Newspaper Page Text
HE FIELD tfMl FIRESIDE.'
Vol. I.
the afield and
PUBLISHED BY
T. OK CAMPBELL dc CO.
OFFICE
IN THE OLD PRINTING OFFICE
Building, Powder Springs Street, Mari
etta Georgia.
DAVID IRWIN.
W. A. P. M’CLATCWKY.W T. B. IRWIN.
Irwin, McClatchey &.^rwin.
ATTORNEYS AT iTvW.
Will practice in the Blue Ridge. Rome,
and Coweta Circuits.
Marietta, March 13, 1877. ly
WM. T. WINN. WILL. J. WINN.
W. %. & W. ,T. WINN,
Attorneys t Law,
MARIETTA, GEORGIA.
March 13,1877. ly
J. E. MOSELY,
Attorney at Lati.
WILL attend to all busines i confided
to him In C'obl) and adjacent coun
ties. Offß;e —in MeClatehcy’s Build
ing, un stalls.
Marietta Match 13, 1877. tim
E. M. ALLEN,
Kewident Dentist.
Of more than twenty years.
CHARGES REASONA BL E .
Office—North side of Public Square.
Marietta, March 13, 1877. ly
DR. G. TENNENT,
Practicing Physician.
m~ Office on Cassville street. —Resi-
dence on Cherokee street.
Marietta, March 13,1877. ly
DR. E. J. §ETZE,
Physician and Surgeon,
TENDERS his professional services
in the practice of Medicine in all
its branches to the citizens of Marietta
and surrounding country. Office at the
Drug Store of Wm. Root. inch 13-ly
R. W. GABLE,
BOOT MB Sr- SHOEMAKER
AND REPAIRER.
POWDER SPRING STREET,
MARIETTA, GEORGIA,
Work done at very low prices, and war
ranted. March 1, 1877.
T. J. ATKINSON,
EAST SIDE OF PUBLIC SQUARE,
MARIETTA, GEO.
DEALER IN
Choice Family Groceries!
COUNTRY PRODUCE
TAKEN ON THE MOST LIBERAL TERMS.
Haley Brothers,
CHEROKEE STREET,
Dealers in
GROCERIES, PROVISIONS,
AND
GENERAL MER( 11A X DIZ K.
Marietta, Ga., March 13, 1877. •" ly
M. R. Lyon,
CHEROKEE STR EET .
FAMILY GROC ER I EM,
And dealer in
COUNTRY PRODUCE.
Marietta, March 13,1877. ly
n. T. GRINT,
CHEROKEE STREET,
Sail and in Maker
AND REPAIRER.
Marietta, Geo., March 13, 1877. ly
CONTRACTOR
AND
BITEDEK.
THE undersigned continues his busi
ness of Brick Making, Stone and
Brick Building, and is prepared at any
time to take contracts on the most reas
onable terms, and toexecute them in the
most satisfactory manner.
H. B. WALLIS.
Marietta, March 13,1877. lv
House Building and
Repairing.
SASH, BLINDS, DOORS FINISHED
TO ORDER.
Lumber of all kinds, and at the
lowest prices, for sale.
Thankful for the liberal patronage
hitherto, the subscriber would state
that he is fully prepared to contract for
the erection of Buildings, and to exe
cute the contracts in the most satisfacto
ry manner. SHOP, south .side Public
Square.
March, 1877. LEMUEL BLACK.
J^mnltuntl.
CORN AS AN AMERICAN
'STAPLK.
In good seasons we raise
something over one thousand
million bushels of corn in the
United States; and allowing as
high an average as twenty bush
els per acre, more than fifty mil
lion acres are planted to this crop.
In the South and West very lit
tle pains is taken to prevent the
washing of born ground, when
the crop is growing, or for sever
al years after if allowed to rest.
This is a great error in farming.—
At the last working 'of corn, a
fine tooth harrow* should be used
to make the soil fine, clean and
level, to prevent water running
between the rows. Instead of
permitting the ground to lie na
ked, or grow ftp in weeds, it
should be seeded at once with
clover and grass seed in the stand
ing corn. The new crop will not
grow to do any harm before the
corn is ripe; while the Fall growth
will shelter the otherwise naked
ness of-reeently-tilled land, pre
vent surface-washing, and recu
perate the depleted soil. All
know, or at least ought to know,
that clover is a renovating plant,
and that nearly till corn ground
needs some amendment.
By running fifty million acres,
more or less, in corn every year,
with much washing and little or
no restitution, we most certainly
fill our country with sorry-looking
old fields. The intelligence and
good sense of every farmer should
condemn this practice, and try to
change it for the better. A
great deal of Southern land is
planted in corn which is too poor
to produce morn than from seven
to ten bushels to the acre. What
is to be done with such ground,
to double its fruitfulness ? We
answer, let il rest in clover and
Herd’s grass, with one or two
hundred pounds ot gyps-unt 1o the
abre. Riant much less surface in
corn and cotton, and manure that.
We have so many fields in tire
South that require additional fer
tility that, instead of doing our
best to make corn and cotton at
once, we should do our very begt
to raise the raw materials out ot
which these great staples are
formed. To perform all the work
on a field that ought to give a
harvest of thirty or forty bushels
of corn per acre, and gather a
little crop of less than ten bush
els, may lie honest farming, but
it is not fai’tW/ng. Spine of
the essent al elements used by
Nature in running corn are lick .
ingin the soil, in an available
form. If these cannot be sup
plied by the cultivator, lie should
tiw to find something better to do
than tilling poor soil in corn. Of
all tlie labor performed in the
United States, this is the poorest
paid to individuals and tli>-jub
lir Practically, it makes poor
lye 1 poorer still • poorpeo
•nle ire apt Jyfneeome about as
p .*<-• can lie. It is un- i
pleasant tor-irite about poverty,
or even ry.nk abort it But
when a cqrfible malady i* 'fasten
ed upon st friend and hi- ml v.
although the task may Z
pleasant, it is better to go
relief than to shun them. Tin
owners of poor land in the South
are not half so poor nor so si>
of farming, as they imagine.-
They simply use their farms in
the wrong way. When corn
ground is thin and unpromising,
they plant a double quantity to
get the bushels they want look
ing to corn alone for an income.
This mistake throws away full
half of their labor, and helps kill
the old plantation.— From, the
Old Plantation. J
CONSTITUENTS OF THE ASH
OF CORN.
Agricultural chemists have laid
it down as a rule that if the con
stituents contained in the ashes
of any given plant are known, a
clear knowledge is thus acquired
of what the soil should contain to
produce that particular plant.—
Analytical chemistry thus became
an important branch of the science
of agriculture, and tables have
been prepared showing what sub
stances enter into the composition
of alß'sorts of plants, and which
must be found in the soil where
that plant is to be cultivated to
a profit.
MARIETTA, GEORGIA, APRIL 3, 1877.
In respect to Indian corn. Pro
lessor Johnson furnishes the fol
lowing analysis of the stalk and
grain of Indian corn when redu
ced to an ash. In one thousand
pounds of the ash of the grain,
and another thousand pounds of
the ash of the corn stalks, he found
the following constituents:
STALK. GRAIN.
Potash 06 i ook
Soda 286 \
Lime 83 14
Magnesia 66 162
Oxide of Iron 8 3
Phosphoric Acid 171 449
Sulphuric 7 28
Chlorine . 15 2
Silica 270 , 14
1012 997
As the proportion of ash con
tained in anyone plant represents
the amount of inorganic matter
that enters into its composition,
the above table will serve to guide
any farmer in the application of
fertilizers to his corn. Throwing
out the silica, which all light soils
yield in abundance, lie will ob
serve that three important consti
tuents are required above all oth
ers in a soil where corn is to be
cultivated. These are potash and
soda and phosphate of lime. Af
ter these, come lime and magne
sia, both of which are equally es
sential with the others to the
growth of the crop, although the
proportions required of each are
far less.
Let us now examine what quan
tity of these-organic substances
are abstracted annually from each
acre of soil by a crop of corn. We
assume that crop to have yielded
ten barrels of corn to the acre—if
larger, the loss will of course be
so much greater in proportion.
Inorganic substances abstract
ed from the soil by an acre of
corn:
Silicic Acid 189.040
Sulphuric Acid 53.569
Phosphoric Acid 25.799
Phosphate of Iron,
lime ik magnesia 72.006
Chlorine 33.294
Organic Acids 12.203
Potash 72.643
Soda 1 99.463
Lime 16 761
Magnesia 23.500
599.254
In other words, a trifle short of
600 pounds in all. From the ta
bles we have just given, it will be
evident filial Ihe farmer who has
to apply fertilizers to his land for
the purpose of growing heavy
crops of corn, must rest his main
dependence on such as are rich in
sojjU ■ J t •'JiHosplmte of
lime, and which also contain in a
lesser degree lime and magnesia,
and that the production of the
grain of corn requires above all a
liberal supply of phosphate of
lime, which is required in a pro
portion nearly equal to that of all
other cunstituentsjeombined, and
that next to iliis* in' importance
are potash andswd^
DISREGARD OF BOOK FARM
I.NG, A VI) ROOK FARMI'ItS.
Twenty-five years ago. 1 was a
boy of twelve, living near one of
the richest valley farms in the
interior of a New England State,
the farm comprised about three
hundred acres, of which seventy
five were strong alluvial soil, in
meadow, Hooded by the high
waters of every Spring—one hun
dred more in upland pasture and
arable land, and the balance in
woodland. The occupant’s fami
ly consisted of a son and two
daughters, the elder of whom was
the house keeper. The “help”
was a hired girl and a man, with
an additional hand, and some
times two in hay making. Here
he spent his life in a fruitless at
tempt to support his family and
educate his children. He was an
industrious, hard-working, frugal
man, who taught his children
habits of the strictest economy—
hut he was ar anti-hook farmer,
and a patron of the credit system.
The merchant, the blacksmith, the
wheelwright, and every one with
whom he had dealings had ac
counts, the balance of which were
all on the wrong side, and some
how could never he reduced.—
The plows had the old wooden
mould-boards faced with strap
iron—the harrow-teeth were
made of white-oak—a horse-rake
he had never seen. Die fences
were rickety, the buildings dilap
idated. There was an orchards
| but the knowledge of fruit cub
ture did not teach that it ever re
quired trimming, and its produc
tions were about as large and as
hard as nutmegs. As the mea
dows lay convenient to the barns,
they were fed down closely in
Autumn—the feed was better
there than in the pastures. The
cattle were never stabled in Win
ter, nor were racks provided in
which to feed them, and the quan
tity of forage they wasted . equal
led that which they consigned.—
The stock died in Winter of ex- -
posure—in Spring of weakness*
The crows always called in their
early Spring migrations, and were
always sure of an abundance of
animal food. The manure in the
cattle-yards was rarely distribu
ted, because the meadows were
thought to be rich enough without
it, and it would not pay to draw
it up-hill to the pasture lands. It
went on accumulating until the
very yards were higher than the
surrounding fields. The wash of
the yards was conveniently dis
posed of in the neighboring brook,
towards which the yards sloped,
and by which they were effective
ly drained. It was the boast of
our neighborhood that his cattle
yards were always dry.
On this farm in those days, an
agricultural paper, book, or peri
odical was never seen. The fath
er entertained a sovereign con
tempt for the book-farming which
one ortwo of his neighbors were
beginning stealthily to practice.
With him a change of crops con
sisted in breaking up the meadow',
planting it with corn and pota
tatoes, without manure, the first
year sowing it with oats and a
sprinkling of grass seed the next.
The idea of applying chemical
knowledge to the adaptation of
different manures would have
been regarded as humbug, and
| the man who should have predic
j ted modern plows, harrow's, cul
; livators, threshing machines,
I reapWs and mowers, would have
been treated in that neighborhood
with the pity and consideration
due to an insane person.
The consequences were inevita
ble—with each year the ends were
further from meeting than the
year before. Then the pine, oak,
and other valuable timber, and
finally the cord-wood were cut off
to satisfy an old creditor, while
making anew one. As the son
grew older, he became dissatis
fied, broke away from the old
homestead, and often encounter
ing the difficulties common to
| such efforts, obtained an educa
tion without paternal aid, studied
*a profession, and settled in the
practice in the county town of
his native county.
Pass over a score of years with
their changes. The father has
gone to his rest. In the family
arrangement the homestead
passed into the possession of the
husband of my eldest sister, who
has now' occupied it some eight
or ten years, and he has had no
income except that derived from
the products of the farm itself.
There is a change there now.—
In the place of this ruinous dwell
ing, is a large commodious farm
house, with its neat vine-clad por
tico, its shades and blinds, and
all the “modern improvements.”
The parlor has its piano, and, with
the other rooms, is finished in a
style of substantial elegunce.—
Young shade-trees are springing
up around the lawn in front of
it—-a neat flower garden is laid
out at one side, with a vegetable
garden in the rear—young trees
are putting forth vigorous shoots,
giving promise of abundant fruit
of various descriptions.
All the out-buildings are torn
down, and the new ones erected in
the rear of the house, upon a gen
tle slope which overlooks the
meadow. Here are warm, dry
stables for every head of live
stock upon the farm. The floors
are so constructed as to save all
the drippings, and the manure is
housed as carefully as the stock.
Not a pound of hay or an ounce
of grain is fed outside the stables.
The straw, stalks, and coarse fod
der are all cut and mixed with
grain, which is always ground
before it is fed out—in this
manner not a straw is wasted.—
Running water is carried into and
out of every yard.
Are you curious to look at the
stock ? Here is a flock of long,
coarse-wooled, heavy sheep—
“ Leicesters” I think he calls
them, to begin with. Is not this
wool very coarse? you ask, as
one of the long-bodied, heavy
quartered, Landseer-like looking
animals nibbles at the ow'ner’s
hand; rather—he replies—but at
Is. 3d. per pound it brings as
much money as so many Spanish
merinos ; and he goes on to tell
you how it costs no more to keep
them than the little merinos—
that the ewe almost invariably
produces two lambs in each year;
that they are very hardy, come
early to maturity, and that the
lovers of good mutton are quite
willing to give two guineas for
the carcase of a fat two-year old,
when common mutton could
hardly be given away. Then;
here are his cattle—all selected
with a careful eye to their des
tined uses. Here are pure bloods;
Herefords, Devons, Alderneys,
and Durhams—some for beef,
some for their milking qualities,
some for draft oxen. After re
peated experiments, he tells you
that he has concluded to keep no
Eigs but those of the Suffolk
reed, as they make pork the
cheapest. We look at a pen of
them. There is scarcely a great-
er difference between a grey
hound and a porpose, than be
tween these and the long-legged
gaunt species that used to range
at will over the potato and corn
fields twenty years ago.
Come now into his field. Here
he will utterly confound you.-
He is thoroughly versed in the
mystery of agricultural chemis
try—start him once upon alkalies
and acids, phosphates and super
phosphates, silica and alumina,
and he becomes abstruse and sci
entific. And yet there is a singu
lar method in all he says. This
field produced nothing. It want
ed lime. Lime was furnished,
and the corn crop he thinks is
sixty bushels to the acre. That
one was short of ammonia—am
monia was supplied, and the
change is even greater. But I
will not particularize further.—
Here are the hills, the brooks, the
old trees, each of which is en
deared to me by some association
of childhood—but all else is
changed. The wilderness has
been made to “blossom like a
rose.” What are the net results ?
Upon the farm on which the fath
er grew poor, the son-in-law lives
like a country gentleman. His
young lady daughters are at the
seminary. Instead of a borrower
he is a lender—each year adds to
his stock list and note-roll. Out
of debt, with a farm and stock
worth £4,000, living comfortably
and elegantly, discharging his du
ties towards society and his fami
ly, he occupies a position of hap
py independence, which a profes
sional man can never hope to at
tain. What is the secret of this
change ? Go into his library and
you will see the explanation. He
is at the same time a practical
and a scientific farmer. Books
and papers —those garners of the
experiences of other men—in part
are the tools with which he works.
These teach what improvements
are really valuable, and adopts
them. The best investment he
makes is agricultural literature.
He will tell you how an article
which taught him to set his fence
posts with the tops downwards,
and gave the reason why he should
do so, has doubled the length of
time that his posts and board fen
ces are serviceable, with various
other illustrations not less curious.
Books upon chemistry, meteorol
ogy, manures, upon horses, cattle,
and sheep, fruit and horticulture,
ancVall kindred subjects, with all
the approved periodicals (to many
of which he contributes), you will
find there—all giving evidence of
the thorough reading to which
they have been subjected. On
the whole, 1 pronounce his estab
lishment the best cure I have ev
er seen for the malady which af
flict too many of our farmers still,
called “prejudice against book
farming.”—May's Guide to
Farming.
BOOK FARMING.
Webster, when speaking of the
importance of agriculture, said—
“ Agriculture feeds us, to a great
extent clothes us, and without it
we could not liave manufactures,
and we should have no commerce;
these all stand together, but they
stand like pillars— the largest is
the centre—and that largest is ag
riculture.”
The best farmer cannot know
every article of practice that is
followed in every part of the conn,
try, and as most practices are llis*
covered by what is called chancSj
or accident, it is clear the
ery cannot be generally kaowvJ
until it is carried abroad.
A farmer who travels appr*j
ates the hnE
ceives in converse
formers,
lira labeJl
sess^
a!
t J
mil; TiSsess an me advadWge* of
him who goes abroad ; and that he
who goes abroad may comparsi
what he has seen with
reads, and decide which praMfli
is best suited to bis partii?!ilar|Bß|
pose; o’vmvjVnns,
mg the BjMkotherswith his]
may discover
to both.,./- J
In this iiialK a good agrictfl
lural journal is the means of d]
seminating throughout the cJk
try, practices which,
would have been confined tß|
section where they first obtaS
If a farmer wishes a good agfli
tural paper, he should suppom
and write for it, and thus assist -
make it good.— Telegraph.
NATURE AND USE
OF PLASTKR. 1
The question is often asked a
mong farmers, “Of what use is
plaster?—when, where and how
shall it be used ?” And I have
never heard a satisfactory answer
given to them. Nearly every far
mer who had made any pp!ic>J
tion of plaster, had found It
viceeble at one time, but -without
profitable returns at another. No
one within our acquaintance
knows the reason for success or
failure. I
Most people found the applica
tion to clover attended generally
with good results ; some found it
good sometimes for potatoes ; but
not a single one could tell—what*
is plaster good for ? Chemistry
solves the question:— Plaster is
sulphate of lime. To different
branches of science it is known by
different names. In the arts it is
plaster; in mineralogy it is gyp
sum; in chemistry it is sulphate
of lime. It is sulphuric acid and
lime. Sulphuric acid and lime
has an affinity for ammonia, and
when it finds ammonia it bieafcf
up its partnership with the lime,
and combines with the ammonia,
forming sulphate of ammonia, and
this is non-volatile. The lime finds
a companion, when deserted by
the acid, in carbonic acid, forming
carbonate of lime.
Hence it will 4 beseen that when
the farmer has ammonia in his
soil, put there by himself in man
ure, or in any other manner, lia
ble to waste, the plaster will fix
it there, and in all such cases it
can be applied to the ground with
profit. The odor about stables
and manure heaps is escaping am
monia, and the farmer can jndi*
ciously use a little plaster in both
places, saving the ammonia for
his land.
Plaster saves to the soil nitro
gen, one of the chief mineral ele
ments entering into the growth of
plants; ammonia is three parts
hydrogen and one part nitrogen.
Ammonia escapes from decaying
vegetation wherever it is found,
and is suspended in the air, aad
when after a long dry spell, and<
considerable quantities of it huu
ascended, the first rain brings jm
to the earth, and if there is a
plaster in the clover field, the a™
monia never rises again. 1
This very study into the use* o]
plaster shows that the farm*]
should be a student, and iu so rm
degree a man of science. Hemfl
learn that in doctoring
something else than
stances may be needeHglP
need organic substanres an 1
and to know this is the duty cJ
farmer. But we trust^fliK’^S
plained the nature,
plaster,so that
know when its afH
serviceable.—
Ho.*.
■with
■r*t3jqQwfl
Hhome of
stays at home]
