350 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



crop contains, with the exception of silica, all 

 of the organic and inorganic elements of a 

 large wheat crop in excess. When this is 

 secured, the farmer has laid the foundation for 

 good wheat crops and for successful improve- 

 ment. 



The Society will perceive, that I am urging 

 a course of practice, which has in view the 

 accumulation of organic matter in the soil in 

 the speediest practicable time. No observing 

 farmer, who has looked to the course of cul- 

 ture in this State from its first settlement, can 

 be ignorant of the great loss of organic matter 

 that has ensued. Successive crops of tobacco 

 on the virgin soil, frequent repetition of the 

 corn crops, followed by wheat or oats, shallow 

 p'oughings, excessive grazing, with no inter- 

 vening ameliorating crops, characterize the 

 outline of our destructive system. We look 

 back to the past, not to express vain regrets, 

 but to gather instruction. Our purpose here 

 is not to scatter reproaches, but to sow the 

 seed of knowledge, to stimulate by encourage- 

 ment, and to promise to the intelligent appli- 

 cation of labor and industry the full fruition 

 of success. 



The vegetable matter in the soil tends to 

 regain the soluble saline matter and to keep it 

 from being washed away, the presence in con- 

 siderable quantity becomes desirable when we 

 wish to maintain a soil in a high state of fer- 

 tility. The lands may be ploughed much 

 deeper, and the injurious effects of heavy rains 

 to a considerable degree obviated. The most 

 of the fertilizing elements are soluble— many 

 of them highly so. Now, the quantity of wa- 

 ier that falls on one acre of land, is one hundred 

 tons for every inch in depth, or three thousand 

 tons for thirty inches, the usual annual fall 

 of water. The solvent power of water, and 

 the annual average quantity which falls, are 

 sufficiently certain for practical purposes. The 

 injury resulting to the land will depend upon 

 its condition, if the land be protected by grasses, 

 the flowing of water over it produces only be- 

 neficial effects. Such is the whole theory of 

 irrigation — where in practice the water of 

 streams is turned upon the meadows and made 

 to overflow them for several weeks, then turned 

 off for a few days and again turned upon them 

 for two or three weeks, and this alternate 

 flooding and drying continued for several 

 months, the effect does not depend upon the 

 sediment deposited by the water, though se- 

 diment increases the effect, water, without 

 any perceptible sediment, may be successfully 

 used— nor does the success depend upon the 

 want of water, for irrigation is practised in 

 England and Scotland, in the months of De- 

 cember and January, when the soil is saturated 

 with water. The conditions for success are 

 "that the land be thoroughly drained and the 

 water be kept flowing and not be permitted to 

 stagnate.— [Low's Practical Agriculture, 574.] 

 The running of water over lands protected by 

 grasses, whether from streams or showers, 

 must be regarded as benefical. 



It is when land is cultivated, containing but 

 little vegetable matter, ploughed shallow or 

 left unprotected by clovers and grasses, that 

 heavy rains may be feared. As you deepen 

 the soil and increase the quantity of vegetable 

 matter, less and less injury results, until you 

 reach the extent of modern improvements in 

 the practice of subsoiling and tile draining. 

 Then we are informed when the land is tho- 

 roughly drained and subsoiled, so that the rain 

 sinks where it falls and makes its way through 

 near three feet of soil before it escapes, it is a 

 question whether, in ordinary circumstances, 

 it will carry away much more than it brings 

 with it from the air.— [Ed. Gluar. Jour. Ag. 

 1849, 592, Prof. Johnston.] If the quantity 

 which it carried into the tile drains was appre- 

 ciable, analysis would detect the quantity and 

 solve the doubt; and such a question would 

 never have been stated as matter of doubt by 

 so distinguished a chemist as Prof. Johnson. 

 This furnishes a striking illustration of the 

 absorbent powers of the soil, of the organic 

 matter contained in it. Whatever fertilizing 

 ingredients the rain water may dissolve, when 

 it sinks into the tile drains, the soil has ab- 

 sorbed them so completely as to leave it doubt- 

 ful, whether the water carries away more than 

 fell from the clouds. What stronger evidence 

 can be furnished in favor of thorough draining 

 and deep ploughing'? The manure applied on 

 such a soil becomes fixed and permanent, until 

 consumed by successive crops. 



The land should be gradually broken deeper 

 with the turning plough as its fertility in- 

 creases. In stiff clay soils early fall or winter 

 ploughing is advisable, in order to obtain the 

 pulverizing influence of frosts and freezes. 

 To expose the greatest amount of surface to 

 the action of the air, the furrow slice should 

 incline as near as practicable at an angle of 

 45 degrees — and to procure this inclination the 

 depth cut should be two-thirds of the width — 

 or in the proportion of eight inches deep to 

 twelve wide. — [Low's Practical Agriculture, 

 p. 218.] If the furrow be too wide for its depth, 

 it will lie too flat and overlap; and if too deep 

 for its width, it will be too near vertical, and 

 will fall back into the furrow. Absolute ac- 

 curacy cannot be practically attained; but an 

 experienced ploughman will soon leain to 

 gauge his plough when the correct principles 

 are understood. In ploughing matches, the 

 "English are exact and positive in prescribing 

 the depth of the ploughing and the width of 

 the furrow-slice, even to half an inch, and in- 

 sist upon a uniform width throughout the 

 whole." — [Colman's European Agriculture, 

 vol. 1, p. 457.] This is one of the great ope- 

 rations of husbandry, upon which success 

 mainly depends; and that practical accuracy 

 which has been attained, should be held up 

 as a standard for imitation. , 



The careful preparation of land by plough- 

 ing and harrowing is far more important in a 

 sparse population, where labor is high, than a 

 dense population, where it is cheap. With us 



