C62 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



manure can be secured before winter, quite 

 sufficient to cover twenty or more acres for 

 corn. 



I contend, Mr. Editor, that it is far better, if 

 practicable, to haul the manure, at this season, 

 direct to the fields and spread evenly over the 

 ground, than to let it remain in the barn-yard 

 to accumulate for the next crop of wheat. 

 There is an amazing loss by fermentation and 

 wastage during the hot months of summer, 

 secure it as you may. It is wiser to let this be 

 done in the field than in the heap in the yard. 



I have, in some instances, plowed under 

 almost immediately the manure hauled out in 

 the fall; but I have always found the best suc- 

 cess by letting it remain upon the surface and 

 plowing under in the spring. I know that 

 these sentiments are antagonistic to the opin- 

 ions of many able writers, and particularly to 

 those of the intelligent editor of the American 

 Farmer. But facts are stubborn things, and 

 hard after all to controvert. 



I remember many years ago that I purchased 

 several hundred loads of valuable manure, 

 hauled it quite a number of miles, and had it 

 spread as hauled, from early spring to late in 

 summer, upon a clover sod, covering, with ma- 

 nure from my own barn-yard, about forty-five 

 acres. The clover grevv" so as to hide the ma- 

 nure in a short time; after which all was 

 turned under together by a skilful plowman. 

 The result was, at the next harvest, sixteen 

 hundred and nine (1G09) bushels of as fine 

 Mediterranean wheat as I ever saw gathered ; 

 and this too in the face of the assertions of 

 many that the manure would be burned up 

 and its elFects destroyed by exposure to the 

 heat of the sun. ^ 



A Bucks County Farmer. 



Beep Cultivation. 



There is no doubt whatever that the 

 English farmer is thoroughly awakened to 

 the importance of deeper and more per- 

 ftjct tillage. While anxious after new 

 sources of portable manure, grateful for 

 the boon of the team-thrasher, and pa- 

 tiently waiting for improvements in reap- 

 ing machines, he is more than ever alive 

 to the advantage of being able to multiply 

 mechanically the producing power of his 

 fields. This beautiful island of ours can- 

 not be stretched to a broader area ; neither 

 can we construct estates two stories deep, 

 one gallery of ground upheld above 

 another, like John Martin's Babylon gar- 

 dens ; yet every day is creating new de- 

 mands for increased yields of agricultural 

 produce. Thanks to the implement-ma- 

 kers, we are continually receiving fresh 

 tools and machines to render tillage easier, 



and to aid us in adding to the four or six 

 inches of immemorial staple an equal 

 thickness of good soiling immediately un- 

 derneath it, thus following the urban cus- 

 tom of gaining room vertically when it is 

 denied to us in ground superficiencies. 

 The spread of surface-cleansing by paring 

 and grubbing, mainly brought about by a 

 supply of cheap, efiicient, and economical- 

 ly working-implements, \j, really wonder- 

 ful ; and with its extension has also 

 widened the view of the farmer, as to 

 the far greater amount of autumn-clean- 

 ing which would be worth doing had he 

 but motive power enough for its perform- 

 ance. And there is no question that the 

 appioval and practice of deep tillage is 

 also gaining ground. Intelligent agricul- 

 turists have not w^orked their teams in 

 Herculean plowing of fifteen-inch furrows 

 and crumbling stifl^'-clay sub-soils, without 

 spreading the fame of their results ; prac- 

 tice has not toiled or science preached in 

 vain : and at the present time we believe 

 the most valued boon to the farmer would 

 be the placing in his hands a power that 

 could make deep trench-work and a deep- 

 stirring easy, iiistead of costly and some- 

 what dreaded operations. Prizes for 

 plows to work twelve inches deep are 

 no longer deemed preposterous ; and as 

 we come nearer and nearer to the success- 

 ful hauling of draught implements by the 

 steam-engine, the j)roduction and testing 

 of the heavy-land plow becomes a closer 

 struggle between the manufacturers, and a 

 livelier subject of attention to the business 

 farmer. In the columns of agricultural 

 journals and periodicals we have continu- 

 al exhortations to increase our teams, 

 strengthen our whippletrees, and dip the 

 share deeper ; and the National Society's 

 Journal gives us essays on the best 

 methods of deepening the staple soil, and 

 on the effects of the atmosphere upon the 

 newly upturned earth. The Marquis of 

 Tvveeddale devises a most elfective sub- 

 soil plow, and Mr. Stevens makes known • 

 to the world the extraordinary benefits on 

 a large scale which have followed its la- 

 borious employment. Various inventors 

 are favoring us with new sub-soilers, and 

 Cotgreave's trench-plow seems to have 

 come opportunely for the application of 

 steam power to deep tillage. 



There is no occupier who would not 

 like to have his land in as fine tilth and as 



