706 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



that may be, is given to the land, and to its 

 growth of plants. 



It is also an advantage, as before stated, that 

 the manure from the cattle-pens may, like 

 straw, be hauled out (in part) at early leisure 

 times, and even when heavy rains has lately 

 fallen, and would prevent other team-work. 

 But this facility should be availed of very moder- 

 ately, and cautiously. If the litter is taken from 

 the pen early in winter, it has not then acted 

 its full part as litter, and is little more than 

 unrotted wet straw — requiring to be spread as 

 thinly on clover to avoid injuring the growth, 

 and having very little manuring or quicker 

 action than dry straw. Again — if to save time 

 and labor, whether early or late, we haul out 

 manure immediately after a heavy rain, there 

 are two other evil effects. First, the manure 

 is much heavier, (with water,) and the ground 

 is wet and soft, so that two mules may be 

 necessary to haul as much manure as one could 

 draw well in dry weather. Secondly — when 

 using manure as top-dressing, it is important 

 to have a rain as soon as possible after the 

 spreading, so as to stop the waste of volatile 

 parts, and to convey them, and also all soluble 

 parts, into the earth, and enable them to act 

 immediately in feeding the roots of the clover. 

 Now at whatever time the manure is carried 

 out and spread, it may be a long and is always 

 an uncertain time before the rain will fall. But 

 nevertheless, it is not the less certain, that the 

 longer after the last rain that manure is car- 

 ried out, the less will be the time before the 

 next rain will come. For these reasons, if 

 we may choose the time for beginning to carry 

 out manure, the dryer its then condition, and 

 the longer after the last rain has fallen, the 

 better for the performance of the operation, and 

 also for its effect. 



Believing that to clover is the best and 

 cheapest application of ordinary manure, that 

 application has been in view generally, in my 

 remarks. That manner of application is how- 

 ever available, though for a very extensive, 

 still a limited agricultural region — and of 

 which the present southern limit has scarcely 

 beeft carried out of Virginia. Even in the 

 region of clover and wheat culture, this ap- 

 plication of manure may not be always the 

 most profitable, even if not impracticable. The 

 clover crop may have failed — or the clover field 

 for the year may be too far distant from the 

 manure to bear the expense of the transporta- 

 tion. Tobacco may be an important crop, and 

 of course will demand all the farmer's manure. 

 And, more generally, and especially farther 

 southward, there may be little or none 

 of either clover or wheat culture. In any of 

 all such cases, when my preferred application 

 cannot or ought not to be made, the proper 

 change of direction, and also the necessary 

 other changes of procedure should be made, 

 and for which every judicious farmer will judge 

 best for his own particular circumstances. Still, 



even when making, and properly making, the 

 most considerable changes of procedure, the 

 farmer may not the less recognize the correct- 

 ness of the principles here maintained, and 

 profit by such recognition. It is unnecessary, 

 (and would make this writing of tedious length,) 

 for me to state examples, or offer particular ad- 

 vice, on the various changes of procedure 

 which may be made necessary by different cir- 

 cumstances. 



So far, almost nothing has been said of the 

 stalks of corn, which on all farms make so 

 large a proportion of the materials for manure, 

 and on many farms, amount to more than three- 

 fourths of all the offal of crops. Of course, 

 when brought to the winter cow-yard, as food 

 and litter, they add enormously to the bulk of 

 the prepared manure. Many of even careless 

 and bad farmers, scrupulously use thus all their 

 corn-stalks, cut off just above the ground. In 

 past time, when the stalks were dug up with 

 the roots, (for the earliest wheat-sowing,) un- 

 der the idle notion that the grain would be 

 injured, if the stalks were cut so soon, I have 

 known the stalks with their roots thus full of 

 earth, to be hauled to the cow-yard. All this 

 enormous amount of hauling, in any usual 

 mode, of stalks from the field to the barn-yard,' 

 is merely to haul them out again to some 

 other field as manure, and when made five or 

 six times heavier by being full of water. So 

 far as these stalks were needed for food or for 

 sufficient littering of the animals, this double 

 hauling is proper for these purposes and is well 

 remunerated. But so far as being superfluous 

 in both these respects — the whole labor of 

 their double transportation is thrown away. It 

 would be far more profitable as well as cheaper, 

 to leave the stalks where they grew, to act as 

 manure, either ploughed under, or as top- 

 dressing spread over the surface. Whatever 

 manuring properties and value they possessed 

 would (as it seems reasonable) be made use of 

 in this way as well as any other. If the stalks 

 gained any addition of richness in the cow- 

 yard by absorbing animal matter, that portion 

 was abstracted from the other litter which 

 would otherwise as well have absorbed and re- 

 tained all the animal matters. If the stalks 

 are left on the land, and the ground is sown in 

 wheat, as is most usual, the stalks may be 

 spread over the same space on which they 

 grew, after the corn has been gathered, and 

 the wheat is sown, or even growing. Their 

 spreading will be very small labor. If done 

 early, and followed by a dry state of the land, 

 it will be a good practice to let cattle browse 

 on the stalks and at the same time trample the 

 land just sown in wheat, which will be bene- 

 ficial to that crop, and especially on sandy 

 soils. This top-dressing of corn-stalks is in- 

 deed a poor manuring. But it is presumed 

 that they thus give to the crop and land all 

 their own fertilizing value, whatever that may 

 be, and at no cost of carting. In the usual 



