drought. The subsoil plowing of a compact soil performs more generally the same office but for the time being only. In England the best farmers not only make the most manure on the farm, but they also buy the most commercial manure, guano and super phosphate. Our best farmers in Western N. Y., make and sow a great deal of manure in stock growing, and gf.g much red clover both for hay and to plow in green for soil amendment. But plaster is the only commercial manure they yet use in this county of Seneca. There can he no doubt but that at the present price of farm pro ducts, the addition of commercial manures would pay well. But the most enterprising farmers sell out and go west, and those who remain are con tent “to let well enough alone.” But here is an exception—three years ago a Vermont yankee bought a farm on which no man had ever made more than a poor living before. Last year he sold butter from thirty cows at forty cents a SOUTHERN CULTIV A TOR pound, to the amount of $2000; and this season he paid $ 110 an acre for another small farm ad joining. He beds his cows in winter on dry swamp muck and straw, and hauls the manure out to his fields as fast as it accumulates, spread ing it early in the spring. He raises the best heifer calves on skimmed milk and boiled meal —the hasty pudding, the equivalent for cream skimmed off. Ilis early spring pigs weigh 250 lbs. by 10th May, as they have plenty of butter milk and clover pasture> with old eorn meal boiled with pumpkins to fat ten on. He has a small corn field that yields eighty bushels to the acre. I suppose you could hardly induce this man to put the plow in one of those worn southern fields which only pro duce from five to ten bushels of corn to the acre. But it is the general practice of all our farmers to manure the field for corn highly by the applica tion of stall manure, even if the other crops have to suffer for the want of it. We have had good farm crops this season generally, corn and pota toes, apples, and grapes, yielded well. Onions owing to the dry spring, was a partial failure. Waterloo, N. Y, Oct. 9th , 1870. S. W. • INQUIRIES. Editors Southern Cultivator: —As our noble and long-worshipped King has got to be so low in the estimation of others, I would like to try some other means of making money. I i fancy a republican form of government, consc j quently would like for all the products of the ; South to have a say so in the question of peace and plenty. Gan any of your subscribers giv*> jme general information about the culture and ! marketing of the Navy Bean and Onion —the ob jections as well as the recommendations of these | crops V Also the best breed of hogs for West Tennessee, to be raised in a lot and constantly fed, and some calculations on the expense of raising. How do sweet potatoes compare with corn for feeding hogs? I have some selfishness about me as well as others, and consequently ex pect to hold on to the coat-tail of our old King Cotton, until I find another master that pays as well, and is as easily satisfied with our apology for laborers. I have ten acres set apart, which Ijwish to plant in a variety of crops, so as to find out which pays best. 1 fear the onion will not pay well if planted largely, as it requires ex tra attention and work, which is not in tl a ne gro. Will it do to manure oats with cotton seed on fresh land ? Do sweet potatoes require any manure, and what sort ? I have never seen an article on that subject. F. B. GAUSE. Durhamville, Tenn. 419