Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1851-02-20
agrtruIturaI.
Agricultural Truths.

i. OIueSS tue ldIIltI 1cSuS lIlS ldll\i, ~
will not feed him.
2. All wet lands should be drained.-
By draining them, the most stiff and in
tractible soils may be changed into friable
ones; the labor Of culture will be reduced,
the quantity of products increased, and
their quality improved; while the health
of the place will also be improved.
3. Wet lands, which may need it, should
always be drained before application Of
lime or mari, and time should be allowed
for the soil to become comparatively dry,
before being ploughed, or the lime or mari
applied.
4. Lands which may have been drained
by covered drains, should be ploughed
crosswise the drains, until the soil which
surmounts them shall have become settled
and firm.
S. 1t may be assumed as fact, that
lands which may have been in culture for
a long series of years, without being
lined, will derive benefit from dressing
of lime or mari.
6. Stiff lands will bear heavier dres-
sings of lime or mari, than sandy ones.-
Stiff lands, which may have been in grass,
will bear more than those whereon grass
or clover had not been cultivated. First,
applications of lime or mari, to thin sandy
a .s;ias, should should always be small ones, prece-
ded by nutritive manures; second, appli.
cations of lime or mari not to be repeated
unless after such lands shall have been in
grass or clover, or received large dressings
Of manures comprising much organic
matter.
7. Deep tilth is conductive to fruitful
ness in crops; but it possibly may be sa-
fest to increase the depth gradually; ma,
nure with free and liberal hand, and to
apply lime each time the soil may be deep.
ened, which should never exceed more
than one or two inches of the hard pan,
in any one year; that to be regulated by
the character of the subsoil to be turned
up. Such deepenings should always be
made in the fall, to give the inverted soil
the benefit of the neutralizing effects Of
the lime, and the disintegrating influence
of the winters frosts. twenty-five bush.
els of freshly slaked lime per acre, spread
over the upturned earth, would answer
for such purpose.
8. As to what is nutrltive manure, it
may defined to be any animal substance,
the excretions of animals, or any vegeta-
bic substances-as anything which has
had life, has the power of reproduction.
9. As the late Judge Peters said Far
mers should value manure as miser does
his strong box-grasp after and hoard it
as eagerly as a covetous man accumulates
treasure.
10. One of the best methods of apply
ing lime to light sandy lands is to make a
compost of lime and clay; work it over
well several times, so as to mix the lime
intimately with the clay; top dress the
land with the mixture, after being plough
ed, and then harrow the compost in. Ten
loads of clay and twenty-five bushels of
lime, thus treated, would form an excel
lent dressing for an acre of such land,
and would have double the effect of sup
plying the soil with the necessary calca-
reous principle, and of amending its tex.
ture.
ii. Orchards, to ensure continued fruit
fulness and fair fruit, should be periodical
ly manured, in order that the food carried
off annually in the fruit, should be restor-
ed to the soil. Six parts peat and two of
lime, or six parts marsh mud and two Of
mari, would form an excellent dressing, in
the proportion of twenty loads to the
acre; the cost of which might be covered
by growing crop of corn, potatoes or
other roots thereon, the year Of any such
application.
10. Orchards should not be kept per-
manently in grass, as it answers for
harbor for vermin, while it robs the tree
of the food that should be appropriated
to them.-American Farmer.