THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
105 
the advantages are greater in their section of the 
country than in the State just mentioned, for the 
reasons that the season is much longer — the 
weather hotter, and the trees larger, and thereby 
capable of lasting a longer time than when they 
are not so tall. Any information that yourself or 
any of your correspondents can yield will be very 
gratefully received by your friends in this quarter. 
Very respectfully, yourob’t serv’t, 
The Postmasteb. 
Oswichee, Russell Co., Ala. 
Improvement of the Soil. 
In the extremely exhausted condition of the 
soil in the Southern States, any suggestion rela- 
ting to its improvement is entitled to serious 
consideration. Even if such suggestion should 
appear, at first, to be unreasonable and extrava- 
gant, it should not, therefore, be rejected as 
wholly useless. It should be subjected to the test 
of practical experiment ; and even though re- 
sulting in failure, as to the main object, yet some 
truth may perhaps be got from the failure that 
may be of great use to the experimenter. In this 
connexion, Mr. Fanxin-q’s proposition may ap- 
pear extravagant at first, Yet he is a practical 
man ; and being at the head of the Agricultural 
College, near Nashville, Tenn., would not be 
likely to risk his character by proposing what is 
absurd. He asserts that “there is no problem in 
Arithmetic more clear than that, from any ani- 
mal properly managed, more manure can be made 
than will be required to make produce to support 
it.” Now, though we hold this proposition to be 
very questionable, notwithstanding its great 
clearness to Mr. Pannixs, yet we would not re- 
ject it without careful trial. Will not some one 
interested in Agriculture, set about making such 
trial at once 1 
In justice to Mr. Fanxing, we insert the whole 
of his article : 
IMPROVEMENT OF SOIL— 3Y r. fanning. 
Time was, when most of the cultivated soil in 
the United States was rich j but that day has 
passed. In many of the States, the occupants of 
farms have worked their lands out of heart, and 
abandoned them for more advantageous positions 
in the “ far West.” Many others still cleave to 
the homes of their ancestors, with little other 
prospect than that of making a bare subsistence, 
and the great majority of American farmers ex- 
perience sad reverses from the annual deteriora- 
tion of their lands. Tennessee, w'hich is still the 
greatest corn-growing State in the Union, could 
once boast ofseventy-five and a hundred bushels 
of Indian corn to the acre. 
The question might be gravely asked, why 
have these changes occurred ! A bad system was 
at first adopted, and has been persisted in. Far- 
mers have had too much confidence in the soil, 
and paid too little attention to its wants. 
The great Buel’s motto was “ to improve the 
soil and the mind his idea might have been 
correct, but the order of the subjects should be 
changed. The improvement of the mind and the 
soil, is the true desideratum. 
The means to enrich the soil are numerous. 
Every cultivator is obliged to have at least a 
horse, a cow, a pig or two, and a few sheep ; and 
there is no problem in arithmetic more clear than 
that from any animal properly managed, more 
manure can be made than will be required, to 
make produce to support it. 
Suppose we try the pig first. We will give it 
the poorest food of the place. We will be at the 
expense of constructing him a good house, and 
preparing him a yard with litter. Feed him on 
refuse cabbage leaves, roots, scraps from the 
kitchen, &c., and in one year he will pay for his 
mansion, food and the labor of giving it to him, 
and furnish enough manure to produce ample 
food for two such pigs another year. If any one 
will try it, and plead disappointment, he may 
draw on me for three pigs. 
The cow, in addition to paying expenses by 
her milk, when housed and w’ell littered, xvill 
furnish an amount of manure that will, by its 
scientific application, give food for one if not two 
cows. The same may be predicated of all do- 
mestic animals. But, unfortunately, many far- 
mers loose the most valuable particles of manure 
by exposing it to the weather. After fermenta- 
tion, the residuum is little better than the like 
amount of chaff. 
The secret of improving the soil consists in 
knowing its wants and being able to supply 
them. The correct combinations ot the different 
properties of a soil must be studied. On some 
lands, clay will be useful ; on others, swamp 
mud will be found valuable, and on others, sand 
will answer the purpose. Draining is often ad- 
vantageous, and many plots may be irrigated to 
the great profit of the farmer. Few have studied 
the value of green crops, oats and rye in particu- 
lar. One crop of oats, consumed on the field, 
will enable the cultivator to reap double the a- 
mount the second year. The same may be af- 
firmed of rye. 
Soap-suds, wood ashes, and charcoal have all 
a tendency to improve soil. Another means of 
improvement is deep plowing — and the last, but 
perhaps not the least valuable, consists in com- 
pletely puherizing the land. — Natura-ist. 
The Crops. 
From the South Caroliniari and the Georgia 
Journal we copy articles on the prospect of the 
crops in South Carolina and Georgia. Some de- 
duction must be made from the estimates, so far 
as the wheat crop is concerned, in consequence 
of the ten days of wet weather, occurring in the 
midst of harvest. The injury to the wheal from 
this cause has been severe : 
From the South Carolinian, June 11. 
The Cbofs. — We write the words with satis- 
faction — the crops are fine — the seasons good, 
and plenty if not peace, at last blesses the exer- 
tions of the husbandman. The wheat crop 
promises to be the best ever grown in the South, 
and in South Carolina there will be harvested 
double the quantity ever produced in one year. 
This is the impulse which our planters required; 
anUvhat common sense should have dictated 
long since, the act of Providence has compelled 
them to adopt — producing as much grain as they 
consumed. The Oat crop will be good, and Rye 
and Barley never were betfer. Of the latter 
grain, fully seventy bushels to the acre have been 
grown by one farmer of our acquaintance — and 
we ourselves grew an admirable crop of the two- 
rowed northern variety, which was sown, with- 
out manure, on ordinary land, as late as the 10th 
of January. We regard this variety the best for 
soiling, as the leaves are much broader than the 
four-rowed kind usually cultivated amongst us. 
The feur-rowed barley will produce at least one 
third more grain than the former kind. Barley 
neatly cleaned, when ground or boiled, furnishes 
excellent food for horses and all kinds of stock. 
We consider four acres sowed in barley, properly 
manured, as valuable as sixteen acres of Indian 
Corn cultivated in the usual manner. 
Of the Corn crops we have flit ering accounts 
from all parts 0.' the State, and we hope that a 
season of bounty will place us even with the 
world at the end of the year, with the addition 
of experience, which though dearly bought, will 
be valuable to us for many an agricultural trial 
yet ahead. 
From the Georgia Journal, June Ifi. 
The Crops. — We have finer prospects before 
us for a good — nay a bountiful — crop year, than 
our farmers have seen for many, many years. 
The Wheat crop has turned out a bountiful one, 
not only in this section of the State, but through- 
out the who'e length and breadth of it, where 
wheat is grown. F.very person that we have 
seen and conversed with, tells us that his crop 
far exceeds all his previous calculations, and thai 
he has wheat to sell. For this section of Georgia 
— the Cotton belt — this is saying a great deal — 
more than was ever said befoie. In sections too 
where Wheat growing lor market is the main 
pursuit of our farmers, we learn that a most 
bountiful harvest has rewarded their labors, and 
that more wheat will be offered for sale this year, 
in Georgia, than has ever been offered before 
Purchasers therefore may expect to get flour at 
a reasonable rate. VVe must not omit to mention 
that the wheat grown this year is generally of a 
superior quality. 
The Corn crop looks very promising, the sea- 
sons have been generally good, and in our im- 
mediate neighborhood, latterly, we have had fine 
rains which have made the corn look remarkably 
promising. 
The Cotton crop does not look quite so promi- 
sing. From all that we can learn, it is rather 
backward for the middle of June, both in this, 
and other sections ol the State. 
Southern Cultivator—Opiiiion of the Press. 
The Publishers offer no apology to the reader 
for submitting to his consideration the following 
notice from the '' Southern Planter published 
at Richmond, Virginia, and deservedly ranking 
among the first Agricultural periodicals of the 
day. It was called forth, as the reader will per- 
ceive, by the announcement in the Cultivator, 
that it would be discontinued after the present 
volume, unless a more liberal support was ex- 
tended to it. The opinion of such a man as 
the accomplished editor of the Planter, is indeed 
to be prized highly, and we sincerely hope that 
no friend of the Southern Cultivator will fail 
to profit by its wholesome truths. Here it is. 
Read it ! 
“ Every community in this country has a right 
to do as they please, and are accountable to no 
individual for any course they may see fit to pur- 
sue; but then every individual has the right of 
expressing his opinion of such course, provided 
he does it in a polite and respectful manner. In 
the exercise of this right, we will venture to ex- 
press the opinion that no community has ever 
shown a greater want of wisdom than will the 
farmers of Georgia, if they suffer the youTHESN 
Cultivator to expire, for want of support. It 
is not our habit to lavish compliments on evsn 
our best friends, but, under the circumstances, it 
is but justice to say that this paper stands in the 
very first rank of the Agricultural press in this 
country. The refinement, the scholarship, and 
the ability of its editor entitle it to all the reputa- 
tion it enjoys abroad, and to fifty times the sup- 
port it gets at home. There isn’t a farmer in 
Virginia that would not, by subscribing to this 
paper, reap an hundred fold the valuv of his in- 
vestment. It is published at one dollar per an- 
num, and it will give us great pleasure to receive 
a.nd forward subscriptions for it.” 
Book Farming, 
In Indiana, as it is stated in a Western paper, 
there is a miller very extensively engaged in the 
manufacture of flour, who, in making his con- 
tracts for wheat, always gives more per bushel 
for it to a farmer who takes and reads an Agricul- 
tural paper, than to one who rejects the light 
and knowledge furnished by such publications. 
It is farther said, that from an effectual trial of 
the practice he finds it to be his interest to per- 
severe in it. A shrewd fellow is that same mil- 
ler. 
Cineiunati Egg Trade. 
The extent of this business is indeed 'surpris- 
ing. From the Cincinnati Gazette we gather the 
following particulars concerning it : 
The Annual city consumption is 1 ,913,33-3 dozen. 
Shipments from Cincinnati last year. 963,000 “ 
Total 2,176,333 dozen. 
Which is equal to 26,1 1-5,996 eggs, brought to the Citi- 
cinnati market in one year. 
The eggs consumed in the city, viz. 1,213,333 dozen, 
at 8 cents, comes to $97,066 64 
Those exported, viz ; 10,700 bbls,, at 8.44^, is 90,361 50 
Total annual amount of Egg Trade §167,428 14 
Guano Poisonous. — The Dublin Farmers’ 
Gazette mentions the case of a man who lost 
his life by holding a corner of a guano bag in 
his month, by which a portion of the dust was 
drawn into his throat. 
