NKWIU'UV AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY KKl'oiiT. <\i 



but was of the utmost importance to the succeeding crop of 

 corn. The experiment even then would have warranted its 

 continuance, as by this system of manuring, the poor soils of our 

 State would be annually improved, instead of being impover- 

 ished as they are, under the ruinous course generally pursued. 

 Something should be done to restore the soil in sonic, degree 

 to its original fertility, and this can only be effected by a 

 judicious and industrious course of manuring, 



We know that there are many notions prevalent respecting 

 a diminution of the cotton crop, and that the main objections 

 to the cotton culture consist in the difficulty of continuing it 

 extensively, and at the same time carrying out such a proper 

 system of manuring and rotation, as will certainly and gradu- 

 ally improve our exhausted fields. This is an objection well 

 founded, and if wo were threatened with a dense population 

 which would consume as much food as the land would produce, 

 it would be high time to cast about for other systems of tillage. 

 We are, however, riot one of those who believe that the cotton 

 culture is incompatible with the improvement of the soil, and 

 instead of recommending our planters to decrease the number 

 of their bales, we only go so far as to advise them to produce 

 a greater number upon fewer acres than they now cultivate. 

 When we reflect that the limits of our Society embrace the 

 very best cotton region in South Carolina we are loth to see 

 a culture decline which, in the days of past prosperity, has 

 added so much wealth to our district. When cotton was first 

 cultivated in this district, one bale to the acre was the average 

 yield. The same amount can now by judicious manuring bo 

 produced on every acre of land which in its virgin fertility 

 yielded that quantity. The labor of clearing an acre of forest, 

 will always be sufficient to make an acre of worn-out land 

 better than the new ground would be for the production of 

 any crop, and an acre thus restored, would substantially add 



