Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1852-07-21
fnrnrfrs department.
How b1est the farmers simple life,
How pure the joy it yields!
Far from the worlds tempestuous strife,
Free mid the scented fields.-EvERETT.
AGRICULTURAL TRUTHS.

|. Unless farmer feeds his land, his
land will not feed him.
g All wet lands should be drained. By
dlaining them, the most stiff and intractible
soils may be changed into friable ones; the
labor of culture will be reduced, the quaint.
ty Of the products increased, and their quail
ty 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 plowed, or the lime or mari
applied.
4. Lands which may have been drained
by covered drains, should be plowed cross
wise the drains, until the soil which sur.
mounts them shall have become settled and
firm.
S. 1t may be assumed as fact, that lands
which may have been in culture for long
series of years, from a dressing Of lime, or
mari.
6. Stiff lands will bear heavier dressings
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 his sandy lands, should
always be small ones, preceded by nutritivc
manures; second applications of lime or
mari not to be repeated unless after such
lands have been in grass and clover, or re-
ceived large dressing of manurcs compris-
ing much organic matters.
7. Deep tilth is conductive to fruitfulness
in crops but it possibly may be safest, to
increase the depth gradually, manure with 4
free and liberal hand, and to apply lime
each time the soil may be deepened; 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
soil to be turned up. Such deepenings
should always be made in the fall, to give
the inverted soil the benefit Of the neutral
izing effects of the lime, and the disinte.
grating influence of the winters frosts.
Twenty five bushels of freshly Stacked lime
per acre, spread over the upturned earth,
would answer for such purpose.
8. AS to what is nutritive manure, it may
be defined to be, any animal substance, the
excretions of animals, or any vegetable sub.
stance-as any thing which has had life,
has the power of reproduction.
8. All lands which may have been lined,
or marled, should be speedily thereafter set
in clover, or grass, as permanent improve
ment cannot be effected, without the soil be
so treated as to keep up stock of organic
matter therein, to be wrought up into food
by the decomposing action of the lime, or
mari. The calcareous element in each,
which is the great principle in either that
renders it effective, req liring wherewithal to
work with. -
10. As the late Judge Peters said:-Far.
mers should value manure as miser does
his strong box-should grasp after and
hoard it as eagerly and anxiously as Gov
etous man accumulates treasure.
ii. One of the best methods Of applying
lime to light sandy lands is to make COM
post of lime and clay, work it over well,
several times, so as to mix the lime intimate
ly with the clay top-dress the land with the
mixture, after being plowed, and then harrow
the compost in. Ten loads Of clay and 25
bushels of lime thus treated, would form an
excellent dressing for an acre Of such land
and would have the double effect of supply
ing the soil with the necessary calcerous
principle and Of amending its texture.
IL Orchards, to ensure continued fruit
fulness and fair fruit, should be periodically
manured, in order that the fruit carried off
annually in the fruit. should be restored 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 20 loads to the acre; the cost
of which might be covered, by growing
crop Of corn, potatoes, or other roots there.
on, the year of any such application.
l3. Orchards should not be kept perma.
nently in grass, as it answers for harbor
for vermin, while it robs the trees of the
food that should be appropriated to them.
American Farmer.