162 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
obtain an analysis ol the soils, and the exist- 
ence of the different kinds of natural feitilizers. 
Some ten thousand dollars were appropriated 
and spent, and because the benefits the work 
were not realized in the shape of principal and 
interest compounded annually in dollars and 
cents, the rvork was abandoned, and the people 
have been shut out from the information which 
had been obtained. The cost of these surveys 
is trifling when compared with the actual bene- 
fits derived from them; and n'>ay I not urge this 
assoeiatios to undertake an examination of the 
lands of its members? The example will 
doubtless be followed by others. 
In the remarks I am about submitting, it is 
not my purpose to attempt a dissertation on the 
constituents of soils, and the manner in w hich 
all vegetation derives support from them. I 
shall advert mostly to elementary principles, on 
which as a basis practical operations may de- 
pend. In the first place, plants derive their 
chief food from the soil. In all soils there is 
what is called humus, which is the dark colored 
substance weseeon thesurface, and it is nothing 
more than vegetable and woody fibres in a state 
of decay. This is the source from which plants 
are saiLo be diiectly nourished, and it is re- 
garded as the chief element of fertility. With- 
out it, vegetation exists very imperfectly, and 
in the proportion in which it does exist is esti- 
mated very much the value of soils. Humus, 
however, is not the only constituent of soil, and 
it will not of itself produce and sustain vegeta- 
tion. There must likewise be clay and sand 
in the soil. 
Clay is valuable and indispensable on many 
accounts; it increases the fertility of the soil by 
the adhesion which it contracts with water, 
by the solid support which it afiords to the 
roots of plants, as well as by the resistance 
it presents to the too great extension of their 
roots— by preventing the atmospheric air from 
coming in contact with the roots of the plants, 
and by attracting oxygen, the substance which 
is so necessary for the formation of carbonic 
acid. The properties of clay demonstrate the 
necessity and profic of deep plowing; and it 
is from a correct understanding ol them, that 
has originated the use of the subsoil plow’, one 
which penetrates and breaks the clay, without 
mixing it with the soil, and which should be 
u.sed by every farmer, 
Ax\ excess of clay is, however, injurious to 
plants, because in damp weather it retains the 
water with which it is impregnated too long, 
thereby preventing evaporation.and draining — 
because in dry weather it becomes too hard — 
because “ it forcibly attracts and incorporates 
with itself the nutritive juices contained in the 
manure bestowed upon it, and will not part 
with them for the support of ihe plant.” Wash- 
ed hill-sides are unproductive, because of the 
presence of too much clay, and the application 
of manure therefore does not furnish corres- 
ponding benefits. The best treatment for such 
barren spots is to spread a large quantity of 
sand upon them, mix the sand and clay by 
plowing and then the farmer will find a profita- 
ble return in the manure he may apply. 
Sand, however, becomes injurious to land 
where it enters loo largely into the composition 
of the soil — because it is not sufficiently reten- 
tive of moisture — because “ it does not combine 
with the humus or decayed vegetable matter, 
and hardly enters into a physical union with it 
sufficiently strong to absorb those fertilizing 
particles w'hich the atmosphere contains” — be- 
cause frequent cultivation destroys its cohe- 
rence, and because sandy soils being goon con- 
ductors of colorrc, thev transmit the influences 
of severe heat or cold immediately at each sud 
den change which the temperature of the atmos- 
pht.;c- undergoes. 
These are the respective properties of clay 
and spnd as described by the chemist Thaer. 
The soil in our own county does not possess an 
excess of sand. Clay predominates with ns, 
and hence the inqivry which we have to make 
19, how shall we improve our clay hill-sides? 1 
have already anticipated that question in part, 
in the prescription of sand forgaWe^^ or worn- 
out spots. This is the basis on which we must 
rest onr system of manuring. 
The next question is, how shall we prepare 
and apply a manure which shall multiply their 
production ? We uted the very best manure — we 
require the greatest quantity -possible of it — omdvje 
desire to make it upon the very cheapest plan, omd 
•with theleait labor and trouble. 
Here is our necessity, now how shall it be re- 
lieved? There are many valuable manures, 
by the application of which, our lands would be 
greatly improved; but vhether they are all 
wilbin our reach is a different matter; we can- 
not adopt the use of any which, in common 
language, “costs more than it comes to.” 
Lime, marl, green sand, gypsum or plaster of 
pari.?, guano, charcoal, are all valuable fertil- 
izers, and if properly applied would soon re- 
store the fertility’- of our once rich soil. 
Lime produces astonishing effects — but yet 
to be valuable the land must be manured upon 
which it is applied, for the heavy crops conse- 
quent upon its apnlica'ion are said to be the re- 
sult of the earthy exhaustion of the humus so 
necessary for vegetation. “ It acts by accelera- 
ting the decomposition of the humu.?, and mak- 
ing it soluble, and thus fit to enter the min lue 
fibres of ihe roots ot plants. It also deprives 
sour Aitm-iis of its acidity and renders it fertiliz- 
ing.” On lands containing a great quantity of 
sour humus, the effects of lime are most benefi- 
cial. “ When animal manure has been applied 
for some time, lime becomes a valuable manure 
by decomposing the particles of vegetable mat- 
ter in it, and thus making them food for plants.” 
“ Repeated ameliorations of lime will soon ex- | 
haust poor and sandv soils and reduce them to 
absolute steiility. Each application of it ex- 
hausts more and more of the humus until it is 
gone ; the only lemedy left is to restore to the 
land vegetable matter.” L.ime would make our 
clay lands more valuable by rendering them 
more friable, but it is a manure which in mid- 
dle Georgia we cannot hope to employ. 
Marl is another valuanlc manure, and is a 
“natural mixture of chalk, shells, or carbonate 
ol lime in some of its forms, with clay or sand, 
or both.” Professor Johnson says of it, that 
“ it renders clay lands more open and friable, 
and to all soils brings an addition of carbonate 
and generally of phosphate of lime, both of 
which are proved by experience to be not only 
very influential, but to be absolutely necessary 
to healihv vegetation.” Green sand is likewise 
a valuable feriilizer, containing but little lime, 
and valuable because ol the potash it contains. 
In New Jersey extensive experiments have been 
made with it, and the fact is stated to have been 
satisfactorily ascertained, that one bushel ol 
greensand was equal to ten bushels of stable 
manure. Both these substances exist in oar 
own county, and sufficiently so to authorize 
tl eir general application, and a small sum of 
money spent in a geological survey would de- 
velope their localities. They are said to exist 
abuQdantly in Morgan, Green and Baldwin. 
Some few years since I submitted specimens ol 
marl taken from my own well and that of Mr. 
Michael Dennis, in this place, to the examina- 
tion of Professor Coiling, then State Geologi-st, 
both of which he informed me were very rich. 
Gypsum or Plaster of Paris, and Guano, are 
both valuable manures ■ the first is said not to 
be available in the production of corn, wheat 
and oats — the latter is a most powerful fertilizer, 
and upon poor lands will produce a most as- 
tonishing effect ; but its cost is too great to ad- 
mit of use on our farms. An artificial guano 
has been manufactured, which is said to be 
equally valuable with the natural, and in time 
mav be made so cheap as to admit ot general use. 
Charcoal is a manure which is well worth 
the attention of our farmers, and is within the 
reach ot every one. It is more lasting in its ef- 
fects than any other, and alike active and fertil- 
izing. It acts by absorbing the ammonia from 
the atmo-sphere, and from all surrounding ob- 
jects, and holds it thus fixed as food to the roots 
of plants as they require it. Some plants are ^ 
more benefitled by it than others, yet ail are pro- 
moted by it. It should be applied to wheat, 
oats, corn, &c. Considerable economy maybe 
practiced in its preparation, by burning two or 
more kilns on the same ground, and breaking 
the coal to pieces on it— the portion left after 
raking offthe large pieces will render the earth 
as valuable lor manure as the coal itself; then 
spread at the rate of -20 to 50 bushels to the 
acre. The coal should be powdered in a trough 
or other vessel which will save it from loss. I 
have tried it upon several kinds ol plants, and 
astonishing results have followed its applica- 
tion. I have discovered that the coal which 
had been burnt two years produced much great- 
er effects than that of comparatively recent pre- 
paration. The wheat crop in Prance is said to 
be increased annually several millions of bu- 
shels by the use of it. 
The question left for our consideration then, 
is, under the eircumsiances, what kind of ma- 
nure is the cheapest, best, and most abundant 
.'or our purposes? It is farm-yard manure; 
and this suits all kinds of crops the best, be- 
cause it is compounred of all the ingredients 
which constitute the difierent crops grown. 
Johnson, in his “Farmers’ Encyclopaedia,” 
says, “ ol all the fertilizers the most useful and 
most valuable to the culiivatorand yet the most 
generally mismanaged, is farm-yard manure, 
which has often been described as the farmer’s 
sheet anchor.” “ The inr.nure commonly fur- 
nished by the farm-yard is compounded of a 
mixture of anijnal and vegetable substances, of 
the putrefying straw of various descriptions of 
grain mixed wi'b the excrements and urine ot 
I cattle, horses and swine.” Nothing indeed ap- 
pears so simple at first sight as the collecticn 
and manulacture of this dung, and yet there are 
endless sources of error into which the cultiva- 
tor is sure to fall if he is not vigilant in their 
management. Horse dung thrown up in heaps 
very soon ferments and heats to an excess ; the 
centre of the heap is charred or burned to a dry 
white substance called firefanged, and in this 
state it loses from one half to three-fourths its 
value.” 
Again, he says, “the recent manure loses 
weight by lying in the farm-yard. The mois- 
ture evaporates and volatile matters escape by 
fermentation. By the time that the straw is 
halt rotten this loss amounts to one-fourth of 
the whole weight, while the bulk is diminished 
one-half. If allowed to lie still longer the loss 
increa.ses, till at length it may approach to one- 
half of the whole, leaving a weight of dung lit- 
tle greater than that of the food and straw which 
have been consumed.” “ In the short period of 
24 hours, horse dung heats an'’ btgins to suffer 
loss by fermentation. Ifleftin a heapfortwoor 
three weeks scarcely seven-tenths of its original 
weight will remain. Hence the propriety of 
earlv removing it from the stable and of mixing 
it as soon as possible with some other material 
bv which the volatile substances given off' may 
be absorbed and saved. The cold and rotten 
cow or hog dung will answei well for this pur- 
pose, or soil rich in vegetable matter, or peat or 
sawdust, or powdered charcoal ; with peof or 
saw-dust, it will form a rich compost, and to 
soils which contain much inert vegetable mat- 
ter, it can be applied with great advantage.” 
In our warm climate evaporation and fermen- 
tation have to be particularly guarded agamst, 
for they readily occur, and it is difficult to pre- 
vent either, unless by mixing the stable manure 
with earth. 
Dr. Jackson, in hisadlress before the last 
Agricultural Society of Massachusetts, says, 
“the most common method of making a com- 
post with peat or swamp muck is to mix three 
loads of the peat with one ofdung,and to allow 
the whole to undergo putrefactive changes. 
Then, previous to spreading it on the soil, a 
bushel of recently slaked lime should be mix- 
ed with each load of compost. It is usual to 
mix the lime in the Spring 10 to 14 days be- 
fore spreading the manure.; the lime should be 
slaked until it falls into powder.” Again, he 
says: "Peat is valuable as a basis for corn^ 
