82 
SOUTHERN CU LTIVATOR. 
in proper time and hardly enough usually, and if unfavor- 
able seasons, not enough. That is true, is it not 'I I have 
known 8 hands, all grown, one of them having only one 
hand,to plant and cultivate 320 acres in corn. Anotherplace 
of 5 or 6 hands, 40 acres each ; and have heard of 2. or 3 
others with over 30 acres, and are to cultivate 80 acres 
in cotton with 4 hands. A large planter — 50 to 75 hands 
— did cultivate 24 acres of corn and cotton, some he called 
hands were not over 12 years of age. How was this done 
think you 'I Not with hoes ! No ! ! No ! ! ! One and all 
had a strong team. They relied on mule power — not on 
negro power’, 
I have cultivated on this place 10 acres of cotton, 10 of 
corn and some 6 in oats, and by the same method, with 
more ease than others who cultivate less. 
If a planter will get 2 choice mule — I mean choice- -to 3 
hands, he can cultivate the above 16 acres well, with less 
labor to mules and hands than is ordinarily done where 
there is only one mule to two hands. But still 
better, if 4 mules to 5 hands, and yet better with a mule 
to each hand. Oh ! say you so, your hands are not all 
plow hands ! Suppose so. But double all teams when 
breaking up, so as to put oZl land in first rate order, whether 
for oats or corn or cotton. When cultivation requires team, 
rest one half every other day or for half of every day ; 
thus your team will be always fresh and you be able to 
do a full days work every day. Should a wet spell ensue, 
you will not be compelled to injure land and crop, you 
can put all to the hoe, and so soon as dry enough press 
forward every plow possible. I am as well satisfied that 10 
hands and 10 mules can do as much work as 11 hands and 
5 mules, as if I had proved it by fifty experiments. For 
years and years, I have made 8 l)ales per hand, corn and 
meat, or corn or meat to sell yearly, nearly if not quite 
enough to pay expenses. It may be asked, and reason- 
ably, too, “Why have you not done so for the last five 
years'?” I reply, “Since 1850, by planting all open land, 
we have not been able to get in over 9 of corn and 6 of 
cotton, with no land for oats, and having to be clearing 
toto in the spring did not get a fair start.” But, my breth- 
ren, I ask you to look at it coolly. Is it not reasonable, 
even had I given you no facts coming within my own 
knowledge? Much hoe work is uncalled for, if planting 
be done 'veil and in proper time. The large crops of corn 
in the Wesfern Prairies have no hoe at all; Why is it 
called for here? I would hastily refer to plows. Many of 
you use cheap tools ; a good plow worth S8 will do better 
work and last longer than two plows at S4 each; it should 
be worth ^8. So with hoes, and with everything that 
some planters use. Any man who now makes a bare sup- 
ply of corn can make corn to spare, if enough team ; and, 
had I a million, I would open an insurance office and take 
risks, I may refer to this again ; yet I fear it will be labor 
lost. Yours. &c., M. W, Philips. 
Edwards^ Miss., Jan., 1856. 
No. 2. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — I intimated at the 
close of No. 1, that I might refer to ^Zhis again Since 
closing, and not being near enough to the small hours lor 
me to retire, I conclude upon saying more, and leave for 
you to act. I am fully aware that many will take my 
writings more kindly now than in days gone by ; progress 
has marked our calling as well as others, and writers are 
not looked upon as being so great humbugs after all. 
I also know many having been induced, by example 
and precept, to improve, are ready to listen to suggestions 
from a friend. Feeling that I have a claim upon every 
cultivator of the soil, for kindly feelings, I will, nothing 
doubting, proceed. With this one remark, I propose 
nothing but what I have tried for years, and having began 
Otherwise and seen many travel “the same road to mill. 
and with the same rock in one end to balance the corn,” 
I can speak advisedly. 
Any man can appreciate how much easier it is to culti- 
vate 16 to 20 acres with a No. 1 mule, than with an in- 
ferior one. Any one will know that two hands can cul- 
tivate better' 32 acres, having two choice mules, than if 
two inferior ones, or with only one choice mule. The 
difficulty is, that it is not thought proper economy to buy 
mules worth $150 each, when inferior ones are worth 
even $75. Or to buy two worth $300 for 3 hands when 
two may be had for $200. With ordinary mules, or an 
ordinary team, you make only corn enough; suppose, 
with a full team, you can spare only 25 bushels : to each 
hand, you have l2i^ for it interest, at 50 cts. per bushel, 
for the extra $100 and your mules will last 10 per cent 
longer, all else being equal. Is this not interest enough 
on expenditure, saying nothing that hands v/ear longer? 
But you can cultivate 10 of cotton and 8 of corn as easy 
as 10 and 6 with ordinary team, at least; thus 2 acres in 
corn at 20 bushels only will give 40 bushels in addition to 
the above. But you will not give up! You say, here is 
extra land wasting away! But I reply, not so; for, by 
rotation and the pea, your land may improve, for your 
plowing is done so much better and more time to take 
care of land by having an increase mule team to do your 
ginning, hauling, plowing, &.c. Again, the proper plow 
cutting lOi^ inch furrow slice is easier drawn by this team, 
than common 9 inch plows by a poor team, so that 9 
hands will save, every day, li^ days work and do it bet- 
ter. A large and an intelligent planter said to me, “no 
man can feed a mule per hand — he cannot make sup- 
plies.” To which I replied, “Can I not cultivate 10 of 
cotton and 10 of corn, with oats sown in cotton land in 
the fall?” Yessir. “Will not these 10 acres make me 200 
bushels of corn?” “And where is the increased gleanings?” 
But it is not good economy. “Ah!, and do you make you 
meat ?” No sir, I feed my hands and team in corn and 
make about half my meat. “Suppose you made 200 bushels 
of corn and had those oats, could you not raise meat 
enough ?” Yes sir, and I could spare corn too. But I 
am not done with you folks who have made fortunes by 
stinting, and then claiming to be good planters. I ask 
you to say, will not my. 10 -a^res of corn be better culti- 
vated than yours, cotton’ done justice to, and will they not 
average, year by year, at'least 25 bushels per acre, for 
you know well, and dare not gainsay it, that a fair hand 
and a No. 1 mule can cultivate 10 of each better and with 
less labor, than he could your 10 and 6 with a common 
mule, or with a No. 1 mule for half the time — that is, a 
mule to two hands ?” Thus was he forced to give up the 
point. And I defy any man to prove the positions or the 
results to be an error. It is true that we can do very 
well with 2 mules to 3 hands, but we are now holding for 
the best system. Indeed, the best system would be to 
have pastures, and even more team than above. Then a 
part of the team should be a choice Jack and a few mares 
on large farms. The principle in the South would be to turn 
a part of the team every day to grass, and give them say 
a half day twice each week, with the seventh day, all at 
pasture. Thus mules would live their time out, and not 
be burnt up before their time, as are some of our drinkers 
of the juice of corn. 
lam so well satisfied that a 15 hand mule, out of a 
thorough bred mare, with such plows as T. E. C . Brinley 
of Simpsonville, Ky., makes, will make mpre money with 
each hand, that I would rather pay $200 per mule and plow 
and instead of working 12 hands, work only 10. That 
difference need not be, for 12 hands would have 6 mules 
of some sort. There is money to be made with 1 1 hands 
and 11 mules, over 12 hands and 6 mules. This is in my 
mind, one of the questions, important to planters, and if 
they will examine it, they will be open to progress. 
