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THE SOUTHERN WORLD, MARCH 15,1882.
8
Farming In Month Carolina.
Bennettsvillk, S. C., March 1,1882.
Editor Southern World:
Thinking a letter from one of your sub
scribers from this section of the country
would not be uninteresting, I have taken
the liberty of writing you. I think your
paper is the best agricultural journal I have
ever read; it fills a want long needed. Most
agricultural papers write on subjects that
generally are of no interest to a Southern
farmer. This county (Marlborough), is the
most productive one in the State; the far
mers are generally in a prosperous condition.
Our principal manures are cotton seed and
Peruvian guano; cotton seed are rarely used
for any other purpose than manure, and are
highly appreciated as such, and sell from 15
to 20 cents per bushel. They are applied as
follows: a furrow is run in middle of row,
and from 20 to 40 bushels per acre is scat
tered in this furrow; if the seed are green,
they are put out about tho middle of Feb
ruary and covered with a board attached to
a shovel stock; about the first of April guano
(Peruvian) is sowed on this at the rate of 105
pounds per acre and covered with two fur
rows of turn plow; the balks are then
bursted up with a shovel plow and planting
commences from the 15th of April to the 1st
of May—this is for cotton. If I mistake not,
the average yield per acre for cotton, is 800
pounds of seed cotton.
Last year we suffered very much from
drought; the corn and cotton crop was from
one-half to three-fourths only. A larger
acreage of small grain was sown last fall,
than was ever known before. Oats looks
very promising now.
Less cotton will be planted this year.
Owing to the high price of Peruvian guano,
a comparatively small amount will be used,
and resort had to what is called bed "fertil
isers," which are manufactured ip Charles
ton, S. C.; such as soluble guano, acid phos
phate and ash element; kainit is also being
used very largely. I am manuring as fol
lows: applying now 40 bushels of green cot
ton seed and 200 pounds kainit in the drill
to the acre; a month hence I shall apply on
this 300 pounds ash element in drill, per
acre, and ridge for cotton.
For corn, I bed up all land and sow in the
water furrow a compost of cotton seed, lot
manure and ash element, about 800 pounds
per acre, make a small bed on this with two
shovel furrows; upon this bed with one fur
row (three-inch bull-tongue) and plant com
30 inches in drill,.rows 6 feet apart. We
cultivate almost entirely with sweep; vari
ous patterns used—some use a cast-iron
standard attached to wooden beam and
handles, using in this the half Dixon sweep
made by tho Southern Agricultural Works
of your city, and you have a farming imple
ment hard to surpass for the cultivation of
corn and cotton; few walking cultivators are
used—Avery’s pattern mostly; a few are
using the Kemp manure-spreader with satis
faction.
It this machine will do what is claimed for
it, and farmers will devote more time to
making barn-yard manure, making compost
according to formula given by you in your
issue of February 15th, every farmer can
have a fertilizing manufactory on his own
premises, and the days of commercial fertil
izers will be numbered.
Wishing great success for your valuable
paper, I am very truly yours. W.
Improving Need-Corn.
Home, Ga., Feb. 10th, 1885.
I read a suggestion in a paper of recent
date on the Improvement of corn by fertil
ising the ear, or what might be an ear from
the pollen from some preferred stalk; that in
that way an improvement could be made. It
would be very difficult to do and besides it
would not be possible to tell the best till a
full development.
If you will listen for a while to me I will
give you my plan of improving corn, and
hope it may be of benefit to some one at least.
I have been planting the same kind of com
for fifty years,and have kept up tble improve
ment of it by never planting from a defec
tive ear, always selecting a well filled ear
that comes nearest to filling or covering the
entire cob. In the next place I select the
top ear from those stalks with two ears and
upwards,, and then select from it my seed
for planting. This I do every third or fourth
year, for there iB such a thing as overdoing,
or too much of a good thing. Corn that is
rightly improved I have never known to fail
and never expect to see the seasons so fatal
here as to make a failure when it is properly
cultivated. I .never go for com with too
much cobb or stalk, because it takes rain
and rich land to produce them while it would
pay best to go into corn. In speaking of
overdoing, it may not be understood,I mean
by that,'you may go on to plant from stalks
with from one to seven ears till it would re
duce the size of ears to that extent it would
not be so desirable. Truly yours,
T. T. E.
INQUIRY COLUMN.
PASTURE GRABS.
W., Bennettville, S. C.: “I have a bottom
of 8 or 10 acres, which I wish to util
ize as a pasture; surrounding land—light,
loamy, (bordering on sandy) soil; in wet
times this bottom is overflowed with water.
How is the best way to prepare it for making
a pasture; and what kind of grass will do
best. How many pounds per acre to sow of
seed?
Answer. If “W" is not afraid of Bermu
da he will find it the very best grass for the
purpose. It is not only the best pasture
grass, but on rich bottom land it makes a
good meadow. If you adopt Bermuda you
must decide, once for all, to give up the land
to it, for on bottom land it is practically in
eradicable. v-
If the Bermuda sod is convenientlyplenti-
fui, take up the sod, wash the soil from it, cut
it up in a feed cutter, sow like small grain ;
plow in with scooter or turn shovel and har
row well. It will require two or three bush
els peracre of the cut roots to give a thick
stand. If the sod is not convenient or plen
tiful, break the land well, lay off three feet
rows, drop joint of the root every three feet
and cover with the foot or plow, and harrow
well.
If “\V” cannot trust Bermuda let him try
Herds grass and white clover, four quarts of
each per acre. If desired to make hay, add
a peck of Timothy (if in the mountain region
of the State.) September is the best month
to sow grass seeds of all kinds. The soil
should be slightly plowed, well harrowed
and the seed sown upon the surface and
cither brujfced in or the rains permitted to
cover them.
BEST VARIETY OP COTTON.
Subscriber, Beauregard, Miss.: “I should
be glad to know the best cotton seed for
planting—the most productive. I have four
acres of ground. I will have it well fertilized
and want the best seeds. Where can they be
procured, and at what cost ? What yield to
the acre of rich soil! What is the best fer
tilizer for cotton?”
Answer: At the recent Cotton Exposition
the “McKibben Hybrid” cotton took the
prize offered for the best twelve stalks, and
we think deserved it—beyond question. It
is a well formed, very prolific cotton, and
would make from one to two bales per acre
on rich land. Write to C. L. Bowie, Social
Circle, Ga., for prices. The “Ozier” silh cot
ton, from our correspondents own state at
tracted considerable attention also as a pro
lific, long staple variety. Dr. Wm. B. Jones
Herndon, Ga., can supply seed of the "Her-
long” a standard variety. [Why do not seed
growers advertise in “The World?”]
On upland, a compost of cotton seed, sta
ble manure and acid phosphate, is the best
manure for cotton. On comparatively rich
lands, less ammonia is required, and humus is
not so requisite. On such a good commer
cial super-phosphate containing IK to2 per
cent, of ammonia, and twelve to fourteen of
available phosphoric acid, will give excel
lent results.
Soaring the Soli with Salpharie Acid.
At the late Augusta Convention, a promi
nent member (a practical farmer) in endeav
oring to account for the observed decrease
in the fertilizing effects of superphosphates
of lime after long continued use on the same
soil, Insisted that the sulphuric acid used in
their manufacture had soured the soil. In con
versing with others we found that this idea
was quite prevalent in some sections of the
country, and were told that it was first sug
gested by a prominent manufacturer of fer
tilizers—one who uses no sulphuric acid in
his process. However this may be, and with
no purpose at this time to enter into a de
fense of the use of commercial superphos
phates, the question is worthy of investiga
tion, to the end that error may be elimina
ted before any one suffers loss.
In the first place sulphuric acid is one of
the indispensable ingredients of a fertile
soil and is just as neccessary to the support
of a plant as phosphoric acid, ammonia or
potash. But being relatively more abundant
in natural soils, sulphuric acid is not usu
ally added to a fertilizer for its own sake,
but as a solvent to other elements.
But sulphuric acid, at tuch, is not applied
directly to the soil. In the manufacture of
acid phosphates, the sulphuric acid unites
with a portion of the lime contained in the
bone or other phosphates of lime, and forms
with it sulphate of lime, or land plaster—a
perfectly bland and almost tasteles and ino
dorous substance. The ordinary acid phos
phates of commerce contain about half their
weight of this, to say the least, harmless
material.
In the form of ground plaster it is largely
used in the North and elsewhere as a di
rect fertilizer.
Having no acid taste or corrosive action,
it is impossible for plaster to sour] the soil,
even if applied at the rate of several tons
per acre and the application be indefinitely
repeated.
But we may go further: Even if all the
sulphuric acid that is contained in a large
dose of acid phosphate, were in a free state,
fifty, yea, a hundred successive annual ap
plications would have no appreciable louring
effect on the soil. Let us calculate:
An acre of soil taken to the depth of one
foot will weigh 3,500,000 lbs. Now, fifty
pounds of sulphuric acid is about the quan
tity present in a liberal application of
acid phosphate to an acre, and if 50 pounds
of sulphuric acid be annually applied to an
acre, at the end of one hundred years, the
whole amount will be SOOOlbs,assuming that
it all remains in the soil in a free state
(which is utterly impossible). The5000 lbs.
would be about .014 per cent. 14 thousandths
of one per cent. Such a quantity would be
hardly observable by the most delicate taste.
The quantity of sulphuric acid (combined
and free in fertile soils varies from .02 to 1
per cent., or from 600 to 30,000 pounds,taken
one foot in depth.
The acid taste and corrosive effect usually
observed in acid phosphate is due to the
phosphate of lime, which has been rendered
soluble and at the same time act'd in re-ac
tion by the sulphuric acid. It is this acid
phosphate that so soon destroys the sacks
containing it; but when covered in the soil
it speedily becomes so diluted and diffused
that no harm can result unless placod in di
rect contact with the seed planted and in
considerable quantity. It. J. It.
A Meat and Bread Sermon for Improvi
dent Farmer*.
BY UNCLE REMUS,
Children have you any meat?—John, —, chop. —. v.
I once heard an old minister preach a
funeral sermon from this text, and he said
that it could be found somewhere in John.
I don’t know whether he told the truth or
not, but for the purposes of this sermon, I
will be rash enough to take it for granted
that he did.
Before proceeding to unveil the mysteries
and to elaborate the beauties of my text in
all their intricate ramifications, I feel con
strained to say that I suspect our peculiar
brother misapprehended the meaning of tho
language, as he stood in the midst of the
weeping relatives of the defunct whose fu
neral he was preaching, and, with his eyes
turned skyward, propounded that searching
inquiry, unless, peradventurc, he had failed
in obtaining his matutinal repast, in which
event it was but natural that he should have
been more thoughtful of the comforts of his
cravingstomach, than of the bereaved hearts
of his hearers. I am not preaching a fu
neral sermon my beloved, but verily I say
unto you, that a failure to give proper heed
to the teachings of this beautiful text, will
be a public invitation to the funeral of your
fortunes, your farms and your country, and
you will wander through the land, like the
lean and melancholy ghosts that chasscz
along the river Styx without the cash to pay
their ferriage, and your voices will be heard
like the voices of the Hebrews by the rivers
of Babylon, howling to every passing breeze,
CHILDREN, HAVE YOU ANY MEAT?
Awake, therefore, ye slothful agricultur
ists, awake and lend me your ears, while I
elucidate and fructify the everlasting truths
that corruscate along the everlasting crests
of my text.
I propose, then, to consider the meaning
of the words in this beautiful passage, in a
two fold light.
I—INDIVIDUALLY.
I would remark that there are dnly two
words in the text which I deem it necessary
to individualize and to catch the true ring
of, as the miser catcheth the ring of his coin
before he drops it into his old sock and hides
it under the hearth, and those two words are
•‘children” and “meat." I opine, my be
loved, that the word children in the text has
a much broader signification than that seg
ment of the human family which the old
women of the country spank with impu
nity, and glory in the blessed consciousness
that they can do it again if they want to. I
am persuaded that in the full amplitude of
its height and depth, its length and breadth,
it includes every native born American cit
izen, white and black, blue, yellow and
gray, male and female, old and young, to
gether with all the rest of man and woman
kind on the face of this time-bound earth,
and I do not think, therefore, my benighted
friends, that I would be stretching my ima
gination too far if I were to venture the as
sertion that it includes even you.
The word "meat” meuneth not alone the
aggregated globules which formeth the fleshy
portions of the corporeal tabernacles in
which the spiritual essences of the beasts of
the field, the fowls of the air, and tho fish of
the deep “live and move and have their be
ing,” but to every eatable thing under tho
sun which the tongue of man hankereth af
ter, or which lie hidoth beneath the broad
bosom of Ids abdominal ocean, for it is said
“his meat was locusts and wild honey.” I
say, therefore, my brethren, that meat here
means “vittles,” whether it be “chicken
fixens” or "flour doins," ham bones or corn
dodgers, pickle pork or biled cabbage, and
I challenge the universal creation to refute
the correctness of my doctrine.
II—COLLECTIVELY.
Having eliminated the true doctrine in
volved in tbo words children and meat, it is
easy to arrive at tho collective meaning of
the whole passage, and instead of saying
children, have you any meat, we may ex
press tlie same sentiment in the more artis
tic and poetical paraphrase,
o! FARMER, HAST THOU ANY “VITTLES?”
“Aye, there’s the rub.” Hast thou the
wherewithal—not to gorge thy everlasting
stomach at the next meal—but to feed thy
self and thy family, thine ox and thine ass,
thy hogs and thy cattle, even unto tho
sheep that browse upon thy pastures, and
the gobbler that struts in thy barn-yard,
until another crop shall come in the fulness
of time. O! my brethren if I could convert
myself into an angel and soar with tho speed
of thought throughout the length niul
breadth of this Southern clime, and pausing
at every door-step, exclaim in “thoughts
that breathe and words that burn,”
FARMER HAST THOU ANY "VITTLES?”
How many in this congregation could rise
up and, shaking the dew drops from tlieir
siiaggy manes, answer proudly,
“YEA, FATHER, I HAVE.”
Weoping, I pause for a reply. Oil! my
brethren, many are called but few are chos
en, and your hang-dog looks proclaim with
trumpet tongues that most of you arc in thu
vocative. Then wo unto you, foolisli farm
ers, for verily you are laying up for your
selves hunger against the day of hunger.
Wo unto you I say, for the folly of tho fool
ish virgins that trimmed net tlieir lamps
was wisdom compared with your idiotic ne
glect. Wo unto you and unto your wives;
wo unto your flocks and unto your children.
Wo two! wo 1 Alas! echo answers wo!
Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher,
vanity of vanities, all is vanity. The son of
David, king in Jerusalem, must have in
vented that idea on a full stomach, whereby
his reason was clouded, for the doctrine
which he there propounds is not altogether
correct. A myriad voices spring spontane
ously from the universal animated creation)
and uniting in one grand choral strain, pro
claim in tones of thunder that "vittles” is
not vanity, and I feel sure, my brethren,
that you will all take stock with me in that
beautiful and pathetic sentiment,
Give me “vittles" or give me death.
It has been beautifully said that bread is
the staff of life. I can vouch for the truth
of this remark with painful fervor, for
verily I say unto you that, in my meandcr-
ings through these low grounds of sin and
sorrow, it hath often happened that that
portion of my earthly tabernacle, which is
gracefully encircled with the waistband of
my breeches, hath travailed for “vittles,”
and as the ass brayeth for his provender,
even so have I been forced to cry unto the
children of Mammon in the language of my
text,
CHILDREN, HAVE YOU ANY MEAT?
If, therefore, ye raise not the “vittles,”
how can ye have the staff, and if ye have
not the staff how can ye support the life, and
if ye support not the life, what In the thun
der is to become of the country and the
preachers? I will tell you, my agrarian
brethren, what will become of you. You
will sit, like the prodigal son among the
swine, and dolefully sing,
I want but "vittles” here below,
And want that “ vittles" quick.
Or I shall wipe my weeping eyes
And the bucket eoonly kick.
“No we won’t,” some chuckle-headed
brother will say, “we will arise and go unto
our merchant and buy the fatted calf on