50 South Carolina Agricultural Society. [July, 



SOUTH CAROLINA AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



By the politeness of Mr. R. N. Gibbes, M. D., we have received 

 the Proceedings of the Agricultural Convention, and of the State 

 Agricultural Society of South Carolina, from the supplement of 

 which we extract the following important remarks on the ma- 

 nures for Sea Island cotton. They will be found to possess a 

 high interest to the cotton planter. 



Of manures, limited in quantity, that contain a large stock of 

 fertilizing matter in a small compass, ashes, cotton seed, and corn 

 stalks, are entitled to particular notice. A bushel of ashes, on the 

 authority of Dr. Dana, is equal to a cask of lime. Where pro- 

 per means are used, the amount of ashes that can be collected on 

 a plantation in a year is very great. The hearths of the negro 

 houses, under the supervision of the driver, should be swept once 

 a week, and the contents deposited in covered barrels. Live cot- 

 ton seed and salt mud together, (they should invariably be united, 

 if possible,) in the proportion of only ten bushels of the first to 

 the acre, and forty cart loads of the second, is a manure of extra- 

 ordinary value for high or low grounds, especially the latter. 

 Double the quantity of cotton seed would insure a large return. 

 From the experiments of Sir H. Davy, the quantity of nutriment 

 in corn stalks is very considerable — 1,000 parts, giving 84 parts 

 of ashes, and 1,000 parts of those ashes affording 72.56 of soluble 

 matter. As immediately after harvest, which is the proper time 

 to put them in the ground, in order to retain their saccharine and 

 other enriching properties, is the season for gathering cotton, 

 from which the labor of the grower cannot be diverted, the corn 

 stalks, at a subsequent period, even after the cattle and atmo- 

 sphere have deprived them of much of their power of doing good, 

 if thrown into the cattle pen, would prove to be a judicious, and 

 highly profitable expenditure of labor. 



Without any attempt to enter into a scientific investigation of 

 the principles that should regulate the planter in his plan of mak- 

 ing composts, it may be necessary only to remark, that, whilst 

 cotton requires well rotted manures, (to bring on a disposition in 

 the woody fibre to decay and dissolve, with a view to this end, is 

 the great aim of summer listings,) too great a degree of fermenta- 

 tion ought to be avoided, because the results, like those of com- 

 bustion, would be the destruction of their most useful parts. 

 Whenever the manure is perfectly cold, and so soft as to be easily 

 cut with the spade, decomposition, which should have been com- 

 pleted in the soil is already finished; consequently, the chief ele- 

 ments of nourishment to plants — carbonic acid and ammonia — 

 are entirely lost. To preserve the entire product of composts, as 



