Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1857-03-19
fatt, fm + fantg. farmers qeParhntnt
From the Montgomery Cotton Planter.
PLANTATION WORK FOR MARCH

4
PLANTATION WORK FOR MARCH.
! This is March, the first spring month,
period in which all plantation work should
march forward with quick pace. We do
not intend to be understood by this, howev-
er, as urging the quick dispatch of any i'm
portant plantation work by the merely SIM
pie and foolish rule of 7o It. We should
first determine that all the work of the plan
tation, and most especially the preparation
for and planting the crop, should be done
we'll, and then VIC should "make haste slow
ly" and carefully in its performance.
There may be some preparation yet to
make or complete before you are fully ready
to commence planting corn; don't be deter
red from attending to it because some neigh
boring planter has been several days plant
ing upon land unmanured, or otherwise i'm
perfectly prepared for planting to the best
advantage. If you have some manure yet
to haul out, have it done by all means, and
the land upon which youintend to plant your
corn we'll broken up, if it take you till the
10th of the month, your chances for good
corn crop will be much more certain, than if
planted earlier on your land imperfecty pre-
pared. ... .
If you have spent the month of February
in the proper preparation of your corn land,
in blowing it up deep and close, and you
have little manure, such as cotton seed or
guano, put on it, you need have no ap-
prehension, if you have your corn planted by
the 18th to the 10th of March; no other
planting is so likely, as yours, or so certain
of producing fine crop of corn. OF this
one fact, however, no planter should lose
sight, that you need not calculate, with any
probable degree Of certainty, upon remun-
Grating yield, when you plant your corn up
on unprepared land, whether you plant ear
ly or late, and the seasons will most proba-
uly hit wrong during all the growing year,
Time and care expended in putting your
corn in the ground in good condition, tells
most advantageously upon the prosperity of
the growing crop, and its usury is realized
in the gathering A good start, and fair
start, in the planting of the crop-and by
that we don't mean winter starts like
good start in all other undertakings We feel
its benefits through all the work
Planters differ very materially, and even
under very similar circumstances, as to the
spacing and dstancing Of the corn rows on
the land, and the hills or stalks of corn on
the rows We do not here propose to de-
tain our readers with our individual mode of
doing this work, which we have written so
often; but this VIC will say, that it is mat
ter of the first Importance, after the proper
preparation of the soil, to so arrange your
rows, by leveling, distancing and spacing the
the stalks on the rows, as that, at the most
luxurant period of the corn's growth, while
it is in the bearing stage, the land should be
just even full; if too thick, and greater
quantity of the proper elements of the grain
be needed than can be furnished by the soil,
the whole crop suffers; and if, on the other
hand, your stalks occupy so much as 20, 25
to 80 superficial square feet, as We frequent
ly sec, the crop, however fattering, does not
more than pay expenses, and but poorly CON-
pensates the labor.
This is subject too little cared for by our
Southern planters; few think of measuring,
or estimating, or even giving a thought as to
the quantity of soluble fertility or plant. .t0od
their land may possess per acre hence so
little system and rule in regulating the stalks
of corn or cotton on the land Every plan
ter should know, with very good degree of
certainty, the capacity of every acre of land
he cultivates. II you have land containing
sufficient soluble food, for forty bushels of
corn per acre, and you very thoughtlessly or
carelessly plantit, so as to gather but twenty
bushels or less, either by putting too many or
too few stalks per acre, your interest suffers,
and the failure is attributed to bad seasons
Deep plowing, and the thorough preparation
of the land, is the first important object; the
proper management.of the rows on the land,
and the hills or stalks on the rows, is the
next essential; and when this is the case, our
word for is, the seasons will hit exactly right
for fine crop, nine years out Of ten.
Much of the preparation, in the way of
plowing and bedding the land for cotton, is
to be done this month. Do not allow your
self-because some one or more of your neigh
bors say they are done bedding and have
commenced planting cotton by the Goth
March-to be hurried into slight and half
performance of this absolutely essential work,
by which any thing like a certain and full
yield of the land is to be obtained Bear
this in mind, because it is an axiom in sue
cessful cotton culture, that the preparation
season, if understandingly and properly en-
ployed, is the most important season during
all the culture of the crop Let nothing
deter you from blowing deep-twelve inches,
if You have the team and plow to perform
the work, and in this furrow twelve inches
deeper, with sub.soil plow. Such work
will secure good and heavy crop on any
character of land, and under any ordinary
vicissitude of season. Indeed, it is the only
work that can be relied upon for a crop on
any land.
Mr.. A. says: n dare not pillow my sandy
land but two inches deep, because it is too
loose already and to loosen it up eighteen
to twenty-four inches, will render it bar
ron han, of loose sterile sand "