THE RUST AMONG THE COTTON. 153 



thin, but even for the thin stand the soil is not sufficiently 

 worked, and its forces not developed ; diseases of all kind of 

 the plant will appear, and the crop be a very poor one. Such 

 an agriculture is nothing but a rude attempt to save labor, but 

 it is only done at the expense of the crop, and if labor be 

 saved, the value of the crop is certainly most unproportion- 

 ably diminished ; hence it happens then that even from fine 

 land, which ought to yield from twenty-five to thirty bushels 

 of wheat, an average crop of from six to twelve bushels can 

 only be made. Let me ask if a little more labor would not be 

 well paid, if, with that additional labor, consisting of plough- 

 ing and harrowing the land before we sow the wheat, and 

 then again harrowing the seed under, we can more than 

 double the crop ? The reward will certainly appear to be an 

 ample one, if we consider that, with such a manner of agricul- 

 ture, half the land is sufficient to produce the same quantity 

 of wheat as the double quantity with a rude and imperfect 

 cultivation. 



Our cotton land is generally better prepared than our land 

 for small grain, but, by its cultivation, we commit especially 

 the grave error, to continue for a number of years to plant 

 the cotton in the same land, instead of introducing a rotation 

 of our crops. With such a rotation, a little manure is all-suf- 

 ficient to keep the land always in a fine state of fertility, and 

 to improve instead of exhausting it. Let us see how such a 

 rotation can be most profitably managed : 



Our crop here in the southern States consists, principally, 

 in cotton, corn, wheat, oats, peas, or small grain in general, 

 and potatoes. Half of our land, at least, is generally planted 

 in cotton, and the other half in corn, small grains, and pota- 

 toes. Commencing now with a fresh body of land of one 

 hundred acres, we may plant the first year fifty acres in cot- 

 ton, twenty-five in corn, and twenty-five in small grains and 



