152 COTTON PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



all those diseases caused by such a stagnation, consequently 

 also from the rust, and yield an abundant crop. 



Not having been accustomed to systematic manuring of oui 

 land, we think it very difficult, laborious, and even expensive. 

 It is indeed not so ; it is much less troublesome and expensive 

 than clearing and taking in new land when the old is ex- 

 hausted and unfit for further cultivation ; but we are accus 

 tomed to the latter, and not accustomed to the former, therefore 

 we are prejudiced against it, and imagine it to be much more 

 troublesome than it really is. In some of our States it is dif- 

 ficult to procure manure, and some trouble may arise from that 

 circumstance ; but, indeed, if we introduce a manner of agri- 

 culture suitable to our soil and climate, much manure is not 

 required to keep our land in constant fertility. The first 

 requisite for such an agriculture, is to prepare our soil well, to 

 plough and harrow it in such a manner that the soil becomes 

 perfectly mellow, to allow the vegetables which we sow or 

 plant in it to take root, and the atmosphere to operate upon it 

 and have a dissolving influence upon its contents. 



If we sow our wheat upon entirely unprepared land, from 

 which the corn or cotton has just been harvested, without 

 ploughing and harrowing it before, and bury the seed with 

 brush-wood, as the uncivilized Indian would do, unprovided 

 with the implements of enlightened agriculture, it is of course 

 impossible to reap an adequate and remunerating crop ; it 

 may perhaps be adequate, not to the forces of our land, which 

 have not been developed, but only to the rude and imperfect 

 manner of our agriculture. Land cultivated in such a manner 

 has neither been exposed to the dissolving influence of the 

 rays of the sun and the atmosphere, nor has it been made 

 mellow enough, and a few grains of the seed will only fall in 

 such a situation where they can germinate and root easily ; 

 the necessary consequence will be, that the wheat stands too 



