132 COTTON PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



shapes to the farms, but beatable water almost at every man's 

 door. By tins means tlie crop is conveyed to market, boats 

 being substituted for wagons. There is considerable marsh, 

 some of which has been reclaimed, and produces good 

 cotton. 



Salt-marsh mud is much used for manure, at the rate of about 

 forty one-horse cart loads to the acre. Some compost it, others 

 put it in the cattle pens. Some dry it before hauling, and 

 then spread upon the land. Mr. John F. Townsend prefers to 

 use it as soon as dug, spread upon the land wet, and ploughed 

 in. He is the only man on the island who uses ploughs to any 

 extent. All the land is cultivated with hoes, upon the two- 

 field system; that is, one field in cotton, corn, .and sweet po- 

 tatoes; in the proportion of about seven-twelfths cotton, three- 

 twelfths corn, and two-twelfths potatoes; in all, less than six 

 acres to the hand. As the soil is generally very light, it is 

 unproductive without manure. Therefore, as many cattle are 

 kept as can be pastured upon the "field at rest," and the 

 marsh and woodland. These are penned in movable yards, 

 littered with fine straw and coarse marsh-grass or weeds, which 

 is also used to lay along between the old rows, to which muck 

 and manure is added, and all the grass sod which has grown 

 during the year is hoed down into alleys, and the bed formed 

 upon it, keeping the bottom as solid as possible. 



If the plough were substituted for the hoe, twice as much 

 manure could be made ; or what, in my opinion, would be far 

 more economical than digging muck or keeping so many cattle, 

 merely to make manure, would be the use of guano. As this 

 substance contains the same fertilizing properties of muck, in 

 an hundred-fold degree, I would most earnestly recommend 

 planters to try the experiment, by applying about 200 Ibs. to 

 the acre, ploughed in deep, or buried in the bottom of the 

 cotton or corn beds. Make use of none but the best Peruvian, 



