194 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



ment. Corn, like cattle, must have something 

 to live upon, and if your land is poor, and the 

 season unfavorable, you must be careful that 

 you allow sufficient latitude of range to both 

 the one and the other. In other words, a cer- 

 tain degree of nutriment is required, and the 

 corn never travels without the space in which 

 it is afforded. 



A gentleman present, whom, although a 

 young farmer, we know to be a very skilful and 

 successful one, remarked, that he had of late 

 years dispensed entirely with the use of the hoe 

 in his crop. He breaks his ground up deeply 

 and thoroughly, leaving it as freshly stirred as 

 possible at the time of planting : he plants early, 

 and as soon as the growth will enable him to 

 do so with impunity he runs the plough, with 

 the bar close to the corn, on both sides, turning 

 the dirt from the corn ; the middle part of the 

 rows are worked with cultivators. In a few 

 days he puts in his ploughs again, reversing 

 the first operation, and throwing the dirt to the 

 corn ; whereby the weeds between the plants, 

 which are usually removed with the hoes, are 

 completely covered and smothered. Again, and 

 for the last time, he resorts to the cultivators to 

 clean the rows ; and he seldom or never finds 

 any thing more necessary than the several work- 

 ings here described, provided the ground is well 

 and thoroughly broken in the first instance. By 

 this system and the free use of manure, he had 

 succeeded in making an average of ten barrels 

 to the acre upon thin, light Chickahominy up- 

 land. 



The next subject worthy of note which our 

 memoranda furnish us is 



THE CURING OF CLOVER HAY. 



Here again we find a diversity of opinion. — 

 One member of the Club is an extensive and 

 well known hay grower, and his views accord- 

 ingly commanded great attent ion. He premised 

 by saying, that he conceived the great object to 

 be to cure as much with the air, and as little 

 with the sun, as possible : his practice was, to 

 commence cutting just when the blossoms be- 

 gan to turn brown ; after permitting it to lie in 

 the swath about a couple of hours, he dragged 

 three swaths together thereby forming a winrow, 

 in which the clover was permitted to remain 

 twenty-four hours longer ; it was then put up 

 into large shocks, which, as soon as they were 

 sufficiently cured, were carted to the barn or 

 stack. These general rules were, however, 



much modified by the weather. There was no 

 portion of the farmer's business that required 

 the eye and critical judgment of the master 

 more than the curing of clover hay. Seasons 

 would some times come, in which, in spite of 

 the greatest care and precaution, it would be 

 impossible to save the crop except in a very in- 

 jured condition. This gentleman stated that as 

 good clover hay as he had ever seen, he had 

 known to be cured by stacking it, as fast as it 

 was cut, about two poles or rails, in such a 

 manner, that when they were drawn out, a per- 

 fect vent would be left, by which the air might 

 circulate freely through the stack : in this man- 

 ner, the hay was soon sufficiently cured without 

 losing a particle of its fine green color. An- 

 other gentleman here remarked, that upon the 

 same principle he had frequently known clover 

 in new lands to be piled upon the stumps, and 

 he felt assured that any plan which might be 

 used to enable the air to circulate freely through 

 a large mass, would afford the means of curing 

 clover hay with the least possible degree of risk 

 or labor. Another gentleman stated, that from 

 a friend in the county of Loudoun he had ob- 

 tained the following mode, which he had prac- 

 ticed for several years with great success. In 

 the evening he threw into large cocks whatever 

 hay had been cut during the day : by 10 o'clock 

 next morning, he would find the heap in a high 

 degree of heat ; he would then throw it open 

 and spread it, in which state he would leave it 

 for an hour or two, when he would proceed to 

 stack or house it. 



It was stated by another member that in the 

 Valley of Virginia, which is as celebrated for 

 the quality as the quantity of its hay, it was 

 the universal practice to permit the clover to lie 

 in the swath, as it was cut, for twenty-four 

 hours : it was then turned bottom upwards, and 

 thus exposed for an hour longer, when it was 

 considered sufficiently cured to be carted to the 

 house, where it was salted in the layer, a gallon 

 of salt being used to about a wagon load of 

 clover. In that section of country, it was never 

 considered fit to be cut until at least half the 

 blossoms had turned brown and died. 



Another gentleman stated, that last year he 

 had put in practice a plan that he had learned 

 in Illinois, where it universally obtained. This 

 was simply to carry the hay as it was cut and 

 pack it green, taking care to salt the layers as 

 it was put up. Layers of straw, if it could be 



