78 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
ercise, amount of labor, &c., &c., can be arranged with 
the greatest perfection. If all men would join in, study 
the laws of their own health, and do their best to inugur- 
ate an improved way of managing our breed of men, we 
think the results could not fail to be of the happiest kind, 
— Wool Grower. 
bandry will wear out any soil, but land can endure more 
under cotton culture than under any other that can be 
named . — Mobile Mercury. 
For the Southern Cultivator. 
OUR BOBBY — ASIiEEP. 
COTTON SEED. 
We find among our scraps, laid aside for future atten- 
tion, one from a Cincinnati paper, on the subject of cot- 
ton seed oil, which is represented as a very valuable illu- 
minating and lubricating substance. We have no doubt 
of this, and there is only one consideration in the way of 
the manufacture of cotton seed oil becoming a lucrative 
business— that is, the value of the raw material. The 
experiment of manufacturing cotton seed oil was tried, on 
a pretty liberal scale, more than twenty years ago, near 
Natchez, but it came to nothing ; no doubt from the diffi- 
culty of procuring the seed at a suitable price. 
Northern men, who have a notion of embarking in this 
business, would do well to come South and look about 
them before they risk their capital. Should they make 
the trip, they will discover first, that cotton seed is, with 
us, no inconsiderable succeedaneum to that boasted hay 
crop of the North, and jolly fat our cattle get around the 
cotton seed pile in the winter. In the spring it is ap- 
plied directly and indirectly as manure, and we have seen 
gardens in the black lands absolutely white with the seed 
lying on the surface after as much had been plowed in as 
the earth would hold. This great amount of vegetable 
matter worked into the substance of the limy soil prevent- 
ed it from baking and becoming too hard to work or to 
permit the transpiration of the moisture below. At other 
times we have seen corn cut down by a late spring frost 
in one field, but preserved in the adjoing one by the 
warmth developed from the fermentation of the cotton 
seed which had been applied liberally. 
We have now in our mind’s eye a plantation, some two 
hundred miles away, on which the thirty-second ci’op, 
unless we miss the count by a year too much or a year 
too little, is now growing, and the oldest cleared portion 
is the best, although it lies less favorably than some other 
parts. The reason is that being nearest to the gin house 
it gets rather more than its share of the cotton seed ma- 
nure. 
Indirectly, too, cotton seed is extensively applied as 
manure, not only through the medium of the cattle fed 
upon it, but from the way in which the cotton crop is 
planted. We do not dole out the seeds three or four in a 
place, as if each were a grain of bread corn, but throw them 
in liberally, till a ridge of seeds extends from one end of the 
field to the other. This furrow is covered,and in due course 
of time is alive with young cotton plants, which are chop- 
ped out until not one in a hundred remains, nor does one 
seed in a dozen get a chance to germinate ; they are 
smothered, and so rot in the ground. Thus the seed of 
one crop manures the next one. 
No, indeed ; Southern planters are charged with being 
thriftless by those who not know the difference between 
Southern and Northern agriculture; but you will not 
catch them selling their cow feed and manure to Northern 
manufacturers to make oil. And here is one explanation 
of the agricultural prosperity of the South, It is the pro- 
cess of ripening the seed which chiefly exhausts the soil, 
and the country which exports breadstuffs, or meat, must 
become impoverished unless recourse be had to manures 
imported or dug from the beds of marl and gypsum with 
which Providence has supplied it. Our corn is consumed 
among ourselves; our great export is the light carbonace- 
ous substance of the downy cotton, derived from the at- 
mosphere, while the phosphatic and nitrogenous ingredi- 
ents of the seed are returned to the soil. Careless hus- 
The cows have come home from the cotton-field pasture, 
The colts are at rest, and the calves are all dumb, 
Aunt Rosey has given the app’e he asked her, 
And Bobby’s asleep as sound as a drum ! 
From the earliest neigh of Dan Phoebus his courser. 
Till the last weary team from its yoke was unloosed — 
He’s run with the wagon and ridden the horse, 
And now he has gone with the chickens to roost ! 
And sweet be the dreams of his manly young spirit. 
When beautiful sleep on his eyelids shall rest. 
Till the hands that have wrought for the bliss they inherit. 
Shall be folded for oye^ on an innocent breast ! 
No poet may scribble his deeds into story ! 
No column arise with the sound of his name. 
But the works of his hands shall be better than glory, 
And the worth of his heart shall be brighter than fame. 
T 
Torch Hill, Ga., 1858. 
NUMBER OF SQUARES IN AN ACRE. ^ 
The following table is convenient for reference when 
desiring to know the number of trees or plants which will 
occupy an acre when set out at given distances apart. It 
will also assist in determining the amount of manure to 
be applied to a hill, when distributing a certain number of 
poundsfor loads upon an acre. An acre contains 43,560 
square feet. It is usually better to keep this number in 
mind, and at once obtain the number of squares by divid- 
ing this sum (43,560) by the number of feet inclosed by 
four hills. 
Distance apart No. 
sqrs. 
Distance apart No, 
sqrs 
each way. 
or hills. 
each way. 
or 
hills 
1 foot 
.43,560 
12 feet 
302 
1 1 -2 fftp.t 
..19,360 
15 “ 
193 
2 “ 
.10,890 
18 “ 
134 
2 1-2“ 
. 6,969 
20 “ 
108 
3 “ 
. 4,840 
22 
90 
3 1-3“ 
. 3,535 
25 “ 
69 
4 “ 
. . 2,722 
,30 “ 
48 
5 “ 
.. l’742 
35 “ 
35 
6 “ 
.. 1,210 
40 “ 
27 
8 “ 
.. 680 
45 “ 
21 
10 “ 
50 “ 
17 
If the rows are three feet apart each way, there will be 
3 times 3 feet, or 9 feet in each square, and 43,560 divid- 
ed by gives 4840 squares, trees, or hills. If the rows be 
2 feet apart one way and 3 feet the other, the enclosed 
space will be 2 times 3, or 6 feet. 43,560 divided by 6, 
gives 7260 as the number of squares. In rows 3 by 3 1-2 
feet there are 10 1-2 feet. 43,560 divided by 10 1-2, gives 
4148 squares; and so for other distances. 
This table would not be quite accurate if allowance be 
made for rows around the entire outside, as in that case 
there would be one more row each way than the number 
of squares. Thus, in a square plot of one acre, with the 
rows 3 feet apart each way, there would be, say 59 rows 
each way. As two of the corner trees would count both 
ways, we must add to the 1840 hills, (in the table,) 4 
times 69 hills, less 2, or 274, makir^ the total number 
5114 These figures are illustrative only, and not exact, 
as ihe precise number of rows in the instance given is a 
little over 69 1-2 . — American Agriculturist. 
