562 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



known on a subject of so much importance. 

 . This soil is friendly to the growth of oats, if 

 previously it has been summer-fallowed and 

 enriched with manure. A heavy crop of wheat, 

 df the season is favorable, may also be obtained. 



As to the uses to which soils may be most 

 advantageously applied, it is requisite that clay 

 soil be kept rich and full of manure, whicFi 

 qualifies it for carrying crops of wheat, oats, 

 beans, and clover. Usually, clay soils require 

 great industry and care, and a thorough knowl- 

 edge in the dressing, to keep them in a proper 

 , condition. No soil is so ungrateful as this one, 

 if allowed to get into a sterile condition; but 

 if manure is profusely appropriated with an 

 occasional summer-fallowing, it will yield the 

 heaviest and most abundant crops. 



Upon light soils the case is somewhat differ- 

 ent. The facility with whi'ch they are cultivated, 

 furnishes encouragement to keep them under 

 the plow. Grasses flourish the best, and 

 summer-fallow is rarely required. The best 

 m)thod, perhaps, of procuring wheat, is to sow 

 upon a clover stubble, which gives an artificial 

 solidity to the soil, and is thereby rendered 

 capable of sustaining this grain until it arrives 

 at maturity. W. R. P. 



Elizabeth, N. J., 1858. 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 



F. N. Watkins, Esq'r., at the ofiice of the 

 Farmers Bank of Va., at Farmville, is our 

 authorized Agent to receive money due for sub- 

 scriptions to this paper and to grant receipts 

 therefor. Our subscribers in Prince Edward 

 and the counties adjacent will please call on 

 him. 



Common Errors of Farmers. 



UE,fortunately for Virginia, there are yet 

 withie tier borders too many farrfiers who will 

 not listen to a cry for reform.* They are joined 

 to their idols and wish to be let alone. They 

 resist every efibrt at improvement in agricul- 

 ture that may be made by some neighbor who 

 is disposed to keep pace with the "spirit of the 

 age," and look with contempt on what they 

 t rm book farming." However, we know of 

 but one of even this class who carries his 



prejudices quite so far as to say, " Poor land 

 is hard enough to work, God knows, without 

 having it rich'' — while many, judging them by 

 the indifierence and slovenliness displs^yed in 

 their want of care for their farms, seem to en- 

 dorse this opinion of their frank and loquacious 

 brother. 



These tread in the footsteps of their ances- 

 tors without troubling themselves to think 

 whether or not theirs was the right path — which 

 it might very well prove to be if they are trying 

 to get to the "Almshouse." ''Land Skin- 

 ners" they are by name and practice ; and, for 

 the good of the soil, for the sake of science and 

 for the prosperity of their neighbors and them- 

 selves, we regret they can so easily be found. 

 We cantiot hope to benefit this class by a word 

 of remonstrance, but there are many other 

 farmers vvho are guilty of errors detrimental to 

 their own interests, from want of reflection and 

 from negligence in superirdending the adminis' 

 tration of their affairs, who will hearken 

 to counsel given with an earnest desire to 

 benefit them. We beg them to listen to an 

 enumeration of some of the most prominent 

 faults in the agriculture of our State ; and, if 

 convinced that they are aiders and abetters of 

 these faults, we exhort them zealously to set 

 about the work of reform. We proceed to 

 particularize some of these errors, and 



1st. The folly of cultivating too much land 

 for their force and capital. Under such cir- 

 cumstances, the result must be that the land is 

 deprived of the quantity of manure necessary 

 to insure from it a generous yield, and the 

 work done is of an imperfect character — insuf- 

 ficient to reduce the soil to a condition of "good 

 tilth." It must be evident to any man who is 

 capable of understanding or observing the laws 

 of nature, that one acre of well manured and 

 properly cultivated land will produce, at a very 

 moderate estimate, three or four times as much 

 as one of poor soil and insufficient tillage. It 

 is better for a farmer to gather a large 'crop 

 from a small space ; because he will have less 

 trouble and expense for himself, while his 

 " hands" and teams will ngt be required to 

 " scatter" over a large space to secure a thin 

 and indifferent crop — the necessary qualify of 

 all crops the produce of poor soil. It follows, 

 then, that the farmer, by such a course of 

 practice, saves trouble, time and money — the 



