392 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
We may thank God that he never allows another night to 
“shut in upon midnig.ht.” The morning always comes, 
and the genial light of day. When duty calls to the en- 
counter of difficulty, it should be met with resolute ener- 
gy, But it is unwise, voluntarily, to enwrap ourselves 
with the dark cloud’s folds, merely that we may see how 
brightly, by contrast, the silver shines on the other side. 
We have considered the social and moral inconvenien- 
cies of removal to a new country. There may be circum- 
stances under which it is best to encounter them. These 
are exceptional cases. The general rule bears in the op- 
posite direction. The chief actuating motive in most 
cases is gain. This motive, so far as it applies to persons 
living in a healthy section, in which the land, though 
originally fair, is exhausted, is, we think, fallacious. 
The enquirer asks ; “ When I can buy an acre of fresh 
land at the West for less money than it would cost me to 
manure an acre of land at home for one year, is it not 
good economy to emigrate I” Ordinarily, we think not. 
Every one who has cultivated new ground knows that 
generally the first year’s crop scarcely pays the expense 
of cultivation, to say nothing of the expense of clearing. 
The annoyances from roots and grubs last for three or 
four years, and from stumps for many years afterward. 
During the time that the roots are rotting, none but the 
most imperfect farming tools can be used. In new ground 
the hand can cultivate but few acres as compared with old 
land. In the latter, turning plows, subsoil plows, the 
harrow and cultivator can be used, instep of the narrow, 
and therefore expensive coulter or scooter. 
If we manure old land judiciously, Hie manuring pays 
as it goes, and. leaves us beside our ordinary crop, a nett 
gain in the increase of our capital by the improvement of 
our land. W’'ill the readers of the Cultivator ponder the 
above sentence 1 It pretends to no originality — it con- 
tains no new truth. It is the repetition of an old truth, 
which, however, is denied or overlooked by those who 
would abandon old improvable land, in the hope of greater 
gain in the Western wilds. 
If we consider the cost of clearing and fencing to be 
equal to the cost of manuring (we can show a method by 
which the cost of manuring may be the least expensive 
of the two ;) and if on the old land, with a subsoil plow, 
which we cannot use on the new ground, we go down 
four inches deeper than the plow has gone before, then 
on the old land we gain a new acre, we have the increased 
crop, the diminution of labor and the improvement of the 
soil. 
The enquirer still asks : ‘ How am I to get this manure V' 
If you have not live stock enough, which every good 
farmer ought to have, to manure all the land you cultivate 
with the plow, then buy the manure— guano, lime, bones, 
ashes, salt, plaster, or phosphate of lime. / 
“But I have no money to buy manure with, my farm 
barely covers its own and family expenses,” Then sell 
something and get the money. If a farmer owns 1,000 
acres of land on which he makes nothing, if he will sell 
five hundred acres, and with the money obtained, will 
improve the other five hundred, if he is a good manager 
he will find an improvement in his income. In farming, 
as in other pursuits, it requires money to make money. 
It is better to farm profitably on a small scale, than to 
work without profit on a large scale. 
It will be observed that we have recommended pur- 
chased manures only in the absence of farm-yard ma- 
nure, or with a view to the increase of that manure. 
Putrescent manures should be the chief reliance of the 
farmer. Not because they are so much cheaper than the 
concentrated manures, as from the fact that they afford a 
key to a system of Agriculture which keeps in view the 
improvement of the soil. 
We were greatly surprised at the position of a very 
sensible writer in the August number of this journal, to 
which we shall more fully refer hereafter, who says : 
“The idea that stock enriches the soil, seems to me mere- 
ly speculative.” If this be true, what becomes of the 
Flemish maxim, “ without grass, no cattle, &c. I” We 
were also greatly surprised at the developement as to this 
point of the recent census of Hancock county. In the 
enumeration of different kinds of property, live stock is 
omitted. There is a heading, “All other kinds of Proper- 
ty,” S468,838. The live stock— horses, mules, cattle, 
hogs, &c,, are probably included under this head. There 
are 339,483 acres of land in the county. If we make a 
small deduction from miscellaneous property, this would 
leave an average of about one dollar per acre for the stock 
of the county, including work and pleasure animals. 
This is an extraordinary showing. It is extraordinary 
because no where have we a set of more intelligent and 
spirited farmers than these Hancock gentlemen. Notwith- 
stand their large crops, the lands of the county which 
produce them, average about five dollars per acre in value. 
There is something wrong somewhere. We think we 
can put our finger upon it. It is indicated by this census 
return. It is the absence of an estimate of live steck, 
proportioned to the extent of ground cultivated. The 
average stocking of an English farm costs about S50 per 
acre. The united value of the lands and negroes of Han- 
cock county is 829,927. The stocking of the lands 
alone, according to the English estimate, would amount 
to SI 6, 974, 000— more than double the present value of 
the lands and negroes together. We do not offer this 
heavy stocking as an example. We are not yet prepared 
for it. But we repeat the remarks that it is the duty of 
the farmer to keep stock enough to manure all the land he 
works with the plow. 
But it is said, “ we could not support such a stock if 
we owned them.” Perhaps not at once. Therefore our 
advice to buy manure until that stock can be supported. 
No time should be lost in preparing to support them. In 
a Cotton country, we question whether either cattle or 
hogs can be raised to much advantage beyond a full sup- 
ply for domestic consumption. We must cut hay for the 
cattle, if we would have those which are good for any- 
thing; the manure of a shuck-fed cow is but little better 
than the dry shucks themselves. We must plant corn for 
the hogs, and both are expensive. With proper winter 
pastures, horse and mule colts are both profitable, for 
they can thrive by grazing in the winter. The animal 
which best fits the cotton planter is the sheep. It re- 
quires no feeding if proper pastures are provided, It is 
attended with the least trouble. With moderate precau- 
tion its fleece is our most certain crop, less exposed to 
loss from dogs than either cotton or wheat from diseases 
and disasters to which both are liable. So certain and 
cheap do we conceive this crop to be, that we reiterate 
the remark made on another occasion, that with proper 
pastures, it costs less to raise a pound of Merino wool 
worth fifty cents than it costs to raise a pound of cotton 
worth ten to twelve cents. We ask the enquiry of cotton 
