Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1861-03-02
VARIETY, (,
From the Edgcfcld Advertiser.
Agricultural.

politics, politics OF the current crisis and in
doing 50, we shall take as our rubric the Feb
ruary number of that valuable journal, The
Farmer & Planter, of South Carolina.
This is indeed the glorious opening season
of work for the agricultural year What
though Winter yet fingers with his chilly
blasts What though frosts still whitcn the
morning, and occasional q freezes" still stiff
en- the sod! Behold the genial Day God as
ccnding in his brightwhcclod car and she'd
ding his awakening beams over sleeping Ma
ture's face Behold, in the near future,
Spring with all her flowers ready to come dan
cling joyously upon the stage of the vegetable
resurrection Hear the sweet songsters of
the wood tuning their carols anew, and list to
the music of the spheres in the great blue
above us telling the story of another rovolu-
tion in the rolling seasons
But not to be poetical, VIC como to the work
of running notice Of the said " Farmer f,
P1antcr of South Carolina" And will not
the reader please retain the tact in memory,
that it is of South Carolina, and the only iour,
nal of the kind in South Carolina; not that
"South Carolina is better than any whar's
else" as an old ncghbor of ours used to pro
fess to believe but that it is the very latitu lie
for an agricultural journal suited to South Car
olina readers par crcelence, and next also to
readers in all the Gulf States directly West
of u.s.
lst, then, let us take glimpse at the agri-
cultural cditor's " Hints for the Month. -
With point and apprehension he says:
We say, generally, prepare we'll during
this month your corn land, by subsoiling turn
ing under fall.grown grass, and throwing up
high corn beds. Well, some go.ahcaditivo
planter reads this general remark and says,
"why I've done this already" We reply,
look out that you are not toe smart; if Feb
ruary is wet and March windyliApril will tell
a bad tale on lands broken up in January
Another may say, al aint ready for this
work To him we say, hurry up now, or
you'll be behind until fodder pulling time
A third says, my sandy land don't need such
preparation; and fourth, my stiff red land
must be broken up and subsoiIcd but not
thrown up in beds. Very well, good reader,
we will not presume to manage your lands
but only say, let experience teach you how
best to treat them, and be sure they are treat
ed we'll and carly enough to enable you to
drop little corn about the close of this month
Three years in five it will be the best corn you
will harvest"
Now we say, Mr., Editor, that you exactly
suit great many of us on this side of the
State in one of your hints above given
Very few of us are too smart " this time
Blessed be the thought. we are all the better
for it. Considering the quantity of rain that
has fallen, we believe our editor is exactly
right, at least for the present year Now for
it: crack the whip and hold the handles, for
1T is said ga little corn ought to be dropped
about the close of this month" Drive on,
gentlemen of the plow,-and cocklc-bur soup
for the hindmost. Surely we shall try to
"stick in F" one little six acre lot in the time
specified. The philosophy is good that the
earliest corn makes the heaviest it is good
because so taught by experience.
To the {" Hints again:
We would advise dcep.prcparation for cot
ton too many of our aged planters to the con-
trary Notwithstanding, who prefer making the
cotton beds of this year by throwing the beds
of last year on the old water furrow without
first opening that water furrow, even with
dull shovel. Abandon that idea, for it is all
an exploded notion. about cotton growing best
when its tap-root strikes an impenetrable sub
soil. The cotton plant prefers hot, moderate
ly dry seasons, but it none the less prefers
loose, moist cool subsoil"
All so, perhaps. But word here This
deep plowing for cotton should not be accom-
panied by any turning under of the surface,
should it? We ask, because one who is
a sort of Lieutenant Colonel to King Cotton
in Edgefeld, thinks decidedly that it should
not be. DR. Harwood Butt (and when we
mention his name in connection with cotton
culture, Dickson of Georgia may well back
his ears) is of opinion that the surface of cot
ton land should be continued surface from
year to year, that the top mould may acquire
greater and greater powers of combination
with atmospheric influences; this is of course
coupled with the proviso that the surface be
good surface and 10 good way of improve
mcnt from the vegetable matter annually con
tributcd to it, by the cotton plant itself and
otherwise. Perhaps we do not understand
the Doctors position aright,-if not, he must
come into these columns or 90 to the Farmer
d Planters clearer letter-press, and correct
We would willingly msrepresent him, to get
him out fully on this interesting and all-im-
portant subject of cotton culture, which he
understands so we'll Must understand it, to
make Gas he did last year) one hundred and
twentybales (400 lbs average) with ten hands,
think you not so, Col. G. And now we
are on this subject,-don't grunt, Doctor,
we'll soon get off OF you've took batch of
notes one day latterly on the Doctors discour-
sing, and " faith we'll print it.. This much
was gathered up safely from the droppings
Read and consider the maxims They may
need some dilation to enforce and illustrate
them We give them as we went,ofand-
tuck-um down: