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<NF.\V sRUIKS.I
1 \ r Ou. 11. /
no. n
Sgrtcultural.
Prom the Country Gentleman.
The Art of Farming.
A man possesses a farm, the land
being of average fertility, which rnedi
nm state means it is half worn out or
only exhausted of half its plant food,
and thus has the power of growing half
crops. If this man goes on lowering
the condition of the land, he is a bad
farmer; if he does not weaken the soil
further nor improve its capability to
grow heavy crops, he will be a non
progressive one—a kind of milk-and
water farmer; but if be manages so as
steadily to increase the fruitfulness of
the whole extent, till, in the end it
becomes sufficiently rich to grow as
heavy crops of every variety as can be
brought to perfection, he is a good far
mer, and one the country should honor;
he has not hidden his talent under a
bushel.
It is easier to farm well than iJfii\The
man who two Hades ctfjgKiss
ssM*kcs nor kina of produce
double, too, is a happier man than the
one who plods on doing neither better
nor worse than the average; while the
miserable man who impoverishes his
land must feel how degraded a position
he stands in, and his mind must sink
lower and lower with his property'. If
a re] port of every farm through every
-parish in the Union was made once in
seven years, and the improvement, the
impoverishment, or the non-improve
ment of each was published, it would
give the country at large a better idea
of what is going on in agriculture.
It is no use of denying facts, and the
truth is, starting from the east, the land
is robbed of more than half its fertility,
and still as population moves on so does
the exhausting system. If, when a
parish, a connty, or a State is half im
poverished, a stop win be put to the
debilitating process, why not stop at
the beginning? Why not reimburse
from the start? Land is seldom too
rich, and when it is what is said to be
“in the highest state of fertility,” what
a pity to bring it down! Yer this is
the custom, the fashion, and the exam
ple set by all. This kind of policy
carried into other lines of business
would cause men to say the gutlty
parties were insane or fools. Land
cannot throw up immense crops on
water and air ; therefore, if these crops
are sold off, the land is that much the
poorer, but science and even common
experience proves there are stages at
which some of the productions of the
earth can be taken away when nothing
has been abstracted to cause injury,
and if, at this period of the crop’s
growth, i: is turned into manure, the
land is benefitted without any foreign
aid. Thus, by having intervening
crops of this kind, there may be things
sold one year which will be replaced
the next by this renovation. This is
why the four-course system, or some
other suitable rotation, is insisted upon
in England. Poor land Is brought to
be rich, and good land is kept up on
the best estates, vet there are annually
great, quantities of fat cattle and sheep
sold from these farms, and wool, cheese,
butter, etc., continued to be produced,
because there is an art in doing this so
as to improve and increase the stamina
of the soil.
There is no mystery whatever in the
BY THE CHRONICLE ITBLISIIIXG COMPANY, AUGUSTA, GA.
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, MAY {, 1872.
case, for here is a field of barley, say
grown after roots ; this barley, proba
bly sixty bushels per acre, takes away
considerably from the soil, though be
ing a quick growing grain not so much
as other sorts, but clover follows, hav
ing been sowed with the barley. Every
body knows when clover is cut voting
the ground is benefitted by producing
it; therefore, if it is mowed twice and
cut eaeb time when coming into full
bloom, there will be from the two
mowings tons per acre of matter to be
manufactured into manure, which has
not weakened the land it grew on;
consequently, this is a renovating crop,
and has done more in adding fertility
than the barley did in subtracting; next
comes wheat, and that takes more away
than the barley did, but then comes the
intervening root crop, which puts far
more into the soil by being consumed
than the wheat has taken out, and so
this easy, plain system is a fair exposi
tion of all those which are devised to
enable fanners to make money while
sustaining their hind. , ,
Ramie.
We find the following in the Turf,
Field and Farm, , from its correspond
ent “Isadore,” at San Francisco, his
letter being prefaced with the text of
a bill which was recently introduced
in the California State Assembly for
the encouragement of the culture of the
plant:
Samples of the product in its various
stages of manufacture, from the first
growth of the stalk until it is finally
dressed and bleached, were exhibited
on the tables of the Senate chamber for
examination. From these exhibits the
inference is general that the textile
fibre of the ramie is better suited to the
manufacture of fabrics for wearing ap
parel than cotton, hemp, or even silk.
From what I have been able to gather,
the trials thus far made have been so
entirely satisfactory that great results
are anticipated. llow far these results
will be hereafter sustained, time and
experience can alone determine.
And now a word or two as to ramie
itself, and the relation it will hereafter
bear to the various textile fibres now in
general use. Iu India, where it is
manufactured into a number of mate
rials for clothing purposes, it is em
ployed both for tine .and coarse fabrics.
In the former it somewhat approaches
silk, and for ladies’ dresses, clothes
made of it are much more elegant than
cotton in appearance, and are less de
structible in wear and tear. In Euro
pean markets, fine fabrics made from
the ramie are in high repute, and hid
fair in time to dethrone cotton and run
a lively tilt with silk fabrics. In fact,
those beautiful fabrics, now sold in the
English and Parisian capitals, and
known a.i Japanese silks, are made
from the fibre of the ramie, and are
said to outlast the cotton, and also to
excel the silk in durability.
It makes admirable fishing nets,
lines, ropes, hammocks, matting, etc.,
and can be readily combined with cot
ton or silk in the manufacture of fab
rics of every description for clothing.
The ramie plant will grew wherever
corn will grow, and will thrive in very
dry and in very wet soil. As an agri
cultural prodnet, it has this advantage
over cotton ; it is much hardier, and is
never killed by frosts, the latter not af
fecting its roots in any way; and as a
staple, it requires less care and atten
tion than any other.
At the end of the first year the
plants set out will have multiplied
seventy-five fold, when the citings
may be sowed to raise fibre fromJ. The
plants grow up in from forty toVorty
five days, starting up as soon As the
frosts are over. In Alamada Uvo'crops
a year can be grown, in Los Angeles,
three, and in other localities as many as
five have been raised. The ramie re
quires very little tending in the Afield,
and the harvesting is done with the or
dinary reaper. As soon as cut, the
stalks are passed through fluted rollers,
which crush them and separate the
bark, which is then torn and separated
by revolving knives set on cylinder.
This process completed, the (fibre is
ready for the market, and i'jPJsurth
fifteen cents per pound. A m«i liwt6
dress t.he fibre for weaving, anaVvhioh
will prepare nineteen hunch a
when so prejmred brings atTcast>three
dollars a pound, and four dollars in the
Liverpool market. There is probably
no staple, the cultivation of which re
quires so small an expenditure either in
capital or labor, and the returns from
which are so large or so certain. It
may he said that the culture of ramie
has passed the experimental stage in 1
California, and that its success must be
regarded as an accomplished fact
I have been thus particular in my 1
notice of this plant from a deep-seated
conviction that it will prove an immense
source of agricultural wealth to the
State ; and in conclusion would suggest,
that what may be done in this State
with its present crude system of agri
culture, can he as profitably imitated iu
our Atlantic States, where science has
become the handmaid of industrious
thrift.
From the Alabama Plantation.
Three Bales of Cotton to the Acre.
The “Jlurnl Alabamian ", of Febru
ary last, contains an extract from the
“Southern Cultivator' detailing the
enormous crop of cotton raised by Mr.
David Dickson from two small lots of
land. The reader will observe that on
four acres the crop was four thousand
two hundred pounds of seed cotton to
the acre. On nine hundred and fifty
acres Mr. Dickson raised eight hun
dred and ten bales—less than one bale
to the acre. The year previously the
four acres had been in turnips, fed off
on the land by sheep. This was done
at our suggestion, while passing the
turnip patch with Mr. Dickson. The
year in which this enormotios product
was raised, besides the manure of the
sheep, the ordinary special fertilizers
were used to an amount which, on the
rest of the plantation, yielded, less
than a bale to the acre. Three thou
sand pounds of seed cotton to the acre
may, therefore, be set clown to the
folding process by sheep. This was
clear gain, as the mutton would pay for
the turnips. We ask our readers to
ponder well this fact. If Mr. Dick
son’s whole crop had yielded at this
rate, it would have required less than j
three hundred acres instead of nine j
hundred and fifty acres to produce \
eight hundred and ten bales. What a
serious difference in labor, fencing, and !
annoyance.
Hut it may be said that this result
might be accomplished on a patch,
when it would be impossible on a large
field. But this would be begging the
question. It is a statement that a thing
is impossible because we have never
seen it. We have seen three hundred
acres in turnips on one farm in Eng
land. We have, in previous numbers
of “The Plantation' shown that the
usual laborious and costly methods of
preparing lands for turnips were time
and money thrown away. We will
not repeat our remarks for fear of being
wearisome.
We beg our readers to try five, ten,
or twenty acres in turnips this fall. In
order to get the manure without cost,
to produce a return in cotton equal to
Mr. Dickson’s if they have no sheep,
they should buy a sufficient number to
consume on the ground the turnips
that they raise, using a portable fence.
The sheep should be penned regularly
every night on the turnip ground until
it is time to sow the turnips, using a
for-4hat purpose. in- tb< j
flesh and price of the mutton will
cover all expenses and leave a margin
of profit. This is our true policy, to
make a maximum crop from a small
area of land and to save labor and ex
penses, and at the same time to perma
nently improve annually a portion of
our land. The possibility of the amount
of cotton which may be raised from an
acre of land has never been ascertained.
We give the sheep and the turnips as
the instrument of .this ascertainment.
The extract given below will not be
new to some of our readers, lmt it is
worthy of repeated study :
“Mr. David Dickson, of Hancock
county, Georgia, says, in the Southern
Cultivator:
“ ‘My last crop of cotton, under the
old system, was grown on nine hundred
and fifty acres. 1 made eight hundred
and ten bales. The greatest amount
I ever made per acre was on four acres
of upland. I used four hundred pounds
of guano, with the usual quantity of
salt plaster for turnip, and fed them off
on the lot. The following Spring, I
added one hundred pounds guano, one
hundred pounds of salt, and fifty
pounds plaster per acre, and put in
cotton. The crop was four thousand
two hundred pounds seed cotton per
acre.
‘From the four acres the crop was
sixteen thousand eight hundred pounds
seed cotton, equal to five thousand one
hundred and fifty pounds lint, worth
now $1,237, net, or nearly three hun
dred and twenty-two dollars per acre—
a sum quite equal to the profits of l
some market gardens in the neigbor
hood of cities, where the lands are
valued at SI,OOO per acre.’”
“The same gentleman says, in a later
communication :
“ ‘The land (a lot of sixteen acres,)
is good pine land, and has been under
the plow nearly seventy years, and as
many as fifty five years in cotton.
About twelve years ago it was sown
in oats, with two hundred pounds of
guano and bones, mixed with salt and
plaster, and made thirty or thirty-five
bushels per acre ; all fed off by turning
stock in the field. Four years ago I
left it uncultivated until the middle of
July; there was then a heavy growth
of weeds on it, just grown. I turned
them in and dropped peas in every
third furrow. The result was a heavy
crop of vines, and at least fifteen bush-
I OLD SEItIES,)
1 VOL. 111. /
els of peas per acre. These were fed
off by beef cattle. * * * It was
planted in cotton in 1806. * * * j
commenced the third day of May,
1867, with two horses to prepare the
land, and applied to each acre two
hundred and fifty pounds soluble bones,
one hundred and sixty-five pounds
number one Peruvian guano, and or;.,
hundred pounds of plaster in the bot
tom of the furrow. * * * I hired
the picking of most of it at forty cents
per one hundred pounds. The lot
averaged about three thousand pounds
per acre, but owing to a storm and
other causes, I gathered only about two
thousand seven hundred pounds, which
will make two good bales per acre. In
the lot was a potato patch, which had
been twice manured and mulched with
straw.
I think that portion made at the rate
of six thousand pounds per acre. The
next best place was about one acre of
old pine field, first year, which made
about five thousand pounds. The cot
ton -Wm Vetter-T, tooted
10th* April. * * * 1 four,luring
the wet weather, where most manure
was put it stood the rain best. * *
* Ilelow is the cost of one acre:
Cost of manure at Plantation- - SI7OO
Horse two tlays, at one dollar per day 2 00
Plow hand two days, at fifty cents - 100
Hoe hand two days at fifty cents - 1 00
Dropping Saed - - 52
Picking 10 00
‘Against this small outlay stands a
credit of two thonsand seven hundred
pounds seed cotton, equal to eight hun
dred and eighteen pounds lint, worth
two hundred and four dollars; a Hear
profit of one hundred and seventy-one
dollars and twenty cents gain, on a
field of sixteen acres. I wish the read
er to bear it particularly in mind that
this was done in 1867, the identical
year in which so many thousands were
ruined. They neither used manures
nor ploughed with two horses.’ ”
Draining.— The cost of draining de
pends a great deal on the nature of the
land and the depth of the drains. In
sandy or mucky land a ditch two and a
half feet deep for tiles should be dug
with labor $1 50 per day, for 15 cents
a rod: three feet deep, 10 cents a
rod. On heavier land, nearly free from
stones, a ditch two and a half to three
feet deep will cost twenty-five cents a
rod. A good ditcher, at these juices,
can make two dollars a day. An un
skillful man that cuts ditches unneces
sarily wide, and is fond of using the
pick, might work just as hard and not
earn a dollar a day.
The Danville (Va.) Register, oi 24th
instant, says: “The reports of the grow
ing wheat in the surrounding country
are rather cheering. Planters represent
it as having come out a good deal since
Spring weather opened, looking green
and thrifty, and with a favorable season
it will grow off rapidly.”
The Shenandoah (Va.) Herald, of
same date, says : “ The crops in War
ren and Frederick are said to be looking
exceedingly well for this season. ”
The Tallahassee (Fla.) Sentinel says :
Planting in this vicinity is over. In
many places the cotton is three or four
inches above ground, and with every
prospect of a good crop.
NO. 32