FARiMERS' REGISTER 



97 



amount, narrow intervals are inadmissible. Your 

 excellent correspondent, J. M. G., esq., oC F., 

 Ihinlcs two feet riJfres might do, ''if straig/it.''^ 

 I will venture to add, that whether straight or 

 crooked, whoever attempts it will soon discover 

 the necessity ol" wider intervals. I have had the 

 leaves of turnips to measure three lijet li'ociuentlj', 

 before the bulk was much larger than a goose egg. 

 If such plants were in two feet ridges what would 

 become of them 1 Evidently enough, they would 

 be smothered. The majority of green crop grow- 

 ers that I have seen in this state commit a fatal 

 mistake in not paying due attention to the season 

 for sowing. You may as well expect a crop of 

 winter wheat sown in JNlay, as a crop of turnips 

 sown in this latitude the middle of June. People 

 read of large crops grown in the north and in 

 Europe, and sow accordingly, without reflecting, 

 for a moment, in what part of this vast country 

 they are. By sowing in July we can obtain as 

 large and as handsome roots as can be produced 

 in the other hemisphere sown in May. One of 

 your subscribers, an excellent fiarmer, M\\ C. O — n 

 of Princeton, in this state, harvested a most splen- 

 did crop the past season, many roots weighing 13 

 and 14 lbs. each, sown on the 7th July. (Allow 

 me here to remark that the larger ruta baga tur- 

 nips grow the better they are, provided they have 

 small necks.) Other people's turnips again, near 

 neighbors also, on land of similar formation and 

 qualitj', who sowed in June, were worthless, and 

 yet, notwithstanding this evidence of the impro- 

 priety of early sowing, many individuals, admira- 

 ble executive fiarmers in other respects, persist in 

 endeavoring to counteract the laws of nature. 

 Finally, turnips sown early produce too much 

 (bliage, and soon after they have commenced bulb- 

 ing make an effort to seed, which is fatal to their 

 future growth. From that moment the bulb ceases 

 to grow, Hnd the whole plant becomes fibrous, and 

 comparatively wonhless. 



COTTON SSED. 



From tlie Carolina Planter. 



After the encomiums I have passed on cot- 

 ton seed as a manure, you would hardly ex- 

 pect from me what I am going tn say now — but 

 a man may pay too dear (or his whistle, though it 

 be never so good a one. It is the practice of many 

 planters to purchase cotton seed at high prices, for 

 manure. It is said that 10 cents is as much as 

 can be given for it to make oil of, and that the 

 profit is not large at over 6 cents per bushel, — yet 

 I have heard of planters giving as high as 20 

 cents a bushel, and then haulmij: it for manure. 

 Fifteen cents is common, and 12^ considered, I 

 believe, very reasonable. 



Now let us enter into a ihw calculations. Sup- 

 posing that a piece of land without manure would 

 produce 12 bushels of corn per acre, it is a very 

 (air allowance to suppose that with the assistance 

 of cotton seed it will produce 20, or eight bushels 

 more from the seed — I have not in general made 

 more than five. If it will take fifty bushels to ma- 

 nure an acre, and to make this product it certainly 

 must — the cost of the seed at 12^ cents per bushel, 

 will be @6 25. If it is purchased within five miles, 

 the hauling and putting it on, both together, can- 

 not be worth less than ^1 75 — making the whole 

 Vor.. VIII— 13 



cost ^8 per acre. Now, in many parts of the 

 country, an acre of excellent land may be pur- 

 chased ibr §8 and less — land that will bring more 

 than 12 bushels of corn per acre. If the planter can 

 sell his increase of 8 bushels of corn at SI per 

 bushel, he will be just reimbursed for his expense 

 in manuring, as the increase of lodder, peas, &c. 

 will about pay him for the trouble of gathering, 

 he-using and selling the corn. Eut it will allow 

 him no profit for his trouble and no interest on the 

 money laid cut. He would hardly be wise to con- 

 tinue the practice. Eut what planter can expect 

 to get $la bushel at this crib Ibr corn every year? 

 It has, like every thing else, been very high for a 

 few years back — but at this moment the average 

 price in the state cannot be more than GO cents. 

 I do not suppose that any planter would refuse to 

 make a contract to sell for 20 years to come, what 

 he makes to spare, at 62^ cents at the crib in cash. 

 I would myself prefer raising corn at that price, to 

 making cotton at 12^- cents — much prefer it. At 

 62^ cents the increase of 8 bushels of corn would 

 be worth but ^5— Yet the planter has paid .^8 

 for the manure to produce it. The remaining §3 he 

 must expect to realize in the permanent im- 

 provenaent which his lands are to derive from the 

 manure ; but it is thought, as I have already men- 

 tioned, that little or no permanent advantage 

 is derived from cotton seed, and that it is nearly 

 absorbed by the first crop. Admitting, how- 

 ever, that it is improved, as I am fi-ee to say 

 I think it is — and after ten years of successive ma- 

 nuring with cotton seed, it will produce the 20 

 bushels without manure for ever after — which, by- 

 the-by, is an extravagant admission — at this rate 

 his land will cost him first the original price, 

 say 810; next the $3 per annum devoted lor 10 

 years to permanent improvement, or ,930; and 

 then the interest on each instalment ol" this sum 

 compounded, which, at 7 per cent, would, of ilselfj 

 amount to ^14 — making the whole cost of the 

 acre, at the end of ten years, fiity-four dollars. 



Now, sir, for supposing me to be half right, 

 would it not be belter to purchase ready made land, 

 of the rank of 20 bushels per acre at once? In 

 what section of the plantation states would such 

 land cost ^27, much less ^54. And do not those 

 planters who pursue this course, while they are 

 taking great credit to themselves lor resuscitating 

 their lands and enriching the state, really impov- 

 erish without benefiting any one except those 

 who sell the seed. Are they good citizens who lay 

 out on the acre of land .§54, or even .§27, that is 

 not worth more than S15 at the utmost, after that 

 expenditure, thus actually sinking the balance to 

 themselves and to the country. The period has 

 not yet arrived for such a system of agriculture — 

 when the density of population shall make land of 

 this description worth from .^27 to ,954 per acre, 

 and the permanently established price of provi- 

 sions or cotton will enable its owner to make a fair 

 profit on an investment at that rate — then cotton 

 seed will be worth 12i cents a bushel for manure, 

 and not before. Then we can afTord to buy ma- 

 nure — and, as the people do in Europe, send 

 out into the highways to collect it — then we can 

 use lime, and marl, and plaster of Paris, &c. &c., 

 but until then, he who indulges in .such ex- 

 travagance beyond the limits of his garden or his 

 turnip patch, is injuring jiimselfj and so far in- 

 juring his country. Short Staple. 



