The Sumter banner. [volume] (Sumterville, S.C.) 1846-1855, 1853-02-01
Gyps,lln us !, EcrtiIiscr.

Gypsum us 1, FcrtiIiscr.
GREENWOOD, So. Ca, Jan. goth, 1853.
Dean SIR: Your letter Of the goth of
June last, making inquiry about the
of Gypsum, and the bcnc-
fits resulting from it, came to hand in
due time. | deferred answering your
inquiries at that time, from the fact that
! l5could not give you reliable iniorma.
-tion as to the results, as it was the
first season that had applied it, and
! regret that my experiments were not
conducted with more care, having
an eye more to the general results than
to the exact difference in the yield in a
given quantity Of land. | have al
ways been particular i'll recommend
ing any thing new in agriculture, un-
less was perfectly satisfied that it
was both practical and profitable to
the cause of agriculture, and | have.
aavailed myself of the use of the col
umns Of the Mercury, that others may
be induced to give their experience i'll
the use of an article which it is be-
lieved by many will produce great
revolution i'll the production Of cot
ton in this State. And would here
remark, that no one experiment Chow
ever well conductcd) should be re-
ceiyed as conclusive evidence Of its
practical utility, until it has been
tried two or three years; ana too
much care cannot be taken in no
ticing the different seasons and the
various soils in which experiments are
tried. ! purchased ten barrels Oft Gyp-
sum last spring in Charleston, aud con
cluded to try it on an old sandy field
which had been in cultivation up
wards Of sixty years, and was com
pletcly worn out; and some five or
six years since | commenced trying to
improve it, and had succeeded in de-
stroying the running bricrs and may
pops which had taken possession. had
planted it in cotton three years in sue
cession; it was manurcd in the drill
each year, and suppose it produced a.
bout 600 lbs. to the acre. The past
year j planted it again in Cotton, and
opened the old bed with a long Scoot-
or, and bcdded out with q tlrning
plough. About the 10th of April We
commenced planting, and the day pre-
vious ! measured three bushels Of cot
ton seed, one bushcl Of Gypsum aud
two bushels of ashes, and wet them
and rubbed them neatly, and in the
manner described l mixed and rub
bed until | had enough to plant the
field, (Which contained fifty acres. J The
Cottod came up beautiful and grew of
finely, having green, luxuriant ap-
pearance, and continued to look well
until the excessive rains in June, at
which time it died out badly, and
] almost dospaired of making a half
crop; but it recovered in July, and be-
gan to grow and spread beautifully,
and up to the last Of August it still
looked well, though it was rather too
late; at that time the excessive wet
weather set i'll, giving it another back
set, but it soon recovered and con
tinued to grow and mature, until it
was killed by frost. noticed one
particular, that it did not shed the
bolls and squares as my previous
crops had done, and | remarked that
cotton in the same field, previously,
had Invariably quit growing by the
first of September, but the present
year, it continued to grow until frost.
also tried an experiment with one
bushcl OF Gypsum, one bushel of Gu
ano, and two bushels Of Ashes, which
rubbed with three bushels of Cot
ton Seed, but could sec no pcrccpt-
ible difference from that planted with
Ashes and Gypsum. There arc three
things to be noticed in this expert.
mcnt, first, the land had been manu-
red previously in the drill; second,
there was two bushels Of Ashes mix
ed with the Gypsum, and third, that
the past year was unusually wet.
All this should be taken into consid-
Grafton, and allowance made in the
calculation. | requested my over
seer to notice particularly the a.
mount Of cotton picked, and he cstima-
ted it ut 500 lbs to tic acre. Here
is 200 lbs more than had ever been
made before, to the acre, and | leave
you to draw your own Inference.
lplantcd ten acres in stubblc land.
prepared in the manner described
above; the result was entirely salts.
factory, as we gathered ten bales Of
Cotton. In conclusion, | am inclined
to think that land containing guam
tity OF vegetable matter will give bet
ter results than that which has but
little, and | am perfectly satisfied in
my own mind, that ifRalroads would
adopt a liberal rate of frcghts for fer
tilizers, we could increase the produc-
tion Of our soil ut least one fourth.
..:,,ss. am yours, respectfully,
THOMAS b. BYRD.
To Col. JOIN CUNNISGIrAM.
---------<z7- .-a-<zo.rs- F.
a medical friend has requested us to