THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
149 
iiilormed US was obtained from Col. Jaques, of 
Charlestown, Mass. A flock of over a hundred 
first rate sheep, a mixture of the Leicester with 
ihe native breed, were kept mainly for the wool 
necessary for the family clothing. 
On the whole, the view of such a splendid 
plantation as that of Col. Wood’s, a thousand 
acres under ihe plow, yielding, on the lowest 
calculation, a clear profit of ten dollars to the 
acre — the business under overseers who make 
the different gangs of cheerful workers operate 
like the machinery of a clock ; a portion of the 
grounds every year improved by the generous 
use ot manures; the crops all gathered and sa- 
ved in due season, as they are grown, almost 
without the apparent care of the owner ; the 
surplus annually sold to furnish any desirable 
amount ot funds lor any desirable purpose; — 
who would not think the evil of slavery such as 
e.xists upon this plantation even tolerable, and 
who would not envy the condition ol an inde- 
pendent Alabama farmer like Colonel Green 
Wood? 
Barn Yards. 
The follo wing “ iSt’/ftar/rs on the Construction 
and Manasement of CaULe Yards” are from the 
pen of the late Judge Buel, of Albany : 
Vegetables, like animals, cannot thrive cr 
subsist without loud; and upon the quantity 
and quality of this depends the health and vigor 
of the vegetable as well as of the animal. 
Both subsist upon animal and vegetable matter, 
both may be surfeited with excess both may 
be injured by food not adapted to their habits, 
their appetite or their digestive powe.rs. A hog 
will receive no injury, but great benefit from 
free access to a heap ot corn or wheat, where a 
horse or cow will be apt to destroy themselves 
by excess. The goat will thrive upon the 
boughs and bark of trees, while the hog would 
starve. The powerful, robust maize will re- 
pay, in the increase ot its grain, lor a heavy 
dressing of strong dung, tor which the more de- 
licate wheal will requite you with very little 
but straw. T.he potatoe feeds ravenously, and 
grows luxuriantly upon the coarsest Jitter, 
while many ot the more tender exotics will 
thrive only on food upon which lermentation 
has exhausted its powers. But here the analo- 
gy stops: for while the food of the one is con- 
sumed in a sound, healthy, and generally solid 
state, the food of the other before it becomes ali- 
ment, must undergo the process ot putrefaction 
or decomposition, and be reduced to a liquid or 
aeriform state. 
I have gone into the analogy between ani- 
mals and vegetables thus far, to impress upon 
the minds of our farmers the importance of sav- 
ing and of applying the food of their vegeta- 
bles with the same care and economy that they 
do the food of their animals. How scrupulous- 
ly careful is the good husbandman of the pro- 
duce of his farm destined to nourish and fatten 
hts animals ; and yet how often careless of the 
food which can alone nourish and mature his 
plants : while his fields are gleaned and his 
grain, hay and roots carefully housed, and eco- 
nomically dispensed to his animals, the food of 
his vegetables is suflered to waste on every 
part of his farm. Stercoraries we have none. 
The urine of the stock, which constitutes a moi- 
ety of the manure of animals, is all lost. The 
slovenly and wasteful practice of feeding at 
stacks in the fields where the sole of the grass is 
broken, the fodder wasted, and the dung of lit- 
tle effeci, is still pursued. And finally, the 
litlle manure which does accumulate in the 
yards, is suffered to lie till it has lost full half 
of its fertilizing properties, or rotted the sills of 
the barn ; when it is injudiciously applied, or 
the barn moved to get clear of the nuisance. 
Again: none bm a slothful farmer will permit 
the flocks of his neighbors to rob his own of 
their food ; yet he often sees, but with feeble ef- 
forts to prevent it, his plants smothered by pes- 
tiferous weeds and plundered of the food which 
is essential to their health and vigor. A treed 
consumes as mtich food as a useful flant. This, 
to be sure, is the dark side ol the picture, yet 
the original may be found in every town, and 
in almost every neighborhood. 
Is it surprising that under such management 
our arable grounds should grow poor, and refuse 
to labor its accustomed rewaid? Can it be 
considered strange that those who thus neglect 
to feed their plants should feel the evil of light 
purses as well as of light crops? Constant 
draining or evaporation, without returning any- 
thing would in time exhaust the ocean of its 
waters. A constant cropping of the soil with- 
out returning anything to it, will in like man- 
ner exhaust it of its vegetable food and gradual- 
ly induce sterility. Neither sand, clay, lime 
or magnesia, w'hich are the elements ot ail soils, 
nor any combination of part or all of them, is 
alone capable of producing healthy plants. It 
is the animal and vegetable matter accumula- 
ted upon Its bosom or which art deposits there, 
with the auxiliary aid ot these materials diflu- 
sed in the atmosphere, that enables the earth to 
teem with vegetable life and yield its tribute to 
man and beast. 
I w'lll now suggest a cheap and practicable 
' mode ot providing food for vegdables, commen- 
surate to the means of every farmer of ordina- 
ry enterprize; and that my suggestions may not 
be deemed theoretical, I will add, that I “ prac- 
tice what I preach.” 
The cattle yard should be located on the south 
side of and adjoining the barn. Sheds, sub- 
stantial stone walls, or close board fences should 
be erec ed at least on the east and west sides, to 
shelter the cattle from cold winds and storms ; 
the size proportioned to the stock to be kept in 
it. Excavate ihe centre in a concave form, 
placing the earth removed upon the edges or 
lowest sides, leaving the borders ten or twelve 
feet broad, of a horizontal level, to feed the 
slock upon, and from two to five feet higher than 
the centre. This may be done with a plow ana 
scraper, or shovel and hand-barrow, alter the 
ground is broken up with the plow. I u.sed the 
former and was employed a day and a half, 
with t'vo hands and a team, in fitting two to my 
mind. When the soil is not sutiiciently com- 
pact to hold wmter the bottom should be bedded 
with six or eight inches of ciay well beat down 
and covered with gravel or sand. This last la- 
bor is seldom required except where the ground 
is very porous. My yards are constructed on a 
small loam, resting on a clay subsoil. Here 
should be annually deposited as they can be 
conveniently collected, the weeds, coarse grass 
and brakes of the farm; and also the pumpkin 
vines and potatoe tops. The quantity of these 
upon a farm is very great, and are collected and 
brought to the yard with little trouble by the 
teams returning from the fields. And here also 
should be fed out or strewed as litter, the hay, 
stalks and husks ot Indian corn, pea and bean 
haulm, and the straw ot grain not wanted in 
stables. To still farther augment the mass, 
leached ashes and swamp earth may be added 
to advantage. These materials will absorb the 
liquid of the yard, and, becoming incorporated 
with the excrementitious matter, double or tre- 
ble the ordinary quantity of manure. During 
the continuance of frost the excavation gives 
no inconvenience, and when the weather is soft 
the borders afiord ample room for the cattle. 
In this way the urine is saved and the waste in- 
cident to •rains, &c., prevented. The cattle 
should be kept constantly yarded in winter, ex- 
cept whfn let out to water, and the yard fre- 
quently replenished with dry litter. Upon this 
plan from ten to twelve loads of unfermented 
manure may be obtained every spring for each 
animal; and if the stable manure is spread over 
the yard, the quality of the dung will be impro- 
ved and the quantity proportionably increased. 
Any excess ot liquid that may remain after the 
dung is removed in the spring can be profitably 
applied to grass, grain or garden crops. It is 
. used extensively in Flanders and in other parts 
of Europe. 
Having explained my method of procuring 
and preserving the food of vegetables, I will 
proceed to state my practice in feeding or apply- 
ing it. It is given every spring to such hoed 
crops as will do well upon coarse food, (my ve- 
getable hogs and goats.) These are corn, po- 
tatoes, rula baga, beans and cabbages. These 
consume the coarser particles ol the manure, 
which would have been lost during the summer 
in the yard, while the plow, harrow and hoe 
eradicate ihf weeds which spt ing from the seeds 
it scatters. The finer parts of the food are pre- 
served in the soil to nourish the small grains 
wtrch follow. The dung is spread upon the 
land as evenly as possible, and immediately 
turned under with the plow, It is thereby bet- 
ler distributed forthe next crop, and becomes in- 
timately mixed and incorporated with the soil 
by subsequent tillage. Thus, upon the data 
which I feel warranted in assuming, a farmer 
who keeps twenty horses and neat cattle will 
obtain from his yards and stables, every spring, 
two hundred loads of manure, besides what is 
made in summer, and the product of his hog- 
sty. With this he may manure annually ten 
or twelve acres of corn, potatoes, &c., and ma- 
nure it well. And if a proper rotation of crops 
is adopted he will be able to keep in good heart, 
and progressively to aiiprove, sixty acres of til- 
lage land, so that each field shall be manured 
once every tour or five years on the return of 
the corn and potatoe crop. 
Grasses for the South. 
From the Albany Cultivator. 
Your correspondents frequently inquire re- 
specting the gras.ses suitable for the South. If 
each would communicate what he had observ- 
ed it would be a sufficient answer to such inqui- 
ries, and. might prove the most important bene- 
fit to the agriculture of the South. During this 
winter I have seen bundles of Northern hay 
brought to the stables of my neighbor, which 
had paid (orcarriage many hundred miles round 
the capes of Florida, through the Gulf of Mexi- 
co, and five hundred miles (by the course of the 
river) into the interior. This is a standing re'!- 
proach to the agriculture of the South. 
Lucerne — This is found to grow well here. 
Sow it in drills in the early part ol the fall, 84 
to 27 inches apart; it flourishes, yields four to 
five cuttings in the course ol the year; and ou 
soil which would bring 20 bushels of corn to 
the acre, grows a foot and a half high. This 
season, some was cut on the l2th of March for 
soiling, and was then from a loot to knee high. 
The most of it has been cut twice over since 
the first cutting, to this day, May 13. Cattle 
and horses eat it greedily ; a cow fed on it chief- 
ly is yielding at this time between five and six 
gallons of milk daily ; when as yet there is no 
grass in the woods or on the common sufficient 
to change the poverty-stricken appearance ol 
the cattle in “ the range.” I have made no hay 
from It, but have no doubt it will make good 
hay. 
Guinea Grass . — The root is similar to that 
of the cane or reed, and is perennial. The stem 
and blade are like those of the Egyptian Millet. 
On rich soil it is very luxuriant, yielding many 
cuttings in the course of the year. It is good 
for soiling— horses and cattle eat it readily, and 
if cut when in flower, it makes a hay most 
abundantly which cattle eat greedily in winter. 
Horses do not seem to like the hay. It is most 
readily propagated by the root. A small root 
two inches long, with one or more joints to it, 
will vegetate, and, if the ground is made loose 
by plowing once or twice during the season af- 
ter planting, roots placed in checks of four feet 
will take complete possession of the soil the first 
season] so that the next spring it will start up 
evenly over the soil anywhere. Hogs root after 
them with great eagerness, and as the tendency 
of this plant is to fill the groiiud with roots in 
so thick a mat that the grass does not grow tall 
in consequence, the idea suggests itself of pas- 
turing cattle on this grass in the spring and 
summer, and giving the hogs the benefit of the 
roots in the winter. They cannot destroy it ; 
the smallest fibre left in the ground will grow. 
It might be a great pest ia a garden; but if 
