Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1851-03-21
Agricultural.
From the Southern Cultivator.

From the Southern Cultivator.
I Ashes Fresh Lands-Corn Culture.
Mr. EDITOR The value of ashes as a manure
though generally conceded, is not. | am sure suff
GENTLY appreciated; else why many thousand
bushels annually wasted the grounds of the
South? Forests are felled, logs and brush piled and
burnt, and tie ashes suffered to lie just where the
heaps have been fired destroying the productiveness
poyed in scattering the ashes with uniformity
over fresh lands would almost double the value OF
the crop.
Let me give you one years experience in this mat
ter with the hope that other young planters may be
induced to try the efficacy of ashes on new lands
Something more than year ago, | moved to this
place-Etterally in the woods-not building up,
nor acre of cleared ground on the premises. At
ter putting up the necessary buildings, found that
should not have time to get in sufficient quantity
of my hammock land, owing to the difficulty of clear
ing it. selected for my cotton, therefore, about
one-thrd pine, and two-thirds oak land It was cut
down during the winter, logs and brush burnt the
latter half of March and first week in April and the
ashes raked up into conical heaps. Cotton
Immediately laid off with scooter plows seed rolled
ashes drilled and covered with two burrows by the
same plows. The ashes were spread at the rate of
25 or 80 bushels per acre. sometimes before the seed
were planted, in the first furrow sometimes the
ridge left by the two covering burrows 1t was done
under my immediate supervision by small boys and
girls for whom could find no other employment at
! the time.
From the last ofApril till the first of July we had
an almost uninterrupted drought There was scarce
ly square in my fields, and the cotton was small
and yellow. When the showers set in, it grew off
rapidly, and branchcd and frued equal to old land.
Indeed about the 10th of August, good judges esti
mated that it would yield a bale per acre. Some
where between the 10th and 18TH the boil worm
made is appearance, (or what ne term the boil
worm destroying almost the entire crop of squares,
from the 18th of August to 18th September. After
the latter date few or no squares made anything in
this section, in consequence ofthe Fall drought which
continued from 3lst of August till the middle of Oc
tober.
Notwithstanding these disasters, which left nv
cotton fruiting of only six or seven weeks
and that the freeze in November cut eff my crop a.
bout 2OO lbs per acre, by destroying groacn bolls
which simple frost would not have iniured--I have
picked out about 800 lbs per acre of seed cotton
Some OF your readers, who plant the different vare-
cites OF prolific seed, and gather from to 5000
pound per acre, may be inclined to smile at this
result; should be borne in mind that first gears
laads OF similar quality with mine, that is, pine and
thin oak land do not average than four or five
hundred pounds per acre, in this section. And a
small spot in my field on which no ashes were spread
Judging from the appearance of the cotton, could
not have yielded at that rate
word about planting corn close. Seven eight |
years ago. had of old, exhausted land, but
recently cow-penned, broken up with turn plows, |
and planted in corn, as an experiment, on the 18th
day OF April which is late for this region The rows
were laid off three feet WIDE corn drilled, and at first
hoeing stalks left about foot apart in the drill
1t was hoed twice. but pillow never touched it after
planting. 1t grew tall and rather spindlng, but ev
cry stalk produced fair germany two. The
ground and the corn were accurately measured, and
the yield was seventy bushels, minus a peck. The
The land had been in cultivation 20 years, red
SOIL clay within or inches of the surface. The
following year, the same produced indifer-
ent crop of cane, from which should infer that it
was not uncommonly rich. 1t should be remarked
that the season very propitious, showers being
of frequent occurrence from the last of May till the
made.
Other occupations have left me no opportunity of
trying the experiment since, and know not, there
fore, how it would succeed in dry season. AS soon
as my lands have acquired little age, l will renew
the experiment on large scale, and inform you of
the result.
Before closing, allow to inquire: How can I
obtain few of the Doura corn? And does it
benefit land
Can you, Or some of your readers, inform me, from
actual experiment, whether, hill side, it is best
to lay off the rows HORIZONTALLY or straight up and
down the hill, or with such gradual descent as will
carry the water into the drain bitches! Of course
the proper number of hillside bitches to be cut in
either case B. F. W., JR.
Prairievue, Madison Co., Fla, JAM. 1851.