SOUTHERN cultivator. 
FODDER PULLING— ITS INJURY TO THE CORN 
CROP-NATIVE GRASSES FOR HAY. 
Editors Southern Culti viator— For a considerable 
time past, I have been a careful reader of your valuable 
paper, though I have not heretofore attempted to trouble 
you with any thoughts of my own. 
In the last volume of the Cultivator, was a letter from J. 
H. Batte, of Virginia, on the injury resulting from pulling 
fodder from corn, with which I was much pi -ased, hoping 
that a few such experiments being made jiublic, would 
check this deleterious practice. The subject was again 
brought to my mind by the request of E. Jinkins, of 
Mississippi (in February number) “that some one would 
test the injury resulting to the corn crop by pulling fodder, 
for a series of years,” &c. 
I do not think it is necessary to make a series of experi- 
ments on the subject, as the injury resulting must be near- 
ly, or quite uniform in each case, if the fodder is pulled 
at the same stage of maturity, and the relative injury 
sustained by the crops, from pulling fodder at different 
stages of maturity, can be fully tested during the same 
season. 
Mr. Batte’s experiment was made at the usual time of 
pvtlling fodder ; and the loss was one- sixth. A few years 
ago, I made a similar expreiment at about a week after 
the common time of pulling, in which the loss sustained 
to the crop, was one-ninth by weight. At whatever 
stage of maturity the blades are stripped from the stalk — 
just at that stage is the maturity of the crop arrested — 
it gains nothing from the hour in which it is done. The 
leaves of plants are not mere appendages or ornaments, but 
vital parts of the plant, and subserve a similar purpose in 
the vegetable economy that the lungs do in the animal 
system. As the lungs are the medium through which the 
blood comes in contact with the air, and is purified 
and rendered fit for circulation and nutrition, so the 
leaves of plants are the medium through which the 
sap is rendered fit for circulation and nutrition to the 
plants ; and upon their removal nutrition ceases and death 
speedily results. 
In the experiment to which I have alluded, I wished to 
satisfy myself as to the probable amount of injury sus- 
tained by the crops, and whether there was any gain to 
the crop after the fodder was pulled. From the first row 
I pulled the fodder, the next I left untouched, and the third 
I cut down to the ground and shocked up, and so, alter- 
nately, through the piece. When the corn was all fully 
dry it was shucked out and carefully weighed. No appre- 
ciable difference could be discovered in the weight of Corn 
from the rows from which the fodder had been pulled, and 
those where the stalks had been cut off at the ground — 
while those rows left untouched invariably weighed one- 
ninth more than the rows on either side of them that had 
been so treated. 
It, therefore, seems to rne to be the better policy to cut 
off the entire crop of corn and thus have the stalks as well 
as the blades; though 1 very much disapprove of either 
plan. In fact, a man should not pull fodder for me, even 
if he would work for nothing, board himself and give me 
the fodder stacked up in the bargain. I would still be a 
loser. 
Many may be disposed to say that they must have the 
fodder at any rate, let it injure the corn crop ever so 
much. This is a mistake ; we can do without pulling fod- 
der as well at the South as they do at the North. Our 
crab grass [“crop grass”], if properly treated, will, almost 
anywhere, make an excellent meadow. All that is neces- 
sary is to plow the ground late in the spring to destroy 
the early weeds. 1 treated a piece of ground in that wav 
last year and produced as luxuriant a swath of grass as I 
ever saw in a Northern meadow. I mowed it twice dur- 
na 
the year and found it made excellent hay, though it is 
more difficult to cure than blue grass or timothy ; but that 
is more than overbalanced by the greater ease and cheap- 
ness of its production. Try it — it is not yet too late in the 
season. 
This letter is already longer than I wished, so I will 
merely add; that when the present energetic search after 
foreign grasses shall have been abandoned, the grasses in- 
digenous to the South will then be appreciated as the 
grasses best suited to their native soil and climate. 
A. M. G. 
Blount Co., Ala., April, 1856. 
[We shall be pleased to hear from the writer of the 
above, often. His ideas agree with our own, precisely. — 
Eds] 
IRISH POTATO CULTURE, 
Editors Southern Cultivator — Although the Irisi> 
Potato crop for the present year has been planted, a shor't 
statement of a plan of culture which has succeeded better 
than any other I have ever tried, may not be without inter- 
est to your readers. It may be the same as practiced by 
others, but I have no where seen it described in detail. 
The *20th of March is as early as the general crop should 
be planted in this latitude. If planted earlier, the frosts^ 
which frequently occur about the middle of April, are apt 
to injure it. As few may be planted about the 1st of 
March for early use. 
The ground for potatoes should be turned over and 
broken up thoroughly, at least 12 inches deep, in January 
or February. Lay off the i-ows two and a half feet apart 
and run thi’ee times in the same furrow with a broad 
scooter plow. Cut the potato into pieces of two eyes each 
and drop them one foot apart in the bottom of the deep 
furrow so made. Then fill the furrow with half rotted 
straw or oak leaves, or chip or stable manure. If nothing 
better can be had, pine straw or saw dust may be used to 
advantage. It the ground is not rich, a moderate quanity 
of stable manure should be put in the drill, before using 
the straw, leaves or saw dust. But these latter are indispen- 
sable in this climate to keep the. soil loose, mellow and 
moist about the potato. When the plant is about four 
inches high, plow out the middles thoroughly and draw 
the dirt a little to the potatoes, but make no high ridge t© 
bake or be dried through and through by the sun. As 
soon after this as you have a good rain, cover the middles 
as deep as possible with leaves, pin^^ straw, saw dust or 
something of that kind. This mulching renders any 
further working unnecessary and keeps the soil cool and 
moist through (he driest summer. Without mulching, n© 
amount of manure or labor will insure a fine yield of po- 
tatoes in dry as well as wet seasons. 
The depth and width of the drill measure the yield of 
the crop. Few or no potatoes will be found outside of 
the mould made by the straw or leaves with which the 
furrow was filled. By this simple mode of culture, I have 
made over 300 bushels of potatoes to the acre, on land 
whose ordinary yield of corn is not exceeding twenty 
bushels. It requires but little more labor than cotton. 
With potatoes S-2 per bushel (the usual price) or even at 
$1, and cotton at 10 cents per pound (the usual price) it is 
easy to perceive tne increased profits our farmers who are- 
convenient to market, would receive by planting more 
potatoes and less cotton. 
It is a mistake to suppose that the Irish potato will not 
keep well at the b’outh. I have found no difference be- 
tween the Sweet and Irish Potatoes in this respect. I sold 
Irish potatoes in March of this year, when there were few 
Sweet Potatoes in the country even for seed. 
A. W. S. 
Shelby Springs, Ala,, 1856. 
