THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



317 



TWO ACRE FARM. 



We had lately an inquiry from a young 

 lawyer, for information as to the amount he 

 might raise from a sixteen acre farm. We 

 copy the following account of the products of 

 two acres, furnished by a correspondent of the 

 New England Farmer, which were planted 

 with crops somewhat similar to those we pro- 

 posed for the sixteen acres, and which at the 

 same rate for the sixteen acre surface, would 

 yield over one thousand dollars. Such land, 

 must, of course, be in the highest state of til- 

 lage • but we doubt the propriety of mixing 

 two crops together, which grow and ripen 

 nearly at the same time, because it is often 

 troublesome to cultivate both at once, and one 

 of them operates detrimentally, as weeds do, 

 on- the other. When one succeeds the other 

 in most of its growth, as turnips with beans, 

 the case is different. Planting vegetables with 

 young fruit trees we have found to injure, like 

 weeds, the growth of the trees, unless with 

 young seedlings, whose roots had not extended 

 far. — Country Gentleman. 



Mr. Editor : The article recently in the 

 Farmer, giving an account of a " one acre 

 farm, has led me to think I might possibly 

 make a statement of facts that would be valu- 

 able, and I forward the same to you, hoping 

 you will use it just as it deserves. 



Nine years ago last spring I came into pos- 

 session of a two acre farm, and at that time it 

 was barely possible to get one ton of hay from 

 the whole of it, such was the state of cultiva- 

 tion it was in. It was all in mowing at the 

 time, except one-eigth of an acre that I sowed 

 oats on, and they were so small that a good 

 stout grasshopper could eat the heads off by 

 standing tiptoe. Circumstances prevented me 

 from making much improvement until 1849 or 

 '50, and new for the results* of the past dry 

 season : 



2£ tons hay s at 8 per ton, $20 0.0 



12 bushels corn, at 80 cents per bush 9 60 



Corn Fodder 1 00 



2 loads pumpkins 1 00 



21 bushels potatoes, 20 cents per bush 6 30 



2 bushels beans, Si 50 do do 3 00 



38 bush carrots, 30 cents do do 11 40 



32 bush turnips, 30 cents do do 6 40 



10 bush graft apples, 50 cents do 5 00 



Garden sauce 5 00 



Growth of 140 standard apple, plum, cherry 



pear trees, 10 cents each 14 00 



Growth 230 nursery trees, 2d year, 5c each-. 12 50 



Do 1100 do do 1st year, 3c each,-- 33 00 



Do 1000 seedlings, £c each 5 00 



Total $133 20 



Perhaps some may think it is impossible to 

 have so much on so small a surface. I would 

 just sa,y that my beans and carrots grew 



amongst the nursery trees, and the most of the 

 turnips amongst the potatoes. On one small 

 patch I raised a good crop of green peas, pota- 

 toes and turnips ; the peas were planted in the 

 hills with the potatoes, and the turnips set 

 both ways between the hills, getting three 

 good crops on the same land in the same sea- 

 son, and neither crop appeared to injure the 

 other — at least they all did well. 



Now, if this will stimulate another two acre 

 farmer to do the like out of nothing, I have 

 my reward. 



From the Baltimore Sun. 



BENEFITS OF DROUGHTS TO LAND. 



[Laboratory of State Chemist. No. 29, Exchange 

 Buildings.] 



It may be a consolation to those who have 

 felt the influence of the late, long and pro- 

 tracted dry weather to know that droughts are 

 one of the natural causes to restore the con- 

 stituents of crops and renovate ^cultivated 

 soils The diminution of the mineral matter 

 of cultivated soils takes place from two causes : 



1 st. The quantity of mineral matter carried 

 off in crops and not returned to the soil in ma- 

 nure. 



2d. The mineral matter carried off by ram 

 water to the sea by means of fresh water 

 streams. 



These two causes, always in operation, and 

 counteracted by nothing, would in time render 

 the earth a barren waste in which no verdure 

 would quicken and no solitary plant take root. 

 A rational system of agricult ure would obvi- 

 ate the first cause of sterility, by always re- 

 storing to the soil an equivalent for that 

 which is taken off by the crops ; but as this is 

 not done in all cases, Providence has provided 

 a way of its own to counteract the thriftless- 

 ness of man, by instituting droughts at proper 

 periods to bring up from the deep parts of the 

 earth food on which plants might feed when 

 rains should again fall. The manner in which 

 droughts exercise their beneficial influence is 

 as follows : During dry weather a continual 

 evaporation of water takes place from the sur- 

 face of the earth, which is not supplied by any 

 from the clouds. The evaporation from the 

 surface creates a vacuum, (so far as water is 

 concerned,) which is at once filled by the water 

 rising up from the subsoil of the land ; the 

 water from the subsoil is replaced from the 

 next strata below, and in this manner the cir- 

 culation of water in the earth is the reverse to 

 that which takes place in wet weather. This 

 progress to the surface of the water in the 

 earth manifests itself strikingly in the drying 



