The Lancaster ledger. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1852-1905, 1852-08-18

Little Rock, 1rk'., lime Is, 1852.
REMARKs.-The same perfect manure
that will form corn, cotton, wheat or to-
baccO, on clay or loam bottoms, will act
likewise on porous, sandy uplands. What
we mean by perfect manure, is any COM
pound that contains all the clements of
the crop to be grown. Stable manure.
particularly in case the animals stabbed
consume grain, is fertilizer of this char
actcr. Bottom lands often abound in the
elements of crops, but in a condition not
available as the food Of plants, and there
fore wholly worthless to the owner, as n
source of income. Indeed, all soils con-
tain latent resources, that can only be
brought out by the assistance of more
knowledge than is usually taught in Amer
lean colleges.
Good cane brake land ought 10 spare
the things that make corn, oats, peas and
grass, which, being consumed by horses,
mules, neat stock, hogs and sheep, should
be mostly applied to enrich poor lands, if
you cultivate the latter at all. Beware
that you do not waste manure, labor and
money, in working too much of the latter
kind of cart
After looking over the United States for
many years, and carefully studying the
popular systems of tillage and husbandrv,
we came to the conclusion that the four or
five millions Of agriculturists acutuallv
throw away more hard work that ought
to be saved, than is performed by all the
mechanics, merchants, sailors and profess
sional men in the country.
How much labor ought 100 bushels of
corn, or wheat, or so bales of cotton, to
cost! Who will undertake to answer
these plain and simple question: OF course
we intend that whatever nutrimcnt the
soil parts with in forming a crop, shall be
fully restored again from the atmosphere
or some other source.
But we do not quite meet the inquiries
OF our correspondent. If salt is cheap.
mix it with your manure and leached
ashes, and apply both fertilizers to all the
land that you plow, if it needs improve
ment, Can you not make your oat-fields
or common range for stock, yield more
and better pasturage than it now does: so
that by COW pens, or manure yards, YOU
may draw from these distant fields or COM
mons, great deal more Of the clements
that form cheap cotton and grain9 The
things that make bushes and the leaves
of forest trees, will make grass, make the
flesh Of mules and horses, cattle, sheep
and hogs, just as easily and about as
cheaply; and these animals will bring their
manure and drop it within few yards of
the places where it is needed. Make the
land that now supports one animal, keep
two, five, or ten, as nhe planters out of
ten may do. We appeal to the best FIR
mers in the South, and ask if they believe
that the entire resources If any large
plantation, or of many small ones, are
fully developed 1t is true that most of
these resources are hidden, like the phos-
phate Of lime that forms the bones of a
calf; but the existence of bone in a calls
lig Is not more certain, than that of the
necessity Of bone earth in the soil. Every
farmer should know how to dig fat calves
and colts, pigs and lambs, out of his sub
soil, and realize handsome profit in the
operation. There is no way in which the
raw material of our great staples can be
obtained as cheapIy as by the keeping of
stock. Let the plow go over fewer acres,
let pastures be lined, seeded, and harrow.
ed; and let all bushes, briars and weeds,
be cut, and carried upon the CALLED places,
and sterile patches, there to rot, and weld
a virgin mould. D.Lyr.