THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
141 
sand transmits the influence of severe cold orin- 
tense heat to the roots of plants, thereby sub- 
jecting them to hazard and injury. From these 
well known, but imperfectly considered facts, 
enforced by different writers of distinction, it is 
plain that a good and productive soil should nei- 
ther contain an excess of clay or sand, and con-' 
sequently our estimation of most lands should 
principally be based upon the proportions in 
which clay and sand are united in them. What 
those proportions are, I have already stated : 40 
of clay, 40 of srnd, and 20 of silica. These pro- 
portions, it is true, may be considerably varied 
and yet have a fine soil, provided the sand and 
silica predominates; but these should never e.x- 
ceed 70 parts in the 100, and even then, large 
quantities of vegetable matter become necessa- 
ry and the manures are soon dissipated. 
Now, sir, if nature has not given us such a 
soil as I have indicated, can we not make it 2 To 
do so may require much labor. It may take a 
great deal of carting and hauling, but when the 
work is done it is done forever. Most of the fu- 
ture labor, apart from the enclosure, will be mak- 
ing and applying manure, and as that may be ap- 
plied in sufficient quantity, may we not calcu- 
late upon 60, 70 and 80 bushels per acre! If 
any one doubts it, let them make the experiment 
upon one acre or one half acre, and if the result 
should falsify my prediction, I hold myself bound 
to pay him for the full amount of his work. Our 
uplands, Mr. President, approximate a good soil, 
much nearer than do our valley lands; for, with 
the exception of a few fields, I k.uow of no bot- 
tom or valley lands in the county which do not 
contain either a great excess of argillaceous clay 
or of coarse granite: sand. There are only two 
fields within my knowledge in the beautiful val- 
ley of Naucoochee, two on Tugalo, and General 
Wofford’s plantation on Broad River, that con- 
tain anything like the proper proportions of clay, 
sand and silica. If you were to examine them, 
you would find about one-half of our valley lands, 
provided they have been drained, to have a rich 
looking, black, vegetable mould, from three to 
five inches deep, and underneath a stiff, hard- 
pan, or argillaceous clay. This kind of soil, 
when fresh, will give, even under the most im- 
perfect cultivation, 40 or 45 bushels per acre, but 
in a few years the soluDle matter of the vegeta- 
ble mould becomes exhausted, leaving nothing 
but a mass of inert, carbonized matter, which 
■will not yield vou, under the most perfect culti- 
vation, aided by good seasons, ten bushels of 
nubbins to the acre. The land is, in common 
parlance, sour, dead land. Now, why is it dead! 
Why should it not produce your corn, rye, oats 
or other grain 2 Examine it with your pan, and 
you "Will find only 4 or 5 per cent, of clay, about 
the same quantity of sand, and still less of silica. 
All else, the great mass, is inert, carbon zed vege- 
table matter. There is nothing to fix and support 
the roots — nothing to attract moisture, carbonic 
acid or nitrogen — no soluble, rich juices to nour- 
ish a plant, and no silicate of potash, without 
which, neither wheat, straw nor cornstalks can 
be raised. But I may be as.ted how these lands 
for a few years produced such enormous crops 
without those proportions of clayj sand and sili- 
ca, for which I have contended. I will tell you 
why. For a few years, the mass of vegetable 
mould possessed cohesion enough to fix the roots 
and retain and transfer moisture. This supplied 
the place of clay. The porous nature of the 
soil, permeable to atmospherical influences, and 
easily penetrated by the roots, supplied the place 
of sand. It possessed silica enough to glaze the 
stalk and blades for a few years, and it was vast- 
ly rich in humus or soluble gelne, as nearly the 
whole mass was made up of decayed and decay- 
ing vegetable matter, and hence the enormous 
crops until the soluble geine or humus was ex- 
hausted. That these are truths, and not vision- 
ary speculations, I will now prove. Take a given 
quantity of this (so called) dead land, and spread 
over its surface fifty bushels of lime or double 
that quantity of unleached ashes, early in the 
spring. Harrow it in ; and at the proper time sow 
down in oats, barley or wheat, Siberian or Ita- 
lian, plow shallow to avoid sinking the lime or 
ashes too deep, and you will find this dead land 
resuscitated. It was not actually dead, but in a 
state of torpor only. The lime or alkali has waked 
it up, and you will find your labor and nurs- 
ing rewarded by a heavy ciop. I am sure I need 
not tell you how this has happened. It was the 
chemical action of lime upon inert vegetable 
matter, and the formation of rich soluble matter 
to nourish the plants. It likewise converted 
the remaining silica into silicate of potash to 
glaze the stalks and blades. 
But I may be asked again, if the occasional ap- 
plication of a few bushels of lime or ashes will 
keep these lands thus productive 2 I answer, no. 
They are radically deficient in clay, sand, and sil- 
ica, and a new soil has to be formed or you must 
abandon them. And the only question is, which 
will you do 2 Can any farmer hesitate 2 The 
whole substratum or subsoil is adhesive clay, or 
alumina. You have that at least in superabun- 
dance, and by the plow you can bring up to the 
surface what you want and no more. You have 
somewhere, not far off’, beds of sand or sandy 
clay that can be hauled on and spread over the 
field in quantity nearly equal to what you have 
brought up by the plow. This, together with the 
small quantity of sand and silica contained in 
the alumina or argillaceous clay, will make about 
the right proportions. Let this be done in the 
fall, and by spring, from the action of frost and 
other atmospherical influences, you will find the 
w'hole in a fine, well pulverized state. You w'ill 
now have all the elements of a good and durable 
soil, and one, by the aid of manure, vastly pro- 
ductive. We have, sir, in this and the adjacent 
counties, a considerable quantity of such land 
as I have been describing. It comprises, per- 
haps, one-half of the flat land on Soque, much 
in Naucoochee and Duke’s Creek valleys, some 
on Beaver Dam, and a portion of your farm at 
Currahee, and I cite you to all that part on 
which you have grown such heavy crops'of oats 
and such light crops of corn. There is, howev- 
er, considerable variety in these lands, even in 
the same valley, dependant upon variations in 
the quantity of sand and silica they may contain. 
Those belonging to you to which I have alluded, 
contain a fair proportion of silica, and hence the 
good crops of oats grown on them. Of this I 
wid satisfy the Society when I close, by exhibit- 
ing specimens from my own farm. 
Accident, rather than science, led me some 
years since, to investigate the character of these 
lands. Fora few years, after reclaiming my bot- 
toms, they yielded me heavy crops, as much as 
56 bushels of corn to the acre. But they soon bs- 
gan to fail, and, at the expiration of seven years, 
would not pay for cultivation. About that time, 
having brought the adjacent high land, which 
was poor, into cultivation, a small quantity of the 
clay and sand was washed down on the valley, 
and I noticed an obvious superiority in the crop, 
as far as the clay and sand had been carried. The 
next year, the land was in corn, and I was still 
more forcibly struck with the improvement. 
No manure had been applied to the hill-side ; it 
was naturally poor and gravelly, and it was plain 
that the luxuriant corn wms not nourished by 
geine or humus. On what then did it depend! 
Clearly, sir, upon the accidental combination of 
clay, sand and silica. Many gentlemen present, 
must have v/itnessed similar results; and if they 
have, can more conclusive proof be necessary, as 
to what should be done! If it is, I have it at 
hand. When a portion of my valley land refused 
to grow a blade of oats, or a stalk of corn, as large 
as my thumb, I measured off three sections, or 
lots, of five roods square. On the first, I spread 
six bushels of lime; on the second, twelve bush- 
els of unleached ashes; and on the third, ten 
heavy cart loads of poor sandy clay ; and sowed 
all down in oats. The secuons receiving the lime 
and ashes, turned off a pretty fair crop; whilst 
the clayed and sanded section -vv’as not worth cut- 
ting. The succeeding spring, I applied one cart 
load of cow-yard manure to each of the sections, 
and planted them in corn. The difTerencs now 
in favor of the clayed and sanded lots, was marked 
from the time the corn came up, and made at 
least one-fourth more than either of the others. 
Now, sir, is not the reason as plain, as was the 
difference in the crop! The first year, the lime 
and ashes acted on the inert vegetable matter of 
the soil, and evolved nutritive juices to nourish 
the crop, whilst the clayed and sanded parts had 
no such aids. But the second year, when it had 
those aids, and a better soil, one made up of clay, 
sand, and silica, it far outstripped the others. Af- 
ter my valley lands had so rapidly and unex- 
pectedly failed, I was on the eve of converting 
them into pasture. The soil still looked rich and 
black as ever, and why it should not produce, I 
could not conjecture. In this dilemma, I opened 
a correspondence with J udge Buel on the subject. 
He attributed the defect to an excess of humic 
acid, and advised the free appdeation of lime. 
But that scientific farmer, and learned man, was 
mistaken. These lands, however, may contain 
some acid, but there is unquestionably a defect of 
clay, sand, and silica. 'I he application of lime 
would have neutralised the acid, and as we have 
seen, elaborate some geine fora single crop. But 
sand and silica alone could give a soil to produce 
crops, by the aid of manure, forever. 
I have already stated, sir, that the remaining 
half of our valley lands are sandy, and I might 
have said, contain a great excess of sand ; for I 
do not know one plantation on Soque or Tugalo 
w'here there is not a great demand for clay, to in- 
crease the fertility of som.e parts of the farm ; 
and I am convinced the owners of farms could not 
expend money and labor so advantageously in 
any other way to increase the productiveness of 
t’neir land, as the transposition of clay to sand, 
and sand to clay. Let the experiment be tr’ed on 
five acres, and I shall then feel satisfied it will be 
on five thousand. Is there a man present who 
cultivates a garden, and who exercises his judg- 
ment in its culture, but kno-w's that the addition 
of clay gives cohesion to sandy soil, and that 
sand and gravel, when mixed with a clay soil, 
diminishes its tenacious property ; and that these 
changes, thus effected, permanently increase the 
productive powers of both. If the opinion ad- 
vanced by most of the writers on agriculture be 
correct, (and I think they are sustained by expe- 
rience,) that the productiveness of a soil mainly 
depends upon its natural or artificial capability 
of retaining and transmitting moisture, by the 
agency of which nourishment is conveyed to 
plants, the necessity of adding clay to sand, 
and sand to clay, whenever there is a deficiency 
of either, cannot be controverted. And hence the 
necessity, in all our efforts to improve a poor soil, 
to examine it in connection with one that is rich. 
If the cause of sterility be owing to some de- 
fect in its constituent parts, such defect could be 
remedied. 
We are here, sir, surrounded by beds of iron 
ore in every direction, and many of our soils may 
contain such quantities of sulphate of iron, as to 
be highly injurious; and wherever that is the 
case, the use of lime is indispensable; but on the 
subjects of lime, tillage, manuring, and hill-side 
ditching, I may say something hereafter. From 
what I have said, in attempting to point out the 
natural defects of some of our soils, and the 
method of permanently improving them, I hope 
it will not be inferred that I consider barn-yard 
and stable manure as superfluous. No one ap- 
preciates their advantages more highly than I 
do ; but as T have now detained you too long, 
they must be reserved for a future occasion. 
Speech on Agricuiturea 
Mr. C.AMAK: — The following original speech 
was delivered by Mr. Alphonzo Rogers, Student 
of the Acad('my at Warrenton, Ga., on the night 
of the exhibition, 16th inst., which, by request 
of several citizens, I forward to you for publica- 
tion in the Cultivator, should it meet your appro- 
bation. Respectfully, H. E. Morrow. 
Warrenton, Ga., July, 1845. 
Fellow-Citizens: In travelingoverour State, 
we _may be struck with many instances of pros- 
perity and happiness, and many of decay and 
desolation. If the Indian of another century 
were to come from the land of the Great Spirit, 
and revisit these scenes of his former sports, he 
would be surprised at the changes which have 
taken place among his former hunting grounds. 
He would not merely behold the snow-white cot- 
ton fields, the rice plantations, and waving corn 
— he would not merely behold the flourishing 
towns and villages and splendid mansions, the 
rail-roads and improved navigation ; but in the 
older counties, he would be surprised at old fields 
worn out and overgrown with pine, and the gul- 
lies formed by the rains of half a century. He 
might say, the pale face has cut do'wn the groves, 
cultivated and i.mpoverished the lands, and now 
nothing is heard but the sighing of the winds 
among the pines — nothing is seen but the tracks 
made by the rains among the fields. The obser- 
vation of every reasoning and reflecting mind 
would respond to the sentiment of the Indian. 
Now, what has caused this sad reverse! Why 
have many splendid habitations been deserted, 
and why do the owl and the bat revsl in those 
