THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



429 



For the Southern Planter. 

 A lieply to a Young Farmer's Request 



in the June lumber of the Planter. 



My flattering prospect for wheat in Nov. 

 last, and again in February last, has in no 

 respect realized the expectations it was 

 calculated to encourage. The indolent 

 and slovenly farmers, together with the 

 land-scratchers and land-killers, are cer- 

 tainly the best off this season, for the sim- 

 ple fact that they have risked nothing in 

 the way of manure and extra labour. 

 What I term the progressive farmers must, 

 for the present, submit to the rejoicing of 

 the fogy land-masters who, although they 

 have no wheat, and no grass, or clover to 

 hide the nakedness of mother earth, with 

 an assumed air of comfort, rejoice that 

 they purchased no guano, no phosphate of 

 lime, no bone dust, no lime, no plaster last 

 tall, but have their money in their pockets, 

 which is for sale at — per cent. 



The effect of the winter upon the wheat 

 in this section, left it so feeble that the 

 fly, in the early part of the spring, de- 

 stroyed a large portion of it, and for the 

 last three weeks the fly and joint-worm, 

 and occasionally a helping hand from the 

 chinch bugs, have been making sad havoc 

 of the enfeebled wheat plants. The fail- 

 ure is so general in the Valley that not 

 more w T heat can be saved than will be re- 

 quired for seed and bread. If I had not 

 used ten and a half tons of fertilizers, and 

 400 bushels of compost, viz : lime, plas- 

 ter, ashes and salt, I, most assuredly, 

 should not have made my seed; and, as it 

 is, may reap one thousand bushels, which 

 is not more than one-fifth of a crop. My 

 experience in subsoiling for wheat and 

 corn is only of a few years duration, and 

 the effect upon my judgment is such as to 

 render me very much dissatisfied when- 

 ever necessitated to plow for any crop 

 without subsoiling. Two years since I 

 plowed in June, July, August and Sep- 

 tember several strips of ground var}-ing 

 from a quarter to three quarters of an 

 acre ; in a crop of 220 acres, the three 

 quarters of an acre ploughed and subsoiled 

 in June was decidedly the best wheat I 

 had, even better than where I used phos- 

 phate of lime at the rate of 175 lbs per 

 acre. Those portions subsoiled in August 

 and September produced a very inferior 

 crop; from this result I was induced to 



believe that plowing and subsoiling three 

 months previous to seeding, would greatly 

 improve the crop, and especially a dry, 

 cold season, such as we have had in this 

 section the two past years. 



As far as I subsoiled for corn last season, 

 I certainly had a better crop than was 

 grown any where in this section. Several 

 applications have been made to know how 

 'to make compost, such as I used on my 

 corn last spring. The miller who grinds 

 my meal, says my corn, grown in 1856, 

 is much better than any that comes to the 

 mill. The portion not subsoiled, on which 

 I used the same quantity of compost that 

 I did the subsoiled portion, produced such 

 inferior corn in every respect, that I could 

 but give the subsoiling credit for the dif- 

 ference. Every acre I have plowed the past 

 spring, has been subsoiled deeperand better 

 than ever with a plow of my own invention, 

 which I fancy has advantages and recom- 

 mendations not possessed by any I have 

 seen. I also use cultivators with teeth 

 made upon the same plan of the subsoil 

 plow, which enables me to make my corn 

 crop with two-thirds, or half the labour I 

 formerly bestowed upon it. By this level 

 cultivation I find I make more corn, and 

 in a great measure guard against the inju- 

 ries and effects of heavy rains ; and my 

 corn ground is generally so mellow that a 

 harrow is sufficient for seeding it with 

 wheat. 1 will mention, in conclusion, that 

 my letter to the Editor of the Planter last 

 November, was a private letter, not in- 

 tended on my part to be made public, but 

 simply to let him know that the Valley 

 was trying to produce wheat as well as 

 Eastern Virginia. I cannot understand 

 why it was this letter should have been 

 published, and the receipt o( a communi- 

 cation on subsoiling Virginia lands ac- 

 knowledged and promised a place eighteen 

 months since in the Planter.* If this 

 communication, or any heretofore pub- 

 lished in the Planter, should in any re- 

 'spect benefit the cause of agriculture in 



* We presumed the letter was intended for 

 publication, and therefore published it. If let- 

 ters are not marked private, or do not contain 

 matter obviously private, we presume ourselves 

 [ at liberty to publish it in whole or in part. 

 The article referred to on subsoiling we 

 thought had been published. Ed. Southern 

 Planter. 



