THE SOUTHERN 



PLANTER. 



253 



more generally over the surface than could be 

 imagined. All I ask of the skeptical on this 

 subject is, to make one experiment. I have fre- 

 quently applied it in this way, and invariably 

 have derived benefit from it, exceeding my ex- 

 pectation. 



A few words in relation to the varieties of 

 corn ; in these I have experimented largely, and 

 the result is decidedly in favor of the largest 

 kind. Poor land will not bring large or small, 

 and rich will produce much more of the large 

 than the small. Of one of the small varieties 

 I once obtained eleven ears well matured from 

 one stalk. The appearance was very imposing, 

 but lo! when I came to test the product of this 

 variety with a larger one, I found one large ear 

 to yield one-eighth of a gill more than the ele- 

 ven. When the gathering of the ten additional 

 ears, the shucking and housing, and the defi- 

 ciency in yield are taken in the estimate, I think 

 no one will hesitate in awarding a preference to 

 the large kind. Rexburg. 



IMPROVING LAND BY GREEN MANURES. 



It is believed by some, that the best kind of 

 vegetable growth for turning in, in the form of 

 green manures, is Indian corn sown broadcast. 

 If it be intended to apply lime to the land, it would 

 be well to do so the fall before. Then as early 

 in the spring as circumstances will permit sow 

 com broadcast, say three or four bushels to the 

 acre, and as soon as it has grown as high as it 

 can be conveniently turned under with a deep 

 working plough, turn it under, and immediately 

 sow another crop in the same way, turning that 

 under as before, but with a medium plough run 

 crossways of the previous furrow. In the mid- 

 dle and southern States, three crops can thus be 

 turned under in one season. It is believed that 

 no system of manuring or renovation, except 

 the heaviest application of stable manure, can 

 compare with this plan in its results. If the 

 land be very poor the first crop will be very 

 light, but light as it may be it will yet add a 

 considerable portion of the elements of vegetable 

 nutrition to the soil ; and thus the second crop 

 will be greatly improved, and the third will be 

 all that can be desired. It is believed that in 

 this way four times as much improvement will 

 be effected in one season, as can be by means of 

 clover in three or four years. For this purpose 

 farmers in the north should use the tall kinds of 

 southern corn, as being of more rapid growth 

 and furnishing vastly more matter for the soil. 



Cultivator. 



MECHANICAL AGRICULTURE. 

 The day will come, is fast approaching, when 

 labor-saving machinery will enter much more 

 largely than it does at present into the economy 



of southern agriculture. Such is the degree of 

 competition now that the whole world has turned 

 its attention to the peaceful arts of agriculture, 

 that the question is who shall produce cheapest. 

 The natural advantages of a virgin and fertile 

 soil in one portion of the world must be offsetted 

 by superior skill and industry in another; and 

 we of the South can only hope to compete with 

 the wheat growers and tobacco makers of the 

 West, by resorting to the use of labor-saving 

 machinery wherever it is applicable to agricul- 

 ture. The ingenuity which produced the cotton 

 gin and spinning jenny, is awaiting the orders 

 of the agriculturist. But as a general rule, la- 

 bor-saving machinery requires the superintend- 

 ence of a mechanic, and that the Virginia farmer 

 is not ; and yet to that must he, to a certain ex- 

 tent, come at last. There is no greater bar to 

 agricultural improvement at the South than the 

 entire ignorance of our farmers and planters of 

 the simplest mechanical details. The cost of 

 the farmer's operations depends, in a great mea- 

 sure, upon the perfection of the implements with 

 which he labors, but to furnish nine-tenths of 

 them with any thing beyond a chopping axe or 

 a grubbing hoe, is like casting pearls before 

 swine, and yet the day will come, we venture to 

 predict, when the steam engine will perform a 

 large portion of the work of the farm. The 

 threshing machine has already expelled the flail, 

 and every day new drafts are made upon the 

 mechanical skill of the farmer. We say, there- 

 fore, that the first thing a young farmer should 

 be taught (we despair of the old ones) is a tho- 

 rough practical knowledge of the implements 

 and machines he will require in his vocation. — - 

 This already begins to be understood in Eng- 

 land, and our readers would be astounded at the 

 complication and perfection of many of their 

 agricultural implements. Some idea of the ex- 

 pense incurred, and the nature of the means 

 adopted to save labor, may be formed from the 

 following extract from a correspondent of the 

 American Agriculturist. It is descriptive of a 

 farm in Scotland called Swanston, about three 

 miles from Edinburgh : 



" The attention of our party was first turned 

 to the farm buildings. These are of stone and 

 form an extensive quadrangle. Here are stables 

 for the horses, of which sixteen are employed 

 upon the farm ; also stalls for about twenty-five 

 cows ; but these are principally occupied by fat- 

 tening cattle, as Mr. Finnie keeps merely enough 

 cows to supply his own family. The horses are 



