100 



THE SOUTHE 



RN PLANTER. 



P. S. — If I could write intelligibly, and had 

 any thing worth writing, X would take great 

 pleasure in so doing. J. B. 



Since writing the above, I saw two squares 

 of the garden or English peas growing as hand- 

 somely as if it was April or May, the plants 

 beincr some six inches high — seeded in Novem- 

 ber Fast — the young plants scarcely at all pro- 

 tected. This to me is something new, though 

 it may not be to you. 



J. Bunch. 



COMPARATIVE VALUE OF HAY, VEGETA- 

 BLES AND CORN. 



I wish to draw briefly the attention of far- 

 mers to the value of hay, compared with other 

 crops, for the feeding of stock. An acre of hay 

 } 7 elds one ton and a half of vegetable food. An 

 acre of carrots, or Sweedish turnips, will yield 

 from ten to twenty tons ; say fifteen tons, which 

 is by no means an exaggerated estimate. It 

 has been ascertained by experiment, that three 

 working horses, fifteen and a half hands high, 

 consumed at the rate of two hundred and twenty- 

 four pounds of hay per week, or five tons one 

 thousand and forty-eight pounds of hay per year, 

 besides twelve gallons of oats per week, or se- 

 venty-eight bushels by the year. An un worked 

 horse consumed at the rale of four and one quar- 

 ter tons of hay in the year. The produce, there- 

 fore, of nearly six acres of land is necessary to 

 support a working horse by the year ; but half 

 an acre of carrots, at six hundred bushels to the 

 acre, with the addition of chopped straw, while 

 the season for their use lasts, will do it as well, 

 if not better. These things do not admit of 

 doubt. They have been subjects of exact trial. 

 It is believed that the value of a bushel of In- 

 dian corn in straw and meal, will keep a health}^ 

 horse in good condition for a week. An acre 

 of Indian corn which yields sixty bushels, will 

 bo ample for the support of a horse through the 

 year. Let the farmer, then, consider whether it 

 be better to maintain his horse upon the produce 

 of half an acre of carrots, which can be culti- 

 vated at an expense not greatly exceeding the 

 expense of half an acre of potatoes, or upon 

 half an acre of ruta baga, which can be raised 

 at a less expense than potatoes, or upon the 

 £rain produce of an acre of Indian coin, or on 

 the other hand upon the produce of six acres of 

 his best land in hay and grain ; for six acres 

 will hardly do more than to yield nearly six tons 

 of hay and seventy-eight bushels of oats. The 

 same economy might be as successfully intro- 

 duced into the feeding of pur neat cattle and 

 sheep. 



These facts deserve the particular attention 

 of the farmers who are desirous of improving 

 their pecuniary condition. It is obvious how 

 much would be gamed by the cultivation which 



is here suggested ; how much more stock would 

 be raised ; how much the daily produce might 

 he increased ; and how much the means of en- 

 riching the land and improving the cultivation 

 would be constantly extending and accumulat- 

 ing. But when we find on a farm of two hun- 

 dred acres, that the farmer cultivates only two 

 acres of potatoes, one acre of ruta baga, and 

 perhaps a quarter of an acre of carrots, we call 

 this "getting along," in the common phrase; 

 but we can hardly dignify it with the name of 

 farming. I am aware that labor of a proper 

 kind is in many cases difficult to be procured, 

 and with our habits, as difficult to be managed, 

 farming, likewise, can in few situations be suc- 

 cessfully managed, unless the farmer has capital 

 to employ, equal at least to one year's manure 

 and one year's crops. A large portion of our 

 farmers, also, from the nature of their habits and 

 style of living, are so prosperous and indepen- 

 dent, that they have no occasion to extend their 

 cultivation beyond what it now is, in order to 

 meet their wants ; and to incur all the trouble, 

 vexation and risk of employing more labor, ex- 

 pending more capital, and increasing their cares. 



Colmarfs Agricultural Survey. 



For the Southern Planter. 

 CORN. 



Mr. Editor, — To the Southern farmer, the 

 corn crop is one of great interest, and although 

 we have communications, in the Planter, from 

 men of experience and observation, yet in none 

 have I remarked any notice of what, with me, 

 is an object, that is, in turning under a sod of 

 any kind, (and with me one is always desirable,) 

 io cultivate the land in such a way as not 

 to turn it up during the growth of the corn. — 

 The following is my mode of cultivation: — A 

 little before planting, 1 run heavy harrows the 

 way the plough went in the fallow ; 1 then run 

 ofr the rows shallow, with a shovel or scoop 

 plough, it being one that leaves loose soil in the 

 furrow ; when the corn is large enough to thin, 

 I run close on each side wuh a common new 

 ground coulter, thin and weed; after which, I 

 run cultivators made of square bar iron, set in 

 the beams so as to cut wiihin four and a half 

 inches of each other. These I run as often as 

 I find them necessary, some land and some sea- 

 sons requiring more than others, and with those, 

 and from one to two hoeings, I subdue the grass, 

 an<d keep the land well stirred in all ordinary 

 seasons until I quit working, which is as soon 

 as the corn begins to tassel. But in very wet 

 seasons, I have sometimes to resort to the turn 

 plough, taking care then to run shallow, in order 

 to disturb the sod as little as possible, and never 

 to use them longer than the season compels me. 

 I find that when the sod is turned up to the sun 



