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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]