SOUTHERN CROPS AND CULTURE.—NO. 2. 
143 
writer, strongly recommends salt as a manure, at 
the rate of from ten to twenty bushels to the acre, 
to be sown two or three weeks before the seed is 
put into the ground. He says the benefits are as 
follows: “ 1st, when used in small portions it pro¬ 
motes putrefaction. 2d, By destroying grubs and 
weeds. 3d, As a constituent on direct food. 4th, 
As a stimulant to the absorbent vessels. 5th, By 
preventing injury from sudden transitions of tem¬ 
perature. 6th, By keeping the soil moist.” 
It would seem from all the facts I have been able 
to collect, that salt corrupts vegetable substances 
when mixed in small quantities, but preserves them 
when it predominates in a mass; that, in dry sea¬ 
sons, its effects are more apparent, and whether it 
attracts moisture from the atmosphere, or whether 
it acts as a condiment or stimulant, is of little conse¬ 
quence, so long as its effects are certain. 
On account of the small quantity of salt, in 
weight, required for manuring lands, it is no incon¬ 
siderable recommendation, because, on that account, 
it may with ease be conveyed to the most rough, 
steep, and mountainous parts, to which the more 
bulky and heavy manures most in use could not be 
carried, but with infinite labor, and at an expense 
far exceeding all the advantages to be effected 
from it. 
Salt alone is considered by some rather too se¬ 
vere and harsh in its nature; but mixed with ashes, 
say six of salt and ten of dry ashes, well beat up to¬ 
gether, which is sufficient for an acre, and spread 
upon the furrow and harrowed in, one particle in¬ 
corporates and mollifies the other, and if conveyed 
into the earth by a soapy, smooth method, will 
prove the real enricher the earth wants, to send 
forth vegetation. C. N. Bement. 
American Hotel, Albany, April , 1846. 
SOUTHERN CROPS TnD CULTURE.— No. 2. 
The main crop in this section is cotton, gene¬ 
rally ; it takes up about two-thirds of the cultiva- 
table labor of the farm. I presume, as the leaf is \ 
] arge, thick, and hairy, the stalk also being hairy, 
shat it must take from the air a larger proportion of 
its organized material than does our own corn, 
grain, or grass. As the leaves of all plants contain 
a larger proportion of saline and earthy matter 
than does the stalk, or even generally the fruit,: 
and as we return the leaves and stalk to the soil, 
also, have I not some ground to suppose, if I 
return all my cotton seed, that I will keep up the 
fertility of the land, as it was at first—the peculiar 
inorganic matter that forms the matter alone ex¬ 
cepted—and even then, there being so little taken : 
away that the top is somewhat recompensed by 
occasional additions from accidental sources. If 
we judge of the leaf of the cotton plant by the 
willow, we would not lose very much by even re¬ 
moving the cotton stalk. The willow contains 
4 1-2 lbs. o-f saline and earthy matter, whereas 
the leaves contain 82 lbs. to the 1,000—so says 
Johnston. But the advantage is not only returning 
of the salts—supply of organic food—but the stalks 
tend to loosen the lanii, of course to render it 
lighter and less adhesive. 
As to the turning under of corn-stalks, cotton- 
stalks, and pea vine, there is no planter in the 
South will object to it; but there are many who 
think plowing in green oats or rye would be inju¬ 
rious. I have done this to a greater or less extent 
for several years, and I well remember of a ten 
acre patch of oats that I plowed in, in the month 
of May, I think, and planted it forthwith to corn 
The land showed a marked advantage for several 
years, and but for this would have been, ere now, 
worthless. I ask if our Mississippi farmers (plant¬ 
ers I should say) do not plow in every spring a 
good coat of green grass ? I ask of those who 
have the chick-weed—called in these parts “ Jack- 
son purslain ”—if they do not plow it in ? I go 
still farther, and contend if the turnip be sown on 
fields at the rate of 1-2 to 1 pint of seed per acre, 
and fed on the land to sheep and cattle, that the 
land will not deteriorate. I am aware that a largi 
majority of planters believe the turnip to be an ex¬ 
hauster, yet I cannot believe that it will prove so 
if used as we use them in this country. The tur¬ 
nip receives very largely of its growth from the 
air, being mostly composed of water, and not much 
over, though one-third is removed from the soil— 
scarcely what the root has gained from the air 
We never feed our turnip lots so close as to remove 
the half, and then bring feed on the land ; a portion 
is returned in the way of urine and dung. The 
residue is turned under before the seed-stalks have 
bloomed, and does good certainly,, by keeping the 
land porous, if nothing else. 
The cost of labor, with all these adjuvants, is 
very trivial; the sowing down in time is all that is 
required. I have grown as good rye without the land 
being plowed before as after, for that cro'p, as when 
the land was flushed and harrowed, rye not pro¬ 
ducing over 12 to 15 bushels per acre at this place. 
In 1843 I sowed some 75 or more acres—this 
year I sow over 30. I am anxious that this thing 
should be prosecuted in the South, believing that a 
little help now will save our children’s children, 
their ancestral all a rich legacy. And why not 
work thus for our children, as well as to add 
workers ? If I can have my land entirely compe¬ 
tent to raise $40 per acre, will not my child be as 
well off as my neighbor, who leaves his child with 
double the number of hands, and land not capable 
of producing over $20 ? The equality may not be 
in one year apparent, but would be ere the close of 
the next generation. But when it is considered 
that a plantation is under good hedges that will 
last for a century, under a good system of drainage, 
and then in good heart, will not the advantage be 
immense ? There are too few who will look at 
the matter in its true light. They are fearful of the 
labor, of the present cost, without looking to the 
result. Every one who would reflect would know, 
that land retaining water would remain cold much 
longer than if it did not; let them place their hand 
in water and hold it up—the evaporation causes 
coldness. Again, a vacuum will not exist; if the 
land be full of water, air cannot penetrate it; but 
drain off the water, air will follow; if made light 
the air will fill every interstice, and thus will roots 
be furnished with more material for food. Yet 
even this is not all; when the food is too much 
diluted with water, it is like feeding the horse with 
fodder—there is nutriment, but too dilute—it re¬ 
quires too much aliment. 
With all these important aids there is one thing 
