FARMING IN NORTH CAROLINA. 
5 
the subject, that although the question is not defi¬ 
nitely settled, much has been done towards throwing 
light upon it, and the way opened for intelligent ex¬ 
periment. In the hope that our farmers will join in 
the effort to discover a remedy to this formidable dis¬ 
ease, I will venture to suggest some of the points to 
which it is most desirable they should turn their at¬ 
tention:—1. To place the potatoes intended for seed 
in small heaps, where the temperature is even, and 
where there is no danger of heating or fermentation. 
2. Not to allow them to sprout, so that the sprouts 
may be broken. 3. To plant as soon as possible after 
removal from their place of deposit. 4. To save a' 
quantity of seed in an unripe state; also to select 
some of those tubers that have been exposed to the 
sun and air, and have become quite green. 5. Try; 
some of the diseased seed upon new land that has not 
before been cultivated. 6. Try the effect of top¬ 
dressing with saline manures; for instance, nitrate of 
soda, and sulphate of magnesia or of soda, mixed, at 
the rate of 75 pounds each to the acre. 
John P Norton. 
Edinburgh , Nov. 25, 1844. 
FARMING IN NORTH CAROLINA. 
We are located in latitude 35® 30' north, near the 
range of the Blue Ridge, or great Allegany moun¬ 
tains, 50 miles distant, in one of the finest countries 
that man was ever permitted to inhabit; yet with the 
wretched system of cultivation heretofore practised 
by our inhabitants, it has become poor. 
About five years ago I first resolved to attempt sci¬ 
entific farming; if it has not resulted profitably to me,; 
it has had the effect of stimulating others to exertions ; 
and improvements which are quite perceptible to the: 
most careless and unobserving. The impress upon 
the face of the neighborhood is really encouraging; 
and were it not for the delusion under v T hich we 
labor, of a desire to raise cotton, and our slave popu¬ 
lation, we might hope for success. 
Manuring and Ditching .—The application of com¬ 
post manure, formed on the ground to be cultivated, 
by a mixture of swamp muck, stable manure, sod 
from the woodland, and about two bushels of lime to 
the acre, with attention to hill-side ditching, has ena¬ 
bled me to raise from 36 to 40 bushels of Indian 
corn on land before too poor for any crop. In ano¬ 
ther experiment the success has far exceeded the ex¬ 
pectation of the most sanguine; this was on a flat 
piece of land, covered most of the year with water, 
and with a heavy growth of lambo [briars] where it' 
was dry enough, with weeds, iron wood, and other ( 
noxious shrubs and plants. This was cleared up, 
and ditched about five feet deep; at the bottom of the 
ditch, the hard pan of blue or white clay was perfor¬ 
ated with an augur, or occasionally cut through with: 
the spade ; rock [stones] were put in the bottom, and 
carefully covered with split timber, and then the: 
ditches filled up. They were entirely dry when fin¬ 
ished, but shortly after they were completed there 
was a fall of rain, when the ditches began to dis¬ 
charge a considerable quantity of water, and have 
ever since made good running streams. The ground 
has become light, loose, and friable, and has yielded 
about 75 bushels, or 1.5 barrels of corn to the acre. 
For the labor in cutting the ditches I have been more 
than remunerated in the quantity of muck (or more 
properly speakirg, clay), furnished for compost beds, 
with which the poor hill sides have been manured. 
When dug up, this clay was extremely hard, form¬ 
ing the pan on which the water bed rested, and was 
not unlike brick when first taken from the mould. 
In four loads of this clay I alternately added one load 
of good stable manure, until the compost heap reached 
from 50 to 100 loads. This was done in summer, or 
early in the fall, and suffered to remain in the heap 
until spring, when it was applied to com land. 
Ma 3 r not the fertilizing quality of this compost have 
arisen from the entire disintegration of the clay by the 
frost ? And was not its capacity to collect and retain 
ammonia increased as the affinity was broken up ? 
I am a great advocate of atmospheric manure, and 
have come to the conclusion, that atmosphere is the 
matrix of all manures; and that no other manure is 
valuable only as it is auxiliary to the atmosphere. 
This may at first view appear to be a startling and 
dangerous doctrine; it would most certainly be so, if 
carried to the extent that Jethro Tull did ; that is, that 
all other manures were to he excluded I am in 
favor of giving every aid to atmosphere in our power, 
by all alkalies, composts, and such fixed salts as will 
impart to the earth the greatest possible capacity to 
drink in and retain the gases best suited to its sup¬ 
port. 
In the compost beds referred to, there were a few 
bushels of ashes put in with the swamp earth, but 
so mixed as not to come in contact with the stable 
manure—the object was for the ashes to exert their 
full influence on the muck. They would not have 
been injurious to the stable manure, for I find that in 
my cow-yard it is beneficial to throw a few bushels 
of wood ashes over the litter occasionally, to fix the 
salts contained in the urine, and tail manure. Thirty 
wagon loads of rich swamp mud, put up in heaps in 
the fall, with the addition of two bushels of caustic 
lime, is found to be valuable for the reclamation of a 
sandy land resting on a clay subsoil. The latter de¬ 
scription of compost was applied to sandy land, too 
far from my house to add any stable manure, and 
with extraordinary effect, producing about the same 
result that the first mentioned compost did on the 
clay land, viz., 36 to 40 bushels of corn to the acre 
where the land had been worn out. 
In connection with this subject, hill-side ditching 
must not be disregarded. It is perhaps more import¬ 
ant to us, than in your climate. The heavy rains of 
summer have done great injury to the soil of the 
southern States, by working off’ the most valuable of 
the hills, and draining the bottom land; this is effect- 
ually guarded against by laying off the land judicious¬ 
ly, and ditching. It has the effect of protecting both 
the upland and bottom, by preventing the flow of 
water during hard rains on the latter, and the wash¬ 
ing or wasting of the former. 
Sir John Sinclair has, by his perseverance in the 
cause of agriculture, done more for his country than 
half the politicians and military men of his age 
One great secret of his success is, his attention to 
draining the land well, and then protecting it by hill¬ 
side ditches, or what he calls water-furrows, carrying 
all the excess of water into his ditches and ponds. 
In the second volume of Mr. Ruffin’s valuable 
work on agriculture, the Farmers’ Register, I find 
that the application of leached ashes with half its 
quantity of plaster of Paris, has had affine effect 
when put in the corn-hill. Can you inform mu 
