The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1856-08-28
WRITTEN FOR TILE ABBEvILLE BANNER.
A VISIT TO CAPT. THos. B. ByRD's FAR

WRITTEN FOR TIE ABBEvIII.E BANNER.
VISIT TO CAPT. THOs. B. BYRDs FARM.
MIR. EpIroR:- Capt BYRD is in the
habit of giving barbccucd dinner to his
slaves every year about the time of laying
by his crop. 10 this dinner, his ncighLors
and some few fricnds-lovers of agricul-
turc-ovcr the District, are generally invi
ted, and others, devoted to this pursuit,
friends Of the Captain, so up without invi-
tations.
One Of these annual festivals came off
on last Friday, at his plantation, some three
miles below Greenwood. Hearing of it
and having long desired to see his farm,
his mode Of cultivation, his farming tools,
and so forth-wc thought it would not be
amiss to avail oursclf of this interesting oc-
casion to accomplish, among other things,
these several objects. We accordingly
made one of the number who surrounded
the Captains hospitable board on Friday.
Between seventy and one hundred per-
sons, we should say, met there at an carly
hour, say from 10 to IL o'clock, in the
morning. After looking at and cyamin-
ing the Captains farming utensils, plough
stocks, hoes, and so forth, and SO forth, of
almost every description, from the Missis-
sippi scrapcr to the homemade subsoil
gofcr, all Of which had been brought out
and neatly arranged for inspection, most Of
the company divided themselves, at the
Captains request, into committees, to go
through and examine his crop of corn and
cotton. Not having a saddle, we had to
do the best we could, in company with five
or six others, similarly situated, in our
buggy. By this, however, we were enabled
to see his cotton and his bottom corn, some
eighty or ninety acres, by walking through
the latter more than n mile. This walk
also brought us up TO his mucl,-talkcd- of
icrce, thrown mp on the west bank Of n lit
tic stream called Conocre some eleven
hundred yards, equal, no doubt, from the
spirit and energy which prompted it, the
circumstances considered, to those raised
Oh the banks Of the Mississippi, and equally
c(licacious with the latter, in securing the
object had in view.
Now, Mr.. Editor, before proceeding 10
express an opinion Of the Captains crop
his cotton and his bottom corn, and his
mode of cultivation, rs seen from the con-
dition in which things wcrc-it may not
be amiss to say, that although his farm has
not suffered so much rs many sections of
the District have this year, yet his crop is
much inferior to what it would have been,
ia consequence Of the drought, his cotton
especially. 1t was thought he has between
175 and 200 acres Of cotton in. The CON-
mtteo (who, we suppose, will speak for
themselves,) concluded u,at, no unfavorablc
season from this out occurring, it would
yield 700 lbs. seed cotton per acre. We
thought differently. We have some expc.
ricncc in raising cotton, and we shall be
very much mistaken, If it should not yield
800 lbs. per acre. The bottom corn was
also estimated differently: Some averaged
the entire yield of this immense bottom
at 35, some at 40, and some at SO bushels
per acre. We have no doubt that it will
yield 40 bushels per acre, all over. In ad
dition to this, we never saw such peas or
any land as there arc growing on this
How muci, they will turn out per acre, i
they should be carefully gathered, there i.
no telling.
This, Mr.. Editor, is our estimated yielt
Of the corn and cotton which we saw.
As to tho Captains mode of cultivation
| OF this we can giHe no adequate idea. W.
can only say that it surpasses any thing W.
have ever seen in the way Of farming, al
! though we have been more or less connect
ed with this delightful pursuit ftomsou
7 youth up, and wo are now near the rib,
!, age Of forty. II is the practice--the aetu
. ally carrying eut all yo. read in book,
9 about farming. You SEQ an syeanese !,
4 tile rows, 4 regularity 10 Tho stand OF boil
8 corn aud cotton "a = nest tnsss and ,hor
8 oughness 81 The tilIls Wild indicate, AZ.
4 gisnce, thai; d geaias III agtianlt,re shs,
Il presided, detected and controlled 70,