SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
23& 
mon standard of tillage operations— the normal condition 
of American agriculture. Every man might say then 
that his land, no matter how long it had been under the 
plow, was as rich in all the elements that lorm grain and 
cotton, hay and vegetables, as a kind Providence had made 
it He could affirm that he had not aoused th>^ trust 
which God had placed in his hands for the greatest good 
of the human family. As an accountable oemg he daic 
not leave the arable land of his State any worse lor pro- 
ducim^ cheap bread, and cheap clothing man he iound it 
for as he did not create the frubfuiness of the soil lie cu - 
tivates, he had no moral right to destroy H. Pso .udi 
right can possibly exist, any more than one ha.s a 
S!h to burn a city ffir personal gain, or otherwise wrong | wun tr 
mankind fov hia l>nvate Ue.ma., Tl.e cerfun ; .h,. 
immorality of irapairin? Iho natural capacity ol and to 
support society in social inteUectual and physical tr jl- 
belns is a fact too litlle considered hy tne puol.c r uc. 
an injury to the soil of a whole coininenl or rslai.o, would 
inevitably not merely iinporerish its uihabiBiils. but pre- 
vent their possible progress in arts and scrr nces, n, ear, - 
ing, and above all, in the d.seharge oi religious dm; . 1 
is the positive debasement of man as a moral and soc ul 
heini? ultimately, by desolating the land in which he 
lives— hardening his heart as the sun burns and petrifies 
the naked clay of a barren field-that makes the practice 
much to be deplored. The worst fea- 
of land-killing so * 
ture in the evil is the fact that its consequences are so lit- 
tle appreciated by the people at large. ey seem o 
lieve that to restore to millions of acres of mipov.nshed 
land all the ingredients removed, and foolish y wasted by 
the mismanagement of half a century, is tne labor of only 
a few years. A graver mistake was never conceived. 
Something may be done to imparl permanent unprove- 
menttoan impoverished farm in a few years ; but one 
must be peculiarly favored with great resources m potash 
bones, gypsum, salt, lime, &c., to give to several hundred 
acres a full supply of these earthy elements of crops. 
Such wholesale command of phosphates, sulphates, chlor- 
ides, and nitrates, no farmer now possesses for the im- 
provement of land. Hence, the prodigious waste ofthese 
substances in all cities, drawn primarily fi'om the soil, 
and transported thither to feed and clothe their inhabitants, 
is a wrong of fearful magnitude. Perfect restitution of 
these int^redients which are not supplied by moving 
water, nor by the atmosphere, to agricultural plants, is^ 
the tribe theory to prevent the partial or complete tailure oi 
wheat, or other valuable products of agriculture. But 
how is this perfect restitution to be made '? We answer, in 
a variety of ways. 
1st. By reducing its necessity to the minvmvm, in not 
going over more surface with the plow than can be 
dlled in the most thorough manner. Tliis practice gives 
the meiximum of crops with the least dara^e to the land, 
t 2nd. As much of the produce of the soil in every field 
should be left to decay where it grew as possible, that its 
vegetable mould be not exhausted ; for this mould has 
much to do in nature’s economy in drawing alkalies from 
their union with flint sand and clay. The want of mould 
in long- cultivated soils, and on galled places, tends to per- 
petuate their sterility. Make full restitution, and the 
primitive fertility, whatever that may have been, will be 
attained. In decomposing leaves, weeds and grass, not 
a little mineral matter is supplies to the soil. 
3d. Planters should keep more and better live stock 
make more and better manure, and thus have the good 
sense to feed the land that feeds them. The dung of fat- 
tening hogs may be distributed over pea and oat fields 
while gaUiering their food ; and in this way plenty of 
good meat may be produced at the smallest expense, 
while the soil is enriched by elements drawn from the 
subsoil and atmosphere. It will pay on naturally poor 
land at the South, in iho long run, to adapt it by artificial 
means to the growth of clover ; so valuable is this remark^ 
able plant both for keeping stock and improving the soil. 
At all events, the cow-pea is sot an adequate substitute, 
and particularly fails in the spring, when young clover k 
flush and most nutritious for cows giving milk, sows rear^ 
ing pigs, and mules, horses and oxen worldng oa lltft 
farm. To keep stock ilic three montlts tielore the native 
grasses of the South are grown enough lo give cattle full 
bellies in u few Itours, is the most iiuiible-some part of 
stock raising in this country. Pracilc;.! men will agree 
willt us on tins point; and lo them one who h:\s raised 
iOO buslicls of clean clover st,ed a year, and bi cn familiar 
with the plant all ins life, m^.y suggest ,,t h-i t a irial of 
age crop, haviai: in view the impiovemciu equally 
of farms and of domestic animahs. 
Wc have freqnetnly traced tlic long iap-root of clover 
overdo inches into the gi’f'u mi, showing that A is able id 
di'iuv potash, lime, phosphoiic and sniphuric acids front 
the deep .subsoil. Its numerous leaves are broader than 
tiiose of lucerne, and we rcgaril it as a belter forage plant, 
although not so durable, and we fear less hardy at the 
South. Both of these plants are deserving of more atten- 
tion than they receive for keeping stock and making ma- 
nure. If one’s land is so poor that he cannot well have 
large fields of clover, let him try small fields ; making them 
rich by cow pens, or by ashes and leaves, if other means 
are not at hand. Strong limestone soils are best for 
clover, lucerne, peas, and, we believe, for all other legumes, 
as well as for wheat. So far as one’s land lacks the earthy 
elements of wheat and clover, and they are the same in 
both plants, he should try to add them to the ground that 
needs them. If he had an unlimited quantity of cotton 
seed he might soon have rich clover and wheat land ; for 
the seeds of our great staple plant take from the soil the 
precise elements needed to form wheat and corn, clover 
and peas. We are disposed to exalt cotton seed as a fertik 
izer, because for two years we have found it, the cheapest 
manure that could be purchased in Georgia ; and we feel 
confident that the tap-root of the cotton plant is not permit- 
ted by any system of one mule plovnng to descend half 
deep enough into the earth. 
Let it go down into fresh pasture — into virgin ground 
that never before yielded phosphates to nourish the germ 
of a cotton seed nor the germs of corn. If you had a clear 
idea how these germs grow, how the seeds of plants form 
the flesh and bones of animals, and how rootlets spread 
out, and diffuse themselves through all permeable soil to 
imbibe the elements of seeds, you would certainly be wil- 
ling to plow a little deeper, and harro%v a little more with 
good harrows, than you now do, 
4th. It appears to be a principle, or law of our Creator, 
that land shall not be improved by tillage, from genera^ 
tion to generation, any faster than the Mind of the owner 
is improved. 
Ifa different law prevailed, every State In this Confederacy 
would not now show so many signs of damage done to cul- 
tivated land, and prove the necessity of studying agricul- 
ture as a science. Cultivators have only vague, dark and 
unsatisfactory notions as to the precise things that form a 
crop of grain, or one of cotton, or of potatoes. To their 
minds, fertility is an agricultural abstraction, and the im- 
provement of land its first cousin. To expel this half 
clouded moonshine from the human understanding-, and 
let in the vivifying sunshine of true know ledge, let u® for 
a moment consider first principles in farm economy. It 
is impossible that a crop which is something can be made 
from nothing y unless God were to create new matter for 
that purpose. To have a kernel of corn, or a seed of 
wheat or cotton always the same in its germ and elements 
of nutrition, whether for the growth of the germ, 
