I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



527 



well happen that two such crops would yield 1 

 more net product and profit than three under 

 the former and present practice — or even 

 one more than two under unremitting til- 

 lage. I have long entertained the opinion, 

 and have often attempted to urge its impor- 

 tance, especially to cotton-planters, that the 

 chief one of the well established general 

 benefits of a judicious rotation of crops, is 

 obtained in the destruction of insects, (in- 

 visible as well as visible,) caused by the en- 

 tire changes of growth , and of other condi- 

 tions of the land. . "Having argued this sub- 

 ject at length elsewhere, I v> ill here merely 

 enunciate the proposition ' in extended and 

 clear terms. I maintain cry different 



kind of plant has its peciL ;asites, or in- 

 sect depredators. These c; irive,evenif 

 able to live, on other ry different 



kinds of plants — and s< „.y can be expec- 

 ted to exist under muci, chafed conditions 

 of soil, exposure to sun, air, &c, as weli as 

 of the only suitable material for food. The 

 longer that one particular crop is grown on 

 the same land, the more (other circumstan- 

 ces being alike) must the insect parasites of 

 that plant be there increased. If the con- 

 ditions of the earth, air, exposure or shel- 

 ter, &c, caused by the tillage of that crop 

 are also the most suitable to the habits and 

 propagation of these parasites, they will in- 

 crease from year to year, and without limits, 

 except that the irregular occurrence of wea- 

 ther, or unusual temperature unfavorable to 

 their existence, may sometimes destroy many, 

 and for a time greatly lessen their ill effects. 

 Further, if the winter climate is not cold 

 enough to kill the eggs, or nearly all of the 

 parent insects, then there will be still greater 

 facilities for their continued and progressive 

 increase of numbers. Now all these encour- 

 agements for such evils are afforded by con- 

 tinued cotton-culture in this mild climate. 

 There are many visible and known insect 

 depredators peculiar to the cotton plant, and 

 which, most probably, can feed on that only 

 — or on some nearly allied plant. There 

 may be hundreds of other kinds of para- 

 sitic and injurious insects, or invisible ani- 

 malcules, whose presence is not known, or 

 even suspected, — but which, by their im- 

 mense numbers, operate unseen to produce 

 most of the many unaccountable diseases to 

 which cotton is subject. For all the ills and 

 diseases of plants, except the obvious effects 

 of poverty of soil, (or want of food,) or too 

 much moisture, or the want of it, or of ex- 



cesses of heat or cold, I ascribe to the at- 

 tacks of depredating insects, or animalcules. 

 Now, on these grounds, it is easy to see that 

 the longer that cotton (or any other one crop,) 

 is continued on the same field, the more it 

 must be infested by parasites, visible or 

 invisible, the more it must be subject to 

 different diseases — and the more uncertain 

 must be the production, and the more fre- 

 quent and considerable the partial failures 

 of the crop — and this reduction of product 

 will be independent of all caused by any 

 possible reduction of the fertility of the 

 soil, and its ability to produce other crops. 

 Then, under these circumstances, if some 

 crop, as different as possible in all its con- 

 ditions, were made to intervene with cotton, 

 and had entire possession of the field for a 

 whole graining season, the insects that could 

 live on cotton only must perish, or abandon 

 the field, if able to migrate. Such a com- 

 plete change of conditions would be pro- 

 duced by interposing a growth and cover of 

 the southern field pea, between two cotton 

 crops. No two of our cultivated plants are 

 more different. The condition of the ground, 

 and its exposure, would also be greatly 

 changed. And it may be inferred that no 

 insect that infests and feeds upon cotton 

 could live upon and through the growth, or 

 under the cover of a thick growth of pea- 

 vines. It is believed, from such few cases 

 as I have heard stated, that cotton will grow 

 well after peas — that is, that there is nothing 

 in the preceding growth of a pea crop, or 

 the accompanying condition of the land, to 

 injure the growth, or impede the tillage, of 

 cotton for the next year. Further — the 

 soil and climate of this part of Alabama are 

 admirably suited to the pea crop — which 

 both for manuring and rotation, would be 

 here of very far more value than it is* now 

 known to be in lower Virginia, where this 

 crop is thus grown, and very profitably, 

 though under the great disadvantage of a 

 more northern latitude, and unfriendly 

 climate. Yet the pea crop is scarcely grown 

 at all in this part of Alabama — and no- 

 where to much extent, or for its best uses. 

 It is objected to on the lime lands because 

 the production of grain, or seed, is small— 

 and also because hogs are killed by eating 

 them. The value that I would seek is in 

 the production of vines and leaves, and not 

 of seeds only — and for the crop to feed and 

 improve the land and its future products, 

 and not to fatten grazing animals. The 



