Newspaper Page Text
38
AGRICULTURAL.
DANIEL LEE, N. D., Editor.
SATURDAY JUNE 85, 1559.
HOW THE REAPING MACHINE WORKS.
Cyrus H. McCormick, the inventor of the
patent Reaper, has recently given the Theologi
cal Seminary of the Old School Presbyteria n
Church, located at Chicago, one hundred thou
sand dollars to endow four professorships. The
donor is a bachelor, and a Virginian by birth.
——
CORN AS A SOUTHERN STAPLE.
The people of the United States annually con
sume over six hundred bushels of corn; and if
proper attention were paid to the preparation of
this staple for export to Great Britain, the in
habitants oftlie British Islands would soon take
one-third of all our crop for the production of
beef, pork, mutton, and for the consumption of
man and working animals. English farmers are
actually using wheat to fatten neat cattle, be
cause it is cheaper than oil cake, or any other
food which they now import. As many of the
thirty millions of the Queen’s home subjects as
can get fat beef, mutton, bacon, and other meats,
will purchase them, cost what they may; and no
one can doubt that their means of gratifying
their tastes, in this particular, increase much
faster than their numbers.
Every farmer in tliis countiy knows that corn
is admirably adapted to the purpose of fattening
all domestic animals: as agricultural chemists
know that it contains more than twice the quan
tity of oil found in wheat, oats, rye, or barley,
or in any other cereal. There are, on a fair
average, about eight pounds of oil in one hun
dred pounds of sound corn.
The South has many advantages for tho ex
tensive Cultivation of this grain for exportation, a
few of which we will name.
1. The heat of our tropical summers bring the
plant and its seed to great perfection; so that,
whether the grain is wanted for making bread,
for feeding live stock, or for distillation, it yields
the maximum of those organized substaaees
which render it valuable.
2. From some experiments which we have
made of drying corn in the sun, we believe that
no kiln-drying is required in the climate of Geor
gia, to put up corn dry enough to keep perfectly
sweet tho year round, whether it remains in
this country, or is sent to England, or Brazil.
About one-half of the moisture in common crib
corn may be easily expelled by drying it in the
direct rays of the sun; and if it be then put into
good cotton sacks, made nearly impervious to
air and humidity by some cheap gum, like India
rubber, to exclude dampness, no souring, nor
fermentation of any kind, will take place, to im
pair the fine quality of the grain, or of the meal
manufactured from it. We have the cotton, to
make all the bags needed, and can sun the com
and put it up so that the producers of fat meats
in England may have a sound article, superior
to wheat, rye, barley, oats, or peas, for all fatten
ing purposes, and save their bread-corn, particu
larly wheat, for human consumption. Confident
of success, the writer hopes to be able to sun-dry
and put up one hundred bushels of new com, (the
first that is ripe,) and send it to Liverpool to test
his views on this great Southern staple in a
practical way.
3. Georgia contains swamp lands enough,
which ought to be drained, to grow thirty million
bushels of com a year for exportation. This
would equal her whole cotton crop, and make
her an “Empire State” indeed. Our trade with
Great Britain last year fell off some twenty-five
million dollars, simply because we were unable
to pay for all the products of British industry
which this country would gladly have consumed.
The intelligent and enterprising people of the
cotton growing States ought to supply England
with two hundred million bushels of corn a year
for feeding live stock. American farmers use
over four hundred million bushels a year, in a
similar way.
The prepared bags in which thoroughly dried
com is sent to England, may be cheaply sent
back again for use a second time; as the freight
on an empty bag cannot be over a cent or two
from Liverpool to Savannah or Charleston.
4. England now imports about one hundred mil
lion bushels of wheat a year, or the equivalent
in wheat flour. This fact shows the scarcity
of bread-corn; and so soon as sound corn is found
in all English markets, tho masses will learn to
eat com bread quite as largely as it is consumed
in the United States, by persons of European de
scent. No ore can blame them for not liking
musty and sour corn meal. We must send them
a sound article; and their dealers in breadstuffs
must learn to keep both maize and its meal dry
in that damp climate. Most men know how lia
ble shell com and its meal are to spoil even in
our dryest weather, if kept in masses. They im
bibe moisture from the atmosphere more readily
than wheat and its flour; and therefore a bin of
com will spoil, where one of wheat will keep
sound.
The best plan of preserving grain, flour, and
meal is not so generally, nor so well understood
in any country as it ought to be. The ancient
Romans, Egyptians, and Assyrians, provided
against years of scarcity and famine, with far
greater skill in storing up masses of suu-dried
wheat and barley than is now practiced any
where. Com growers in our time may learn
some useful ideas from man’s early necessities
and economy in this matter. We can do something
toward feeding the hungry in other lands, if we
set ourselves at work in the right way. There
is more money for American farms in the com
plant, indigenous as it is to the continent, and our
peculiar climate, than in any other three plants
that can be named. Our European prejudices
and education have kept us, as well as the in
habitants of the old World, ignorant of many o*
5?a3E JKBS VXREBX9X.
its advantages. True, our annual consumption
will soon reach a thousand million bushels; but
for hay, as grown from broad-cast sowing, how
few appreciate its value! The pulling of com
blades proves the lack of agricultural knowledge
in reference to this American plant.
Fodder obtained in this way, involves as great
a loss of labor as would be experienced, relative
ly, provided a cotton grower should discard his
gin and hand-pull all lint from the seed, as he
hand-pulls com forage for his mules and horses
not to name other stock. The South loses
over thirty' million dollars in hard and need
less labor, every year, by practicing a wrong sys- !
tem of making corn hay. How many genera
tions will live and die before a general reform
takes place? Ten thousand pounds of good com i
fodder may l>e grown on an acre, if one will on- i
ly take a little pains with this important forage
crop.
CLOVER CULTURE AT THE SOUTH.
Edgefield C. H., June 11th, 1859.
7b the Editors of the Field and Fireside—Dear
Sirs: I see by your last issue that Dr. Lee, of
the Agricultural department, offers to the sub
scribers of the paper a few ounces of “ Orchard
Grass Seed ,” upon “postage stamps” being sent to
pay the postage. Wishing to turn my attention
more to the cultivation of the grasses, I enclose
to you a few stamps for some of the seed; and I
would like to get a great deal more, if they can
be spared, for which I would cheerfully pay
whatever amount Dr. Lee may require.
It woidd afford satisfaction to subscribers of
the paper, in this region, if Dr. Lee would give
U 9 a practical article on the culture of clover in
this climate.
Some of us, here, have matte experiments in
clover, with tolerable success, and think that
much more might be done, if we had a little more
practical knowledge on the subject.
Should clover be pastured with heavy cattle,
or with anything else than hogs and sheep ?
Would it not be best to cut and feed with it, as
hay or green food ? And should not the clover
have a good top-dressing early every Spring?—
llow many years should it be permitted to grow
before changing the crop? Is it practicable to
save the seed in this climate ? And if so, how
is this to bo done ?
These and other points touching the culture of
this valuable grass, both as to its uses for five
stock, and for improving our lands, would be
very acceptable to many of your subscribers.
Yours respectfully, Ac.,
W. C. Moragke.
A few years since, while attending a State ag
ricultural fair in Alabama, the President of tho So
ciety informed us that he had some sixty or sev
enty acres of thrifty clover; and we have infor
mation from several other gentlemen, which leads
us to believe that the climate by no means for
bids the profitable production of this most val
uable and renovating forage plant. Everywhere
it does best on limestone land. Clover seed was
the main crop grown for market on the pretty
large farm whereon the editor was reared. After
the seed was thrashed out, breeding mares, young
horses and mules, sheep and young cattle, were
wintered, to a large extent, on the straw that
remained. The value of tho straw depends in a
good degree on the way in which the crop is
handled and managed.
Neither clover nor any meadows should
have grown cattlo treading on them when the
ground is soft and receives deep ’ foot prints.
Sandy soils, and clover growing upon them, are
little injured by cattle; but damp clay ground
may be parched up, and both it and tho crop se
riously damaged by allowing stock to run over
it in wet weather, or when the surface is soft
from excess of water.
In reference to cutting clover for feeding in
stables, horses, oxen at work, and cows giving
milk, in place of permitting them to graze in pas
tures, the practice is every way commendable.
All working animals ought to have their neces
sary food placed before them, that they may eat
their allowance quietly, lie down, sleep, and rest.
Nature soon recuperates their muscular and ner
vous energies for renewed labor at the plow or
elsewhere. Treated in this manner, a horse
’ j
mule, or ox, will live long, and perforin from three
to five times more work than if half his life is
spent in search for food where little is to bo
-found, after he has toiled in the yoke or other
gear, all day, for an ungrateful owner. To yield
much milk, cows also require a plenty of green
forage in one place to save them from needless
travel. Cool stables, dark enough to keep out
flies, where all manures may be saved, are the
places to feed domestic animals with the great
est attainable economy and profit. Give them
dry swamp mud, or muck, or some other good
absorbent, for a bed to lie down on whenever
they will, and haul out all their dung every few
weeks, and plow it into the ground at once to
decay, and produce near the stable more forage
for stock. In this way, small clover, lu
cerne, eow-peas, corn, barley, Ac., may be made
to yield an almost incredible quantity of rich
herbage at a trifling cost.
Clover and all perennial grasses should be top.
dressed with stable manure later in the fall,
when the feeble rays of the sun, and consider
able rain will allow the volatile and soluble
parts of the manure to pass into the ground
about the roots of plants, to nourish them. If
one has not manure at the beginning of winter,
he should apply it as soon as made. All our
manure rots either in the soil, or on it, never in
heaps about the barn or stable.
By re-seeding every two years, (clover is a
biennial,) or permitting the seedjto shatter on the
ground, clover may be kept growing indefinitely
on the same surface, if properly manured. It is
possible that our climate may be less favorable
to the growth of seed than that of the North; of
this we shall know more hereafter.
A good machine for separating clean seed
from the chaff will cost some sixty dollars, un
less the price has been reduced since the writer
ceased to reside at the North. For horse use.
it is quite as well to sow seed in the chaff. The
best way to get out the seed is to tramp it out
by horses, if the quantity is large; and pound
it out with the flail, if small. It is very easily
th when the seed is ripe and dry. On
good land, the first crops may be cut when the
heads are in blossom, for forage, and the second
for seed. Lime. marl, and bone dust, in addition
to stable manure, benefit clover very much.—
Gypsum is a standing fertiliser with all large
clover and wheat growers: for the two generally
go together. Clover and peas, cultivated in sepa
rate fields, are much )>ptter than to have only
one plant, no matter which, on the farm. Clover
will produce an increase of fruitfulness cheaper
than peas or any annual plant. Its roots de
scend two or three feet into a permeable subsoil
in search of moisture, phosphates and sulphates
of lime, potash, magnesia, and soda; while its
leaves draw largely on the atmosphere for ali
ment. A plant so rich in the flesh and bones of
animals—so abounding in the elements of good
milk, from which the bodies of all young mam
malia are developed so rapidly—demands a
strong soil for its luxuriant growth. On poor
land, it will do nothing without manure. Sub
soiling and deep plowing greatly promote the
formation of its large and long tap root. Lucerne
requires similar treatment, and will live from
ten to twenty years without re-seeding. It is a
little better adapted by nature'to endure our
tropical summer heat and drouths than clover;
but it yields smaller leaves, and less forage, per
acre. We prefer both plants to either alone;
just as we prefer a half dozen of the best Eng
lish winter grasses to any one of the number.
A variety of herbage is what God gives, cattle
need, the land requires, and wise farmers culti
vate.
BURNET.
This is an evergreen herbaeious plant, whose
botanical name is Poterium Sanguisorba, and
it is called in France Pimprenelle grande. Ac
cording to a reliable English author, it ‘forms
a large portion of the natural herbage of
the South Downs, and grows wild on other
chalky hills of England.” It possesses con
siderable interest, alike in Britain, France, and
Italy, both as a salad and a forage plant; and it
gives the botanical name poterium or “cup,” to
the whole genus, in consequence of its being
used in cool tankards, or cooling drinks. It tastes
and smells like cucumbers, and is therefore used
to flavor other salads : and it produces slightly
cheering, and even exhilarating, effects. It natu
rally delights in a calcareous soil, yet thrives
either in sandy ground, or fine gravel, or loam.
Few plants are more hardy, or grow in cooler
weather; it is therefore green all winter, and
strictly perennial. It may be sown broadcast,
at the rate of a bushel of seed per acre, or culti
vated in drills a foot apart. It does not yield so
much herbage as sanfoin, lucerne, and clover, but
will flourish on poorer land than either, and de
serves a fair trial at the South. We are indebt
ed to Mr. Cii.vs. DeLaigle, of Augusta, for call
ing our attention to Burnet; ho having cultivat
ed it in a small way, in his garden, for many years
Although it had been cut several times this spring
for feeding stock, we gathered ripe seeds from
the plants on the seventeenth of June. The
seed is undoubtedly cheap in Liverpool and
Havre, and may be easily imported. The famous
South Down Sheep and mutton are produced, in
a large degree, on the fragrant herbage of the
poterium. No planter can well object to have
the finest lamb for his own table, and a little to
sell, or to give his friends; and it is our purpose
to tell him how this may be accomplished in a
cheap and simple way.
Burnet has a long tap root, and appears, from
all European authorities, about as tenacious of
life as our wild blackberries and old field pines.
For winter pasturage, it may be grown by the
hundred acres, to advantage. The celebrated
Arthur Young says, “Burnet is a good winter
pasture; being of great service to the farmer,
and a crop he may depend upon, without any ex
p ense for seed or tillage, after the first sowing.
It affords both corn and hay. Burnet seed is
said to be as good as oats for horses. I know
they will eat it very well; judge, then, of the val
ue of an acre of land which gives you at two
mowings ten quarters of corn and three loads of
hay. It makes good butter: and never blows or
hoves cattle.”
We shall mix Burnet with white clover, blue
grass, and orchard grass, for a pasture,
—
AMHERSTIA nobilis.
This is the botanical name of an ornamental
tree, belonging to the natural order of Legu
minosce. It was found by the Countess Amherst,
after whom it is named, in the Burman empire,
in East India. It was growing in the garden
of a decayed kioun, a sort of monastery; but its
native place of growth is still unknown, as the
trees, found in the garden have undoubtedly
been planted there. The tree grows about forty
feet high, somewhat resembling a Lagerstrce
mia. The flowers are large, and of a tine Ver
million color, diversified with yellow spots.
This tree, when in foliage and blossom, is the
most superb object, that possibly can be ima
gined, and not surpassed by any plant in the
world. The Burmese name of the tree is Thoka.
Handfuls of flowers were presented as offerings
in the cave before the images ofßudha.
Along with this tree were found some trees
of Mesua ferrea and Jonesia Asoca. It is not a lit
tle remarkable, that the priests of these parts
should have manifested so good a taste, as to
select three such trees, as ornaments to their
objects of worship, which can hardly be sur
passed in beauty. This new and highly orna
mental tree has not yet found its way to America,
but as it is raised in the English greenhouses
about London, it is to bo hoped that it soon
will be introduced, and its hardiness tested.
The Amherstia is probably' a native of the
mountains of the Burman empire, thus coming
from the same latitude as the Lagerstroemia,
and may prove as hardy as the latter.
Cotton Planter and Soil.
Dwarf Pears. —“ We have repeatedly laid
down this rule as a guide, that no one should
plant extensively of dwarfs who was not satis
fied by previous experiment, or by observation
among his neighbors, first, that the climate is
adapted to their growth; secondly, that the soil
is right; thirdly, that the stocks are of the best
sort; fourthly, that the cultivation is as good as
carrots and cabbages usually receive.”
Country Gentleman.
COTTON CULTURE IN CUBA.
The Havana correspondent of the Charleston
Courier , writing under slate of June 10th, says:
“ The British Consul General will be en route to:
England before this reaches you, to promote the
interests of the Cotton Growing Company, in
England, and other European countries. So
your cotton growers must be on the look out,
or Cuba will drive them from some of the Euro
pean markets. Ido not write this in jest, but
with more of sorrow than any other feeling.”
That a well concerted and powerful effort is
about to be made to grow cotton on a large
scale on that fertile island, is a fact worth con
sidering. Coolie labor, obtained at a mere nominal
price, is to be use dto cultivate the plant; and as
the supply of the Asiaticos is ten-fold larger
than that of the Africans would be, if free
trade existed alike in both, slave holders have
far more to fear from this new source of com
petition than is generally' believed. In the same
letter this correspondent says:
“ The French ship Alexandre arrived on the
27th ult., from Macao via St. Helena, in one
hundred and ninety-five days, with three hun
dred and ninety-seven “ Asiaticos free colonists ,”
consigned to Messrs. Fernandez k Scliimper, of
this city. There were thirty-seven deaths on
the passage. The American ship ‘Live Yankee’
arrived 2d inst., from Macao via the Cape of
Good Hope, in eighty-eight days, with seven
hundred and eighty-eight Asiaticos. She had
but twelve deaths on the passage.”
When every “ live Yankee ” is able to bring
seven hundred and eighty-eight laboring people
from China in eiglity-eiglit days, ready to engage
at once in the cultivation of cotton, in every
West India island, and in Central America, it is
easy to see how a powerful competition may
grow up in our immediate vicinity in the pro
duction of this great Southern staple. Our ex
clusion of both Coolies and negroes operates
as a bounty on the importation of both Africans
and Asiatics, into Cuba, to grow the crops which
might enrich our own agriculturists, our com
merce, and our manufacturers. We copy from
the Courier, another paragraph from the pen of
the same writer:
“ On the 30th ultimo, about half past 5 P. M.
quite a crowd was attracted to the wharf to see
a bark towed in by the Regia steamer Jir,
whose crew only consisted of two or three per
sons ; she proved to be our old acquaintance,
the J. J. Cobb, of New York, which sailed last
December on a pretended legal voyage to the
coast of Africa, but which legal voyage, there is
ample proof on board of her, was for a cargo of
slaves, which had been landed and the bark was
then abandoned. She was found derelict twen
ty-five miles from land, the pan of Matanzas
bearing S. S. W., by the schooner Cumberland,
of New York, who brought her to this port,
where she now is. The bark Ardennes, about
which so much was said and written near the
end of last year, is also expected daily to arrive
from the coast of Africa, with a cargo of Afri
cans. Tlius, the ‘stars and stripes’ have again,
in two instances, been used as a shield to pro
tect the Spaniards in the African slave trade.”
Taking all the facts together, as presented in
the current history of Cuba, they furnish much
food for grave reflection. Beyond all question,
a double slave trade exists—carried on lx tween
China and Cuba by “live Yankees;” aud be
tween Cuba and Africa, under the folds of “ the
Stars and Stripes.” The present policy of the
United States creates and sustains this double
traffic in persons held to service; and who will
say that our system has improved one odious
feature of the slave trade as it existed sixty
years ago ? What is to be the final result of the
constant importation of cotton growers from
Africa and Asia into all parts of the New World,
where the climate is adapted to the production
of this great staple, except into the Southern
States? We present the naked facts as fur
nished from a reliable source, for the considera
tion of intelligent readers. We may close our
eyes, but that will not extinguish the light of
day,
A KENTUCKY STOCK GEOWEB.
Mr. A. Aitchkson Alexander, of Kentucky,
has a farm of some two thousand acres lying
between Lexington and Frankfort, on limestone
land, well set with blue grass, and devoted
to stock husbandry. He has, on an average,
three hundred and seventy head of blood
ed cattle, and fifty mares, some of them of
great value. Last year his sale of stock, at auc
tion, brought $12,238. This year his auction
sales have been less—yielding $5,881. No
horses or mules are included in these sales; being
confined to short horn cattle, Southdown and
Cotswold sheep. For two years, Mr. Alexander
has made no new importations. His imported
stock have improved in quality, on the excellent
grazing fields which he possesses. The old race
horse, Lexington, still lives in health and vigor.
Mr. A. paid $15,000 for him, and is raising very
superior colts from him and blooded mares. He
is regarded as the most successful breeder in
Kentucky, where stock-growing has become not
only a business, but a passion with many per
sons.
■ m
A Cow Story. —Among the travelers toward
the western part of Kansas, this spring, were
several gentlemen from this city; and among
these were four or five, constituting a separate
party, who started with a fine cow. About two
weeks ago, the friends, in Alton, 111., of one of the
members of this party received a letter from
him, dated “Kansas, two hundred miles from
home,” in which he spoke of “ old Brindle”—say
ing that she made the party a great deal of
trouble, &c. A few days after the receipt of this
letter, the gentleman to whom it was addressed,
living in Middletown, was astonished at finding,
early one morning, a cow exactly like “old Brin
dle” standing at his gate. He could hardly be
lieve the evidence of his own eyes, but ex
amination convinced himself and family that it
was the very cow herself. How long she re
mained with the party atter the time of writing
the letter, two hundred miles from Inline, is un
known. Certain it is that she had found her
way home, across the country, for at least that
distance—not stopped by rivers, creeks,
swamps, or anything else. The story seems
fictitious, but it is undeniably true, as any one
who wishes can .assure himself.
Alton Courier, May 31.
[Written for the Southern Field and Fireside.]
AGRICULTURAL LETTERS FROM HANCOCK—
NO. 4.
BY AS OLD MEMBER OF THE PLASTERS' CLUB.
i Farming at the South—Skinning System — Com-,
posting System—Difficulties and Failures —
Foreign Manures.
Mr. Editor: One of the leading designs of
j writing this series of agricultural letters, has
been to attempt to advance the interests of agri
culture at the South, by presenting the best sys
tems, now extant, in the culture of leading pro
ducts, by men of acknowledged experience and
ability. Where, however, the theories, or prac
tices, of these men contravene the doctrines of
agricultural chemistry, or a wholesome philoso
phy, we shall feel free to enter our dissent, and
accord to them the privilege of defending their
opinions through the same medium in which
they have been attack ed. Friendly interchanges
of opinion, for the sake of truth, often result in
good to the cause of science; but heated con
troversies, for the sake of victory, much better
become the hustings and the politician, than
the laboratory and the philosopher.
To one acquainted with the different agricul
tural sys terns of the world, that of the South
presents a marked difference, in many particu
ars, from those of the old world and the North
ern States. Indeed, so new is our system, that
we may be said to have borrowed but little from
the time-honored experience of the older coun.
tries. The necessities of the case, slave labor
cotton culture, cheap land, and a warm climate,
impose upon us a different system from all other
countries. Under this view of things, how im
portant to have agricultural schools and teachers
of our own, that a system may be originated
and enforced, well calculated to develope all the
resources of our land, and keep our soil from
depreciating so rapidly, as has been the case,
under the operations of the early farmers ?
The agriculture of the South has already pass
ed through several phases without having reach
ed a point which promises success, over the vast
difficulties surrounding it. First, we had the
skinning system, which consisted in scooterising
the land for a few years, up and dow n the hills,
until the soil was all washed away, and then
leaving it to grow up in stunted pines. This
process was generally performed by a cer
tain class of small farmers, who would sell
out as soon as they had accomplished their
object, and move over the river to the next pur
chase, as it was called. Wc have an occasion
al specimen of these skinners left in Mid
dle Georgia, and even in Old Ha ncock, which
is doubtless as free of them as any other
county. We passed a farm last year, where the
cotton rows ran parallel with the fence, up and
down the hills, without any guard drains. A
washing rain had just succeeded a plowing, and
the middle of the cotton rows had been washed
out to the hard sub-soil, leaving the roots ex
posed to the burning sun, and the land bereft,
of nearly one-third of its soil. Added to this
wretched culture, under the old skinning sys,
terns, no one ever dreamed of applyiug manures
to the land, or of repairing the wastes which
were so rapidly exhausting their soils.
A better system succeeded this, which might
properly be termed, the composting system, be
cause planters began to see the valuo and im
portance of manure; and those who did not
choose to sell out and leave their old home
steads, began earnestly to improve their soils,
by husbanding the droppings of their horses and
cattle, and applying them to the impoverished
soil. The Planters’Club of Hancock, originating
about this time, brought together the master
minds of the county, to detc rmine what might
be done to save their lands from being mined
by an injudicious system of farming. This re
sulted in much good and many improvements.
Agricultural journals also began to be taken.
The Albany Cultivator and American Farmer
were household words, until they were separat
ed by journals better adapted to the agriculture
of the South. The friendly pine favored these
growing aspirations for making manures, and
stalls and pounds were overcharged with this
litter, for the purpose of absorbing and retain
ing the • fertilising salts, which they so much
needed for their crops. Better improvements
soon sprang up, such as lull-side ditching, ro
tation of crops, with rest, subsoiling, horizon
talisiug, 4c., all of which mark this era, as one
much in advance of the former.
But we have to confess that the sanguine ex
pectations of our cotton planters have never
been realised under this composting system.—
Either the system itself was a bad one, or it has
never been carried out in a proper manner.
With considerable experience ourselves, in
making and hauling out manures, and with ex
tensive means of observation among our plant
ers, we are constrained to confess, that it does
not subserve the same purpose for improvement
of the soil at the South, as in countries where
land is higher and labor cheaper. With com
paratively few acres to cultivate, the farmers of
old and new England have very short distances
to traverse in hauling manures, or the materials
to make them. With the necessity imposed of
keeping up their stock, either in pastures or in
stalls, the year round, they are able to accumu
late a larger quantity, and a much more valua
ble compost than ours. And then; with land
worth from fifty to two hundred dollars per acre,
they can afford to pay much higher rates for ma
nure, to keep it up to the highest point of fer
tilization, than we can with lands averaging not
more than six or seven dollars per acre.
A southern planter cultivates from twenty to
thirty acres per hand. Mr. Daniel Dickson, of
this county, with his broad sweeps and sandy
land, goes as liigh as thirty-six acres. A large
plantation in middle Georgia generally consists
of a number of small farms, which have been pur
chased from time to time, of those who wished
to move westward. Out of these broad acres he
picks and culls the best lands for cultivation, leav-