30 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
THE PEA AS A FERTILIZER. 
Editors Southern Cultivator— Enclosed you have 
cne dollar — the amount of my subscription for yonr val- 
uable journal for 1859. 
There has been a great deal said in relation to peas as 
a fertilizer, but I have known of ssveral cases in this 
neighborhood in which they have entirely failed for cot- 
ton, and I would like to learn the experience of others in 
the matter. About four years ago, I made the experiment 
myself, in this manner: I planted a small field of 4 acres 
in peas about the 1st of July. When they were ripe, I 
picked them, and, the vines being very luxuriant, turned 
them under, and the following spring planted in cotton. 
It was a failure. This year, two or three of my neigh- 
bors did the same thing, with the same result. Well, my 
faith in the pea for that purpose is not yet exhausted, and 
I am trying the experiment once more, with the addition 
of lime. Now, the question is, how much lime shall I 
usel (I mean the oyster shell lime.) Perhaps, after all, 
I may fail again; for, if the land is exhausted of alkaline^ 
matter, viz : potash, soda, magnesia, phosphoric and sul- 
phuric acids and chlorine, there will probably be no good 
result. The field is high, dry and sandy, and has been 
in cultivation with various intervals of two, three, five 
and seven years, for fifty years. It has now been lying 
out three years. 
The cotton crops on the seaboard are very short. I 
presume the gale of September cut them off generally 
about one-third — in many instances, more. The corn 
crops are pretty fair. 
With best wishes for your continued success, I am. 
Very respectfully, your ob’t serv’t, 
Bryan. 
Way's Station, Ga., Dec., 1858. 
• ■ ■ . ■ 
TO ENRICH LANR — STOCK.RAISINC4, &c. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — The time has ar- 
rived for me to renew my subscription to your journal, 
and I avail myself of it to say something to the readers 
of the Cultivator, albeit little given to writing. 
I have been a reader of the Cultivator for many years, 
and in every No. I have seen something about manures — 
hauling muck, barn yard manure, guano, and all the thou- 
sand and one things used in England and the North for 
manuring the ground— and I never have yet seen one that 
I thought was practicable, till the Dec. No. came out. 
“ Stock Husbandry at the South” embraces the whole 
thing, and is the only way that lands at the South ever 
will be, or can be, enriched ; ’tis nature’s own mode, and 
by it our lands can be enriched, while we enrich our- 
selves ; and for fear that there may be some who do not 
understand the manner of doing it, I will try and tell how: 
I knew of a worn out cotton plantation in Middle Ten- 
nessee that was made to produce 80 bushels of corn to the 
acre, on 300 acres, the first fall. One-half was sown in 
rye and clover; the rye fed down in the field by hogs, 
then grazed on the field till September ; they were then 
turned into the corn field, and the whole fed off on the 
corn field (the farmer renting land to make his corn for 
winter use); this was sown in rye and clover, as the hogs 
finished a field (the corn field was divided in four parts.) 
That fall the farmer bought all the poor calves and sheep 
he could find, with sufficient beef cattle to graze the rye. 
During winter and next spring they were put on the clo- 
ver, and.by fall he had a fine lot of stock. The place was 
kept to grass for three years, and then put under the three 
field system ; and, although never originally the richest 
land, it is now the most productive farm in Middle Ten- 
nessee — three years since, it look the certificate as 2nd 
best place, at the Nashville .Agricultural Fair. 
The whole secret is in having plenty grass, with plen- 
ty stock to eat it. The system of farming at the South 
is different, and always will be. No large amount of ma- 
nure will ever be collected in stables and barn yards, be- 
cause cattle do not require housing all the time. If your 
land is so poor that grass vull not grow on it, sow peas, 
feed off to hogs, turn under the vines, and sow rye or 
oats ; feed off again, and sow peas, and so on, till your 
lands become rich ; get you good plows of easy draft, that 
turn well ; plow deep and often. Get the best stock you 
can procure; see them often ; don’t tmst to any one ; salt 
often— and you can furnish your table with good, whole- 
some meat, and be done with pickled pork from the North. 
As to profits of sheep raising, we have made 150 per 
cent, since we commenced, although on a small scale— 
that is, S220 worth of sheep netted us last year S375, be- 
sides the lambs, which were a rather poor lot last year — 
cause: breeding in-and-in too long. Don’t believe that 
any kind of stock will improve under such treatment. 
The Blakewell sheep, that so much has been said about, 
has always been a doubtful experiment. I doubt much if 
he did not cross them, for he seems to have been afraid 
some one would procure his stock. 
Will the writei’S for your journal take a little advice 1 
That is, don’t interlarde your writing with French and 
Latin phrases. The farmers, for whom they are intend- 
ed, don’t like it; they think that America is the best coun- 
try, and the English language the best. Leave to millin- 
ers and French shop-keepers such stuff— let American 
farmers speak and write English. Yours, 
Dardanellb. 
Arkansas, Dec. 8, 1858. 
AGRICULTURE IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 
Gov. Allston, of South Carolina, in his last message, 
says; 
The State Agricultural Society is dispensing much in- 
formation and encouragement amongst famiers, whose do- 
mestic habits are not favoaable to .aggregation, and who, 
therefore, ai*e always benefitted by the stimulus of agri- 
cultural exhibitions. District societies have been organ- 
ioed, and Fairs held at many places, in preparation for 
the great annual meeting of the State Society. The Fair 
just closed exhibited stock of all kinds, implements of 
husbandry, fruits and grain of superior order ; besides, 
very numerous specimens of ingenious handiwork, many 
of which are but recently developed. The assemblage of 
substantial population was very great, among whom pre- 
miums were distributed to a large amount. The Execu- 
tive Committee will publish, in the course of -the winter, 
a volume of proceedings, in which will be found a pro- 
gramme of the Agriculturul Schools in France: 
***:!:*** 
Connected with a proposition to the last General As- 
sembly to send a pupil to one of the agricultural schools 
of France, I received fcom the civil attention of the IMin- 
ister d’ Agriculture et d’ Instruction a programme of the 
said schools, showing the course of instruction and the 
cost. This programme, of which I furnished a transla- 
tion to the President of the State Agricultural Society in 
Jauuary last, was accompanied by a graceful tender from 
the Minister of France of his best offices towards a .son 
of South Carolina, who should be recommended by the 
Governor. 
The Pen. — In the hand that knows how to use it, it is 
the most powerful weapon known. As the tongue of the 
absent, how cheering! When the golden tints of virtue 
guide it, how beautiful 1 When self-respect gives it r.c .v 
vigor, how pleasing! When honor directs it, how i ' 
spected ! When wit sharpens it, how fatal! Wh 
scurility wields it, how contemptible. “Pis the v.cpp i 
of the soul.” 
