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are mere improvements upon the latter,
obtained by long and careful selections
of seeds from the most promisiug in
dividual plants. The Dickson variety
is an excellent cotton, much better
than the common varieties of the coun
try. These cottons are quite prolific
of bunchy growth, bear and mature
early, and are easy to pick.
The “Hunt” and the “Simpson” cot
tons are like the Dickson seed, but
improvements upon the old “Boyd Pro
lific.” They have been selected and
improved with much care and are quite
as good as the Dickson, their charac
teristics being nearly the same.
The “Six Oaks" cotton originated
and improved by Jas. V. Jones, of
Burke county, is a distinct species, and
the best which the writer has ever seen
or tried. It is very prolific, a strong
bushy grower, with n likable short
joints. It branches t hickly and from
the ground in all dh ; ■ The bolls
are in clusters at each jointon the main
stem and on the bituu'JkL-often -•
many as thr* • and rv< iMM.i.h
each joint. Ti Mis ar
size—opet
ton do not ull:“i’t h ) |,< h; ,
hull. This is a. /a ,iy i \ at
least 15 or 20 day, any
Other kind within the « - know
ledge. It is not so liable rust as
other varieties and rarely sheds or casts
its fruit. It stands dry hot weather
better than any cotton I have ever
known. It will produce more per acre
than any cotton I have ever tried. On
iair uplands it will yield with goo<l
cultivation a bale to the acre. 1 made
last year on old pine land, badly worn
but treated with a light application of
commercial manure, over seventeen
hundred pounds of seed cotton to the
vgld.this.mAAi /.
over the entire field.
The writer is not engaged in the
sale of these seed, and has no interest
in puffing them. On the contrary lie
expects to purchase seed from Mr.
Jones to enable him to plant, with what
he has raised himself, his whole crop the
present year in this variety. I invite
the planters of Georgia to give this
seed a trial alongside of “Dickson” or
any other kind, and if the “Six Oaks”
does not yield more than any other the
writer will be greatly disappointed.
Columbia.
Writton for tho Bann. r of tho South and Planters'
*1 turns).
Manures,
Jf xsm. J&ditors.
'Notwithstanding so much has been
" ritten >p the subject of manures, I
apprehend here is much confusion in
the minds of the great masses of the
people in regard to them. This arises
mainly from the use of technicalities
not clearly understood, the want of a
proper classification of fertilizing ma
terials, and an indistinct knowledge of
the various kinds of soils and what
fertilizers are best for each. It is not
my purpose to attempt an elucidation
of all these matters, were I capable
of it, but, merely to state a few general
principles which may be of service to
some who have not given due thought
to these important questions, or others
whose experience is very limited.
In the first place I would state,
what perhaps all know, that all, man
ures are either vegetable, mineral or
animal. Each may be used advan
tageously by itself, or, all may be
profitably combined. Green crops,
such as clover, rye, cowpeas, &c.,
ploughed into the earth add vastly to its
productiveness, and probably give it
more permanent fertility than either
animal or mineral application. Gyp
sum, or Plaster of Paris, which is a
native sulphate of lime, that is a com
bination of su'phuric acid and lime, t;
that mineral manure which is more
generally diffused than any other.
Guanoes, or the excrement of sea
birds, and all other excrements of ani
mals, with their decomposed bodies,
BANNER OF THE .SOUTH AM) PLANTERS’JOURNAL.
in some instances, constitute what
termed animal manures. These thn
may be combined and constitute a fe
‘ilizing union of three kinds of plain
food. Chemists have not fully agree
as to the comparative merits of eitlu
kind, of their separate constituents, <
then-combinations. One distinguish
chemist will testify to the value of om
and another to the value of another.
One Fanner, perhaps, without an a
quaintance with agricultural sciem
will commend stable, or horse manu
over all others: another the manure t
the cowpen, and a third rotted cottc
seed. I once heard a good and thrift
farmer say that common wood ashi
made as good a manure as he wante
for the production of com. That r<
mark was made to me twenty odd
years ago and I think he added that i
making com one bushel of ashes wa
worth fifty cents. The truth is a goo
and bountiful Providence has placed
within our reach a great variety <
constituent elements which we have
only to use to increase the quantity an i
value of our crojis and add yearly t
the productiveness of our lands. Much
is said about sulphuric, phosporic, ca
ic and other acids; about pot as 1
‘ oia, phosphates and supcrphi
i'huiijg, &e., and yet in some instance
<!, man who does not understand tin
terms will make better crops than the
one who does. By this I mean to <
no slur upon science or scientific tr •
for, they have done and are do ir
much to advance the interests of
rieulture. I mean simply to con ■
the idea that industry, energy and g it
common sense can work wonders u
the plantatian and the farm. Tin
guanoes and manipulated compounds
are excellent under favorable ©bream
stances; but many, as I myself 1
done, have found the com and cot;
fertilized with what we term conn •
or, home-made manure, wore asgoi■■!
that to which the guanoes were a}
plied and it will be found so < i
time. The great difficulty seem to
have been to procure enough of ■ »>
home material to go over the extern; and
fields placed under cultivation. Di drt
commercial manures have the advan
tage because a small quantity will go
so far. But that advantage is not so
great when we estimate their cost.
Half of file enormous sums paid for
them would go far to the production
and dissemination of the common kinds
which experience proves are equal to
the more costly ones. It does not
follow that the skillful and industrious
farmer, who uses the common kind
will make the loss, because, he is
unacquainted with lechnicalties—be
cause he does not know the constitu
ent elements of the soil he cultivates
that an analysis of it will show that
it contains seliea, potash, lime, soda,
and various acids. I would not be un
derstood as insinuating that he should
not know these things (for all Plan
ters and Farmers should as far as
practicable acquaint themselves with
agricultural chemistry); but I mean
that he may do as well without know
ing as the man who does. He must,
however, have the requisite means,
good stock, good tools and implements,
and a determined energy and will.
Nature has placed the necessary fer
tilizing elements in the home-made
manure. Who has not seen the tall
corn and the prolific cotton in the
bottoms, on the edges of swamps and
branches, where no guanoes nor home
manures have been placed. Look at
the new grounds, especially, after the
first year, and how will we account for
the rich and heavy crops that are
gathered from them. This virgin soil
needs none of the phosphates and
acids of the chemists, because they
have been manufactured in natures
great laboratory. She acts with uner
ring wisdom and foresight and places
in the virgin soil whatever is neces
sary to enable man, under the almighty
fiat, to earn his bread with the sweat
of his brow-. Within the forests, in
the cycles of years, she has been
mouldering the falling leaves, dispers
ing the rains and shading the earth’s
surface during the summer heats, with
the rich and green vesture of the
trees. When these are cleared away
nothing is wanting but the plow, the
seeds and the hoe to charm the eye of
the cultivator with the rich rewards of
his labor.
TO BE CONTINUED.
Deep and S * Ploughing.
Api uin r m,| i sful planter I
give, bis v«%-8 a tills important sub-j
iject, to Sou.niera Ygricui’ irists in the j
folio -viiig Laigoa- “I t ave paid a I
-.•-i, at deal <nf attention u ■ what is called j
deep ploughing, and I r -er yet have j
* any ploughing A!; it can average |
Ses deep, bi that looked i
J inexpert* id person, it j
mil easily f| printed Fas eight or I
«jep. Bti after trying j
. , ■oth deep aid shallow j
ploughing. eo*§e the conclu-j
si on *h»t ploia/biug shoo! be regulated \
to suit the bnf l we were t oughing. If
1 went into tig field with but four inches
jof s<;!, I wq|M tum ...vr that land but
three to ■ *qr«cK;.,. tin! übsoil in the
furrow of fiypitruing plo ; that would!
1.0 ray sysuPi for the first time 1
laOi.Ld]'-'! sneHi ian l.e And the next
i .r :f therJpiert -nibble or weeds on
the bold, I would i inder again,
guiiig i is Jri e fri-u four to six
uehes—tt.it&jg, I would never plough
iiiv land /flttor than it* soil—the first
|i]i
« ach suereJß'g 1 up, 1 would
gradually iMp-ei r, .1 I reached the
' ptli of ijSSh or eight inches, which
is the d< i lit 1 have yet seen (
I done b. • plows, plough j
• three la u ses ;
übble, clover
niually when
■ rWp .Si Jl Jsnil in V made deeper
c<i- unenced.
is, to be gov
ornWi .the quality of the
gli. If shal
«. , : Hbgh sliulliw, and subsoil:
i •! paps V ■ inland such crops as will
oi ikiqyd', : jfot rubbish t turn under—
allow soil can
us ploughing
> and
T »i‘ s * Jap-turn up the clay to
;he s- rf ; ,:-. raided; and if
a field had : Mlc soil 1 would break
:p such 1 .-r.rireb ’with subsoil
1 plows—the lei-i down with
small gralt) u ' 1 long, and then
im ’ and o. ribed.
much inn .. . e .- 1 he plow; it is our
first and great *t ; implement. hence every
farmer si i.'.d make the plow anil
ploughing iia study: 1: ought so to
understand it., is to led to in
struct or ni l the m; loifactaier in its
oonstrtWtiou—telling him hat he
wants ami v mt is mx ' make a
plow jhtlV'H . Loero are so
few- the plow
and ploughiift r,i ,I, T' n ' l '
uivr
us in with their
own ideas plow should he.
and. right in construction, wc
find but few it. The plow
mav break and the draft
may be too or the draft may be
light, and tllßPork of the plow im
perfectly dolie; also, the fault some
times lies in lhe gearing in of the beam.
But lie the flult where it is, the fanner
should sounAjrstand the plow, plough
ing and in of the same, as to
detect thcßn-or and point out the
remedy. II not, his plotighings are ac
cidental, wb tlier right or wrong.
In turning lands, it will be noticed
that some p ows turn the furrow slice
flat over, o lap on the principle of
shingling. Vliere the plow turns the
furrow over lat, I prefer such a plow
for manuria purposes, that is to turn
under clover weeds, or stubbles.
But in bre iking the ground for culti
vation, and i specially for com, give me
the plow th it lodges its furrow—as,
when the fi irrows are so lodged the
ground ren ains longer loosened and
broken—as it is not so easily ran
together an 1 compressed by rains as
when the tu nmg over is flat.
The aan i ers’ Herald (Chester Eng
land) foreil ly says : “ Mixed hus
bandly is n edful to realize the full
amount of j rofit which the farm, prop
erly manage 1, will yield. Every year
the price o ’ farm products varies—
some will b< high and some low, and
thus the fan rer catches good prices for
a part, if nc ; all: whereas, if he is
wholly dep indent upon one kind of
crop, he ma 'be wholly disappointed.
A little sold of every thing, makes a
muckle, and if one thing does not pay,
another will
The Cost of Fences.
A writer in the Illinois Agricultural
Report for 1 «64 says: “The fences of
the United States have cost more than
the houses—cities included; more than
the ships, boats, and vessels of every
description which sail the ocean, lakes,
and rivorg; more than our manufacto
ries of all kinds, with their machinery;
more than any one class of property,
aside from real estate, except it may be
the railroads of our country.” This
may seem like an exaggerated state- j
ment, but let us look at the estimate:
The first cost of the fences of New |
York State was between $100,000,000
and $150,000,000. Robinson gives it
as $144,000,000. Assuming this to be
approximately correct, and estimating
I the first cost of the fences of other
I States on the same basis, we have, as
the total first expense ot the fences of
the whole country, the vast sum of
$1,200,000,000.
This requires to be renewed once in
ten years, giving $120,600,000 as the
annual cost, to which should be added,
however, at least half as much more
for repairs, making the aggregate of
$194,400,000 as the annual national ex
pense—a sum, we believe, below the
actual figures, yet quite beyond com
! prehension. Nicholas Biddle estimated
! that the “fence-tax” of Pennsylvania
j was $10,000,000 a year. Gen. James
IT. Worthington, of Ohio, says that
; 1 here are 18,000,000 acres of land in
Ohio enclosed with 45,000 miles of
; fences at a prime cost of $115,000,000,
j and at a yearly expense for repairs,
j etc., of $7,680,000.
If roadside and boundary fences can
be dispensed with, half the cost of fenc
ing will be saved. That cost is now
an annual tax of $1.50 on every acre
of improved land in the United States
—the “fence tax” being twice or thrice
as great as the aggregate of the State
and local taxes combined.
Why cannot a large portion of this
outlay be saved for pome profitable in
vestment? ’Every dollar rescued from
fences may be added to productive
wealth. Fences are dead capital; they
pay no interest, and are a constant
draul upon .he pecket. As .nr.' j
says, “We j»oisori our land with femes;
they are a shelter for weeds, as well as
a vast and useless expense.” The in
direct waste which they inflict is almost i
as great as their direct cost. A Vir-;
ginia zigzag fence occupies five acres
for every hundred enclosed, thus im
posing a five per cent, tax on the mar
ket value of the soil—a tax that would
be felt to be oppressive if it were for
the payment of the national debt instead
ot to shelter a growth of weeds.
Shall we fence stock out or in ? There
is no doubt that our people now expend
four times as much money to fence
stock out as would be required to fence
it in. Our present custom, which com
mands universal fencing, is the worst
blunder the practical American people
ever made. Enterprising and original
in many matters, they are here follow
ing slavishly, generation after genera
tion, the habit of the earliest English j
colonies—following it though very ex
pensive and inconvenient, because It is
“the good old way.” Europe has learn
ed a more rational method. There are
ten times as many fences in Illinois as
in Germany ; and Duchess county, in
New York, has more than all France.
In France, Germany and Holland, farm
ers hold their lands in common, with
only narrow paths between.
The continental system of having
few or no fences is evidently the best;
and even exclusive England is slowly
adopting it. America will inevitably
follow; for economy, taste, thorough
tillage, lair play, and good sense com
mand it, and the time will come, be
fore many years, when the absence of
farm fences will be a sign of progres
sive culture.
The immense cost otsustaining fences,
the inconvenience of having them al
ways in the way of thorough tillage,
and of easy ingress and egress to tb<
premises; the impassable snow-drifts
accumulated by them; the shelter they
afford to weeds and briars, the protec
tion they afford to many of the worst
animal pests of the farm, and their un
sightly appearance generally through
out the country, as the receptacle of
stone heaps, piles of brush, and dead
trees, to say nothing of the countless
acres rendered worse than useless by
their occupancy, would seem sufficient
reason for disposing of fences wherever
not indispensable for purposes of past
uring.—People's Journal.
Relation of Woolen Industry to Agri
culture.
We have seen lands in certain por
tions of the West producing wheat so
abundantly as to compel the opening
of railroad lines for the single purpose
of transporting their teeming harvests;
and have also seen in our own time
these very lands so rapidly exhausted
that the rails have been torn up for
want of traffic. Such facts apprise us
; that there is no security for continued
i fruitfulness, even in our most fertile
I States, but in a more provident agricul
; tiy-e. What is taken from the land
I must be restored. Science give us but
j little encouragement in the promise of
i cheap imported or artificial manures.
' The guano beds are being rapidly ex
: bausted. The experiments of Messrs.
Lawes and Gilbert, at Botham stead,
| show that the application to the land
j of sewage from the cities, from which
so much was expected, is a failure.
■The brilliant experiments of Villa, in
: France, made to exhibit theapplicabili
jty of artificial manures in place of
: animal manures, in countries like
I France, where the land is so much
' divided as not to permit the profitable
| culture of animals, lead to no practical
j results, because no economical source
t»f artificial nitrates, phosphate, or
potash, have been or are likely to be
i discovered. W e see, but as through
| grated windows, exhaustless but prac
tically inaccessible stores of potash in
| tho granite rocks ; of phosphates in
! beds of apatelite; and of nitrogen in
i the atmosphere, or in the far-off
j rainless plains of Chili. Has not Pro
| vidence locked up these treasures, or
removed them from our reach, to com
| pel man, for his highest physicial good,
| to cultivate the animal which best sup
| lies the primal necessities—food, cloth
| ing, and the continued enrichments of
j the earth? The blessing in the olden
| time was given to him who “brought
| the firstlings of his “flock,” for “the
| Lord had respect to Abel and his of
fering.”
* ..n, • w.n. —. '• ■ in-. ■
woolen industry to agriculture, much
less broad in their scope, but so in
teresting and illustrative that I cannot
passs them by. The first which I
allude to, because connected with the
topics which we have just considered,
is the achievement which chemical
science has recently effected in saving
the potash contained in the yolk of
fleeces in such a form that it may be
returned to the soil or used in the arts.
It is well known that sheep draw from
the land upon which they graze a con
siderable quantity of potash, which,
after circulating in the blood, is ex
creted from the skin with the sweat, in
combination with which it is deposited
in the wool. The French chemists,
MM. Maumone and Rogelet, have es
tablished, quite recently, at the great
seats of the woolen manufacture in
France, as at Rheims and Elbeuf, fac
tories for putting the new industry
■ which they have erected into practical
operation. They induce the woolen
manufacturers to presen e and sell to
them the solutions of yolk obtained
by the washing of the raw fleeces in
cold water, and pay such a price as en-
I courages the manufacturers to wash
; their wool methodically, so as to en
I rich the same water with the yolk of a
I number of fleeces. These semirings
, the chemists carry to their factory, and
j then boil them down to a dry, car
; bonaeeous residuum. The alkaline salts
remain in the charred residuum, and are
j extracted by lixivation with water,
i The most important of the alkalies ob
; tained is potash, which is recovered in
a state of great purity, It is comput
ed that it the fleeces of all the sheep
of France, estimated at 47,000,000,
were subjected to the new treatment,
France would derive from this source
alone all the potash she requires in the
arts, enough to make about 12,000 tons
of commercial carbonate of potash,
convertible into 17,000 tons of salt
•petre, which would charge 1,870,000,
cartridges. So that the ineffensive
sheep, the emblem of peace, can be
made to supply the chief muniment of
war. The obvious lessons from these
facts, to the sheep farmer, is to wash
fleeces at home in such a manner that
the wash water, so rich in potash, may
be distributed upon the land as liquid
manure.— John Ij. Hayes.