J90 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
Experimental Farming* 
From the Southern Reformer. 
Col. W. M. Srhth— S'tr;-The great 
object 1 have had in view Irom the very com- 
inencetnent of my writings for the public, was 
to induce my brother farmers to reflect more on 
their business, and thus insure the improve- 
ment not only of our soil, but of the mind, I 
am fully aware that many have thought, and 
indeed said, that my highest aim w^as to induce 
farmers to purchase improved stock, whereby I 
could realise money. This is an error, and 
were not such things so common, 1 w'ould much 
regret my being suspected; as it is, I blame no 
one, feeling assured that my perseverance in 
the good cause will induce some to regret hav- 
ing attributed to me sordid motives, and others 
to forget having thought it. One w’ho is sin- 
cerely desirous to teach, will adopt the course 
that he thinks will lead to the end the surest and 
readiest, I, believing that the feasibility of im- 
provement could be showm by taking hold of 
stock, used it as a means of proving that we had 
not arrived at the ultima thule of perfection. 
And f still hold the same opinions that I did, 
that improved stock will pay better for keep than 
others; this is even now denied by many — they 
honestly believing that the corn-crib is the only 
improvement. WhilstI will admit thelull ben- 
efit of the cross on the corn-crib, yet I deny in 
toto, that the corn-crib will make a racer out of 
the Indian lackey, or a four or five hundred 
pound hog out of the pure native breed of hogs. 
I furthermore contend, that the mass^ of the 
farming community do thoroughly believe in 
another sort of cross, and that having seen this, 
they are willing to admit that our crops of cot- 
ton, corn, &c. can be improved. The great 
drawback on a more rapid improvement in 
farming matters generally, arises from too much 
dependence on experience. This thing expe- 
rience is a capital thing in its way, but to place 
so implicit reliance on it will cramp the ener- 
gies of the strongest mind, and clog the wheels 
of improvement. We will take as an illustra- 
tion, corn, which every farmer knows so well 
how to cultivate, and try not only to show up to 
our practical, hard-working farmers their error, 
but explain my meaning. Farmers who have 
cultivated corn for fifty or sixty years, claim 
experience by right, 1 ask, is it experience as 
it should be 1 They have planted one variety 
of born, and cultivated it one wmy; they have 
made 20 to 30, or may be 50 bushels of corn 
from an acre. Of course their mode of culti- 
vation is best; and why 7 because they have 
tried no other. Tell them to plow deeper, plant 
closer, cultivate shallow and lay by early ; they 
answer, our ‘‘ climate will not suit close plant- 
ing.” How do they know? Oh! they have 
left three or four stalks in a hill and made no- 
thing ; but “ mark well”— theymerely scratched 
the earth before planting, and plowed the corn 
to death after it was growing ; and yet they 
claim experience. Let them boldly launch forth 
into the broad sea of experiment, unbiassed by 
the trammels of their own peculiar system, or 
that of their fathers, and they will soon find out 
they have not yet arrived at perfection, even in 
corn planting. My friend and kinsman, A. K. 
Montgomery, having brushed away the cob- 
webs of experience, tried this season what a 
different way of managing corn wmuld do. He 
never saw corn planted thus and was taught to 
believe it would not do ; but the result, 98 bu- 
shels per acre, with a firm conviction that he 
can make 120. Prudently, as all farmers 
should be, he only tried some two acres, but it 
being along side of his crop, and cultivated at 
the same time, he is well enough satisfied to try 
it again. To satisfy inquiry, his mode was 
this: 
He scattered some 400 or 500 bushels of cot- 
ton seed per ace, plowed about five inches deep, 
laid off rows about 2h feet apart, drilled corn 
and covered — thinned out to as near one foot as 
he could, plowed once, and flat-weeded with 
hoe twice, I think. The adjoining corn was 
cultivated as usual, and though rather more on 
an acre than he generallv leaves as a stand, as 
it was planted one foot nearer, yet it will not 
yield much over 40 bushels. The plan to have 
succeeded best would have been, to have plow- 
ed 6 or 8 inches deep, scattered his cotton seed 
aboul-350 bushels per acre, cross-pknved shal- 
low, then marked off rows, scattered about 50 
to 100 bushels in the drill and dropped his seed. 
The alter culture should have been without a 
plow at all, relying on harrow, or cultivators, or 
sweeps. He used the manure because it was 
at the spot, used too much of that kind for the 
season, and no doubt injured it by this healing 
manure. As it was dry at the lime of filling, 
and the stand not regular, he made not as much 
as might have been made. 1 now ask, is the 
experience of this gentleman worth anything 7 
Of course not, as it militates against pre-con- 
conceived notions, and cost too much. This 
latter argument is weightless, for we know that 
the land will be benefilled for four or five years. 
There was too much manure used, and even as 
it stands, one acre has produced about the ave- 
rage yield of three ; therefore, twm hands couh 
have been spared to gather manure, 1 say thal 
experience is a capital thing in its way; and 
when a man has fairly tried the different plans, 
for a time sufficient, then should it weigh, and 
not without. Farmers have an awful dread of 
theory and experiments, when appertaining to 
their own business, and which can be kept un- 
der their own control; but let them launch forth 
their bark on the tide of politics, or some other 
fantastic notion, and you cannot keep them 
from being controlled by the one, nor from blind- 
ly following the other. I think every farmer 
should be an experimenter, and he should ma- 
turely reflect before he commences; thus theo- 
rise, but not spend his income at the one, nor 
his whole time at ihe other. By way of illus- 
tration again, and to give a practical lesson too: 
I had heard many argue on the advantage of 
covering corn deep, and reflecting on it I came 
to the conclusion that it was wrong; I had ex- 
amined many stalks, and found invariably one 
thing — the root had put out from the grain or 
its shoot near the surface. I, therefore, in the 
month of June, planted in garden movM several 
hills of corn, at depths varying from one inch 
to six inches : mark! under the most favorable 
circum-stances — in June and in my garden. I 
used a mathematical scale, was particular to 
an eighth of an inch, and not one grain showed 
itself above ground that was planted over four 
inches deep — in fact, the deepest planted that 
made its appearance was three inches. This 
was only one experiment ; a dozen should have 
been tried. 1 tried wheat dibbled about 2 to 4 
inches deep; not one in an hundred ever vegeta- 
ted to be seen, whilst that which was drilled 
half, or three quarters to one inch, vegetated 
well. These experiments occupied an hour or 
so of my time, cost nothing, and when fully 
completed, will satisfy myself at least. All 
that I ask of my readers and friends, is to exa- 
mine well and to be prudent in trying experi- 
ments, and I make no question but they will 
find pleasure and profit therein. I would urge 
on every farmer and planter — aye, on the di- 
vine, the lawyer, the doctor, the merchant, me- 
chanic and all, to subscribe to a farming and 
scientific periodical; they will soon acquire a 
fondness for the reading'; and being innocent, 
profitable and pleasing in their bearings, can- 
not possibly do injury. They need not be run 
away with it ; let that be left to hot-headed, im- 
pulsive, soft people ; but let them read to reflect 
and to profit. This good will result at least, it 
will give to the younger folk a thirst after know- 
ledge that will be innoxious in itself, and tend 
to draw them from sinful amu-sements. The 
expansion of the mind on any subject will of 
course have its advantages in any situation of 
life. It is the class of men who have felt this 
generous impulse, who are selected for the high- 
er w'alks in life, as well as patterns for imita- 
tion. I would, therefore, press on parents, 
guardians, teachers, &c., to encourage the read- 
ing of agricultural works; andl presume there 
is ho one who has more brains than fatty mat- 

ter within his pericranium, will object to the ^ 
policy. Yours truly, M. W. Thilips. 
Log Hall, Hinds Co., JVhss., Aug. 25, 1845. ' M b 
The proper application of Manures to Land. a| 
From the Valley Farmer. 3® 
A few practical observations, I trust, will not 
prove unacceptable to most of your readers, ;iiS! 
when we consider the great importance of thelW 
subject, and how much the productiveness 
of oursoil thereupon depends. 
It is well known that the greater diversity of 
opinion exists as to the “ modus operandi” and ' 
time of applying manure. Some, on the one •• 
hand, contending that it should undergo tho- 
rongli fermentation, and become enii-ely rotted. ' - 
Others, again, think that it shonld be applied ’ 
fresh, and that fermentation should take place 
after naving been applied. 
Again, there is the same difference of opin- . ' 
ion as to the manner in which it should be ap- 
plied. Some contending that it is most benefi- 
cial and durable to have it plowed under as 
soon as spread : others preferring it applied to 
the surface in the form of a “ top dressing.” 
The simple inquiry then rests upon this: By 
which mode of application does the same a- 5 
mount of manure act most beneficially? ^ 
I have carefully examined the various opin- « 
ions, and have been led to the following results % 
from experience, the best of teachers, that ma- u 
nure should be applied to lands in an unfer- ffl 
mented slate, and that upon the surface, and at .jH 
as early a period as possible in the spring. 1 w 
have derived the greatest advani^age from the .j| 
simple application of dry and unrotted straw, ^ 
to my thin knolls, while the land was lying to ^ 
gra.ss, thereby protecting them from the scorch* 9 
ing rays of a summer sun ; and wherever thus 9 
applied, the land appears to be renovated and 9 
moist, and in fallowing it, I invariably find it J 
mellow and loose. Now, the question arises, 9 
does the mere.covering of the land increase its 
fertility. And how can it be accounted lor if J 
it is not simply because evaporation cannot 9 
take place; and is it not by evaporation, toge- ^ 
ther with frequent tillage and exhausting crops, 
that land once fertile, becomes barren 7 Now, 
our main object should be to prevent each and 
all of these different effects and results. In ap- 
plying our manure to the surface, we give to 
the land a shelter and protection, thereby pre- ^ 
venting evaporation irom the surface of the j 
soil, and-at the same time, the rain acting di- j 
reel upon the manure thus applied, carries the ^ 
dissolved substances no deeper than the roots of 'j 
most of our plants generally grow' ; and there j 
these substances remain held by the chemical j 
affinity of the earth, until the roots of the plants j 
by a still stronger attraction act upon them. 
Again, it is a conceded fact that the fertilizing 'ij 
substances of manure are only soluble in water, / 
and w'ill remain uninjured themselves and use- 
less to plants, until that solution begins, whe- 
ther they be applied as a top dressing or plowed - 
under. Now this solution can only take place 
by the application of water to the manure, and ^ 
when thus applied in the form of rain, it is ta- 
ken up by the subjacent soil, and there held by 
gravitation, until it is received by the minute 
mouths of the plants, which can only receive it 
in a state of dissolution by w-ater. J 
Nature always manures the soil by applica- } 
tion to the surface, and then relying on the rains ' 
to carry down the decomposed solution to the' 
roots ol the plants. She has taught us a useful 4 
lesson in the application of leaves, as applied 
to the forest, and notwithstanding the immense ^ 
growth of timber, that our lands produce and 
sustain, they are still by this extremely small " 
annual return, not only kept from barrenness, 
but in most cases they are in a progressive state 
of improvement. What a lesson we are to de- 7 / 
live from this example 7 Protection from heat 
and the drying winds, with a proper distribution 
of manure to the soil, are all that is required to 
produce large crops and a progressive fertility, h 
Again, in applying our manures upon the £ 
surface, we do not prevent that proper compact- a 
