THE SOUTHERN CULTIYATOR. 
134 
home, and become domesiicated and acclima- 
ted among our products, 
Edo perpetua ! is the prayer of every patriot 
ss he casts his eye over our land of varied clime, 
and soil, and product, and people. With no 
•tinted hand have the gilts of a kind Providence 
been strewn around us. The earth and its in- 
crease— -flowers, fruits, animal, bee, worm and 
fowl— all bear their tribute to supply our wants, 
and so profuse are the means of sustenance and 
comfort, that every year, almost, oniy serves to 
lap us in greater plenty. It is to agriculture— 
“The art that calls the harvests forth, 
And feeds expectant nations” — 
we must look as the oldest employment, and the 
most necessary occupation of man. Honored, 
it will make our country glorious in the true 
strength of a nation-— its virtue, intelligence 
and enterprise. Neglected, the arm of prosper- 
ity will be shattered, and our experiment may 
end in doubt and dismay. 
Southern Crops and Culture. 
The following, from the ever busy pen of Dr, 
Phillips, will be read with interest and advan- 
tage by every Southern planter. This gentle- 
man has done much, very much, by both pre- 
cept and example, towards the improvement of 
our agriculture; and everything he writes de- 
serves a careful perusal, This seems to be the 
first of a series of communications to be made 
fs the American Agriculturist, The others we 
will publish as they appear. 
I know it is impossible to persuade the plant- 
ers, of the cotton regioh especially, and I doubt 
not of your Northern country also, that they 
have any interest equal to the present full crops. 
As I think there is, when I write, I give my con- 
victions; I must therefore say what I think, 
which is, that a;tiro;7er management ot our land 
is of as much, it not more, advantage in a gen- 
eral rule, than the making of large crops. 
If a planter will exert himself to protect land,, 
he ^will gather for a life-time lair and remune- 
rating crops ; whereas, by the common careless 
mode of planting, he will make lor five years 
good crops, the next five he will make ordinary, 
the next five still smaller, until within less 
than twenty or-twenty five years his crops will 
be so bad, that he is forced to extraordinary ex- 
ertions in working his land, or to emigrate. Is 
this not so ? 
In much of our Northern country, lime, marl 
and manures are cheap; and conveyance is 
cheap. These things are demanded on account 
of the previous bad culture of the cultivators. 
Here, all these things are dear, but fortunately 
for us, they are not needed, our soil being com- 
paratively new, and w’here the surface soil is 
worn, the subsoil possessing all the requisites 
of a good soil. We have yet one more ad' an- 
tage, our winters are so much milder and short- 
er, we can grow grain cheaper; and the cowpea 
will grow among our corn without material in- 
jury. I have repeatedly referred to these facts, 
but they are in my estimation of so much value 
and of so easy application, that I must continue 
to allude to them even if I repeat “line upon 
line, and preceptupon precept.” The policy is, 
to protect land from the sun, from washing, and 
from the exhausting efects of cropping. Whe- 
ther this can be done, and good crops gathered 
for 50 to 100 years, I will not dare affirm; but 
this I will do — much of our lands lying near to 
the water courses, and the flat lands in the west- 
ern part of Mississippi, can be kept near their 
present state of product for many years. 
We never remove cornstalks from our land, 
as is done in many portions of the United 
States; many have burnt them off, as they do 
cotton stalks — these are therefore generally re- 
turned to the land. If the pea be sowm among 
corn about the 1st of June, the vine will cover 
the land entire before the hotted of our summer 
be past, and if not fed off, will give a vast quan- 
tity of vegetable matter to the earth; these, 
■with the cornstalk, will nearly counterbalance 
»be deterioration caused by taking off the corn 1 
and the lodder— and it we were to so .v down in 
October, Egyptian oats or rye, rn corn and cot- 
ton land, to be left bn the ground until planting 
time, 1 feel certain that the washing rains of 
winter would dobut little injury, and that the re- 
turn to the earth would be ample. There can 
be no doubt as to the vegetable matter, and 1 
presume there is a sufRciency of inorganic mat- 
ter in our soils to last many years without any 
material injury ; lor we only export the cotton 
wool, having, you may say, all the balance to 
return to the land. What the intrinsic value of 
cottonseed is, taking the stable manure as a 
standard, I cannot say; but I am fully convinc- 
ed that they ought to be used only as a manure. 
I am satisfied as to feeding hogs with them, hav- 
ing tried them effectually. The expeiience of 
all men can never induce me to use them again. 
I have lost in twelve months lull 60 hog.s, that 
should now have neiied me 12,000 lbs. ot pork, 
and which 1 could now sell lor about S500. J 
say not that my loss is entirely attributable to 
the seed; but I know that I lost some very 
choice mixed hogs, •which were killed by the 
.seed. Asfo feeding cattle with them, I am so 
doubtful that I exclude my stock entirely. I 
would then only use them for manure. A bro- 
ther planter of mine, who is devoted to plant- 
ing, informs me that he has manured in the 
drill, and that the yield was about one-third 
gain, which, if only 300 lbs., would be Jp4 or$5 
per acre ; this lor the first year; S2 to $2.50 for 
the second year ; and SI to $1.25 lor the third, 
would be some $10 per acre in three years. I 
would use enough to do permanent good, say 
about 100 bushels per acre, thus manuring 
•about one-third of cotton land yearly, at a tri- 
fling cost. Thus far, the labor and cost is tri- 
vial, and all the corn land and one-ihird ot the 
cotton land has been manured. There should 
be enough rye, oats and peas saved, to plant the 
succeeding crop. You have no, conception of 
the quantity of grass that follows an oat or a 
rye crop, in this country on fair land. I have 
no doubt but I could have cut a ton per acre, 
and then left a heavy after-math to turn under. 
1 know some theorists deny this — but that mat- 
ters not. 
To the above 1 would recommend at least 
half an acre to be planted per hand of sweet po- 
tatoes, one-third to one-half of an acre with ar- 
tichokes. I know that ordinary land producing 
sav 8 to 10 hundred pounds ol cotton per acre, 
will produce 1,000 to 1,200 pounds sweet pota- 
toes. My experience with artichokes is too 
limited to speak positively ; but when we re- 
flect that the leaves are large and hairy, thatthe 
product is from 200 to 1,000 bushels per acre, 
and that no portion of the crop is fed off from 
the land, the improvement must be certain. 
The stalk and leaves contain more alkali than 
most any other plant yields, and very largely 
of ashes.' I have understood that some writer 
has determined — for himself — that sweet pota- 
toes exhaust the land very much; all 1 can say 
to this is, f have assisted in planting them for 
25 to 30 years, and have made up my mind that 
a good crop of sweet potatoes, leaving the vines 
on the ground, is equal to a good manuring. 
There is yet all the manure from lots, stable 
and hog pen to use, which, though small, yet 
will add somewhat to the general result. This 
can be vastly increased by hauling in leaves 
and corn-stalks. In addition to the improve- 
ment from manures, I would urge as equally 
important, rotation. A friend who dined” with 
me this day, w'ho was bred to farming, and w ho 
is no theorist, made confession of his conver- 
sion to the .■soundness of the doctrine. He was 
incredulous, and changed this year mostly 
through necessity. He says, though he was in- 
jured by worms and a bad stand, that he has 
made a better crop than he ever had before. If, 
we will examine into the material taken up by 
some crops from the earlh, we can see that there 
is sound reason in the matter. Let us take 
wheat and oats. Wheat takes up 10 percent, 
of potash, and 20j ol soda ; whereas, oats re- 
quire only 6 of the one and 5 of the other. If ; 
wheat be persisted infer several years, these al- 
kalizes must become scarce on farm lands; 
whereas, it a crop that would probably lake 
less or restore a portion, were planted, and the 
land allowed to grow up in grass or w'eeds, 
there would be some certainty of making other 
good crops. I have seen an improved crop of 
cotton grown on land after it had grown one 
crop of oats, which were led off to hogs on the 
land. 
Draining is anotherimportant addition. Ma- 
ny are prepared to pounce on this — “w’hat! 
drain our lands here when we need so much 
moisture!” The advantage of draining much 
of our upland wouldffie sure, in getting a siand 
of corn or cotton earlier; of its growing off ear- 
lier; and in course of its needing moisture in 
midsummer, much less. But if the land be 
drained so as to draw off the water that the 
earth cannot absorb, it cannot prevent the earth 
from retaining as much moisture ; and from be- 
ing less liable to being impacted by water, vvill 
really retain moisture longer— besides, the early 
shading of the land will retain it. By getting 
corn upearlier, and itgrowiug off earlier, it can 
be laid by earlier, and thas we shall have more 
time to attend to cotton. 
We loose too much lime in fencins, and if 
we would adopt hedging with the nondescript 
rose, or the microphylla, we could have lime to 
labor much at other improvements. Just think 
ol three-quarters of a mile of fencing per hand 
and calculate the cost. Why, sir, the yearly 
cost would pul in the ground a hedge, and one- 
tenth the expense would keep it up as long as 
we should live. Besides, limber is more scarce 
in some regions, and getting so in many others, 
which will cause an increase of expense. 
I might say something of pasturage, of its 
saving of corn, of its ability to keep up stock, 
etc. But I am tired of writing, and I suppose 
my friends are of reading. 1 therefore close by 
subscribing myself M. W. Phillips. 
Edwards' Depot, Afiss. 
From Colman’s European Agriculture. 
Ou the Admixture of Soils. 
One of the most common and obvious sug- 
gestions in the improvement of the soil, is that 
ol rendering, as far as practicable, plastic and 
adhesive soils tree and permeable; and, on the 
other hand, that ol making those soils, which 
are loose and light, close and compact, in the 
former case, in order to effect the desired object, 
draining has been applied with great success, 
and must be regarded as the basis of such im- 
provements. Without draining, indeed, and a 
complete riddance of the supeifluous wetness 
and moisture, little is ever to be hoped for in any 
case. In order to effect the latter object, roiling 
with heavy rollers, ana especially treading with 
sheep, have been resorted to ; and several farm- 
ers, with whom I have had the pleasure of 
forming an acquaintance, abandon all expecta- 
tion ol a crop, unless the ground, alter being 
sown, is thoroughly trodden by sheep, which 
treading, for the purpose specified, may be con- 
sidered even as more effectual than the applica- 
tion of the roller. 
But an improvement of a more substantia.! 
and permanent character is attempted by what 
may be termed an “admixture of soils;” by 
the addition of clay to sandy soils, and of sand 
to clayey soils. In agriculiural books and ad- 
dresses, I .have often seen this method recom 
mended, with a great air cl sagacity and confi- 
dence, as an obvious process of improvement, 
of very easy accomplishment, by persons who 
understand little of practical agriculture, and 
very imperfectly appreciate the difficulties of 
such a process. The transportation of soil is 
among the most expensive operations in hus- 
bandry, and can scarcely be expected to be carried 
on, on a very extensive scale. To convert a 
clayey soil into a siliceous soil, or, on the other 
hand, a siliceous soil into a clayey soil, so as 
deeply and permanently to change their cha- 
racter on any extensive surface, must be left to 
those great geological changes which are alike 
beyond human prescience, command or con- 
