THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
173 
his head bend in adoring gratitude to the King 
of kings. 
No pursuit can claim a higher antiquity than 
that of the husbandman ; it is hoary with the 
lapse of ages: it is indeed coeval with man 
himself. “ When the morning stars sang to- 
gether, and all the sons of God shouted for joy,” 
then began the business of Agriculture. 
No occupation can be more honorable. It 
began with Adam, the father of the human 
family. It was continued by Noah, the Patri- 
archal remnant of the antediluvian, and the be- 
ginning of the postediluvian world. It has been 
followed by the virtuous of all ages. It has had, 
and always will have, a Cincinnatus and a 
Washington; lor in all countries, and especial- 
ly in Republics, the great body ol our rulers 
must come from amongst the Farmers. It is 
well that it should be so, not to the exclusion 
oi other employments and prolessions ; but as 
Agriculture is the chief pursuit, it should have 
its full quota of the Governors. When looked 
at in this p Dint of view, how important it is that 
the Farmer, who may be a Legislator, a Gen- 
eral or a Governor, should not only be virtuous, 
but that he should be informed. Such an one 
is only fit to rule the destinies of a free people. 
Each and every Farmer should seek all sources 
of information, through books, societies and in- 
tercourse with his fellow man: and then, whe- 
ther on the farm or in public life, he can feel con- 
fident in his acts, as one who has proved “ all 
things,” and is determined to “ hold last that 
which is good.” 
From the /Stouthern Agriculturist. 
FENCES— STOCK— MANURE. 
In some parts of the State, timber is becoming 
so scarce, that it will be a serious question, 
how we are to provide fences for our fields. 
Many kinds of live fences have been suggested 
and recommended, I have never seen one of 
any great length in any country, that would 
turn a vicious hog; I have my doubts whether 
any can be made that may be relied on, and I am 
sure that none can without vast trouble and ex- 
pense, and many years of unremitted perseve- 
rance. Ditches are but little better — being 
equally unsafe and expensive. What is to be 
done then 7 I suggest, that instead of fencing 
our fields, we fence our stock. There are lew 
farmers who have not a mile, many twenty 
miles or more of fencing to keep up, while a 
few hun Ired rails or feet of planlL will fence 
their stock in securely. The ready objection 
is, that we can not raise stock without range or 
pastures. Let us see. It is stated by an ex- 
perienced breeder that a hog may be kept in a 
thriving condition on an ear of corn per day. I 
am sure he may be on two ears. And if they 
are crushed and boiled, he will fatten rapidly. 
Seven hundred and thirty average ears of corn 
will not make over six, or at most six and a 
halt bushels of corn, which will be his yearly 
allowance — say ten bushels to feed him until 
eighteen months old. It is a good hog that will 
at this age, with our common treatment, weigh 
150 lbs. nett. If fed in a pen, well watered and 
supplied with rotten wood or charcoal, which 
cost nothing, I will guarantee that he will 
weigh 200 lbs. The pork, therefore, including 
the cost of attention, will not be but three cents 
per pound. Do we raise it cheaper now, when 
we consider that we have to keep so many sows 
more, than we should on this plan, to ensure a 
sufficient number of pigs ; that we lose so many 
shotes by the accidents of the range, and that 
we have to feed thin hogs so bountifully for a 
month or six weeks before killing 7 But there 
are other important considerations. We might 
with this system keep only the improved breeds, 
and by such steady feeding secure all the bene- 
fit of the improvement which is lost, when we 
turn them into the woods. 
An accurate and very judicious farmer in 
Virginia, estimates that a hog well littered and 
properly fed, will make 250 bushels of good 
manure per annum; and hog manure is, we 
know, at least twice as valuable as stable 
manure. Now, how much corn will 250 bush- 
els of good hog manure, put upon two or three 
acres, increase the corn crop? At least twenty 
bushels— probably much more. Here then you 
have a return of twenty bushels for six and a 
half fed, or certainly for ten fed — giving you 
200 lbs. ot pork, and leaving you ten bushels, 
to remunerate you for feeding, littering, and 
hauling out and spreading your manure. At 
this rate, I am not sure — paradoxical as it may 
appear — that a farmer would not make by feed- 
ing his neighbor's hog for the manure, and re- 
turning him his hog when ready for the knife. 
I am positively sure, that he will find it far more 
profitable to pen and feed his own, than to give 
them the best range and pastures. 
And now that we must, plant corn lo.rgely, be- 
cause cannot plant cotton at present prices, 1 
hope the experiment will be generally tried, I 
believe that the same thing would be true as re- 
gards cattle, if the best breeds were selected, a 
dairy established wherever it is attempted to 
raise them, and their manure carefully saved. 
Our winters are mild; cattle standing still re- 
quire less food than those ranging at will; our 
shocks, pea-vines, potato and pindar vines, and 
crab and crow-foot grasses, afford an incalcula- 
ble amount of forage, which we may secure if 
our cotton crop is light. And our Indian corn 
is a treasure for feeding stock, which, in our 
propensity to imitate everything foreign, and to 
introduce grasses which our hot and dry sum- 
mer will not allow to flourish, we overlook too 
much. It is worth all the grasses in the world. 
Every inch of it from root to tassel is rich in 
nutriment; cured and cut, its stalk is equal to 
sugar beet; and the cob, shock and grain, 
ground together and boiled, is as good as any 
equal amount of food known — oil-cake scarcely 
excepted. 
If then we turn our attention to it, we shall 
find that we can raise stock for our own use, 
and also for market, in enclosure, as well or bel- 
ter than it can be done in any other country ; 
and what a world of rail splitting it would save 
— of fence making, and fence mending — of 
corn destroyed and potatoes rooted in despite of 
all we can do. And how many violent and 
sometimes fatal quarrels among neighbors 
would be prevented. Perhaps the most fruitful 
source of bickering and open war in every 
neighborhood, is the lawless incursions of stock 
upon foreign domains. In Europe and in some 
parts of America, stock are mostly enclosed. 
On the other continent, there is rarely pretence 
01 a fence or hedge, and in England hedges are 
of little real use. They would be of none 
against our swine and cattle, which are mostly 
of the “ Liberty Boy” breed. 
It may seem premature to talk of enclosing 
here. I do not think it is. 1 believe it would 
be profitable wherever manure is wanted; and 
I think few will deny that want here. 1 enclose 
for profit, though I have to keep fences against 
my neighbors’ stock, the value of which would 
purchase my meat for five years to come. I in- 
vite planters to consider the matter. 
Holkham. 
From the American Faimer, 
ON MANURING IN THE HILL. 
It is a deplorable fact th.at there are many who 
think they must manage their farms j ust as their 
fathers, or even, perhaps, as their grandfathers 
did ; and who believe that to derive the greatest 
profit from manure, they must “dung in the 
hill.” I propose in this brief article to show, in 
my feeble manner, that this is not the better 
way to experience the greatest pecuniary advan- 
tage, from the following considerations: 
1st. It has been proved by trial that the first 
crop is invariably smaller where the land is 
manured in the hill, and if the first is poorer, I 
suppose there is not the least doubt that the suc- 
ceeding ones will be. Two years ago last 
spring, we planted a small field, containing about 
three acres, with corn and potatoes, manuring 
the principal part of it by spreading on ; we, 
however, manured about halt an acre in the 
hill, which even had a better soil than much of 
the other. This was planted and hoed at the 
time with the other, and in the early part of the 
season any one would have supposed from the 
appearance of the potatoes, that there would 
have been as great a crop where manured in the 
hill as of those that were the other w.iy. But 
this was not the case. No: in digging them the 
difference was very clearly perceived: I should 
judge that there was not more than two-thirds as 
great a crop on the part manured in the hill, as 
on the other part of the piece. Nor is this all. 
Last year the same field was sowed with oats, 
and there was as great a contrast in them as in 
the potatoes ot the previous year. This year 
we have cut two crops of grass on the same 
piece of ground, which goes to prove none the 
less the truth ot the above assertion. So far as 
my knowledge extends, I think this to be a cor- 
rect criterion in all instances. 
2d. Potatoes manured in the hill, are, in nine 
cases out of ten, eaten badly by the worms. 1 
know the worms are a great trouble, even if the 
manure is spread on, but much more so w'here 
it is put in the hill. 
3d. Also, where the manure is put in the hill, 
the potatoes grow too rank in the earlier part of 
the season, too much of the essential part of the 
manure is expended in promoting the growth of 
the tops. 
If the manure expends the principal part of 
its strength in the earlier part of a season, it 
will not be sufficiently felt in the latter part to 
cause the potatoes themselves to grow to a good 
size; but spread on the manure, and it does not 
relax its agency, but continues to exert itself the 
whole season. 
4th. Corn and potatoes, as well as everything 
else that is planted where the manure is spread 
on, will endure a drought much better than if 
manured the other way. Where the manure is 
put in the hill, the hill must of necessity be 
made higher than if it was spread on — and be- 
ing increased every time of hoeing, it becomes 
of such a shape that the rain runs off as freely 
as from a stack of hay, irrigating the ground 
between the hills, and leaving the hills them- 
selves almost entirely dry. 
Another reason is, the seed being planted up- 
on the manure, the roots grow too near the top 
ot the ground, so that when there are a few days 
of dry weather, the ground becomes dry down 
to the roots, which, as a natural consequence, 
will greatly injure the growth of the plants. 
But as I am growing somewhat prolix, I will 
close this meagre communication by requesting 
those who have heretofore been accustomed to 
manure their land in the hill, to try the other 
way, and I am fullv persuaded that they will be 
richly compensated for the experiment. 
Lector. 
From the Southern Planter. 
DECAY OF PEACH TREES. 
A singular fact and one worthy of being re- 
corded, was mentioned to us a few days since 
by ^r. Alexander Duke, of Albemarle. He 
stated, that whilst on a visit to a neighbor, his 
attention was called to a large peach orchard, 
every tree in which had been totally destroyed 
by the ravages of the worm, with the exception 
of three; and these three were probably the 
most thrifty and flourishing peach trees he ever 
saw. The only cause of their superiority 
knowm to his host, was an experiment made in 
consequence of observing that those parts of 
worm-eaten timber into which nails had been 
driven, were generally sound. When his trees 
were about a year old he had selected three of 
them and driven a tenpenny nail through the 
body, as near the ground as possible ; whilst the 
balance of the orchard had gradually failed and 
finally yielded entirely to the ravages of the 
worms, these three trees, selected at random, 
treated precisely inthe same manner, with the 
exception of the nailing, had always been vi- 
gorous and healthy, furnishing him at that very 
period with the greatest profusion of the most 
luscious fruit. It is supposed that the salt of 
iron afforded by the nail is offensive to the worm, 
whilst it is harmless, or perhaps even beneficial 
to the tree. 
