Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

<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