Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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