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2 Agricultural. Adaptation, The study and practice of what may be termed adaptation, is of importance, as applied to soil, climate and locality, as well as to the selection of the crops to be planted, the animals to be reared, the manures to be prepared, the build ings to be erected; in line, to every department of agriculture and rural life. Neglect of this subject very often leads to disappointment. “A farmer reads in your “Transac tions” of a suecesful experiment in the production of some crop from which a large profit is realized ; stimulated by the expectation of like results, he de votes his whole available land to this crop Without any consideration as to the relative conditions affecting his experiment, and the successful one de scribed. He is disappointed in his re sults, and at once discredits the state ments of the publication, and pro nounces agricultural societies all hum bugs, Another is delighted with a fine exhibition of Short Horns, invests largely in their purchase, and ‘with high anticipations, puts them upon his scanty hill side pasture, winters and cares for them in the same negligent manner that he has treated the hardy stock hitherto reared. These fine but less hardy cattle soon deteriorate under such treatment, and Short Horns are at once pronounced a failure. Another reads of experiments with manures, from the use of which a most gratifying return in crops is reported, without reference to the kind of soil on which the experiment was made; a like ex periment is tried, and the result proves unfavorable. The statement is then discredited, and the manures condemn ed. Want of attentiont<j the question of adaptation in this may greatly lessens the usefulness (of this and kindred societies. Whifc the solution of the question is sometimes so palpable as scarcely to admit of mistake, it often requires the most caW'ul observa- t\ \ upon mlaomvs moistene^flpdHPSlf but other fields may be benefittea by the application of salt: it may be, it is true, a nice question to determine when and where to apply it. No one would think of planting the gourd seed corn in Canada, bust just how far north it is desirable to plant it, requires intelligent experience to de termine; so with rice, sugar, or cotton, though these are not grown in our State they serve for illustrations ; and there are many questions as to products affected by climate within the State quite as difficult of solution, as it is to decide where the cotton crop should be arrested by climate. Nor are these questions to be determined by parallels of latitude alone ; the character of soil, the altitude, the influence of water, and other less obvious causes enter largely into their solution. The corn crop may ripen in a very short sesaon on a well manured sand or grave! soil, while in the immediate vicinity on a clay or moist soil, it may require a much longer time. On the banks of the Crooked and some other of our lakes, the Catawba grape seldom fails to ripen in perfec tion, while a few miles from these lakes in evey direction, and for more than a hundred miles south, this grape seldom matures. I might enlarge upon this subject as it refers to climate, by considering how far climatic difficulties may be over come. We know that many products under proper treatment adapt them selves to the climate, and by observing the proper time to plant, the proper soil and seed, we may successfully cul tivate in our climate many crops that once held no place among our pro- such as tobreeo, sweet potatoes and many others. But, adapting crops to climate is a much less difficult question than their adaptation to soils, to modes of cultlva tiou and nature of manures. What lands had better be devoted mainly to grazing, and if to grazing, whether to rearing and fattening cattle, or to dairy, or to sheep, are nice questions to de termine ; and it grain growing is more suited to the soil, the kiud of grain. Perhaps no subject requires more intelligent study than the application of manures to soils. In this the ex- BANNER OF THE SOUTH AND PLANTERS’ JOURNAL. perience of one man appears to be the exact opposite of another's; and we become confused in reading dif ferent experiments that yet may be re conciled by careful investigation. Results are often diverse when condi tions appear similar. An experiment is given on a dry gravelly soil, and re sult stated. Someone has a field ap parently similar, on which he conducts the same experiment with quite dif ferent results. Were all gravel of the same material, this difference might be inexplicable; but there is a w ide dif ference between gravel formed from limestone and that formed from quartz; so with tliat formed from granite, slate, sandstone or other rocks. The same of loamy, sandy and clay soils, which are but the disintegration or decoinjiosi tion of rocks, mingled more or less with vegetable matter, and often so nearly resembling each other in ap pearance, that nothing but analysis or experiments will detect the difference. Much of the success of Hnglish husbandry is due to the application of this rule of adaptation. The English breeder suits his stock to the pastures on which they graze; hence the Short Horns are found in one district, the Devons in another, the Herefords, Ayrshires and Jerseys each in their own; ami by this system of breeding for locality, and by careful selection, there has been a constant improve ment m each variety. Their applica tion of the same rule to cultivating crops and applying manures has led to an increasing yield; while with us, from a failure to study and apply this principle of adaptation, in most cases, the best breeds of cattle actually de teriorate, and from the same cause the yield per acre of crops is growing gradually less, instead of increasing. It is a safe rule to govern the farmer when he finds any crop failing in pro ductiveness, after proper experiments by manures and cultivation, to conclude that the crop is not adapted to his soil In like manner if any breed of cattle or sheep with proper care and feeding, and proper selection in breed ing is found to ilotorinrntfl-nvp.ii in jIU- WnnTlcst degree, it is safe to conclude that the breeds is not adapted to the locality. On the other h and when a farmer is constantly increasing the yield and quality of his crop and con sequently the productiveness of his farm, and when the animals reared are improving, it is safe for him to con clude that he is right in the selection of his crops, and in the breeds of his animals, ami he should be verv cau tious how he is lured from this pro gressive course by descriptions or in spections of more profitable crops, or more admired breeds, in other locali ties. This principle applies to grasses fruits, vegetables, and all the produc tions of the soil, as well as to fences, buildings and improvements. What shocking abuse of architectural tasta do we everywhere meet in farm-houses and buildings; some showy expendi ture, ridiculously out of place, having no reference to convenience or comfort. How very much might the whole aspect of the country be changed by a little attention to architectural rules in farm buildings, from the duelling house to the pig sty, with no increase of expense, and how much might the work of house-keeping be lightened by careful attention to the arrange ment of houses, while the labor in caring for stock and waste of fodder may be greatly lessened by proper ar rangement of buildings! There is another subject of much importance to which I desire to direct the attention of farmers. It is one that has been often discussed, though with but little effect. I allude to the cultivation of too many acres for the labor employed. I verily believe that, if all the labor that Li bestowed upon all the acres cul tivated in this State were bestowed upon one-half of such acres, the pro duce ot the State would be greater than now r . Cultivate the best of your land thoroughly, and let the remainder grow orchards and forests. It will in crease in value in that shape more than under negligent culture, and imagine how much would be added to the beauty of the country if one-half the bald and poorly cultivated fields were converted into beautiful forests. —Journal of 2f. II State Agricul tural Society. Rotation of Crops. That a rotation of crops is of great | value to the farmer, must be admitted jby all, for it is an uncontroverted fact that those who bClieve in and practice rotation are the most successful, accom- I plishing by their forethought here what would m other channels have required much time, money and hard labor. It must be evident to any thinking man I hat land must naturally wear down when cropped heavily, year after year, with the same kind of crop, even if ma nure be applied, the latter item of which, I am sorry to say, is not as often attended to as it should' be, and in some cases entirely neglected. Take, for in strauce, wheat, rye, or oats, or corn either, and sow or plant for several suc cessive years in the same piece of ground, and the yield will gradually “grow small and beautifully less” every year, until the yield is so meagre as to preclude the possibility of their being I any profit. The field is then turned out to run wild in order to, iu some measure, recuperate its lost energies and fertility. There is scarcely a farm in the South but what has one or more of these self-same fields, and it is a good thing for them that they have enough spare land to enable them to do so, tor the inevitable result would, otherwise, he very serious. The most successful agriculturists, rule, and with a rare exception, are those who are advocates of, and practice what is known as mixed husbandry; and, no doubt, many of ourcotton planters are already willing to cultivate other productions' besides that which was once known as the king of Southern products. llow well do these same planters know that they, by successive cropping of cotton only, have less and less every- year, despite their patent manure, phosphates, superphos phates, etc. There are many reasons, and strong ones, too, why rotation is valuable to the farmer or plantsr, prominent amongst which we might name that it preserves and also increases the fertili ty ; it gets thesoil in better condition< Spread of weals’ for what one crop might foster, another or the succeeding one may destroy : thus, of itself in this item, materially furthering the interests of those who desire dean farms. The more equal distribution of labor which a rotation of crops entails, is. by no means the least forcible argument; for, when several men are hired on the place, it is quite an object to keep them steadily and profitably employed. It is false economy to crop hard, and attempt to do so without manure, etc., for the purpose of raising a little extra money to meet some urgent demand, for there is no harder task master to go in debt to than the farm, as all must be paid back, and with heavy interest, too, the payments to be made, in the shape of increased hard lubor, and augmented expenditures of money, the very things they wish to avoid in'the first instance. Some products naturally require less fertilizing matter, or rather some ex haust the soil less than others ; so, if we follow some great exhauster with one which exhausts much less, the soil naturally has a comparative degree of rest, at the same time returning you a crop. One crop may take away certain quantities of a valuable constituent of the soil, while another one may not, and, therefore, this constituent has a good opportunity to increase, and so ou through the entire list. Rotation is virtually improvement, and improve ment means profit, and as such is the case, by all means rotate your crops. By adopting rotation, you are in a fair way of getting rid of the many weeds which so trouble and annoy al most all tillers of the soil. Those weeds which spread from the roots principally, or readily grow from the roots, such as the Canada thistle and a few others, : re best killed by cultivating hoed crops; or, if they are very trouble some, by adopting the system of naked fallow, which rarely fails to accomplish the object. Now, while wheat, rye, oats, etc., may eradicate or smother out many varieties of weeds, these same crops also favor the growth of many others, suck as cockle, chess, and some others ; and when you raise these crops successively on the same piece for several years, you give the weeds the finest possible kind of a chance to multiply, each succeeding year making it much more difficult to eradicate them. By growing first one crop and then another, you give all the weeds a check, so severe in some cases as to amount to extermination. Not only do you gain by the de struction of weeds, but destructive in sects are prevented from having full possession and undisputed sway. Take, for instance, the wire worms or cut worms, which are very troublesome. They have cut up a field of corn, aud you, to drive them out of the field, put in some crop that they are not fond of, when they leave it, and often do not return for some time. When a number of men are employed upon a place, it is very important, * in deed, so to arrange the labors, or rather croppings, as to give a continuous round ot labor throughout the season, not being part of the time so crowded with work as to prevent you from doing it justice, nor yet at another time being so short of work that your hands have very little, if anything, to do, for scarcely anything is so prolific of losses as this. To guard agaiest this, we must have all our operations systema tized as much as possible the year be fore, here making brains do tiie work of hard labor and expense, so as to make it easy to go on from the login ning of the season to the end, with enough work to engage the attention and time ot all hands. Adhering to specialties will not do this, except in isolated cases, where capital gives it the necessary strength. But permit me to say that the rotation for one section may not be all suited for another; so use judgment and discretion in adopt ing a rotation ; and it is on this account I have been diffident about giving any plan of rotating, although I may do so hereafter. David Z. Evans* Jn., in Rural Alabamian. Analysis of Soils. Much interest is manifested by ag riculturists regarding the value of soil analysis, and are often solicited to ex-i press views upon this jvoint. Careful experiment and observation have led positiv e knowledge is gained by WnalJ'-1 sis of soils than many suppose. We entered upon the work ten years ago \ with much enthusiasm, and expected to be unerringly guided in our farm operations by the results attained. It was found that while we had no diffi culty in learning the exact ingredients of our soils, we could not ascertain in what states of combination they existed. Many soils examined w r ere found to be quite similar in chemical composition, but they differed widely in their pro ductive powers; and also, soils which were found to contain in rich abundance all the elements of plant nutrition, did not grow crops ashe had reason to expect Soil analysis fails to throw light upon the mechanical or physical conditions which have a most impor tant bearing upon crops, and the growth of every kind of plants. Simple analysis of top-covering, without taking into account the nature of subsoils, location, mechanical con ditions, etc., is not be relied upon as a certain guide in the management of lands. Nevertheless, chemistry, di rectly and indirectly, affords great aid in soil cultivation, and in some cases soil analysis may be valuable. For instance, if lime or potash be wanting in soils, it will inform us of the fact, and we can supply these important substances with great benefit A single analysis of the soil ot a wheat or potato-field may show the absence of someone of the elements of food upon which the plant depends, and if it were not supplied the crop would be a failure. Soils come from the rocks, and their character depends upon the nature of the ro.ks from which they have resulted. Some are rich in potash, others in lime; and a soil rich in one or the other of these ingredients is not benefited by their application. Thus, analysis teaches us how to prevent loss in two ways; loss of crops, by supplying needed plant-food; and loss in using unnecessary manure upon lands where it exists in abundance. It also teaches us that certain lands are naturally barren, and cannot be re claimed with profit, and that others have soluble salts in such large propor tions that they cannot grow crops. There are a large number of enigmas in soil cultivation which chemistry has thus far failed to explain. It is known, for instance, that superphosphate greatly benefits a turnip-field, and yet analysis of the plant reveals the fact that bet little phosphoric acid enters the plaut; and also, it is probable that potash and other salts may exist in such peculiar combination in soils as notto be readily detected by chemical tests, as we find that potatoes, which require much potash, will sometimes grow upon soils in which we fail to de tect this agent.— Roston Journal of Chemistry. Analysis of Corn Cobs- Considerable discussion has recently arisen in agricultural journals and at fanners’ meetings upon the nutritive value of corn cobs when ground and fed to animals. It is a very common practice among farmers to grind the whole care of corn, and feed the pro duct to milch cows, working oxen, and often to horses. This plan we have adopted to a considerable extent at our own farm, but we have had some mis givings as to the utility or advisability of the practice. With the view of ascertaining as nearly as practicable the exact nutritive value of cobs, we se lected a nice ear of Lakesine corn from hanging in our counting room, and removing the kernels, subjected the cob to analysis. It gave of— ■ Water 7.4s Crude fibre 30.95 Ash 1 10 Carbohydrates, fat aud albuminoids.. 60 41 100.00 The amount of fat was not aecnmtaly determined, but it was proved to be more than one per eeift. The amount of water is probably smaller than it would have been had the corn been taken directly from the grain house, instead of the warm room in which it had been hanging for some weeks. The result of the analysis prove that there is iif com cobs a considerable amount on fat-producing and flesh lent. ofaßarbohydrates, albuminoids, Vive nuje'ifve value, and in order that we may obtVun some idea ot its com parative vol th, let 11s contrast it w ith the dry straw of some grains. Wheat straw contsflns about 30 per cent, of carbohydrates, 2 per cent, of albumi noids, and l£ per cent, of fat; oat strrw, 38 j»er cent, of the first named substances, 2£ of the second, and 2 of the third; rye straw, 27 of the first, l£ of the second, and 1 3 10 of the third. It is shown that cobs have a higher value than wheat or rye stray, and they equal in nutritive constituents the best quality of oat straw. These results indicate the utility of feeding them to onr animals, provided there are no objections of a strictly physical nature, or objections arising from’the bulk and difficulty of reducing the cob to a sufficiently fine powder. It is not probable that cob-meal can be perfectly digested unless comminution is carried to an extreme point; and therefore, the finer the cobs are ground, the higher the value, and the less the liability of gastric disturbance. It is certain we do not give sufficient atten tion to the matter of grinding any of the grains fed to our animals. They should be ground as fine as possible, in order that they may be easy of digestion, and iu order that the nutri tive substances may be fully utilized. There is a positive loss in feeding out coarsely-ground grains of any kind, and in grinding the cob with the corn, give special attention to the work of comminution. The corn in the ear should be thoroughly dry before it is carried to mill, and there will be less difficulty in reducing it to a fine pow der.—Roston Journal of Chemistry. Ruta Baga or Swedish Turnips. The experience of last year will doubtless induce a more general atten tion to this and similar crops, this sea son, for the supply of food to stock of every description ; in England this is their great stand by, and very- largely by its aid, her agriculture has been brought up to the present high stand ard, perhaps not excelled even by that of Holland and Belgium—but with us, although a very important adjunct, in stall feeding, still for the same purpose, we have the Indian corn, which the English have not, aud it answers our