The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1856-03-11
From the Soil of the South.
HINTS ON SEVERAL SUBJECTS.

strong stable manures are best put on broad |
cast, in sufficient quantities to enrich the
land have tried several modes of manu-
ing in the hill, and drill-but find none of
them to answer so well as putting it on
broad cast
find upon experiment, that cotton seed
Sowed thick in the furrOw, preferable to
dropping them in a bunch around the corn.
U dril al my corn, especially in dry wealth
er.) TAe corn is not SO apt to fire as when
the seed are thrown Immediately around it.
experimental upon one acre Of very poor
pine land this year, lin cOrn.) / had
small handful of cotton seed sowed upon
she corn after it was dropped, Il mean to
the hill) and the corn covered with board.
1 plowed it as usual. The second blowing
after the corn was sided. / had another
handful of cotton seed sowed in one of the
siding burrows. / gathered from this one
of poor land, three barrels Of fine corn.
PREPARING LAND FOR PLANTING Corn.
Il break my land deep with q scooter,
rather in beds: | then lay off the beds for
planting, by opening them in the centre
with a. large broad topped scooter, with a
broad round point, have the corn dropped
about feet apart and covered with a board.
In light sandy soils, | use nothing but a
mole pointed sweep with the right wing
turned up like a mould board, to throw the
dirt to the corn. In giving it the plowings
In this manner, | have a nice bed thrown
up to the corn. | find that deep blowing is
injurious in light soils. The cause why deep
blowing is So very injurious to crops of corn
on light sandy lands, is, there is not unc-
tious matter enough to make the soil stick
TO the young roots of the corn. Therefore
the corn must make stand for the want of
nutrimcnt from the earth until there comes
rain to settle the dust to the roots. Any
one can test this by pulling up stalk of
corn on light sandy land and one in close
land.
/ am very particular in selecting my seed
corn. 1t is Il law in philosophy, that like
produces like; or, in other words, that like
causes produces like effects-and if this be
the case, how important is it that we should
select good, sound, wei! matured ears of
corn for planting.
My mode of selecting my seed corn, is,
when ! am taking it up from the pile, then
have chance to select ears of large size,
and those that are heavy and well matured.
And another thing essential is, to select
those cars that have good hard cobs and
large hearts. Corn that has large hearts
comes up much stronger than corn that has
small hearts. Also, think large cobs pre-
ferahle to small ones, when the grains are
long.
PREPARING LAND FOR CoTTON.-On
clay lands, bed as is the custom of the
country. On light soils, turn two burrows
together, leaving a hard space between
them, then plant the seed in a small drill,
covering them with board. The cause
of my leaving this ridge of hard earth in
the centre of my cotton beds, is, that the
cotton does not commence growing until
the tap root gets to a hard surface. This
found out by pulling up cotton plants at
various ages, when it first comes up until it
begins to take the second row of leaves.
/ roll my cotton seed in strong ashes -
this makes them sow very even and thin,
which is great advantage in chopping out;
the plants are much stronger, and being
thin in the drill, it is not so subject to die;
and another advantage from being thin, it
does not require being chopped out so soon,
and hand can chop much more than if it
was thick.
raise a fine stock of cotton sent from
Mississippi, the Reynolds cotton. It makes
81 pounds of ginned cotton to 100 in seed.
also plant old seed; this gives me the full
matured seed, the faulty drying up, which
keeps my cotton from adulterating.
BEST OATS, is large Northern Dat, that
turns very yellow when ripe. The time to
sow them is in October and November
make one third more than oats sowcd in
awinter.
SWEET PoTAToES.-I take my potatoes
up in the spring, after the moon fulls in
March, and put them out in beds, that they
may sprout, SO that by planting time, can
tell those that will not come up. l then
(about the middle of April plant them, two
small pieces in a hill. 1 usually pillow nv
ground up two or three times, and when l
want to plant my potatoes, bed up my
land like for cotton, some three feet apart,
and check it off the same distance, TO throw
my potatoe land in hills. l then throw nv
potatoes on the middle of these beds, and
IL.
er them. My mode of tending them, like
most of my crop, is with the sweep. until
the vines are too long for the sweep, and
then frequently cut them off, finding it
cheaper to cut off the vines, than to cult
vate the Potatoe with the vine. hill them
up about the last of July or first of August.
leaving fat hill, SO that it may not be too
high from the surface of the earth: when
the hills are made very high, in dry seasons
the hills become so dry that it is almost i'm
possible for rain TO moisten the hills through.
II I