THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



202 



time for unnecessary steps; so if I can get one 

 acre beneath another, I shall save something 

 in this line; I shall save half of the time in 

 going to and returning from my labor. My 

 crops will be twice as near my barn and cellar, 

 and in turn, my enriching materials will be as 

 much nearer my land. 



Again, my fences will cost but half what 

 they otherwise would. The saving here is not 

 a mere trifle. 



When the soil has been a few times tho- 

 roughly TILLED AND ENRICHED, twice Or thHce 



the usual depth, it will require no more time 

 to till an acre, and yet twice the amount of 

 produce may be relied on. Here will be saved, 

 in the first place, the time and labor of tilling 

 an acre of land. 



Again, if the produce is doubled, the profits 

 will be vastly more than doubled, and the plea- 

 sure of the toil will be increased in the same 

 ratio. For example : if a man sows an acre of 

 ground, and spends five dollars in preparing 

 the land, buying the seed, and putting in the 

 same, and three dollars in harvesting and pre- 

 paring for market, and gets ten dollars worth 

 of produce, he must pay the remaining two 

 dollars for the rent of his land. He has here 

 only earned days' 1 tvages. 



Now suppose he had spent even thirty dol- 

 lars, the then value of his acre of land, in 

 doubling or trebling the value of his soil, and 

 enriching the same, he then has to add to the 

 annual cost of tillage the annual interest of 

 thirty dollars thus expended — say two dollars. 

 Now if he gets double the produce from an 

 acre, he then gets not merely his days' tvages, 

 seed and rent, together with the additional two 

 dollars interest, but makes a clear profit of 

 eight dollars a?i acre; the produce now being 

 twenty dollars. To be sure it would cost a 

 trifle more to harvest and fit for market the 

 latter crop, but this trifle would be more than 

 compensated in the pleasure derived from this 

 kind of tillage. 



Or, if we vary the yield of the first acre 

 from ten to fifteen dollars worth, the soil that 

 was rich enough to produce this difference, 

 would be equally benefitted by the thorough 

 tillage spoken of above. If the yield be repre- 

 sented by fifteen, the profits would be five, and 

 that of the thoroughly tilled would be eighteen 

 to the acre. 



Or, if twenty dollars worth be obtained from 

 the acre in the first situation, the profit would 

 be ten dollars, and the profit of the deeply 

 tilled would be twenty dollars an acre. 



Again, a clay soil that is tilled twice or thrice 

 the usual depth, may be wrought twice as 

 many days in a year, and will be vastly more 



pleasant to till. Again, such a soil will be 

 several degrees warmer than it would be if a 

 large proportion of the water evaporated from 

 the surface. Evaporation either dissipates the 

 heat, or, what seems more probable, causes it 

 to combine with some other element, so that its 

 sensible effect as heat is neutralized. Almost 

 any farmer's boy knows that he can keep a jug 

 of water cool, under the hottest sun of harvest, 

 if he but take the precaution to keep his jug 

 bound in a wet cloth, so that evaporation shall 

 be rapid. 



There is also another cause which contributes 

 to raise the temperature of a deep, open soil. 

 I refer to the heat that is brought down in 

 showers of warm rain. Who has not been 

 surprised at the effect of showers of warm rain 

 in melting snow or ice? Heat seems to be 

 heavenly in its origin, and is ever tending up- 

 ward. It descends only when compelled, as in 

 the case of falling rain. * Now if the soil is not 

 deep and open the heat of descending showers 

 is lost. 



Again, the loss of heat is by no means the 

 only great loss sustained in these circumstances. 

 The rain and snow bring down various gaseous 

 elements which have been absorbed by them in 

 the air, or have entered into combination with 

 them. Some of the most valuable elements of 

 decaying vegetable and animal substances are 

 taken up in a gaseous form, and thus held by 

 or combined with the air and the moisture. 

 This seems to be a heaven appointed method 

 of counteracting the shiftlessness and wasteful- 

 ness of this and past generations. For the 

 time will come when every particle of matter 

 in earth, air, and sea, that can be converted 

 into sustenance for human beings, will be de- 

 manded to supply the ivants of our rapidly in- 

 creasing race. Most of these ascending gases 

 are obnoxious to our nasal organs, and are ge- 

 nerally so in proportion to their value as en- 

 riching materials. The decomposition of those 

 bodies most highly charged with nitrogen, such 

 as hair, wool, leather, &c. by fire, is very offen- 

 sive. This seems to be to warn men that a 

 great ivaste is being made. 



There is no cereal that has a greater pro- 

 portion of nitrogen than beans. The water in 

 which beans have been partially decomposed, 

 by boiling, is exceedingly offensive. Nature 

 seems to cry out against this waste. 



But to return : I design, and I think it was 

 the design of Providence, that all the water that 

 falls should go through the soil. A French 

 chemist has been engaged in analyzing rain 

 water. He reports that enriching elements 

 equal to a moderate dressing of Peruvian gua- 

 no are contained in twenty-four inches of rain 



