330 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



fish offal to a quarter of an acre cff neighboring 

 poor land, with the intention of making it a rich 

 lot of timothy grass. 20,000 spoilt herrings were 

 Applied, and much of other fish offal, so as to 

 cover the surface entirely. It was ploughed un- 

 der, and the land tilled in corn. The crop was 

 from 70 to 80 bushels to the acre. The land was 

 next sown in timothy — but the product was so re- 

 markably poor, that it was ploughed up the next 

 year and corn again planted. The product of corn 

 was not less remarkably small, as if no manure 

 had recently or ever been applied. 



77. Mr. F. Nixon of Perquimons, N. C, also for- 

 merly owning one of the large fisheries on Albe- 

 marle Sound, had, for ten years successively, ma- 

 nured land (before poor and rather sandy,) and to 

 Considerable extent with the' garbage of the mil- 

 Rons of herrings caught and " trimmed" for salt- 

 ing. There was so much of this richest of ma- 

 nures, that the proprietors could not use it all in 

 proper or economical manner, and, therefore, it 

 was applied in very great quantities. A deep fur- 

 row was run by the plough, along side of each row 

 of the young corn, and the heads and other trim- 

 mings of five herrings were dropped opposite each 

 corn hill, and covered deeply. The growth of 

 corn was from 35 to 40 bushels to the acre. The 

 like manuring was given every spring, and a corn 

 crop grown. Peas, as usual, were planted and 

 grown among the corn — but these were consumed, 

 by grazing animals, after the gathering of the corn. 

 After ten years of rich animal manuring and crop- 

 ping, the manuring was suspended and the same 

 cropping continued. The before increased pro- 

 duct ceased with the manuring, and the land re- 

 turned immediately to its former very small amount 

 of production. 



Per Canto a. — Good Effects of Repeated 'Dressings 

 of Guano. 



78. Mr. W, M. Ambler of Louisa county, on his 

 farm on South Anna River, in 1849, applied 240 

 lbs. of guano per acre to 8 acres of very poor and 

 greatly washed and galled land. It was sown in 

 wheat, and brought about 10 bushels to the acre, 

 the exact measured product being a small portion 

 over or under that quantity. This was deemed a 

 good and profitable effect, as the land would have 

 scarcely brought wheat at all, without the guano. 

 Clover seed had been sown, and a moderate crop 

 grew — as much as could be expected on other land 

 yielding 10 bushels of wheat. Next year the land<> 

 was in corn, after 100 to 120 lbs. of guano added, 

 and brought a crop satisfactory from the manure 

 used, but the product not measured separately. 

 (A light cover of wheat straw had been ploughed 

 under, preceding the corn.) The ground sown the 

 same autumn (after the corn) in wheat, on 300 lbs. 

 more of guano. The product was supposed, by 

 estimate, to be 17 bushels to the acre. 650 lbs. of 

 guano, in all, applied, from 1849 to 1852. The 

 clover was grazed, and seemed a moderate crop. 



In all other cases of repeated or excessive appli- 

 cations, in Mr. Ambler's experience, and observa- 

 tion in his neighborhood, there has been no dimi- 

 nution of effect in the last, compared to the early 

 applications. The locality is about thirty miles 

 above the eastern visible granite. Lime has been 

 repeatedly tried on his farm, and in various ways, 

 and has produced no effects. 



Destruction of Sassafras Bushes. e 



79. Judge Thos. Ruffin of Allemance, N. C, has 



found that close and continued browsing by sheep 

 and cattle on the young and tender leaves and 

 shoots of sassafras bushes, for two years, will kill 

 them, root and branch — at least on his land and in 

 his neighborhood. (Red soil, stiff, but pervious to 

 water, of good original fertility, with undulating 

 or hilly surface.) If the bushes are too tall for 

 their tops to be reached by the stock, they should 

 be partly cut and broken down, but not cut off or 

 grubbed up. If the ground set with sassafras is 

 turned out of culture, and left unenclosed, and ex- 

 posed to the ranging cattle of all the neighbor- 

 hood, the bushes will die in two years; and as 

 soon if in enclosed pasture land, if in like manner 

 the young leaves and shoots are continually re- 

 moved by grazing stock. All grazing stock, ex- 

 cept hogs, are very fond of browsing on sassafras. 



80. Since entering the foregoing minute, I have 

 been assured of the like destructive results of 

 close grazing of sassafras bushes, by Messrs. 

 Robert Bridgers of Edgecombe, and Nathan Win- 

 slow of Perquimons. The latter was confident that 

 on the close of the third year of grazing, there 

 would not be a sassafras bush or its roots left 

 alive. 



81. Mr. W. Mazyck Porcher of Charleston Dis- 

 trict, S. C, remembers parts of his farm (near the 

 Santee,) which, after having been previously long 

 under cotton culture every year in succession, 

 (which necessarily involved the repeated cutting 

 off of every shoot of sassafras, as of every other 

 weed,) were " turned out," and exposed imme- 

 diately thereafter to the close grazing of cattle 

 and of sheep also, for full ten years. Then the 

 ground was again put under cotton-culture; and 

 the sassafras sprouts came up and stood as thickly 

 over the ground as ever. The grazing, though 

 seeming in some measure to keep down the growth 

 had not killed it, even above ground, nor lessened 

 the vitality of the roots. 



[Remarks by E. R. — In my own practice, and 

 from observations continued for 40 years, I have 

 had full evidence that the growth of sassafras bushes 

 can neither be destroyed, nor permanently dimi- 

 nished, by deep grubbing and all the weeding and 

 tillage processes required in any ordinary rota- 

 tion. The cessation of grubbing and chopping for 

 even two months of the growing season, serves to 

 give to every root and shoot a renewal of the term 

 of life ; and the cessation for a whole year con- 

 verts the ground infested with this growth to a 

 thicket of large shrubs. The number of shoots 

 increase under the best tillage and grubbing. The 

 cause is in the peculiar manner of growth. The 

 main roots of sassafras run horizontally in great 

 numbers, and to great distances, forming a net- 

 work at the depth of ten inches or more under the 

 surface of the ground. From these horizontal 

 roots spring up numerous perpendicular shoots 

 above ground. Any grubbing that does not reach 

 the deep horizontal root, though of the smallest 

 bush, merely cuts through what appears to be its 

 tap root, but which, supplied from the large hori- 

 zontal root below, rapidly throws out new shoots. 

 It would require very deep and unusual grubbing 

 to cut the horizontal root ; and if doing so, at great 

 labor, new shoots immediately p/ut out from both 



