1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



17:? 



BADCN CORN — FOSSIL SHELL BANKS OP SOUTH 

 CAROLINA. 



To tlie Editor of llio Farmers' Register. 



Columbia, S. C, May 9th, 1838. 



A writer in your last number is desirous to 

 have it eslal)lisiiecl, that tiie Baden, or twin corn, 

 of Maryland, will yield 20 per cent, more than 

 the common corn. In reply to this writer, I will 

 state my experience of it last year in South Caro- 

 lina. 



I planted two acres of this corn on gray, clayey, 

 high land in Fairfield district. The ground had 

 been several years under cultivation, and the corn 

 was moderately manured with compost in the hill. 

 It was planted six feet by two apart, one stalk in a 

 hill. It grew vigorously, and looked well until a 

 drought overtook it in the midst of silking. It did 

 not grow quite as tall as our common corn, (which 

 seems to be a variety formed from the old gourd 

 seed and Tuscarora,) yet the stalks were rather 

 larger and more robust, and it was earlier by two 

 or three weeks. It had put forth luxuriant shoots 

 in abundance, from six to thirteen on every stalk ; 

 but the drought seemed to act upon it with pecu- 

 liar severity, and very many of the shoots perish- 

 ed. When ripe, hovvever, I found it was pretty 

 good corn ; and at the gathering, 1 had one acre 

 of this, and one of tha best acres of common corn 

 measured off, that was planted about the same 

 time, on the same kind of land, and measured in 

 the same way; and the corn of each carefully 

 measured for the purpose of comparison. The 

 acre of common corn yielded twenty-four bushels, 

 and the acre of Baden yielded thirty-one bushels 

 and twenty-eight quarts. Here then was a pro- 

 duct of upwards of thirty per cent, in favor of the 

 Baden corn. Nevertheless, I should not like to 

 trust to a crop of Baden corn on high land, un- 

 less it were naturally rich, or highly manured. A 

 drought in silking time, seemed to be more severe 

 upon it than upon the common corn ; and although 

 this may be accounted for in part from the fact, 

 that the common corn was later, and did not get 

 into silk until later in the drought, yet, neverthe- 

 less, the Baden corn puts forth such a profusion of 

 shoots, it must necessarily require more rain to 

 support them than a corn that bears only one or 

 two : and if growing upon poor high lands, a 

 drought should fall upon it at the period of silking, 

 I should apprehend a serious failure. I think 

 upon rich high land, retentive of moisture, and 

 especially upon rich, moist, bottom lands, it would 

 yield a prodigious crop. As seed has been pretty 

 widely spread this spring from this crop of mine, 

 we shall have an opportunity next fall for forming 

 a more correct opinion of it. 



In your remarks on the Hon. Mr. Elmore's 

 communication, you seem not to have been ap- 

 prised of the existence of the fossil shell banks of 

 South Carolina. They have been recognised as 

 a continuation of the shell beds of Virginia and 

 North Carolina, from the time of the earliest re- 

 cords of our state. About four years ago, I ana- 

 lyzed a specimen of these shells from a plantation 

 called Mount Moriah, on the Santee, and found it 

 to contain eighty-eight per cent, of carbonate of 

 lime. I then urged it on the proprietor and others, 

 to make a trial of^ its effects upon their soils ; but 

 until the present spring, I believe, not a single 



trial has been attempted. These beds crop out 

 prominently from the hanks of the Santee ; and 

 there are abundant indications that they lie exten- 

 sively at some depth, more or less, underneath 

 the surlace of all that belt of country (]uite across 

 the state, and sometimes crop out upon the sur- 

 liiice. Nevertheless, I have reason to believe from 

 all the information ( have been able to obtain, 

 that the soil ol'that region generally contains little 

 or no lime, and their lands are not generally pro- 

 ductive. I learn, however, there are certain limit- 

 ed localities, some of which have been more than 

 one hundred years under cultivation, that are still 

 extremely fertile. Is it not probable that these 

 are spots where the shells formerly cropped out 

 upon the surface, and have been decomposed and 

 mixed with the soil? 



In conversing with some gentlemen from that 

 section last fall, I was pleased to learn that a spi- 

 rit for making experiments with these shells was 

 springing up; so that after this year we may hope 

 to begin to hear of some of the results. The com- 

 munity of a considerable part of this shell region 

 is already wealthy; but it is probable they have 

 under their feet a mine that will rapidly increase 

 their wealth very many fold. 



J. D. 



P. S. The early character of the Baden corn 

 renders it very suitable for replanting the general 

 crop, as the fodder will all ripen together. 



From the Cultivator. 

 CULTURE OF ONIONS. 



The onion grows to full size in the northern 

 states in one season ; but in Pennsylvania and 

 south, it requires trvn seasons to perfect its growth. 

 There, the tops generally die the first season, 

 when the bulb has attained the size of a filbert or 

 walnut; these are planted out the second season, 

 and come to maturity. * * 



The cause of the difference, we believe, is to be 

 imputed wholly to climate: the warm weather of 

 the south impairing the elaborating organs — the 

 leaves — and consequently checking the growth, 

 before the bulb has time to acquire the flill size. 

 We remember seeiufj, in the garden of Col. Mc- 

 Allister, near Harrisburgh, Pa., a bed of full grown 

 onions, which the owner seemed proud in assuring 

 us had grown from the seed that year, and which 

 he stated as a remarkable circumstance. We 

 made no Inquiry when they were sown, but con- 

 jecture that the seed was sown the previous au- 

 tumn, a practice which, according to Loudon, is 

 common in Portugal, and is often practised in 

 Britain. The onion, in this case, attains its full 

 size by the first of August, before the intense heats 

 of summer. Although vlie onion is said to be a 

 native of Spain, it probably is indigenous to the 

 mountainous regions, for it seems adapted to the 

 the temperature of this latitude. It withstands 

 our winters, especially if protected by straw or lit- 

 ter. The onion planted for seed is often put out in 

 autumn, or left in the ground for a second, after the 

 first crop of seed has been gathered ; it is ofien 

 sown in September, and particularly the tree or 

 bulb bearing variety. We recommend to sow 

 in autumn, say in September or October, and at 

 mid-winter, if the state of the ground will permit. 



