70 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



may be sowed any time in May, upon land that 

 water will not remain on long. 



I am now carting out the finest marl perhaps 

 you ever saw ; my land has the greatest supply 

 of it, and very convenient. It is as fine as 

 wheat-bran, and after being exposed, becomes 

 much whiter, little or no foreign matter in it. 



Yours, J. Bunch. 



Chuckatuck, Va., Feb. 8, 1843. 



P. S. — I find so many good things, and prac- 

 tical ones too, in the Southern Planter, I wish I 

 could pay back something for interest, say no- 

 thing about principal — O, by the bye, I had like 

 to have forgotten my cart-wheel composition ; it 

 is the best (blacklead excepted) of anything I 

 have ever used — it is both simple and cheap. I 

 am now, and have been using it for some time ; 

 try it before you condemn it. It is clean wood 

 ashes mixed with any kind of common grease 

 or train-oil, if you please. J. B. 



THE MANNER OF APPLYING MANURE. 

 We have received a communication from Mr. 

 S. T. Redd, of Cumberland, on this important 

 subject. After dilating upon the absolute ne- 

 cessity of an improved system of husbandry, 

 whereby we may restore to our lands the fertility 

 of which the skinning system of our ancestors 

 has deprived them, Mr. Redd goes on to remark, 



" I am clearly of the opinion, from my own 

 experience, that all the manure raised during 

 the last summer and fall, should at suitable times 

 be carried on the land and scattered in the month 

 of February. Although I expect many will 

 differ from me, thinking that certain properties 

 may be lost by exhalation ; but the fact is, being 

 spread on in this month, the sun shines with 

 such little heat, none of the properties are lost. 

 It has time to saturate the soil in order to lighten 

 and quicken it, so that whatever is planted upon 

 the land, grows off instantly. One of my neigh- 

 bors has been trying the plan for the last five or 

 six years ; he is delighted with it, and thinks 

 the manure acts better and the land produces 

 more abundantly. Not only is there this ad- 

 vantage in it, but it so quickens the soil, that 

 the young tobacco plant will start to grow as 

 soon as it would in new ground or second year's 

 land, which is of considerable importance ; the 

 young plant making such a quick start, soon 

 gets out of the reach of what is commonly called 

 among us the cut-worm, which is so very de- 

 structive in cutting down the young plants when 

 slow in starting. Your land should be fallowed 

 previously . to carrying out your manure, and it 

 should be spread as carried out. I made an ex- 

 periment last year upon two pieces of land of 

 the same quality. I had manure spread upon 

 one piece in the month of February, and the 



other at the usual time, just before planting ; the 

 difference was very considerable. I have more- 

 over frequently seen it tried with the same result. 

 There are these advantages. The tobacco grows 

 faster and generally larger — ripens much earlier, 

 and makes generally richer tobacco. All I ask 

 of those who differ with me is, to make a fair 

 trial." 



POUDRETTE. 



We feel particularly anxious to call the atten- 

 tion of our farmers and gardeners to this conve- 

 nient, stimulating, and valuable manure. We 

 had our own interest very much excited by the 

 astonishing, and we guess, rather exaggerated 

 accounts, we heard of its effects whilst we were 

 at the North last fall. That it is one of the 

 most powerful fertilizers known, and that it 

 should be at least fairly tested by every farmer, 

 who has an opportunity of obtaining a barrel, 

 we do not hesitate to assert ; and this, because 

 the experiment can be made at so small an ex- 

 pense, and if it is all the} T say of it, it will prove 

 the most important addition that has ever been 

 made to the farmer's resources. That it is ever 

 to supersede stable manure, or that the day will 

 ever come when it will be to the farmer's inter- 

 est to neglect his farm-yard and compost heap, 

 we consider all humbug and nonsense. But 

 that after the farmer has put out all the dirt, 

 dung, and compost, that he can rake and scrape, 

 that he may then purchase poudrette for the 

 balance of his land, that would otherwise go 

 unmanured, with a prospect of realizing two or 

 three hundred per cent, on the outlay, we are 

 strongly inclined to believe. 



All chemists agree in according to this sub- 

 stance the very highest fertilizing properties. — 

 Prof. Johnson, than whom none stands higher 

 in the scientific world, says, 



" l Night soiV is probably the most valuable, 

 and yet in Europe at least, the most disliked 

 and neglected, of all the solid animal manures. 

 It varies, no doubt, in richness, with the food of 

 the inhabitants of each district — chiefly with 

 the quantity of animal food they consume — but 

 when dry, no other solid manure, weight for 

 weight, can probably be compared with it in 

 general efficacy. It contains much soluble and 

 saline matter, and as it is made up from the 

 constituents of the food we eat, of course it con- 

 tains most of those element ary'substances, which 

 are necessary to the growth of the plants on 

 which we principally live." 



We have heard it estimated that one bushel 



