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[Written for the Southern Field and Fireside.]
OUR KOBE OF MAKING AND APPLYING HA.
NUKES.
Messrs. Editors : Woof the seaboard on
our light sea island hammock lands, are surprised
to see wliat a heavy outlay our planting
friends of Hancock (some of whom I had the
pleasure of forming a social and agreeable ac
quantance with, in the legislature, during our
trying State's rights times in the administra
tions of our illustrious and patriotic Troup and
Gilmer,) are expending in manuring their light
lands; and the large crops they plant, of thirty
six acres to the hand, horse, and plow, which re
quires to be worked, at least, every ten or twelve
days, to keep it dear of grass, if their land is as
grassy as ours, and hard work at that. Here,
from seven to ten acres are considered excessive
planting; although we plant that quantity at
our several places, to the hand and plow, and
keep it in beautiful order; while our neighbors
plant only five or six acres to the hand, and keep
it in no better order.
You are aware, gentlemen, that the Altama
ha meanders its tortuous course from Darien,
through a vast delta of nish and marsh of the
genus juncus, which forms its southern branch,
disembogueing into the Atlantic between the
islands of St. Simon on the North, and Jekyl to
the South ; shutting in and sheltering the beau
tiful, spacious, and salubrious harbor of Bruns
wick, where a fleet of thirty-six Spanish armed
vessels, entered and landed on St. Simon’s
“some five thousand veteran troops of Spain,
under Don Arredondo, and Don Antonio,” to ex
tirpate our illustrious founder, General Ogle
thorpe ; and annex our beloved Georgia to the
grasping, aspiring, haughty, diadem of Hesperia;
but God, in His wisdom and mercy, decreed it
otherwise, that we should ever be under a big
oted, superstitious, despotic Roman Catholic oli
garchy. With a feeble, and inadequate regi
ment of only about seven hundred militia, regu
lars, Chickasaw and Yemassee warriors, undis
ciplined, and unpracticed in the strategy of war,
after several days hard scrub-fighting, he forced
the haughty sons and Hidalgos to effect an in
glorious and precipitate retreat (or rather flight,)
on board their formidable fleet, which as hastily
made all sail, bidding a long, a last adieu, to the
vain chimera of conquering our noble State —
more fabulous and absurd than the storied mon
sters said to have been bred in the mountains of
Lycia, or the Knight of LaManclia’s wind-mill
achievement —scattering over one of my fields, as
a memento of their unskillfulness in gunnery and
projectiles, a number of bombshells, not one of
which ever struck Oglethorpe’s barracks of Tal
by, now partly standing, and plowed up unex
ploded in some instances, every time the field is
plowed; for, walking over it a few days ago,
with a friend from Vicksburg, we picked up sev
eral fragments of bombshells.
This delta of rush and marsh has a substra
ta of blue clay in some localities, and is the most
productive land on the coast; but its liability to
submergence from hurricanes, restricts its im
provement and profitable cultivation to the flag
marshes, more remote from the coast, where it
is said a bale of cotton lias been made to the
acre, of fine sea islands, and seven bales to the
hand. We will embank, in time, a large body
of this land, and risk the hurricanes.
We mow this rush and marsh with a short
stubble scythe, at the rate of from six to nine
cords per day to the hand, and will soon use a
small reaper. This rush and marsh is thrown
with a manure fork, into a long, open, slat-bodied
cart, drawn by a yoke of oxen, along the corded
ricks, each holding about one cord; while others
less favorably situated, cut and convey it in flats
to their pens, where it is spread thick, and lime,
mud, cotton seed, leaves, and weeds are spread
over in alternate layers, forming a mass of rich,
well-rotted manure, several feet deep, trodden
by cattle, horses, oxen, and hogs, in their different
pens.
When required for the field, the whole mass
is cut through and carried out by carts and oxen,
and tilted over in track lines all over the field,
when a double mould plow runs a deep furrow
in the ally, which is filled up with this compost,
and a bedding plow follows and covers it, to keep
the fertilizing gasses from evaporation; and the
cotton planted about two feet from hill to hill,
to be thinned carefully to one aud two stalks, or
plants, according to the strength of the land—
some, only one and a half feet apart. For corn, it
is applied in deep chops, filled with manure,
covered lightly, and the corn planted on it, the
land being flush plowed, and check off from
three to five feet. In this way we make and
apply all of our manure, which does not cost one
cent in cash , and is done in leisure time.
Now our cotton is breast and waist high, as
it does not grow very high, and loaded with
forms, blooms, and bolls, since June; and I have
counted thirteen full ears of corn on a hill, of
Peabody’s prolific corn; as you know the pe
culiar characteristic of this corn is to succor in
bunches as prolific as the original stalk.
This system of manuring should ultimately
renovate our old lands, and render them more
productive than new, which are inclined to pro
duce bush and blue cotton for some years, as the
rust* is evidently generated by strata of iron
pyrites; wherever upheaved too near the surface
every thing planted in such soils invariably
takes the rust. Marsh, compost of mud, lime, suds,
leaves, and all sorts of vegetables and succulent
weeds may correct it, by raising and drying,
sucking up the redundant fluids in our sobby soil,
diffusing accumulating vigor, life, and production
through the whole pliocene strata by its gradual
decay.
We have used, this season, Maynard’s norso
Hoe, or Cultivator, from Sinclair A Co., Balti
more ; with an improvement by my son, of a
curved blade to sweep the sides of the beds, as
it shaves off every spear of grass from the ally
and sides, pulverizing the soil, leaving it so mel
low, a hand can sido up and hoe the top only at
the rate of from four to six tasks a day. As it is
the first I ever saw, a description and plan of
which you will find in the American' Farmer for
June, and the 20th page of Sinclair A Co’s, Pic
torial catalogue, I send you a rough sketch I
had added in a letter, as you may uot have it,
and may see my son’s improvement.
This plow would boa most efficient auxiliary
to the light lands of our country, one horse go
ing over several acres per day, and doing it
cleaner than any plow I ever tried, and leaves
the soil most beautifully pulverized and leveled,
without removing or exhausting it.
*1 have concluded to write my note on Rust more dis
tinctly :
Streams of lightning often descend in open fields,
with no visible attraction but these deposits of iron py
rites ; nuggets of which are thrown on the surface, it is
conjectured, by eleetricitv, specimens of which I can
send you for analysis, ns it may underlay soils where
wheat is so fatally affected by rust —not a parasitic fun
gus. occasioned by Euredo and other Insccta. as somo
suppose—and infght be corrected by our stimulative
compost, to which is added quantities of Datura Stra
monium (limron weed) and I’hytolaccn decnndrla (Poke
weed) of themselves potent correctives of rusty or acid
soils, and |>ermanent pabulum of plants. Ilow pyrites,
iron ore. or what not. is generated in our silicions soil, is
a mystery, and a remedy for their deleterious effects on
vegetation would be a blessing. This Is our theory.
Whatis yours? As a remedy for rust in cotton, wheat,
and other cereals, is of vast importance to the southern
and western planters.
T»K SOtfXKXRK FXSCtJO AMD RIKESIJOJ6.
I make, too, my own poudrette manure for the
garden, and this season it has produced cab
bages two and a half feet across, and the largest
and most abundant crop of potatoes I ever had.
The recent rains which we were suffering for
the want of, have made us all busy getting in our
extra crop of slips and peas, so that a southern
planter should always make his bread with
three provision crops, and wheat, too ; and yet,
there are man}- farmers withdht it; because
they will not manure and work their land to ad
vantage, but let it get choked with grass, from
which the most favorable seasons cannot rescue
it. Unless sustained by manure in light lands for
corn, potatoes, peas, and wheat, starvation will
fly to out worn Europe!
Yours respectfully,
A Planter.
St. Simons, July, ’59
WASTEFUL* FAEMEEs'
Perhaps in nothing are farmers more waste
ful than in the management, or rather want of
management, in their manure. Should one have
his granary robbed every week or so of fifteen
or twenty dollars worth of grain, he would make
a great fuss about it, and probably offer a liberal
reward for the detection of the thief; yet this
same man will allow his manure to lie spread
over his cattle yard, exposed to the bleaching
rains of spring which frequently carry more than
the above amount of the elements of crops con
tained in his manure forever beyond his reach
—and he allows this waste to occur year after
year, as if it was no sort of consequence to him.
If this practice was true only of the owners of
prairie soil, the case would be different; but it is
to bo seen in parts of the country where manure
is most needed, yea, where its preservation and
economy in its use are of the utmost Importance
to the success of the farmer. Farmers have been
told of this thing so often through our agricultu
ral press, that oue would think it no longer to
bo reiterated. Why is this? Has the subject
become to them such a hackneyed one that they
no longer give attention to it, or do they mostly
belong to the class who take no paper devoted
to the interests of their calling? The voice of
the agricultural press has for a half a century
been raised against this waste of manure, as
well as against the skinning process of cultiva
tion so universally practiced in many parts of
our country. Their empty barns and granaries
should appeal to them in away not to be mis
understood! Their fields, so barren looking,
all overrun with sorrel, should reprove them for
such dereliction of a duty they owe to their
children and to their country, as well as to
themselves! But farmers waste also in the ap
plication of manure—putting it on ground which
needs draining, when half the value of the ma
nure expended in draining would produce almost
infinitely better results. Again, they will lavish
it on the fields already rich, while they have
others suffering for want of it. But it seems
impossible almost to change the course of many,
however prejudicial to their interests that course
may be—and the Country Gentleman . together
with our agricultural press generally, will still
need to reiterate the oft repeated injunction,
Farmers, save your manure!—J. W. Fowler,
in Co. Gent.
ON LIQUID MANURES.
BY AUGUSTUS VOELCKER.
Condensedfrom the last Number of the Journal of
Royal Agricultural Society of England.
Liquid manure, it need hardly be observed,
may be produced in a variety of ways. It may
consist chiefly of the fermented urine of horses,
or cows, or pigs, or a mixture of them all; or it
may lie produced by converting the solid and
liquid excrementitious matters of our domestic
animals into a muddy liquid ; and in this pro
cess of liquifying the solid excrements, and pre
paring them for distribution on the land, much or
little water may bo used. These and several
other circumstances must, of course, affect the
composition of liquid manure, and with it its fer
tilizing value.
Experience has shown that liquid manure pro
duces the most beneficial and most striking ef
fects when applied to light, deep, sandy soils,
resting upon a porous subsoil. However poor
originally such a soil may be, after repeated ap
plications of liquid manure it is rendered capa
ble of yielding remunerative and even large crops.
Witness, for instance, the almost sterile sands
which abound in Flanders, and the astonishing
change which it effects upon them.
Provided the subsoil be well drained, or of a
porous nature, it may be safely asserted that any
sandy soil, however sterile in its natural state,
may be made to yield heavy crops through the
instrumentality of liquid manure. Indeed, the
poorer the soil, the more striking would lie the
result.
For poor, sandy soils, the system of liquid
manuring cannot be too highly recommended, for,
I believe, that all other plans of applying fertiliz
ing materials to them will be found far less ef
ficacious in their results. If we examine into
the chemical and physical characters of soils
similar to those which abound in Flanders, we
shall not bo long in discovering the causes of the
astonishing success which has crowned the sys
tem of liquid manuring in Belgium aud other
countries.
In order to render more intelligible the expla
nation of the causes of the highly beneficial ef
fects which liquid manure produces under these
circumstances, I may be allowed to introduce
here the composition of two sandy soils, which I
have lately examined:
Composition of two sandy soils from the neighlor
hoodof Cirencester.
NO I. NO. 11.
Organic matter anil a little water of
combination 5.86 4.82
Oxiile of Iron and alumina, 5.78 12.16
Carbonate of lime 25 .15
Potash, soda, and magnesia, 49 .46
Phosphoric acid, none faint trace
Sulphuric acid trace trace
Chloride trace trace
Insoluble siliciou- matter (chiefly fine
qnartz sand with but little clay,). .88.12 52.41
100.00 100.00
It will be observed that most soils abound in
quartz sand, and are deficient in clay and lime.
No. I, especially, is very sandy, and even poor
er than No. 11, for I could not detect in it any
phosphoric acid, and found in it less clav than in
No. 11.
On land of that description, corn roots or
grass cannot possibly be grown with advantage
without manure; for in these soils all the more
important mineral constituents, which are re
quired for sustaining a healthy and luxuriant
vegetation, are either altogether absent, or are
greatly deficient Thus, No. I contains no ap
preciable quantity of phosphoric acid, and No. II
mere traces. Again, it will be noticed that lime,
which in larger or smaller quantities is contained
in every kind of agricultural produce, occurs
very sparingly in these soils, and that the per
centage of potash and soda in both is far from
what it ought to be, in order to meet the wants
of growing plants. Taking potash, soda, and
magnesia together, there is not quite a half per
cent, in these soils, and probably the major part
of this fractional per centage consists of magne
sia. Sulphuric acid likewise is wanting in both
soils. In short, both are poor soils, that require
to be heavily manured before they can be made
to yield a respectable crop, and that soon return
to their natural sterile state when the usual dress
ings of manure are withheld.
Hungry soils, of such and similar composition,
are grateful for almost any kind of manure, for
as they arc greatly deficient in plant-food, ma
nures that contain even small quantities of phos
phoric acid or alkalies must produce a beneficial
effect. The poorer the soil, the more striking
will be the effect which the manure produces,
and the more diluted may the latter be before it
ceases to produce any visible effect.
It can be shown (and experience informs us,)
that liquid manure, in a concentrated state,
would act injuriously upon the vegetation on
most soils which are benefitted by liquid ma
nure ; and that the more sterile and sandy the
soil naturally is, the greater the necessity for di
luting the manure.
Under ordinary circumstances, it is the soil
that furnishes to plants a considerable propor
tion of the mineral matters, which are left be
hind on reducing them to ashes. As a rule, the
manure, in addition to the nitrogenised substances
and other organic constituents, is required to
supply, in preference, those mineral matters,
which, like phosphoric acid or potash, are gene
rally sparingly distributed through the soil. The
natural resources of mineral plant-food vary
greatly in quantity and in quality in different
soils. In most, the more common fertilizing ma
terials, such as lime and magnesia, sulphuric
acid, silica, and even potash, are found in such
abundance, that we need not care to replace
them in the moasure in which they are carried
off the land in the different crops of a rotation.
There are a few soils upon which we can con
tinue to grow paying crops of roots, clover, or
com, without restoring in the shape of manure
the more valuable minerals, such as phosphoric
acid ; but where it is yet necessary to replace
the nitrogenised food of plants, which, it appears,
is diminished in a high degree by tlie growth of
white crops. Upon land rich in available miner
al matters, purely nitrogenised or ammoniacal
manure may be used with far more safety, (and in
many instances with true and permanent econo
my.) than upon soils deficient in available miner
al food. The injurious effects of an excess of
ready formed ammonia and nitrogenised matters
readily furnishing ammonia on decomposition,
show themselves no where plainer than upon
poor sandy soils. Daily experience tells us to
use ammoniacal manures, but sparingly in such
cases. Now, liquid manure, we have seen, al
ways contains a considerable proportion ofnitro
genized organic matters, rs well as ready-'ormed
ammonia; but it is deficient in phosphoric
acid and other mineral matters, which, under or
dinary circumstances, are furnished to the plant
by the soil. The liquid manure produced on a
farm, when applied in a concentrated state, of
course cannot penetrate the soil to any great
depth, or, at any rate, cannot soak so deeply into
the soil as it would, had it been previously dilut
ed with three or four times its bulk of water.—
There are many sandy soils in which lime, mag
nesia, phosphoric acid, and other minerals occur,
but in very small quantities. If such soils are
manured with a too concentrated description of
liquid manure, there will not be a sufficient
quantity of mineral food in the soil and the ma
nure to counterbalance the injurious effects
which an overdose of purely niti-opcnised food is
well khown to produce. Grass land, under such
circumstances, will produce abundant, but rauk,
innutritions, bad-keeping hay; wheat will give
abundance of straw, but little and inferior com;
swedes, turnips, apd other root crops will make
rapid progress, and then become attacked by dis
ease.
For these reasons, it is necessary to dilute
liquid manure largely, if we wish to put it on
poor sandy soils. Diluted with much water it
penetrates a larger mass of soil, and, so to speak,
becomes moresaturated with the animal fertilizing
matters that are wanted by the plant, and are
so sparingly distributed throughout the soil.
And this leads me to observe that liquid manure
is particularly well adapted for porous,sandy soils,
because it penetrates them when properly diluted
doeply and uniformly, which is a great advan
tage, since the porous nature of sand allows the
roots of plants to penetrate the soil to a great
depth, aud in every direction in search of food.
In other words, sandy soils are excellent vehi
cles for holding a diluted manure, in which the
different constituents occur in an immediately
available, or, so to say. cooked state.
The porous, and often uniform physical char
acter of such soils, moreover, causes great fluc
tuations in the amount of moisture, and in dry
and warm weather, they dry to a considerable
depth, leaving a porous and friable surface ex
posed to the action of the atmosphere.
SEEDING DOWN PASTURE LAND.
Seeding down lands for meadows is a very
simple process. Pure timothy hay is generally
preferred, especially for horses, and brings the
highest price in market, though there are not a
few who believe that orchard grass, combined
with red clover, is equally nutritious, pound for
pound, and will yield more per acre, while it af
fords not only earlier pasture in spring, but more
pasture in spring and autumn both, than pure
timothy. For timothy meadow, on old land, the
soil must be plowed deep, thoroughly harrowed,
and well manured. Sow in autumn, on wheat
or rye, or on the naked fallow. Brush in, and
roll. A bushel of good seed is made, under dif
ferent hands, to cover two, three, four, and even
five acres. Our individual experience with tim
othy has been small. We know good grass-far
mers, however, who never sow less than two
acres. Perhaps four acres to the bushel is an
average seeding, but on land not rich, we should
incline to think three acres to the bushel better.
In forming orchard grass meadow, abundant
experience has shown that two bushels of seed
to the acre is a judicious quantity; and if upon
this be sown four or five quarts of red clover
seed, the product will be enhanced in both quan
tity and quality.
But it is with reference to seeding down pas
ture lands that we propose to say something at
this time. And the first word is, that this is a
matter much less perfectly understood than the
establishment of meadow's. Timothy alone, or
timothy, red-top, and blue-grass, will make a
permanent meadow', which will produce- heavy
crops of good hay for many years, if well treated.
So orchard grass and red clover, will make a
good, permanent meadow, with reference to the
product of which no reasonable man will have
cause to complain, unless he feeds it off too
close the first year, and suffers it to be abused
subsequently. But for good, permanent pasture
many grasses are wanted. Yet, in one section
of our State, we find laid down to blue-grass; in
another section, to timothy; in a third, to or
chard grass and red clover combined. Rarely
do we find more than two or three grasses grow
ing in the same pasture; yet, not less than one
hundred species have been described by bota-
nists, as growing spontaneously in the great
Mississippi valley.
In England, as many as twenty-two species
of grass have been found growing upon a square
foot of ancestral pasture, that had been grazed
unremitingly through many generations. And
English pastures wear well, producing food for
a long period, from very early in the spring to
very late in the fall. Why ?" Simply because,
instead of being confined to one or two grasses,
that start about the same time, as is the Ameri
can custom, they seed down the lands intended
to remain for a series of years in pasture, with
all the varieties that will grow upon them, and
thus secure a regular succession of succulent and
nutritious food the season through.
Louisville Courier.
M > i >
DOMESTIC RECIPES.
We copy from the July number of the Genesee
Farmer the following recipes:
To Make Crackers. —Take one egg, one pint
sweet milk, one tea-cupful lard, a little salt, and
enough flour to make a stiff dough. Rub the
lard and some flour together; then add the egg
and milk. Add flour and knead well till it is a
very stiff dough. Then add to this one-half its
size of light dough, knead them well together,
and set away to rise. When light, roll out to
one-eiglith of an inch thick, cut in squares,
prick with a fork, and bake to a crisp.
Brown Nuts. —Take one and a half tea-cups
ful sugar, four tea-cupsful buttermilk, two tea
spoonsful saleratus, two eggs, a little salt, and
flour enough to form a dough. Beat the eggs
light and mix them with the milk, add the saler
atus, turn this into the flour, then add the sugar
and knead well. Roll out to one-half inch thick,
cut into little round cakes about an inen in diam
eter, put them into a pan of hot lard, and take
them out when a nut brown color. ,
Butter Biscuit. —Take two tea-cupfuls of but
ter, and nib it well into some dry flour; then
add two eggs well beaten, and one quart of
sweet milk, with flour enough to make a very
stiff dough. Knead it well, and then add to it
one-half its size of light dough ; knead together
and let it rise. When light, roll it out and cut
into round cakes, prick with a fork, and bake.
Doughnuts. —Take one quart of light dough,
a piece of lard the size of an egg, and one-half
tea-cupful of sugar, knead well together, roll
out thin, cut any form you wish, and ’drop into
a pan of boiling lard. Remove them when of a
light yellow color.
Beer. —Twenty drops wintergreen, twenty
drops essence cinnamon, twenty drops essence
sassafras, one pint molasses, one table-spoonful
ginger, half pint yeast, five quarts hot and five
quarts cold water. Let it ferment, and cork
tightly in bottles.
Wiping Dishes. —Much time is wasted' by
house-keepers in wiping their dishes. If pro
perly washed and drained in a dry sink, with a
cloth spread on the bottom, they look better
than when wiped, iiesides the economy in time
and labor.
Dandy Pudding. —One quart milk, two table
spoonsful flour, yolks of four eggs well beaten
and mixed with the milk. Beat the whites sep
arately with four tea-spoonsful sugar, drop on the
top of the pudding, aud put in the oven.
Sponge Biscuit. — One pint yeast, one quart
sweet milk, one cupful butter, half cupful lard,
one teuspoonfUl salt, a little soda. Mix. When
light, mould in small biscuits. Let them set fif
teen minutes, then bake.
Good Biscuit. —Take one quart of sour cream,
half a tea-cupful of butter, tea-spoonful of soda,
a little salt, knead it stiff and mould it well, roll
out, and cut with a biscuit ring.
To Preserve Herbs. —All kinds of herbs
should be gathered on a dry day, just before, or
while they are in blosoru. Tie them in bundles,
and susjfcnd them in a dry. airy place, with
their blossoms downward. When perfectly dry,
wrap the medicinal ones in paper, and keep them
from the air. Pick off the leaves of those which
are to be used for cooking, pound or rub, and
sift them fine, and keep the powder in bottles
corked up tight.
To Keep Cheese from Moulding. —After it is
cut, wrap it in a linen cloth and keep it in a tight
tin box. Bread will keep much longer fresh in
this way; also', doughnuts and all kinds of
cake;
Coffee is as much improved by washing be
fore roasting, as potatoes before cooking, for
those who dislike to drink dirt.
To Prevent Holes from coming in the
Heels and Toes of Stockings. —Dam them
carefully as soon as they beefllno threadbare.
To Prevent Dough from Souring. —Watch
it closely, and bake it as soon as it is light
enough.
What to do if it becomes Sour. —Put in soda
or saleratus. and eat that which, if put moist on
the back of your hand, will make a sore in an
hour. Another way : Throw it to the pigs, and
watch closer next time.
How to Make Children Mind. —First, con
sider them as children, and not as old folks.—
Second, never command them to do anything
unreasonable. N. B.—l learned this rule from
the old hen. She follows these rules, and her
chickens always mind.
What to do in a Fit of Ennui. —Go into the
attic and look over all the old mbbish. You
will be sure to find something interesting, and
something to do.
What to do in a Fit of the Blues.— Go and
see the poorest and sickest families within your
knowledge.
W HAT TO DO IN A FIT OF THE SULKS.— Think
over all the kindness you have received, and the
manner in whieh you have repaid them.
How to Prevent Bcttoxs from coming off
from Clothes. —As soon as they become loose,
cut them off, and sew them on good with a
strong double thread.
Hpw to Prevent Hens from doing Mischief
in your own and your Neighbors’ Gardens.—
Give them a yard with a high, tight fence, a good,
warm shelter, and plenty of food.
When to Cut Pig Yokes. —When you hap
pen to see them. But you had better shut your
pigs where there is a good tight fence, feed them
well, and they will not need yoking.
How to Prevent Cattle from Becoming
Unruly. —Have good fences, and keep them up.
See that they have water and salt enough, good
feed, and never abuse them. X.
Gorham, Ontario co., N. Y., 1859.
Dwapf Pears. —“ We have repeatedly laid
down this rule as a guide, that no ODe should
plant extensively of dwarfs who was uot satisfi
ed 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, tliat the stocks are of the best
sort; fourthly, that the cultivation is as good as
carrots and cabbages usually receive.”
Country Gentleman.
[Written for the Southern Field and Fireside ]
BED CLOVER MILLET AND MANGEL
. WORZEL.
Much has been written on the subject of
clover, and grasses, and the value of the cul
ture thereofj and the great benefit to be derived,
one might readily come to the conclusion that
enough has been said on the subject.
I, for one, however, cannot come to such con
clusion, for I think it of vital importance to
every farmer, as also to the great mass of the
people, for wherever the fanning intresta are
promoted, the whole populace enjoys the bless
ings to a greater or less degree. With this
view of the case, I beg leave to offer a few re
marks from personal observation picked up on
the way side.
I have noticed that in planting red clover, the
red or clay land is best adapted for its culture,
and on which it thrives best.
Upper as well as middle Georgia, and the
upper districts of South Carolina, a portion of
North Carolina and Alabama, clover can be
cultivated with success.
In planting (or sowing) clover, the soil should
be well broken, and the seed sown with wheat
or oats, to protect the clover roots from the in
fluence of the sun. The small and delicate roots
that first shoot out are easily billed, if not protect
ed as above; this gives the protection ; and by
' the time the wheat or oats are cut, the roots of
the clover have so (tenetrated the soil, and be
come strong enough to withstand the heat. Be
sides, the stubble of wheat, or oats, as well as the
leaves of the plant itself, assist greatly in its
farther protection from the sun’s rays, while the
plant is young and tender.
In planting clover, a farmer should plant each
year a lot for three successive years; the first
lot for the first year should be undisturbed, and
allowed to go to seed, the second year he should
cut it, the third year either cut it or turn it under
or turn his hogs upon it—for dow it will yield an
abundant harvest, and the foil so improved by
turning it under; and with a fair season, an abun
dant crop of corn, can be made. Treating each
lot in this way in succession, a farmer can al
ways have a fine crop of clover, and improve
the soil at the same time, with little or no labor;
and if he thinks proper, the lot can remain in
clover until the fourth year. After cutting the
clover, it should remain on the ground a suffi
cient time to wilt; if in the sun, two hours will
be sufficient for this purpose. It should be then
hauled off and stacked in the open lot. In stack
ing, for every layer of half a foot a good sprink
ling of salt should be put upon it, until the stack
is completed. The wilted plant will readily im
bibe the salt and preserve the moisture without
injury, and is very palatable as well as whole
some to stock. I noticed a stack that had
been treated in this way in Tennessee, and
also on each side of the said stack, two
other stacks of timothy ; the cattle had access
to them, where the stack of clover was eaten.
The timothy, although vciy fine, was not touched.
Whether this was caused from their preference to
the .clover, or the salt, or both, I cannot say.
This mode of treating clover, I think, decidedly
better than putting it away in its dry state, for
two reasons : it being more nutritious, and will
go much farther in feeding; besides, you salt the
cattle at the same time, which prevents a good
deal of disease among them. When hogs are
turned into a lot of clover, they become more* or
less salivated for a time, and after being on
it a while, it so prepares their system, that when
taken from this and fed with corn, they fatten di
reotly, and will take much less corn to do it. than
the hogs which were not on the clover.
All this I have witnessed in Tennessee and
elsewhere ; mid I hope some of the farmers in
the Carolinas, Alabama, and Georgia, will test the
matter. Now, farther North, we are aware that
clover is much easier (frown.
This much have I said about clover; and what
shall 1 say to the farmers whose soil and cli
mate are not adapted to its culture ? Simply,
this: cultivate grasses tor meadows; many of you
have, and particularly millet, for this will grow
wherever a grain of corn will; plant in drills ;
gray or sandy land will answer, say about the
middle or end of February ; ’tis the earliest
grass you can have, and will repay you well for
its culture. On one quarter of an acre, you can
find and keep fat, a couple of saddle horses, to
gether with two or three milch cows.
You commence cutting the first row, and so
on until you reach the last, which you can leave
for seed, and by the time you got to the last row,
you can commence on the first again, and so on.
for at least five cuttings. The ihillet is easily
cultivated, and should be planted by all the low
country farmers.
The Mangle Wurtzel or Field Beet, grows
finely in our southern latitude, and deserves
the attention of all farmers. They grow to a
large size and when taken from the field, and
kept in a dry cellar, they can be fed to cattle
all winter, cither by boiling or cut up raw. Boil
ing is best, if convenient. They are superior to
the turnip, although it would be as well to have
both. All these deserve the attention of our
southern farmers, before we can compete with
our northern and western brethren in stock
raising, milk, butter and hogs, &e.
Yours, Charles Pemble.
——•
Age of Animals. —A bear rarely exceeds
twenty years; a dog lives twenty years; a wolf
twenty: a fox fourteen to fifteen; lions are long
lived —"Pompey ” lived to the age of seventy.
The average of cats is fifteen years; a squir
rel and hare seven or eight years; rabbits
seven. Elephants have been known to live
to the great age of four hundred years. When
Alexander the Great had conquered one
Pliarus, king of India, he took a great ele
phant which had fought very valiantly for
the king, named him Ajax, and dedicated
him to the sun, and let him go with this in
scription : “ Alexander, the son of Jupiter,
hath dedicated Ajax to the sun.” This elephant
was found with this inscription three hundred
and fift.v years after. Pigs have been known to
live to the age of thirty years; the rhinoceros to
twenty. A horse has been known to live to the
age of sixty-two, but averages twenty-five to
thirty. Camels sometimes live to the age of
one hundred. Stags are long-lived. Sheep sel
dom exceed the age of ten. Cows live about fif
teen y'ears. Cuvier considers it probable that
whales sometimes live to the age of one thou
sand. The dolphin and porpoise attain the age
of thirty. An eagle died at Vienna at the age
of one hundred and four years. Ravens fre
quently reached the age of one hundred. Swans
have been known to live three hundred and
sixty years. Mr. Mallerton has the skeleton of
a swan that attained the age of two hundred
years. Pelicans are long-lived. A tortoise has
been known to live to the age of one hundred
and seven.— Exchange.
—————
Yellow Roses. —The Gardener's Chronicle ,
from recent experiments, says that “ roses like
the Cloth of Gold and Isabel a Gray demand four
things: 1, a warm soil; 2, a southern exposure;
3, time; 4. to be protected from the pruning’
knife;” and asks, ‘ may not these be also the
conditions demanded by the famous old Double
Yellow Rose herself?"
71