240 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
VITALITY OF SEED— QUEEY. 
Mr. Editor-—! have a 1 ttle inquiry to make, and, as 
Editors are supposed to kn iw everyth inje;, I know not 
where to apply better than to you. I wish to know if 
there is any way to destroy th^. vitality of seeds in manure 
without injury to the manure % By answering the above 
query you will accommodate a new and not very wise 
Subscriber. 
Note. — You cannot destroy the vitality of seeds in 
manure without getting up decomposition enough in the 
manure heap to rot them. In doing this some of the 
ammoniacal gasses will fly olF into the air and be lost un 
less you strew on something that will absoi'b them as 
they are liberated by the decomposing process. If you 
cannot find anything else, fine clay or clayey loam will 
take up a good deal— fine charcoal and also dried peat 
wUl answer a good purpose . — Maine Farmer. 
\^For the Southern Cultivator. 1 
PLOWING. 
Paraphrased from the First Book of VigiPs Georgies. 
BY JOHN GIERLOW, OF MACON, GA, 
When the snows in spring are gliding 
Down the hoary heights of country, 
And the glebe begins to crumble, 
To unbind itself by zephyrs ; 
Let my steer begin his groaning 
In the deep-set plow, and heavy ; 
Let the share, worn by the furrow, 
Now begin to glitter brightly. 
Fields that twice hath felt the sunbeams, i 
Twice the cold, at last responding 
To the farmer’s ardent wishes, 
Nearly burst his barn with harvests; 
But before we cleave with plowshare 
Plains unknown, first let us study 
Winds and various traits of climate, 
Culture practised by forefathers. 
Habits of the soil, and tillage; 
What each country aptly brings forth. 
And what safely may be cast off. 
Here rich grain, there grajje?s are growing; 
Elsewhere nurseries of goodly 
Trees and herbs spontaneous blooming. 
See you not, how Tmolus* sends forth 
Thriving vines and safil-on odors; 
Saba,j' plants of sofc aroma : 
But the Chalybesj; of Pontus 
Send us steel, and from Epirusjj 
Come the prime of mares Olympic. 
These conditions, laws eternal. 
Nature from the first enjoined : 
Time when erst Deucalion'^ flinging 
Stones into the world unpeopled. 
To raise up men strong and hardy. 
Come then, let your sturdy oxen 
Straightway go to work subsoiling; 
And let dusty summer harden 
Scattered clods with sunsmaturer. 
*Tmolus, a moimtainof Lydia, in Asia Minor, abounding in vines, 
saSron, &c. 
tSaba a town of Arabia, famous for frankincense, myrrh, and aro- 
matic plants. 
JChalybes, a people of Pontus, in Asia Minor ; theii’ country 
abounded in iron mines. 
llBpirus, (Albonia,) a country of Greece, famous for its fine breed 
©f horses. 
§D6ucalion, a mythical person in early Greek history, is repre- 
sented ae saved on Parnassus from a flood which overwhelmed the 
refit of the country, and as re-peopling it, by casting behind him the 
stoaefi he picked up, under the direction of the oracle. 
COTTON SEED-HOW TO APPLY IT AS MANOEE 
Editors Southern Cultivator — I frequently see com- 
munications in your journal upon the mode of applying 
cotton seed as a manure to corn, and I have found that 
there is a great diversity of opinion (even among practi- 
cal planters) as to the proper mode, or so as to derive the 
greatest benefit therefrom. I am a young and small plan- 
ter, yet sometimes I think I get as much corn froni the 
same quantity of cotton seed used as a fertilizer as most 
planters, and have concluded to give your many readers 
(and I wish you had ten thousand more) ray mode of 
managing and applying them, which is to keep them 
housed until about three weeks before planting, when I 
put them up in pens with alternate layers about six inches 
thick of partially decomposed manure from my lot, scrap- 
ing from fence corners, leaf mould, &c., selecting a rainy 
day if I can, saving me the trouble of applying water to my 
pen. In a short time the heat of the compost is sufficient 
to kill the germ of the seed, when I slice down altogether. 
I would here remark that I never plant corn only in drills ; 
I drop about half pint of this compost from two to four 
inches from the corn when planting. If 1 was going to 
use more than half a pint to, the hill I would drop it farther 
from the corn and always cover with the plow unless the 
ground is too rough. I have several reasons for preferring 
the plow to cover. I use a narrow scooter running on the 
lower side of the corn and only one furrow; so covered, it 
is not liable to bake, and if the land is properly laid off 
with ditches, it will neither wash up nor over ; if it should 
be dry it retains moisture well; if an excess of rain should 
fall it answers as a drain. Essex. 
Columbia county , Ga.,Jaly, 1856. 
BEEMUDA GEASS. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — In looking over your 
January number I find some inquiries and remarks in re- 
lation to the Bermuda Grass. Writing to or for any paper 
is a thing I have never attempted in my life, but this 
strikes me to be to the human family a matter of such im- 
portance that I cannot refrain from giving my observations 
and experience of this grass. 
I have it in my yard (say quarter of an acre) and would 
j give S500 to be clear of it. It certainly will entail upon 
the rising generation a cost per annum in labor, unless its 
progress is arrested, more than the cost of the Mexican 
war. Millions of dollars in labor must be expended an- 
nually in order to have the soil to produce a crop. And 
as for getting clear of it when set, I consider a matter of 
impossibility. I know of several plantations almost ruined 
with it, and what will another age do for it I Why, sirs, 
it wuil take all the country below it. It spreads by the 
seed and the root. It loses nothing, but gains all. Let no 
one flatter himseif that he will ever get clear of it or grow 
a full crop wffien it grows. He may til! the soil once a 
week wpTt and still that will do but little good. 
I do think the United States government should take 
this matter in hands and attach a severe penalty upon all 
who. had any hand in its extension. Any man who is 
acquainted with it and will do anything towards its growth 
has very little regard for the future generation, or a very 
poor knowledge of the wants of the human family in fu- 
ture. It is very apparent that in a century we shall 
be very scarce of good soil between the Atlantic and Pa- 
cific oceans, with our present increase of population : and 
to go on heedlessly to ruin is madness without an ex- 
ample. And I do hope you will lend your aid in this 
matter to the saving of our soil. It is too late when it is 
set in any form. 
It is like death — too late then to repent. And I do 
hope that the world may become apprised of the fact in 
lime to save a part of the countiy. Many persons, I am. 
