THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



"force" of the farm and teams have less labor 

 and exposure to undergo. The ivanis of the 

 farm can be better attended to, as the owner 

 has an opportunity of seeing it often, and is 

 thus kept "posted up" as to the condition 

 every part of it. Many a "wash" runs into 

 a " gulley," many "abrasions" terminate in 

 " galls" of considerable extent, because they 

 begin in a distant field. Again, there is a pro- 

 portionate diminution of expense and trouble 

 in the items of fencing and draining. Finally, 

 it is more economical, agreeable and profitable 

 to work a farm of proper proportion to the 

 force and capital located on it. "Anything 

 worth doing at all, is worth doing well." 



The usual size of our farms (remote from 

 cities) may be said to vary from 400 to 800 acres. 

 These are generally divided into three fields — one 

 of which is annually in corn, another in 

 wheat ; while the third, under pretext of being 

 rested [!), is grazed and poached by all 

 stock of the farm. 



With such "skinning" as this to submit to, 

 k %©f course the land must every year become 

 more and more impoverished — the owner add 

 to his burden of anxiety and debt. After 

 awhile he must " sell out" and remove to a 

 "better country," to secure the probability of a 

 supply of bread to those dependent on him ; or, 

 worse still, he must see (what is repugnant to 

 the feelings of every Virginia gentleman) some 

 one or more of his negroes sold to me§t his 

 " liabilities." There are many instances of 

 just such management as this, in more States 

 than ours. Many a place in the U. S., where 

 capital, which would be of infinite service in 

 supplying to the arable portions of the land the 

 manure and necessary labor for its profitable 

 cultivation, is " locked up" in useless acres 

 AVhat, then, is the remedy for this evil? 



We answer : sell from one-fourth to one half 

 of the land of every farmer who has pursued 

 iguch a system of cultivation as we have des- 

 cribed and lay out the proceeds judiciously in 

 improving the acres he will have left. We be- 

 lieve it would greatly benefit our State and 

 people to do so. We should then have a dense 

 population in districts now almost deserted, 

 which would give renewed impulse to agricul- 

 tural improvement and incidentally benefit the 

 interests of every class. Wo have never seen 

 an acre of land made rich that did not pay a 



handsome profit on the cost of making it 

 so — counting the great pleasure of seeing fine 

 crops grow on spots hitherto barren as nothing ; 

 and pleasure should fill the heart of every man 

 on witnessing an improvement of the soil, ef- 

 fected by his own industry, liberality and 

 perseverance. In England, the tenant, in order 

 to make his living on his rented land, does not 

 hesitate to expend for manures an amount of 

 labor per acre necessary for certain seasons, 

 which would pay for a "fee simple" right to a 

 good far.m here. 



" Good managers" have proved that it will pay 

 to expend liberal sums of money judiciously 

 in improving and renovating the soil. 



If English tenants find it pays them to 

 improve their landlords' farms, surely our land- 

 owners here, who are not improx'ing theirs, are 

 behind the spirit and intelligence of the age. 

 Well may they " find farming a slow business" 

 who are themselves wanting in every element 

 of agricultural progress. 



2nd. There is a lamentable state of indif- 

 ference manifested in augmenting the quantity 

 of manure and in taking care of and hauling 

 out that which, without any special pains, ac- 

 cumulates about the stock-yards. A great 

 many of the stables are built upon the edge of 

 a hill. The manure is thrown out in a heap 

 near its brow, exposed to sun and rain. 



First, from being heaped in its fresh state, a 

 rapid fermentation takes place — we should have 

 said too rapid — by which it becomes burnt or 

 " fire-fanged ;" its gaseous constituents are 

 evaporated, and it is left light, chaffy, mouldy 

 and valuable for little more than the inorganic 

 matters contained in it. Even the latter (the 

 easily soluble portions of them) are w^ashed 

 out by the rain, and the bulk is injured from 

 50 to 75 per cent, in value. When Guano is 

 used for the w^heat crop, how often is it the 

 case, after the grain is sold, that even the straio 

 is thrown away and not allowed to return io the 

 land — depriving it thus, with every crop, of its 

 Lime, Potash, Soda, Phosphates, Sulphates, 

 &c. 



100 lbs. of the ash of wltcat straw, which is 

 5.10 per cent, of its original weight — as ascer- 

 tained by the average of 8 different analyees — is 

 equal to about 2,000 lbs. of straw in its unburnt 

 state, and contains inorganic material of dif- 

 ferent kinds in the following proportions, viz: 



