Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1856-02-13
MESSRS. Golfer & SCOOTER, Editors.
Let idle Ambition her baubles pursue,
While Wisdom looks down with disdain,
The home of the farmer has charms ever new,.
Where health, peace and competence reign"
FEWER ACRES AND BETTER CULTIVATION.

fewer acres more thoroughly cultivated, is q
truth to which every sensible man will rea-
dly consent, and yet, strange to say, not one
in a thousand Southern farmers, will reduce
the theory to practice.
In urging this fact upon the attention OF
our farmers you will seldom, if ever, meet
with one who will not assent to every asser.
ton Of its superior advantages but you will
also hear the old fogy reply, that unless you
plant largely in the spring, you will have but
little to gather in the fall. 1t seems to US
that we are 10 afraid of starvation, that we
can not trust so much to the result of labor
as TO the yield of extensive fields not half
cultivated. 1t is hard to make one who is
accustomed to planting more than he can
tend, believe that one acre with double the
manure and double the cultivation will yield
more than tuo acres with half the manure
and tillage. He may give his assent to the
theory; but his belief is dead faith, which
will never be shown by his works.
1t has been said BY an eminent writer up
on this subject, ct that although millions OF
Hebrews inhabited the narrow and rocky
land of Judea, and though restricted by the
Agrarian law Of Moses, under which, as the
pon;ulation increased, the inalienable Patri'
mony of each family became smaller and
smaller, yet they made more and more"
Why was this2 Because the cultivation was
of course better and better. But let US
come nearer home. In the populous North,
we are told that fifty acres constitute very
extensive farm, and that few can boast of so
wide domain. We are also told that land
is not valued there as in the South. Here,
the older the land, the less valuable it is ra-
ted. There it is the reverse the longer a
field Tor we should say an acre) has been
cultivated, the more it produces; and conse-
quenty, the more valuable it becomes.
But let US come still nearer home. Look
at your Vegetable garden. 1--WE here presume
that every good farmer has good Vegetable
garden. We wonder if we arc correct in
our supposition How much does an one.
acre garden yield when properly cultiva-
ted and manured 1t would surprise any
one to know how much it can be made to
produce under system Of thorough, scien'
tifc culture. 1t ordinarily takes farmers
family 4 whole year to gather and consume
what is produced upon the half acre gardens,
which are too often neglected, and more sell
dom appreciated by these rampant universal
secd-scatterers.
In view Of these facts, let US examine
some Of the advantages Of planting fewer
acres and bestowing upon them more
thorough cultivation. Not few of our far
mers plart ten acres in corn, ten in cotton
and ten in small.grain, to the hand. This is
folly. With such crop he has no time to
repair his fences, attend properly to his cat.
tie and hogs, make manure, cut bitches, or
do many other things necessary on a planta-
ton, which in the end would be worth as
much to him as his whole crop. And how
is such a crop cultivated! Scratched lit.
tie in dry weather, plastered in wet weather,
mangled and torn, and probably throughout
the whole year the growing crop does not
receive one good working at the proper sea-
son. When gathering time comes, it is a
scanty yield barely sufficient for the support
Of the hands and stock employed. Mules
to buy, bacon to buy, negro clothes to buy,
shoes to buy and away go the proceeds of
the cotton crop. aud the farmer is left with
his hands in his pockets, without "con,i.
mental red."
Now suppose he had only yplanted eight
acres in corn, four in cotton and ten
in small grain. How easy to prepare for
such crop in the first place, by thoroughly
breaking the subsoil and pulverizing nicely
the top by cross blowing. How easily
cultivated would such crop be, by giving
it just the work it needed, exactly at the
proper season. He would then have time to
harvest his small grain, to raise his mules
and hogs, to repair fences, to build sheds
for his cattle (which is equal to halffeed) and
to make more manure than he could haul
out. We now venture the assertion that the
latter method would realize as great yield
per hand as the former. We would have no
bacon to buy and need not buy mules Our
farms would be increased in value. Our stock
would be. in finer condition. Our negroes
would lie more valuable in consequence of
not being worked so hard.
We need pursue the subject no farther; our
farmers have each and all set their pegs for
themselves, and all Russia and the Allies
combined cant pull them up.
GuAHo.-D. Jay Browne, Esq, Of the Pa
tent Office, submitted paper on the subject
Of guano at the recent session of the U. S.
Agricultural Society in Washington, in which
allusion is made to the alledged new discove
res in the Pacific, with reference to which
the i" American Guano Company" was re.
Gently organized. The quantity of this fer
tilizer imported during the year, covered BY