402 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



ing my pork. Boiled potatoes and hominy 

 will fatten hogs much raster than corn, and 

 they are the finest kind of food for milch 

 cows, as good for them or better than any 

 lluta Baga turnips or Manzel Wortzel 

 beets, though I prefer raising turnips for 

 cows, as it is a more certain crop, and more 

 turnips can be raised from the same land. 

 I neglected to say how much work I gave 

 my potatoes last year, I only gave them 

 one working- with the hoe, none with the 

 plough; the season was so dry and the land 

 so poor there was no grass or weeds to 

 hurt. Could the farmer have any assur- 

 ance of getting half the amount spoken of 

 in the Planter as being paid by the citi- 

 zens of the State for potatoes, you would 

 soon see all of the Virginia markets glut- 

 ted ; for one ton of guano would raise 

 more potatoes than wheat, if the potatoes 

 only brought twenty cents per bushel, and 

 the land only produced two hundred bush- 

 els per acre, with the application of three 

 hundred pounds of guano to the acre. One 

 ton of guano is, I believe, about the aver- 

 age applied to ten acres of land in this 

 section for wheat, and fifteen bushels per 

 acre I know to be as large as our average 

 yield of wheat from that quantity of guano, 

 which, if it brought one dollar and fifty 

 cents per bushel, would be $225. Now, 

 one ton sown on land, at the rate of three 

 hundred pounds per acre, would sow over 

 six and two-third acres, which if it only 

 produced two hundred bushels of potatoes 

 per acre, would make over thirteen hun- 

 dred bushels, which, at present prices, 

 would pay better than anything else. 



For the Planter. 

 Labor Lost. 



Millions of dollars are annually lost to 

 the State of Virginia by the misapplica- 

 tion of labor. 



Let us, for the present, take into con- 

 sideration the loss of time in making hills 

 for tobacco and other crops. 



Suppose ten laborers on a plantation. 

 If their labor be properly applied these 

 ought to make twenty thousand hills and 

 cultivate the same in tobacco — 'horn worms, 

 suckering, and housing excepted ; and for 

 these 'purposes help can be hired. But let 

 us suppose 15,000 hills each ; then we 

 have for the whole crop 150,000. For 

 the old-fashioned way of dig, dig, dig, 200 



hills is a good day's work, whereas 1000 

 hills can be as perfectly and as easily be 

 made in the same time. To make 150,000 

 hills in the old style, will consume 750 

 days a 75 cents is ' $562 

 New mode 150 days 112 



Gain or saving ten hands , $450 

 Or to each laborer $45 



I remember that more than 50 years 

 past an old man, named Jack, prepared a 

 piece of ordinary new land for tobacco by 

 cutting deep and making very large hills. 

 The result was a light crop for two years, 

 and the land made and remaining poor to 

 this day. One or two years after this I 

 cultivated tobacco on land adjoining Jack, 

 coultered and hilled lightly, and made re- 

 spectable crops for two years. Neither of 

 us used manure, and as to a stimulant in 

 that day it was not known in any region ; 

 but I have no doubt if Jack had used a 

 little guano or plaster on his crop soon 

 after planting, that he would have grown a 

 respectable crop. 



No new ground need be broken for to- 

 bacco more than two inches deep ; stiff 

 clay excepted, which may be coultered 

 deep to sink rains, but hoed shallow. 



About 22 years past I cleared a piece 

 of rich, loose mountain land, had it pre- 

 pared by making two or three cuts with 

 the hoe at the proper distance for hills, and 

 placing thereon four or five hoes of earth ; 

 leaving the space between hills wholly 

 untouched, till the ground required weed- 

 ing. Each hand, big and little, made 

 1000 hills the day, and the coultering of 

 the crop being a mere scratching, it was a 

 light job. This piece of ground being 

 rich, it was cultivated in tobacco three 

 years in succession in the same mode, 

 yielding good crops, and is now rich. 

 Land which, by nature, is sufficiently 

 porous to admit light and moisture needs 

 no more culture than is required to de- 

 stroy weeds and grasses. Nor should the 

 roots of trees or bushes be ripped out of 

 the ground, but should remain, for tne pur- 

 pose of sinking rains and enriching the 

 land. » 



When I was a tobacco planter, my mode 

 of preparing level or bottom land for to- 

 bacco, was to plough in winter to kill 

 w 7 orms and pulverize the ground : harrow 

 and plough with shovel in the spring, ridge 



