SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
and freely circulate through every living cell, or their 
growth is impossible. 
Having a clear perception of the wants of vegetation, 
and of the defective capillarity of the soil and subsoil, 
we come to the consideration of the ivayssinA means with- 
in our reach to prevent the running together of plowed 
earth, by which it becomes hard, crusty, and largely im- 
pervious to air and water. First avoid stirring such soils 
when wet. The most compact brick are made by simply 
stirring and mixing pure clay and sand in a moist con- 
dition, Solid earthen and stone-ware is prepared by a 
similar process. All land that inclines to bake in a hot 
sun ought never to be moved by the implements of tillage 
when wet. Secondly, give to such land an increased 
quantity of vegetable mould to mix with the too adhesive 
clay, separate its particles, and thereby render the mass 
more porous and friable. Fields long cultivated are more 
liable to bake than fresh lands, because the organic part, 
or mould, has been mainly worked out of the former, and 
not out of the latter. These are facts of great practical 
significance ; and although we have dwelt much upon 
them in former years, yet it seems to be necessary often to 
repeat the suggestion that mould is consumed by tillage, 
and the land nominally worn out. The plow and the hoe 
must not go over so large a surface. This practice is a 
lamentable mistake, and one as fundamental as it is com- 
mon. Thirdly, mould can only be given to a soil that 
needs it by carting on forest leaves, growing plants on the 
land explessly to decay and form mould, and by liberal 
manuring. If Southern notions of planting economy em- 
braced the idea of having well set pastures to be grazed 
by valuable stock, Nature’s economy in grasses, and grass- 
eating animals, would soon happily ameliorate Southern 
plantations, A thick covering of grass keeps rain-water- 
long enough on the surface where it falls for most of it to 
sink into the soil— a point of vast agricultural import- 
ance. A carpet of pine straw, or forest leaves, equally 
tends to prevent washing, and to augment the aggregate 
of water that penetrates the surface of the earth. But as 
old-field pines yield little or no income, we propose to 
change them into good pastures for rearing mules, neat 
cattle, sheep, swine and the keeping of dairy cows. Sup- 
pose one had six large fields, five of which might be ever 
devoted, in rotation, to stock-husbandry and one sum- 
mer-fallowed (with peas) to rot the thick sod, freeze the 
clay, and finely commingle both into a friable loam, be- 
fore planting corn, or cotton, or seeding with wheat, bar- 
ley or oats. It is more profitable to till but one large rich 
field, and till it first-rate, than to cultivate four or five oi 
the same size, which are poor in heart, poorly worked, 
and yield a miserable return for the labor expended. 
Judging humbly from all the lights of modern science, 
we feel warranted in saying that Providence prepared this 
planet for the habitation of man by creating long in ad- 
vance of his advent into the world, both Grasses and 
Graminivorous animals, by nature adapted to domestica- 
tion and human service ; and that it is our duty to avail 
ourselves of these means to improve both the soil and 
mankind. We do not reject other plants than grasses, 
nor other animals than herbivorous ones, but merely 
invite attention to the historical facts, that the Camel is so 
emphatically the servant and companion of man, as not to 
have existed any where on the globe, in a wild state, dur- 
ing the historical era ; while the Elephant, the Ox, the 
Ass, the Horse, the Sheep, and the Goat, everywhere own 
Man as their master. An all-wise Creator, not only 
made man their natural head and protector, but He adapt- 
ed the food of these useful quadrupeds, and their very 
droppings, (not to name their flesh, milk, wool, hair and 
skins,) to the most pressing wants of the human family. 
It is profitable to revert, occasionally, to first principles, 
and study Nature’s plan for irrigating whole islands and 
continents, and clothing them with the most luxuriant 
herbage. In her plan, one looks in vain for anything like 
a piece of wood shod with iron, having a mule tied to 
one end, and a negro holding the other. To idolize such 
a contrivance, and virtually repudiate all real husbandry, 
is to overlook one of the grand, primary sources of en- 
during agricultural prosperity. 
Our esteemed Montgomery correspondent -writes: — ^ 
“Our farms look unusually poor and lifeless.” Such, too, 
is the appearance of the arated fields of Hall county, Ga,, 
where this article is written. But little rain has fallen in 
several months, and much of that little ran off the surface 
into branches and rivers, leaving many a plantation with 
scarcely moisture enough to bring up corn, cotton and 
potatoes ; while oats, rye and wheat are suffering badly 
from drouth. 
Although the mean temperature of the spring, summer 
and autumn of last year were above an average, yet we do 
not suppose that solar heat injured the soil at the South in 
an unusual degree, as suggested by the inquiry. But as 
prolonged dry weather impairs, or destroys vegetation, 
and increases the nakedness of the land, so that the heat 
of the sun consolidates it to a greater depth, that circum- 
stance may operate somewhat against farming operations 
this spring. We have thought the ground appeared un- 
commonly hard, without ascribing it to any special cause. 
Frequent rains, in which a half inch of water will be ten 
hours in falling from the clouds, would soon soften the 
crust of the earth, and set vegetation all right again. We 
trust long before this matter meets the eye of the reader, a 
favorable change in the weather will have taken place, 
and a generous harvest of wheat and other crops be close 
at hand. 
Where wdieat, rye, barley, oats or peas are grown and 
early harvested, if the land be not seeded, it is miserable 
economy to allow the ground to lie naked for months to 
the scorching rays of the sun, say from the middle of 
June till the middle of October. The nakedness of the 
land is to be avoided by every practical means ; for it 
tends to lessen its capacity to take in both air and water, 
and thereby diminishes those important chemical changes 
which extract the food of plants from rocks, stones, gravel, 
sand, clay, iron and other minerals. A soil rich enough 
to bear wheat, will not unfi-equently, at the South, yield a 
fair crop of “crow-foot” or “crab-grass,” by merely plow- 
ing it soon after the grain is cut. An after- crop of this 
kind, if allowed to rot on the field, will increase its fertil- 
ity and lessen its liability to wash ; and if cured for hay, 
it will furnish, pro tanto, valuable manure. On really 
good land, nothing will pay better at the South than to 
sow grain stubble with corn and peas for forage, having 
first plowed the ground handsomely. If one has a roller, 
let it pass over the surface after the seed is harrowed in ; 
especially if the weather is dry. 
There is needed far more hay, or a good substitute, in 
the planting States. After a full supply of food for do- 
mestic animals is provided, then greater skill in feeding it, 
so as to make every pound yield the maximum of nutri- 
ment, and at the same time never lose any part of the 
solid or liquid excrements of the stock that consumes such 
food. This su’oject, however, will be discussed at another 
time. 
As the quality aud condition of a soil regulate its hy- 
groscopic power, or its capacity of holding water, the 
reader will see that everything of any practical value in 
the premises depends on the wisdom or folly of the culti- 
vator. A good friable loam will take up over 40 pounds 
of water to the cubic foot ; so that a hill of corn having 16 
square feet allotted to it, might have within 2 feet of the 
surface, 32 times 40 pounds of water, or 1280 pounds in 
all. In a porous soil, placed in a large glass tube, water 
has been seen to rise 18 feet by capillary attraction ; 
