348 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
CORN CROP AND HOW CULTIVATED IN 
Hancock. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — A correspondent, 
from Lexington, Ga., in your July number, signing him- 
self “F. J. R respectfully calls upon Col. Turner, David 
Dickson, Col. Lewis, or some other gentleman in Hancock 
county, to give him and the readers of the Cultivator our 
modus operandi in cultivating Corn and Cotton, by which 
the astonishing results mentioned in Col. Turner’s annual 
statements are brought about, &c. 
I expected to have seen an article from one of the gentle- 
man specially called on in your August number, but 
nothing of the kind having appeared from either of them, 
(Coi. T. only referring F. J. R. to a number of gentlemen 
without giving him the information) and not wishing that 
any information so respectfully called for should pass un- 
noticed, I have concluded to give you, in this article, 
(which, allow me to add by way of apology, is the first 
from myself intended for publication) as nearly as I can, 
the manner in which we manage a corn crop, which is 
called, in Hancock, the Dickson system. Mr. Thomas J, 
and his brother, David Dickson, both of this county, being 
the first with us to commence the deep plowing for the 
preparation, deep planting, wide distance and thorough 
light cultivation and improved application of manure, by 
\vhich the yield of pine land has been increased from 
about ten to twenty and tv/enty-five bushels per acre, and 
the increased value of such land from one to eight and ten 
dollars per acre. 
This may seem an extravagant estimate as to increased 
value, and it will be contended by some that the prosper- 
ous times and increased demand for such land has brought 
about this state of things. I contend that it is the in- 
creased production. Then, I say, too much credit cannot 
be given to David Dickson, Thomas Dickson and their 
co-labcrers in this and other counties in Georgia, who, by 
their close attention to business and many improvements, 
too numerous to mention here, have brought about these 
things and interested the whole country upon the subject 
of agriculture to a degree heretofore unknown. To all 
such we bid them God speed, and hope the time is not fur 
distant when the empire Stale of the South will come to 
their aid, and by her assistance and the united efforts of 
her Howard, Lee, Redmond, Dicksons and others, even 
our worn out hills may be made to yield an abundant har- 
vest ; our meadows clothed in the finest grasses, equal to 
the best cultivated spots on the earth. With ours, the 
best climate and the best organized system of labor in the 
world, we ought not only to clothe, but be able to feed 
the world. These results ought and will be brought 
about — it is only a question of time as to when it will be 
done. 
"We need an Agricultural College where our sons may 
be taught the science of Agriculture ; an Experimental 
Farm, which the State is abundantly able and ought to 
furnish, and many other things which the planters of 
Georgia ought, of right, to demand. But to the point. 
We use for breaking up our land, a wrought iron turn- 
ing plow of our own manufacture, known here as the 
Allen Plow, which cuts about eight inches, and usually 
from five to seven inches deep. Our orders to the plow- 
men are to put the plow in as deep as the mules can pull 
it — two mules are better than one, and some of us use 
three. The land being broken up broadcast, we now lay 
off our rows seven feet wide, upon the horizontal plan 
where required, each hand having a stick seven feet long 
and using it frequently, so as to keep the rov/s as nearly 
the same width as possible, using a scooter or shovel for 
the first and following in the same furrow with a large 
and very long shovel, selecting the strongest and best 
mules or horses on the farm for this work, sometimes two 
to the plow This opens a deep, wide furrow (we think 
the deeper the better), then drop the corn in the bottom of 
the furrow, usually, about three feet apart — on good land, 
a little nearer. Some of our planters use a fork to mark 
the distance between the grains, so that each hill may be 
the exact distance from the other. Cotton seed, when 
used, is put on each side of the corn, preferring to scatter 
them a little in the bottom of the fUrrow. We apply 
guano in the same way. We scatter stable manure, 
when used on corn, in equal quantities along the furrow. 
We generally use this manure for cotton. We drop from 
two to four grains to the hill (Mr. Dickson drops but one) 
and cover with an iron tooth harrow, two teeth about 
eight inches apart at the front or nearest part, running on 
the edges of our big furrov/ and filling it not half full. I 
have always obtained better stands by this than any other 
mode of covering. 
Re-planting, when done at all, should be done as soon 
as the first planting is up. 
Next comes the thinning, which we always prefer doing 
as soon as the corn is safe from the depredations of birds 
and insects, and always before the first plowing, usually 
selecting some day-v/henthe land is wet, putting all 
hands at it. Our reason for thinning before plowing is, 
that the roots have less dirt on them and are easier gotten 
up, and we do not want to disturb the roots of the corn 
after the first plowing. 
We have nov/ arrived at the first plowing, which w*e 
are never in a great hurry to commence, preferring the 
corn to get up sufficiently to allow the dirt to be thrown 
around it, so to cover up every particle of grass that be 
up, which, by the advantage of the deep furrow, may be 
easily done, using for the purpose, as well as for all sub- 
sequent plo\<dngs, a common buzzard v/inged sweeper 
from twenty to twenty-four inches wide, five times in a 
row, slays all the grass and weeds and leaves the furrow- 
in which the corn is planted, not yet filled. 
In about twenty days, if possible, we get back to com- 
mence the second plov/ing. Our land being loose and 
light and plowing all light since our planting was done, 
the mules have recruited in flesh and spirits and must now- 
travel. V/e have on our twenty-two inch sweepers, with 
the wings turned up, and run, again, five times to the 
row, using for the last, or middle furrow, a shovel or 
smaller sweep, set so as to run deeper than the other fur- 
rows. In this furrow we plant peas, dropping from 10 to 
T2 in a place, about the same distance as the corn, cover- 
ing them with the same harrow used for covering corn. 
We never fail making a pea crop. 
We have now our corn plowed the second lime and 
peas planted with eleven furrows (seven feet row’^s), and 
twenty days having rolled round, we come now with our 
same twenty-two to twenty-four inch sweepers, set so as 
to run just as light as possible — the roots must not be 
broken now. Four times in a row finishes the corn and 
peas beautifully, and leaves the land about as level as 
when we commenced planting. Never having broke but 
few of the roots, which are broadcast over the ground 
from the surface to the bottom of the first breaking, thous- 
ands of them cling to the subsoil, as much as to say, why 
don’t you break deeper, that we might have more mois- 
ture and reach down farther in order to obtain more of the 
salts of the earth, that we may return to you the best 
possible yield as a full reward for your labor I 
In a few days after our last plowing, we follow with 
hoes and cut up whatever bunches of grass and weeds 
that may have been left with the plow. This is the first 
and only hoeing we usually do, except it may be on very 
rough land. 
