AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
291 
the drill, into which the seed is sown by the 
hand. 
I also mix guano with cow-pen manure, 
with half-rotted leaves, and with mud-heaps. 
The quantity of guano thus used is small, 
not exceeding a tun for one hundred acres. 
It adds greatly to the effect of the other ma¬ 
nures. We never apply manures broadcast, 
but always, for cotton, in the drill, and for 
corn in the hill, or near it. 
3. A hand will apply guano to corn more 
rapidly than he could plant the corn. A 
good hand will plant from eight to ten acres 
a day in corn, and I should say would prob¬ 
ably manure fifteen with guano. This I give 
only as an opinion, based upon the fact that 
corn has to be dropped at stated intervals, 
and requires attention to determine the pre¬ 
cise spot, whereas the com being up, is itself 
a guide to show the place for depositing the 
guano. 
Also in manuring cotton-land with guano, 
it can be done much more rapidly than when 
manured with cow-pen [barn-yard] manure, 
for the reason that the quantity of the for¬ 
mer is vastly less. 
You are right in your conjecture that our 
lands yield abundantly of weeds and grass, 
after the crop is “ laid by,” [to furnish suffi¬ 
cient vegetable matter for the succeeding 
crop.— Eds. Aji. Ag.] This is true of corn 
always, but not so of cotton. If the crop of 
the latter has been properly cultivated, but 
little grass will grow in it after it has been 
“laid by.” The lateness of the season and 
the shade from the plants will keep down 
the grass, leaving but little vegetable matter, 
other than its own stalks and leaves, to be 
plowed in. 
If cargoes of guano could be sent to our 
southern ports direct from Peru, instead of 
circuitously, as now, the saving of expense 
would be of great importance. If those who 
are interested in selling it wish it generally 
introduced at the South, they must them¬ 
selves open the market by sending the arti¬ 
cle here. Planters are slow in adopting new 
improvements, but by proper inducements 
they become good customers. G. 
PLANTING CORN AT THE SOUTH. 
Since writing the foregoing, it has occur¬ 
red to me that you may not be familiar with 
our mode of planting corn upon the high 
lands at the South. With swamp lands and 
river bottoms I have but little acquaintance ; 
my remarks refer to the larger class of lands 
upon which corn and cotton are grown, in 
Middle Georgia. 
The usual distance for planting corn va¬ 
nes from four feet square, a single stalk in 
the hill, to five and a half by three and a half 
feet. The former distance gives 2,722 stalks 
to the acre, the latter, 2,262. We can not 
depend upon more than one good ear of corn 
to the stalk. Some persons estimate one 
hundred ears to a bushel, but my impression 
is, that one hundred and ten or one hundred 
and twenty ears will be found more accu¬ 
rate. There is not much land which has 
been long cultivated by our exhausting crops 
of cotton and corn, which will bear the first- 
mentioned distance. My own experience 
inclines to the latter. This will explain to 
you why the product in corn to the acre is 
so moderate, nor can the distance be much 
lessened by manuring more liberally. Corn 
closely planted on these lands will generally 
“ fire.” Such lands as I now refer to, which 
have been cultivated some thirty or forty 
years consecutively, originally yielded, when 
fresh planted, fifteen or twenty bushels of 
corn to the acre ; now, without manure, not 
more than ten bushels; with manure they 
will yield as much as at first. Such lands 
being free from stumps, can be tended in 
corn and cotton at the rate of from twenty 
to twenty-five acres to the “ hand.” Although 
the product to the acre seems small, the 
yield to the “ hand” is fair. 
Corn is generally hoed once and plowed 
thrice. Cotton is hoed and plowed five 
times, at least. During seasons of drouth, 
there is danger of injuring corn by plowing 
and cutting the roots. Yet it is difficult to 
avoid plowing it in rotation. The plow must 
be kept in motion. During the drouth of last 
summer, a mode of culture was adopted on 
one of my places., which I think worthy of 
mention. It was this : Instead of plowing 
both sides of the corn the same day, only 
one side was plowed; the whole field being 
thus worked, the other side was then plow¬ 
ed. This gave time for the corn to recover 
from the first plowing. G. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
WHAT A MECHANIC CAN DO ON A FARM. 
You or a correspondent asked, in a former 
number, “ what a man can do in Virginia.” 
I will tell you what I have done, not by way 
of boasting, but to answer the question, and 
perhaps encourage others. 
I was born and raised in this county, and 
never had any education more than to read 
and write. I was bound to a trade when 
young, and after I was free, lived on a farm, 
and received $140 a year. When I was 
twenty-four years old I married, neither my 
wife nor myself having any property. We 
are now worth $10,000, obtained without 
any speculation, and in a straightforward 
course. I have been married about twenty 
years, work a farm of 238 acres, which I 
bought, some years ago, for $22 per acre. 
Last year I had 24 acres in wheat, yielding 
470 bushels—631 lbs. to the bushel. I raised 
2,500 bushels of corn, which is only worth, 
at this time, 65 cents per bushel. My sales 
this year will amount to about $1,800, inclu¬ 
ding pork, grain, hay, &c. I plowed an old 
and very poor field, last year, for corn, hav¬ 
ing spread over the ground lightly with 
straw, and sowing 150 lbs. guano to the acre. 
I mixed the straw and guano together, and 
raised 50 bushels of corn to the acre, work¬ 
ing the land with a cultivator. J. H. 
AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. 
Farming Capital —I may perhaps be per¬ 
mitted to say, generally, that to farm 400 
acres of land you should have at least 
£5,000 ,or £12 per acre ; but if you are to 
carry out subterranean irrigation and all the 
modem improvements, you will want £6,000 
to £7,000 irrespective of landlord’s improve¬ 
ments, for building, drainage, &c. You will 
then be in a condition to avail yourself of 
opportunities to buy, when you see any 
thing cheap, and to' sell when things are 
dear. I assume that you have judgment 
and a thorough knowledge of your business 
in all its details; for, unless by yourself 
or others acting for you, the most is made 
of everything, you must expect to lose 
your capital. There always are, in every 
market, men of extraordinary powers, ready 
to absorb the injudicious or uninformed. 
Look at my own live stock account—if five 
per cent mistake were made in buying and 
selling it would derange my balance sheet to 
the extent of £250. 
Culiivation by Steam .—On public grounds 
I expended some [money in the construction 
of Mr. Romaine’s machine. Our trials with 
it were only partially successful; we had too 
much velosity, and too little steam. The 
act of raising the soil must evidently be by 
a slow steady motion. Enough, however, 
was shown, to prove that cultivation by 
steam will soon be the order of the day : 
several parties were engaged upon it, and I 
have a strong impression that Mr. Usher’s, 
of Edinburgh, will not be one of the least 
successful. I find there is one at work in 
Germany, of which a drawing lies on the 
table, for your inspection. I think Mr. Ro¬ 
maine’s has an advantage, by the attachment 
of horse-power in the case of undulating 
surfaces ; but I need hardly tell you, that it 
requires an immensity of time, and no small 
investment of capital, to bring new inven¬ 
tions to perfection. The Royal Agricul¬ 
tural Society of England have very proper¬ 
ly offered a premium of £200, which will no 
doubt develop many attempts. When we 
consider that the farm horses consume the 
produce of nearly one-fourth of the arable 
land of the country, and when we calculate 
for how few hours daily they can be kept at 
work, the whole question is one of great im¬ 
portance to agriculture and to the nation. 
Agricultural Power .—I lay down as a 
great axiom in agriculture, in the mere ques¬ 
tion of physical labor or power, independ¬ 
ent of skill, that steam is cheaper than 
horse, and horse is cheaper than man. A 
steam horse costs Is. 6d. per day, and will do 
as much work as two real horses. A real 
horse costs 2s. a day (including harness, 
shoeing, &c.), and a farm laborer nearly the 
same. But a good horse weighs 1,600 lbs., 
and a man only 160 lbs., the power being as 
from eight or ten to one in favor of the 
horse, it follows that horse-power is consid¬ 
erably the cheaper, probably (including the 
necessity for manual superintendence) as 
four to one. 
This brings me to the fearful question: 
What portion of the acreage of the kingdom 
do farm horses consume 1 I answer, nearly 
one-fourth of all the arable land in the king¬ 
dom. In ordinary arable culture, where 
there is little permanent grass, it requires 
four farm horses to 100 acres. Each of 
these horses will consume, on the average, 
from five to six acres, landlord’s measure, 
which includes hedges, roads, waste, farm¬ 
building, &c. : 
42 weeks.84 bushels oats. 
157 trusses hay, or 781 cwt. 
10 summer weeks (no corn) will clear2£ acres clover. 
This will be found to amount to 10s. per 
week, or £26 per annum, and will be the 
produce of about six acres, at £4 10s., or 
four rents per acre. I speak, of course, of 
average land,rented at 20s. to 22s. 6d. per 
acre, ordinary farming. Many farmers give 
oats all the year round. 
On very poor farming, like some I know 
of, ten acres would hardly keep a horse ; 
while on very high farming—especially on 
the irrigation system—one or two acres 
would suffice. This brings us to consider 
the imperious necessity and advantage of 
forcing from the land its utmost possible de¬ 
velopment. If one acre will keep a horse, 
there is only one rent, one tithe, one rate, 
one seeding, and so on ; but all these are 
multiplied from five to ten times by middling 
and bad farming. 
Those who have watched the discrepant 
productions of three tons or fifty tons of 
green food per acre, can at once apply my ob¬ 
servations. 
But a great economy may be effected in 
horse keeping by crushing the oats, cutting 
the green food, and mixing with it a proper 
proportion of straw, &c., instead of turning 
the horses out to trample down and defile 
their food. 
The following lines were found at the bottom 
of a vote for Alderman at the late election in 
Boston 
WHAT WE WANT. 
Experience, that’s stood the test; 
Conscience, to say what’s right; 
Intelligence, to know what’s best; 
Backbone, to stand thq figfit. 
