46 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 1 



ton. I have never used the plough myself, but I 

 have seen it work to such advantage, as to be con- 

 vinced of its utility. It is a plough with a long 

 F^vo^d upon one side, which shaves the sides of 

 the bed, and can be had at Mr. Martin's black- 

 smith-siiop, Wentworth-street, Charleston. As I 

 have said, this plough shaves the sides of the bed, 

 and one ploughman and a hand, can with ease go 

 over ibur acres per day. The tops of the beds, 

 near the cofion, are left untouched. This the ne- 

 groes attend to with the hoe. One acre is given to 

 each, and their work now is, to hoe what the plough 

 has lell untouched, to pick the grass fi'oni the bed, 

 and to loosen with their fingers the earth around 

 the young plants. Those who use this plough, 

 plant more largelj^ to the hand than those who 

 use the hoe ; but I shall not do so, tlioiigh I shall 

 use it. This plough may be used in hoeing grass, 

 until the cotton grows so high as to render it unsale 

 to use it longer. 



Where this plough is not used, the first hoeing 

 of cotton consists, in each hand hoeinir, as soon 

 after the cotton is up as possible, the sides of the 

 beds. A chop or two should be given, on each 

 side of the plants, with the hoe, but great care 

 must be taken that the plant is not bruised. After 

 this, all grass, if there be any, must be removed 

 from the plant, and the earth loosened about 

 it. 



Second loorking. — After the first hoeing has been 

 completed, the second working should commence. 

 This consists in going .over the field, and hauling 

 up the earth around the plants, which has been 

 thrown from it at the first working. Between the 

 first and second working, some grass ma\' have 

 grown around the plants ; this should first be re- 

 moved by the band, and the cotton-plants in each 

 hill should be thinned down to Ibur, five, or six, ac- 

 cording to their strength of growth. This second 

 working gives the plants a start, which will enable 

 them to be left to themselves until the corn-crop 

 has been attended to. The corn-crop having been 

 attended to, the third working of the cotton should 

 now commence. 



TTiird working. — This is done like the second, 

 and the plants should be thinned down to two or 

 three, as circumstances require. 



Fourth working — is, with many planters, the 

 last. The plants are now thinned down, accord- 

 ing to the nature of the land. If it be very strong, 

 and the cotton grows high and thick, sixty stalks 

 should be left in each task (one hundred and five 

 feet) row. In a word, the best mode of thinning 

 is, to leave the stalks so wide apart, as to calcu- 

 late upon a free circulation of air around them. I 

 am decidedly opposed to thinning out the plants 

 after the field has been in blossom. The plants 

 are then so high, and their roots so large, that the 

 removal of any of them from the bed must disturb 

 those that remain. When removal is required, I 

 prefer cutting those to be removed, close to the 

 roots with a knife. This can be as easily done as 

 pulling them out, and it is much the best for the 

 remaining plants. 



It will be perceived, that in making provision for 

 the treatment of my cotton and corn, I have said 

 nothing about potatoes. These I always cultivate 

 with two or three old hands, whose sole business 

 it is to attend to them. My cotton and corn are 

 thus not interfered with. 



I have written this article in great haste, Mr. 



Editor, but I send it to you as it stands, in order 

 that it may reach O. P. Q. in time. 



St. Helena. 



SALT, A SPECIFIC MANURE FOR COTTOIV, AND 

 THE CAUSE OF THE SUPERIORITY OF THE 

 SEA'ISLAND VARIETY. 



It seems to us that salt must act as a specific manure 

 for cotton, and is essential to produce the fineness of fibre 

 that constitutes the value of the sea-island cotton. As 

 different as is the quality and appearance of this cotton 

 from the green-seed, or short staple upland cotton, they 

 are but varieties of the same kind, the most valued of 

 which, rapidly runs into the other, by mere change of 

 soil. The one kind is raised, in perfection, only on the 

 low sandy islands on the sea coast of Georgia and South 

 Carolina, and the adjacent shores of the main land. If 

 the seeds (which are naked and black,) are planted in 

 the interior, though but little remote from the sea, the 

 product is what is called the "long staple Santee," a 

 green seed cotton, but of longer fibre than the ordinary 

 upland cotton, into which however, continued planting 

 from the same, finally brings the crop. 



It has been supposed that the very sandy nature of 

 the soil of the sea-islands was the cause of the peculiar 

 value of the cotton they bear. But if so, some spots, at 

 least, might be found equally sandy, in the interior of the 

 country, and the same kind of cotton there produced 

 successfully. But the account we have in the forego- 

 ing and other articles of the peculiar value of salt mud 

 and salt grass, as manures for cotton, indicate plainly 

 that salt itself is necessary for the perfection of cotton, 

 and that it is owing to the salt already in the soil of the 

 sea-islands, and the adjacent low coast, that to such 

 narrow limits the production of that valuable variety of 

 cotton has heretoibre been confined. 



QUERIES. 



To tlie Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Mathews C. H., Va., 3farchS0lh, 1837. 



1st. If a fiirmer have a certain quantity of lime- 

 or marl, but insufficient to cover a given quantity 

 of land with a flill dressing, would it be better to 

 spread it over a large surface in small quantity, or 

 to put it on a small surface in full proportion? For 

 example, suppose a farmer has a field containing- 

 forty acres, and has one thousand bushels of lime; 

 would it be more advantageous to put his lime on 

 ten acres, at the rate of one hundred bushels per 

 acre, or on the whole forty, at the rate of twenty- 

 five bushels per acre? 



2nd. By what means can so small a quantity of 

 lime, as ten bushels, be spread evenly on an acre 

 of land? 



3rd. Will a bushel [one hundred bushels?] of 

 marl, containing fifty per cent, of calcareous mat- 

 ter, have as quick and efficacious action, as fifty 

 bushels of shell lime, when spread upon land ? 



The editor is requested to answer these ques- 

 tions in his journal, as they may gratify others, as 

 well as 



W. S. 



Answer to 1st Qvcry. The greatest total effect (though 

 less per acre) will be produced by spreading the marl 



