MANURING, PLANTING AND TENDING. 57 



It will be observed that manuring constitutes a large item 

 in this system of improvement, a source of revenue too much 

 underrated by planters, and consequently too much neglected, 

 because the subject requires a little extra attention which 

 attention is so essential to the prosperity and well-doing of a 

 farm. Nor, gentlemen, have I seen anything better said, or 

 more true, than I find in the sentiment, under the head of a 

 few queries, in the last December Cultivator, where you 

 remark to the planter and farmer, " In your manures is your 

 gold ?nine, more valuable than any of the Carolina ones, and 

 you should be anxious to increase them accordingly." Bat I 

 hear some planters say, " It is impossible to produce so much 

 manure;" this is, however, the result of inexperience, and 

 the want of determination. I am entirely convinced, from my 

 experience in making manure, that it is not only practicable, 

 but a perfectly easy task to prepare, upon every plantation in 

 the cotton region, great or small, 1500 bushels of an excellent 

 article of compost, per annum, to the hand, at a cost of less 

 than two cents per bushel, by the assistance of the stock of 

 horses, cows and hogs, upon properly arranged lots. This is 

 done by having the lots well littered, by throwing in pine 

 straw, in large quantities and frequently, or oak leaves, where 

 the pine straw is not to be had, with cotton and corn stalks, 

 &c., and occasionally haul and scatter upon the litter a few 

 loads of muck or marl, one or both of which may be found on 

 or near every farm in the country ; upon these lots, pen and 

 feed your stock every night. The manure thus prepared, 

 should be collected in pens or pits, three or four times during 

 the year, after heavy falls of rain, and the lots replenished 

 with pine straw, &c. ; by this means a very large amount of 

 manure is collected during the season, and that, too, at an in- 

 appreciable cost. Again, we have another difficulty. There 

 are but few persons who believe that pine straw can be con- 

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