THE SOUTHE 



RN PLANTER. 3C1 



labor is high, and agricultural products com- 

 paratively cheap. The horse can be more 

 cheaply fed, and may be more extensively 

 and judiciously used. Hence all of those di- 

 rections for thorough preparation of the land 

 by the plough and harrow, so strongly pressed 

 by intelligent farmers in dense populations 

 apply with far greater force amongst us. And 

 to the same extent in favor of using those ma- 

 chines for labor-saving, which have rendered 

 so conspicuous the inventive genius of our 

 mechanics. 



In extensive regions of the State the soil 

 has become so much exhausted by scourging 

 cultivation, that improvement from the re- 

 sources of the farm is slow and discouraging, 

 even under the direction of experience and 

 judgment. The disappointment of sanguine 

 hopes often chills the enthusiasm of young 

 men, and disgusts them with the efforts at im- 

 provement. The foundation for more rapid 

 improvement may be judiciously laid in the use 

 of guano and other special manures. They 

 are powerful auxiliaries to the materials of the 

 farm in its rapid improvement. Though not 

 permanent improvers, of themselves, they fur- 

 nish the materials in straw and clover for con- 

 tinued improvement. When used for the pur- 

 pose of improvement, very light grazing ought 

 to follow until the land is so far supplied with 

 organic matter as to bear the loss by grazing. 

 The use of special manures is always more 

 beneficial in connection with manures of the 

 farm.— [Norton's Elements, 107. Transac- 

 tions of the Highland Agricultural Society, 

 1848-49; "Special Manures."] The effect of 

 special manures is to cause a heavy produc- 

 tion, without supplying all the ingredients 

 which the crops need, and unless ameliorating 

 crops occur, or vegetable litter be supplied, 

 exhaustion of the land will follow their con- 

 tinued use. Many special manures frequently 

 yield as heavy and as profitable returns as 

 guano: the nitrates of potash and soda — the 

 compounds of ammonia— sulphate of soda — 

 and those substances in combination with va- 

 rious manures. A series of very carefully 

 conducted experiments with a large number 

 of special manures, embracing the guanos, 

 will be found detailed in the Transactions of 

 the Highland Agricultural Society, 1848-49. 

 They recommend the use of all as top dress- 

 ings to the grain crops about the middle of the 

 spring. I bring them to the notice of the So- 

 ciety as the farmers generally have been un- 

 able to procure guano in time for use in sow- 

 ing their wheat; and there is every reason to 

 believe that a spring top dressing is as valua- 

 ble an application as any other. 



In addition to the value of guano as an aux- 

 iliary in the improvement of the land, it may be 

 profitably used on all lands of moderate fer- 

 tility. At least, such is the result of my ob- 

 servation and experience. It hastens the ma- 

 turity of the wheal and tobacco crop, and this 

 may be regarded as one of its valuable quali- 

 ties. When applied to tobacco, it produces a 



marked improvement on the wheat crop that 

 follows — very little inferior to the direct ap- 

 plication to the wheal. 



There are large areas of the State peculiarly 

 adapted to the crop of tobacco — this has been 

 generally regarded as an exhausting crop; and 

 this may be the usual consequence, but is not 

 the necessary effect. A crop of one thousand 

 pounds of leaf tobacco, which may be re- 

 garded as a fair crop from one acre, contains 

 only a pound and a half of the phosphate of 

 lime, seven of malate of lime, about two of 

 the compounds of potash, and no magnesia. — 

 [Boussingault, 166.] A wheat crop from an 

 acre, contains in the grain alone, twelve pounds 

 of phosphoric acid, one of lime, four of mag- 

 nesia and seven of potash and soda. — [Bous- 

 singault, 366.] The wheat crop exhausts far 

 more for the soil than the tobacco crop, but of 

 a different class of ingredients — and hence it 

 succeeds so admirably in following tobacco. 



It is stated in Thaer's Principles of Agri- 

 culture, as the result of general observation, 

 that four loads of dung per acre will place the 

 land in the same situation as before the crop. 

 That, "the four loads of dung form the chief 

 item of expenditure that must be laid to the 

 tobacco crop; and for this reason thexulture 

 of tobacco is most practiced in those places 

 where dung can be obtained at a low price." 

 Even for this small amount of manure no mag- 

 nesia, and only a small proportion of the phos- 

 phates are consumed. This is the result of 

 observation in those portions of Europe where 

 tobacco is cultivated, and where manures are 

 systematically collected and have an exact 

 marketable value. It is obvious, then, that 

 neither general observation nor analysis would 

 indicate this as an exhausting crop; and where 

 exhaustion follows its culture, it may be traced 

 to neglect, or injudicious over-cropping by the 

 planter. It is not a crop that is incompatible 

 with rapid improvement nor profitable agricul- 

 ture; and extensive districts of the State are 

 better adapted to its cultivation than to any 

 other crop — those formations which contain 

 potash, but are deficient in lime, magnesia and 

 the phosphates— and where the distance from 

 the limestone formations render improvement 

 by lime too expensive. Plaster produces a 

 most striking effect upon the growth of the 

 plant, though it contains no sulphate of lime, 

 and a very inconsiderable amount of sulphate 

 of potash. The benefits of the application are 

 beyond doubt; the mode of its operation is 

 uncertain. The production of tobacco may 

 be greatly extended by the use of unrotted 

 leaves, ashes and guano — without employing 

 the manuring products of cultivated crops — 

 and as it furnishes no materials for manure, it 

 might properly be thrown upon other sources 

 to supply its wants. 



No particular rotation of crops can be re- 

 commended as suitable to a State so exten- 

 sive, with soil and productions so diversified — 

 the extended rotations of continental Europe 

 being wholly unsuited to the sparsity of our 



