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Agricultural.
Fur the Banner of the South and Plantbrss’ Journil.
AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS IN GEORGIA
ly j. e. willet, prof. chem, etc., in
MERCER UNIVERSITY.
To determine progress, mental, moral
or physical, it is well not so much to con
template what we are at present, as what
we were at some point of time in the
past. Each can do this best from his
own experience; for this is more fully
known to him than is the experience of
any other person. The writer will be
pardoned, then, for alluding to an inci
dent in his own life as a starting point in
concluding that there has been progress
in the agriculture of his native State.
Twenty-two years ago, when the writer
was studying in the laboratory of Yale
College, a County Fair was held in New
Haven. The State House was festooned
wi h dowers, and garnished with all
kinds o garden products, and savory com
pounds from the pantries of the country
mat.oas, while r Very available corner
of the Capital green and even of the
College campus, was occupied by a stall
of lowing, bleating or grunting pets
from the neighboring farms. This was
all novel to the untraveled eyes of a
Georgia boy. But, the most striking in
cident of the Fair was a ploughing
match on the City commons. Three bur
ly Yauk’e yeomen, each with a huge
turning plough drawn by a yoke of sturdy
oxen, entered for the prize. One, of a
mercurial temperament, pushed his team
to their topmast speed, and soon re
versed the sod of his apportioned plat.
He aimed at speed, and got through first.
Another, a “steady-go-easychecked the
lire of ins team, and carfully lapped each
furrow over the preceding, and left his
plat almost as smooth as before a share
was driven into its surface. He came
out; last, but made the neatest job. The
third aimed at tiie bappy mean, and did
ins work not quite so fast as the first, nor
so well as the second, but probably car
ried of the prize.
When this incident was told at home,
the ploughing match was voted ridiculous,
and Fairs were thought by many to be a
Yankee dodge for turning a penny.
Agricultural Fairs then were new in
Georgia. Have we not made progress,
then,in
1. Agricultural Fairs Passing over
their infancy, when ltichard So-and-So,
and Thomas Thus-and-So, who owned a
few Merinos, or Durhams, or Brahma
Pootras, carried oft’ all the gold cups, and
silver pitchers, are they not only now a
power in the land, but a substantial
good? Have they not introduced good
implements, good seed, good blood in
our stock, good visiting farmers from
other States, with abundance of good
information on all subjects of husbandry ?
11 they yield no good, why are they so
well patronized ? They cost money, and
somebody must pay the score. Somebody
will pay, or is expected to pay, so round
ly, that an enterprising capitalist, who
knows where money grows, has leased
the State Fair grounds in Atlanta, for a
term of years, and pays a large rent for
the privilege of managing them. And
your good City, Messrs. Editors, has
rushed, with magnificent outlay, into a
similar exhibition. Aud Macon, a little
sore over last year’s memories, is essay
ing ati improvement on her maiden at
tempt since the war. And our exclu
sive metropolis by the sea might essay to
outshine all, were she, true to her marine
instincts, not more interested in regattas
than horse lairs and 300 boiled cotton
stalks. Georgia has made progress in
Agricultural Fairs, and they are a bless
ing to the State.
2. Deep Ploughing. Twenty years
ago, it was deemed very unfarmerlike to
stir the ground deep. Cotton would not
fruit, until the tap-root reached the hard
pau. How many English works has the
writer thumbed over to find how a sub
soil plough looked. And how incredible
appeared those pictures of English and
Scotch ploughing, where a two-horse
plough went ahead cutting ten inches
down, and a four-horse plough followed
in the same furrow cutting 26 inches be
low the surface. Would such ever dis
turb the quiet depths of our Georgia
old fields ? We have not yet got down
26 inches, but Mr. Murfee has sold some
of his “sub-soils” in Georgia, and many
an acre has had its serenity invaded to
the depth of 12 inches, this year. Many
farmers will go deeper, aud turn out the
golden wealth so long locked under with
a hard pan key.
BANNER OF THE SOUTH AND PLANTERS' JOURNAL.
3. Fertilizers. Twenty years ago, by
fertilizers we meant farm-yard manure.
Now their name is legion. They are ad
vertised like millinery and hardware,
and soap and candles. A farmer then
stared to hear of. nitrogen and phosphor
ic acid. Now the hard handed possesor
of broad acres talks so glibly of soluble
phosphates, of the carbohydrates and of
potential ammonia, that a chemist must
brush up his nomenclature not to appear
at a disadvantage.
Seriously, some of our planters may
wish, thi3 year, that they had never seen
an advertisement of fertilizers. The seven
ty-five or one hundred thousand tons
sold in the State may draw the profits on
cotton at 12 to 15 cents per pound to too
fine a point. But allowing that not
anothei pound should be sold in the State,
and that hundreds of thousands ot dol
lars are lost on them this year, has not
the State gained by fertilizers ? If we
have learned that an acre of old field,
abandoned and turned out like an old
horse, will yield half a bale of cotton
by manuring , is not that worth some
thing? Have we not presented to our
grasp the p >ssibiiity of larger crops, on
fewer acres and with fewer laborers ?
And if we can’t buy manures can’t we try
to make them? That is what England
and Scotland and Germany and Xew
England do. The New York Agricul
turist, with a subscription list of 150,-
000, contains only three or four adver
tisements of fertilizers; but it tells of a
farm (very poor land) of 60 acres, near
Newport, R. 1., which, under intelligent
management, made $3,000 worth of
farm-yard manure, last year, from
about 50 head of stock. We must keep
stock to make manure; and then our
expensive fertilizers will have cheaply
taught us a valuable lesson.
4. Clover. Hand in hand with the
above, comes the fact, that clover and the
grasses will grow luxuriantly all over
upper aud middle Georgia. Doubted,
disbelieved, it is now a credited fact.
Georgia cows lived last winter on clover
raised on their native farms. Turned
under, clover will add organic matter to
our wasted hills; and, fed in the field or
in the stall, the cows penned at night or
kept up all the time, and more of them,
the farmer will snap his fingers at Merry
man k Cos.; for his steaming compost
heaps will be more valuable than all the
phosphates of Baltimore, South Carolina
or the Peruvian Isles.
This may not be feasible just now.
But that is possible which was uot pos
sible. Our farmers now know the value
of manuring, and clover and the grasses
can be made to yield the manure.
5. Agricultural Journals To do
anything well, we must know how to do it.
Agriculture is no exception. The intel
ligent farmer, provided he has the indis
pensable endowments of common sense
and business tact, is the best farmer
To be intelligent, he must know what
others know, in addition to his acquire
ments. To learn this, he must read
books, and magazines and journals on
farming. And the Agricultural intelli
gence of a country may be known from
the number of journals read.
Twenty years ago, the Southern Culti
vator stood alone in Georgia; and its
proprietors are not believed to have
amassed fortunes from its circulation.
Probably’ 3,000 of the 50.000 farmers of
Georgia read it; and the remaining 47,-
000 read little or nothing on farming.
Now, Georgia has 3 or 4 Agricultural
Monthlies, and 2 or 3 Weeklies, and the
enterprising Chronicle Publishing Cos.,
feel encouraged to offer this new aspirant
for public favor. Georgia planters! read
more.
Glancing thus hurriedly at Agricultural
Fairs, Deep Ploughing, Fertilizers, Clo
ver, and Agricultural Journals, may we
not say that Georgia has progressed in
the last quarter of a century ?
For the Banner of the South and Planters’ Journal,
RUST IN COTTON,
ITS CAUSES AND CURE.
BY E. M. PENDLETON, M. D., SPARTA, GA
For tbe last several years, the cotton
crop has suffered very extensively with
what is popularly denominated tbe Rust,
perhaps, for the want of a better name.
It is ? however, more properly a blight, as
it has none of the distinctive marks of
rust of iron or of wheat, with the excep
tion of the reddish color, and this is only
peculiar to the mildest form of it, as the
worst species of rust to which the cotton
plant is subject, is black. There is no
exudation as in the rust of wheat, but
simply blight or decay of the leaf.
Thete have been many suggestions
made as to the probable cause of rust in
cotton, and before we specify what we
deem to be the true cause or causes, will
give our reasons for discarding some of
the most popular theories on the subject.
Os late years it is very common to attri
bute it to tbe causticity of fertilizers, the
free phosphoric or sulphuric acid in su
perphosphates for instance, or the more
caustic effect of ammonia or potash.
While these things might prove an aggra
vation, especially during drought, when
the little moisture a plant might imbibe
is less diluted, it cannot be the true cause,
because the rust affects non-fertilized
lands in many cases as well as those fer
tilized, and occurs during the wettest
seasons as well as in drought.
It is true as a general rule, that the
unfertilized rows in an experiment plat
are the latest in showing the disease, but
nevertheless when it reaches s certain
stage (that is begins to fruit), it also
shows symptoms of rust. lam told that
poor sandy lands sometimes begin to
rust, even before the fruit is well formed,
and it is a well established fact that some
lands rust uniformly, with or without
fertililizers, in rain or in drought. I
had supposed this species of rust might
be owing to a deficiency in someone of
the elements essential to the production
of cotton, and during the last season
compounded an article which h"d all
these elements in assimilable proportions,
especially potash, which I supposed to be
the one deficient, as it enters largely into
the seed (and phosphoric acid had been
supplied in previous fertilizers). Two of
my neighbors tried it on lauds which uni
formly rust, and reported, in one instance,
no amelioration of the disease, in the
other, an aggravtion.
The idea of animalcula has been sug
gested, also, as it sometimes seems to
spread from a centre, out there is not a
particle of evidence to favor this notion,
either microscopic or otherwise. One
single fact is sufficient to refute this no
tion. Oa my experimental plat the
present year some rows are rusted from
one end to the other, while others remain
entirely free from it until the natural
decay of the plant seems to come on. If
animalcula existed they would not follow
the rows so uniformly, nor would thev al
ways wait until the plant was in a cer
tain stage before beginning their depra
dations, as it is generally about a fort
night on the fertilized rows before the
unfertilized are affected.
What then are the causes of rust in
cotton, proximate or remote ? I answer
that it is exhaustion of nutriment or ob
struction to it. That from some cause
either inherently in the land, or con
tingently in the seas >ns, the food is ob
structed or cut off from the leaves and
fruit of the plant, and premature decay
and death is the result. Fertilizers may
be negatively the cause, by failing to sup
ply an essential ingredient exhausted
from the soil, viz: humus, or organic
matter ; but where there is an abundant
supply of this very important material,
there is no rust. Iu other words that
rich lands never rust unless from super
saturation with water, and poor lands
are always subject to it from drought and
exhaustion. l"ou may now scan the cot
ton fields iu Middle Georgia, and you
yill find that the worst rusted spots are the
poorest, beginning with the crown of the
hill, and ending in the vale beneath,
which is the last place to take it on # if at
all. The question simply recurs, what is
the element deficient in these poor soils
causing rust ? We answer, unhesita
tingly, vegetable matter.
The clean system of culture necessary
for the perfection of the cotton plant,
causes the rapid destruction of our soils,
whenever we push this article for a se
ries of years without a a proper rotation
of crops. No fertilizer ever offered to
the public can contain a sufficient amouut
of humus to be of much value, tr sup
ply the constantly increasing drain upon
the soil. Fertilizers always pay best
and rust least where there is most hu
mus or organic vegetable matter. Hence
the deficiency of humus in a soil is a
prime cause of rust, and lands that are
so poor as to be denuded of it, will not
pay in fertilizers. Carbon, I doubt not,
is the main principle which vegetable
matter supplies, and which being
sparse in a soil, causes premature decay
or rust. The tendency, also, to retain
moisture, makes it an important prevent
ive of rust from drought.
We could bring any amount of evi
dence, if need be, to establish the fact
that the presence of vegetable matter in
a soil prevents rust, while its absence is
sure to induce it. Let a few suffice: A
gentleman from Alabama wrote me that
his cotton rusted for several years in a
direct line through his field, and could
not account for it, but yet, in his very
letter explained it. Two fields had been
put into one, the rusted portion had been
much longer in cultivation, the organic
matter exhausted, while the other was a
fresher field and had been planted more
in small grain and less in cotton. The
present year I spread my rotten wheat
straw evenly over a square surface of
ground, running the cotton rows parallel
with it. I applied on the whole of it
300 pounds of the same fertilizer per
acre, and to the very row may be seen
the premature decay of rust of the cot
ton where the straw was not applied,
while the other remained green and flour
ishing during the whole season. Many
such instances may be seen in rusted
fields where old hedge rows of fences
are exempt, while the other portions are
badly rusted.
But why is it that sandy soils are
more subject to rust than clay soils ?
Because they are less retentive of mois
ture, aud more subject to sudden alterna
tions of heat and cold. When a plant
becomes succulent from luxuriant and
rapid growth, due it may be to stimulat
ing fertilizers, a drought succeeds, the
burning sun rapidly drinks up all the
moisture in the soil, the fibrils of the
plant cease to perform their functions,
obstruction to nutriment takes place, and
death rapidly ensues. In a clay soil the
moisture is retained much longer, aud it
is rare to see this species of rust on this
c.ass of lands, especially where vegeta
ble matter abounds.
But how do you account for the fact
that the worst species of rust is produced
by long continued rains? Why upon
the same principle of obstruction to nu
triment. Every farmer knows that corn
or cotton planted in a soil not properly
drained, will turn it yellow and cause it
to decay and produce uo fruit. So t
soil in which the cotton plant may have
luxuriated for a while, may become sur
charged with water from long continued
rains, the roots drowned out, and the
plant die lor the lack of proper nutri
ment.
One other cause for rust and we have
done. On very thin lands a heavy ap
plication of fertilizers in the drill makes
the bed very rich, while the middles are
very poor. The result is that the plant
starts off vigorously, and under the stimu
lating influence of the manure, as long
as it lasts, makes rapid growth. When
it fails there is not enough substance in
the poor middles to keep up sufficient
nutriment to the stimulated plant. The
roots which luxuriated iu the manured
bed, are large and thrifty, while those in
the poor land are diminutive and feeble.
The very difference in the calibre of the
roots is a cause of rust, which any philo
sophical mind can perceive. The en
riched stimulated soil would require and
absorb enough rain to supersaturate and
drown out the tender roots of the poor
land, while the rain that would keep the
latter in a vigorous state of growth would
not be sufficient to keep the former from
failing. Indeed it is questionable whether
the increased calibre of the roots in the
enriched land ean be supplied with suffi
cient nourishment from the poor land to
fill them and keep them iu a healthy con
dition, hence they become diseased,
shriveled, and die. The plant of course
dies with them, and this is called rust in
cotton.
The same quantify of a given fertilizer
applied broadcast, would produce about
the same results as to the amount of cot
ton, only when it is applied in the drill
and directly to the main feeders the
crop would mature early, and exhaust
soon, while that applied equibly and
broadcast would be longer maturing
without exhibiting the same symptoms of
rust and early decay. In either case,
r rom the best experiments that have been
made by scientific men, despite the rust
that supervenes in dry weather and on
poor lands, good concentrated fertilizers
never fail to pay a handsome per cent on
the investment, when the prices for cot
ton are remunerative, so that oi. the worn
out lands of Middle Georgia, planters
who have used fertilizers for the last fif
teen or twenty years are satisfied that
where the price is such that they can af
ford to plant cotton at all, they can afford
to buy fertilizers.
Here, then, we have the whole thing
in a nutshell. Rust is produced by ex’
haustion, as in the absence of humus in a
soil, or obstruction from the effect of the
burning sun on sandy lauds, or excessive
rain and supersaturation of water in a
soil, or its inequality by applying fertili
z *rs in the bed, leaving the middles in
an exhausted condition. These proxi
mate causes being all traceable to one
and the same remote cause, namely, defi
cient nutrition.
We will have to defer any reference to
the remedies for cotton rust, tea future
number.
THE ROTATION OF CROPS.
The rotation system, which good tillers fix.
Embraces five seasons and sometimes full six.
When one crop succeedetli through manv
long years,
Each harvest decreaseth and dwarfetli the
ears.
If herds of neat cattle or sheep be thy care.
Then grass in rotation must form a good
share.
When corn, barley, clover, and turnips and
wheat,
Comprise the rotation, field peas will be meet.
Ere ploughing and sowing, the tiller should
know
What crops the ground liketh the better to
grow.
First, break up thy grass land and plant it
with corn.
The field, the next season, let barely adorn.
Succeeding the barley, sow buckwheat or
oats;
Then harvest a pea crop to nourish your
sliotes,
Oft ploughing and teasing, and weeding the
ground,
With liberal compost scattered around.
And sprinkle with aslies to make the land
sweet,
With lime and some bone dust to fatten the
wheat.
The next in rotation a crop of red clover ;
When blossoms are fragrant then let the
plow cover.
A six years’ rotation now bearetli the sway,
And slioweth the tiller a progressive way :
A six years’ rotation will cattle increase ;
Will multiply bushels and debtors release.
A six 3’ears’ rotation, when fairly begun,
Will harvest two bushels where now groweth
one;
A six years’ rotation, as all will agree,
Two years’ yield clover is better than three.
When poor soil needs succor, to keep the
land clean,
Grow clover and sowed corn to turn under
green:
But where fertile muck and light soils abound.
Arrange the rotation as suiteth the ground.
Beauty of Fakmino.— There is
nothing mean about farm work. There
is nothing ungenerous or ungrateful in
the stock. There are no such sore ami
sour things to,deal with as we meet
every day among mean men. Default,
ers, liars, and thieves, have no place
on the farm. These miserable charac
ters are in towns. The farmer ought
to be a good man. lie has less tempta
tion to be a bad man than any charac
ter we know of. All his work is eri
nobling. 1 [is contact is with Nature.
Ilis dealing is with the old Earth,
which is the mother of us all, and
which will take us all into her kind!)
arms again, when life's titful fever is
over.
()! it is delightful to turn the back
upon anxious, quarrelsome, struggling
men, ami look upon the green fields,
and commune with the honest cattle,
and live with Nature and.her children.
The farmers noble work is worthy of
a noble consecration.
The Savannah JYev'S says : Our ag
ricultural journals, whieli very rightly
cry ‘‘plant more corn.” should also add.
‘‘raise more hogs, cure your meat, and
save your money.” From one of our
exchanges we lind that the South alur
spent in meat last season thirty millions
of dollars ; or, counting' last year s cn>p
ot* cotton to have averaged sIOO p.-r
bale, it took 3,090,009 bales of cotton
to pay for meat alone.
We have never heard but one single
argument used by planters to explain
why they could not raise hogs, and that
was, that the freed men stole their stock,
having a liking for other peoples meat.
We cannot see any strength in this line
of argument. Just as the Ireedman b
interested in his masters cotton crop, so
could he be made personally liable tor
the hog crop. What, however, is the
truth, is that the corn crop is utterly
neglected, and, of course, where there
is no grain, there can be no pork.