The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1841-02-03

a OF Improvement. IN proportlon DIS tile
/ quantity of land required for corn and
E cotton is diminished by the means pro.
: posed, will that be increased which is lett
fallow, and for small grain. These, after
one years rest in good soils, and always
/ before they become covered with broom
+ sedge, should be fallowed in the autumn,
carefully turning in all the stubble and
weeds, with two horse ploughs adapted
to the purpose.
! On the process of cultivation, one or
two remarks may not be inappropriately
made in this connexion. One of the most
prominent obstacles both to system of
good cultivation and to a system of per-
manent Improvements is the common
] practice of over-planting. 1t may be not
unaptly denominated a system of aUear
and tear, in regard to land, negroes, horses
and mules. As one of its inevitable conse-
quences, a planter almost certainly finds
himself when the seasons are in any de-
gree unfavorable, in that uncomfortable
condition usually expressed by saying she
is desperately in the grass" No man de-
serves the name Of planter who gets into
this predicament, except in very extraor-
dinary seasons, any more than he deserves
the name of General who carelessly per-
nits himself to be surprised and surround
ed by an enemy. For though the one
may work his way out of the grass, as
the other may cut his way out of the
tolls of his adversary, yet it is the hard
knocks and sweat of the laborers in the
one case, and the valor and blood of the
soldiers in the other, that imperfectly atone
for the incompetency Of the manager and
of the commander. 1t is my confident
belief that when even one half the crop
is permitted to become grassy, the future
cultivation of the whole will require dou-
BILE the labor that would have been other
wise necessary, and with all that, it will
be impossible to make full crop, espe-
cially of cotton. In our climate and soil
in the upper country, the only means of
avoiding an immense destruction of inn
mature bolls, by the autumnal frosts, is to
push the growth of the cotton from the
beginning, by thinning and preparing it to
mature as early as it can be safely done,
and never permitting its growth to be de-
layed for single day by want of work
ing. For what is lost in this way can never
be recovered; and have no hesitation in
saying that six acres of cotton to the hand,
properly cultivated, will produce greater
result with one half the labor than ten
acres to the hand, cultivated in the rough
and imperfect manner but too common
even in this State, and generally prevalent
in some others. In adopting it as rule,
therefore to plant no larger crop than he
can cultivate IN the most perfect manner,
planter will best consult every view of
sound economy, and even the predomi-
nant desire to make large cotton crop.
In the cultivation of cotton crop, |
know no rule more important, and which
is more generally violated, than that of
dong your work thoroughly aoell, cost ohat
labor 1t may. More labor is unprc6tably
wasted and more crops injured by bad
cultivation from neglecting this rule than
any other cause. The last strokes of la
bor required to complete any operation
are oouby, often ten times as valuable as
those used in the previous stages of it;
and yet these are the very strokes usually
omitted, in an improvident haste to "get
over the CROP" as it is expressed. The
very causes which generally tempt mana
gers to slight the work-wet weather and
grass, for example-are those which most
imperiously demand the strict observance
of the rule | have laid down.
One of the consequences of over-crop-
ping and bad working which is most to be
deprecated,5 is the necessity they create,
and the apology they offer, for permanent
! " iniuring the soil by excessive ploughing,
and what is still worse, ploughing in i'm
proper seasons. believe that it may be
truly said that in the upper country at
least, double the quantity of ploughing is
done in cultivating cotton, that can be JUS
tilted by any sound theory. Every plough
ing which turns up fresh soil to the burn
ing rays of summer sun must tend to
exhaust its fertility. But it is more i'm
portant to remark, that nothing which fol-
! iy can infict on the soil, will So certainly
reduce il to more caput nsortuum as the
murderous practice Of ploughing it in wet
weather. There is but one way for a