447 
CONDITION AND PROSPECTS OF SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE. 
From the many interesting letters received in response to a circular sent out 
by this Department for the purpose of collecting information in reference to 
the condition and progress of southern agriculture, we select the following com- 
prehensive paper from John A. Trenchard, esq., of Elberton, Georgia, for inser- 
tion in the monthly report : 
1. For an average of 10 years, say from 1850 to 1860, there was about one- 
third of the acreage cultivated in what is called in this State clean crop, to wit: 
cotton, and corn planted in cotton; the balance, or the other two-thirds, was 
planted in corn. Add to the above 33% per cent. for the land planted in small 
grain, (principally wheat and oats,) and you will have about the average per- 
centage of the principal crops grown in this section of the State. 
2. The mode of culture was the same as that now practiced, to wit: the 
land is first bedded up ; this is done by laying off the rows with a small scooter 
plough about three feet apart; then a turning-plough is used to throw up the 
soil on-each side of the row furrow, making a high bed of soil over the row 
furrow and leaving a deep water furrow in between the rows; the top of this 
bed is then opened with small scooter plough two to three inches deep ; the cot- 
ton seed is then sown in this drill furrow at the rate of three to five bushels per 
acre ; asmall harrow, or, what is more usual, a piece of board about twelve inches 
long, fastened to the foot of a small wooden plough stock, is then run over this 
drill furrow, covering the seed from one to one and a half inch deep. In a period 
varying from five to ten days, owing to the temperature of the weather, the 
young plant makes its appearance; as soonas fairly up the working commences. 
Some chop through the rows with a hoe before ploughing ; cutting out a portion 
of the young plants and stirring the earth about the roots of the remaining ones, 
so that the rays of the warm sun may penetrate and permeate among the roots, 
for cotton is a sun plant; the more sun the young plant gets the more rapidly it 
grows; but more usually the cotton row is sided with a very narrow scooter 
plough, so arranged as to throw the soil from the roots of the plant, for the 
same purpose as above stated in manipulations with the hoe, namely, that of 
giving the young plant the benefit of the sun. After this siding of the cotton, 
the hoe is run through it, thinning it partially to a stand, leaving enough in the 
rows to make a stand after the plants quit dying, which is not generally the 
ease till the second working, after it is thinned down to a stand of two or three 
plants in a hill, six inches to one footapart. After first siding and hoeing the 
cotton as before stated, the middle of the rows are ploughed out with a wide 
shovel or a sweep, which latter implement only cultivates the surface of the 
earth from one to one and a half inch deep. The crop is then ploughed and 
hoed alternately three or four times, keeping up the working till the middle or 
last of July. The surface culture for cotton is the most approved mode by 
our best and most scientific farmers. 
3. The product of genuine cotton per acre varies according to the quality of 
the land cultivated. Unmanured lands produce from 50 to 400 pounds of. ginned 
cotton per acre; the general average for this State is about 100 pounds per 
acre, and the average per hand is about 1,200 pounds ginned cotton, or three 
bales per hand. Some of our best planters have by the free use of fertilizers and 
by skilful modes of culture grown on one acre 1,200 pounds of ginned cotton. 
Mr. David Dickson, of Haneock county, Georgia, who has carried experimental 
farming to a higher degree than perhaps any other man in the State, has even 
exceeded the foregoing amount per acre on a small lot highly cultivated ; but 
these are only exceptional cases; still they show what can be done by high 
fertilizing and improved and skilful modes of culture. 
