Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1863-06-09

RALEIGH, N. c., juno, 1868.
Nv Dear Sir Your friendly letter OF entreaty
was duly received and, while regrettlng your Sc
lection of one so little acquainted with the theory
of planting as well as its practical details anu inc
present agricultural resources of the State can
not decline to indulge your reqaest-at least 70
forward for your instruction or amusement as the
result may prove the reflections of an hour or So
The ancient nations had very little idea OF the
sciences which have given US such control oil an
agency so important as that of CHEMISTRY, WHEREBY
the husbandman knows in what state the fertilizer
should be at the time of application, how applied,
to what production applied, and Of what character
and composition is each fertilizer from any OF the
three kingdoms of nature. And yet, there is PROB
ably not so great a difference after all, Except IN
the application of mapures,) between the planting
Of early and later times, for Virgil says:
Quid qu, ne gravids procumbat culmus artists,
Luxuriem ssgetum tenera depascit in herba;
Quinn prinlum sulcos s4nant sata!
And again he says = 10y -
Deinde salts huVium inducit, riyosque sequentisf
Et quinn exustus ager mnrieutibus sestuat herbs,
Ecce supercio eliVOsi tramitls undamg
Eiet3
1t is quite clear, however that from the earliest
ages, no employment has been so well regarded,
and none so dignifed, none certainly is OF suSh
value to the prosperity or grandeur OF State
Painter, poet and philosopher-sage, sculptor and
statesman-the man of leisure and the man of law,
and he of literature, have We'd one with the other
in its celebration How important them is 1t that
our planters should cultivate so that they neither
ruin nor injure, but actually improve the soil every
year. The present rage for clearing as it is un-
derstood, or getting grounds, has been prolinc
of injury; for, according to certain amount oil la
bor the less land the better-for we want labor as
an example and proof of which, witness England or
France and particularly Bells ium, where the price
of land is enormous and that of labor lnVersely
low. In Europe, therefore, interest prompts the
80 al, lab or
the same reason is more highly valued, and there
fore ought to reduce Of cultivation, and
not suppose it proof of skill wealth to exhaust
large extent of poor worthless sod. You doubt
less recolect the fable of the vine dresser and his
daughters: to the elder, on her marriage, he gave
third of his vineyard and yet the balance yielded
him as much as the whole did with the younger,
on her marriage, he shared the balance, and even
then his third yielded as much as the entirety once
produced.
And again, if the spontaneous production be
more valuable, it were very unwise to destroy the
trees. Surely, if any people were ever blessed with
every means of independence and happiness, we
are that people; and nothing but blindness can
prevent US becoming the most magnificent and
colossal power ever known to the world by history
or tradition. Be it our care, then, to guard this
infant republic against the dangers which subVerted
the late Union-against fanatics and the swarm of
pestilent demagogues who mistook notorety for real
barter the happiness of their country for place or
pelf and in default of obtaining these at so dear a
price inaugurated bloody revolution, the end of
which none can foresee. In every essential Of
prosperity, the South abounds: but our own be-
loved State excels her sisters The pork and fax of
Germany, the wines of the Rhine and Hungary, the
poultry and sheep of France, and the cotton, but
ter, neat cattle, fruits of every variety, and corn
and grasses of Italy, the growth OF foreign nations
find or may find in North Carolina copgenial
climate The precious metals gold and silver, and,
though not called precious, those more valuable
coal and copper, and iron, while the fossilS-even
the diamond rest within our confines. Indeed, we
have every element of a national superiority and
yet if the rage for cutting down forest trees and
clearing and exhausting shall continue, we may be-
come poor, unless proper fertilizer can be pro-
cured to recuperate land. Stable manure, which is
believed superior to any other for any crop, will
best produce wheat; marling and lining, next in
the list, will best produce corn; and so of compost
with regard to cotton: but these natural clements
Of may so term them) are too expensive for
large planter if at all practicable to obtain them in
sufficient quantities, because of hauling, &c. So
also the artificial manureS are too expensive
guano for instance, even where guano can be judi
ciously applied and not prove ultimately positive
injury to the SOIL Is there, then, any article which
IN itself not too expensive rendered by the la
Dor required to use it to advantage may supply fer
tlity to worn out and exhausted land or increase
the profits of those not exhausted?
=. Clover l think, put in during the Spring, (or
previous autumn, and in the latter case plowed in
twice. and plowed under i'll the autumn for the
wheat crop of November or October, is the desid-
eratum sought for this cereal, aEd perhaps thus
used as good or better than stable manure. After
gathering wheat, pillow up the same for crop of
corn; always having one of clover to supply you
with seed, so that the plantation being divided into
three equal parts, you will have wheat, corn and
clover crops every year. As fertilizer for cottoh
use rye; use rye for the cotton as clover for the
wheat and cortland the rye straw will be splen-
did pasture for horses, cattle, &C., not ever good
however, as clover for pasture. Each variety of
soil abounds in one the other of the metals and
salts; and if vegetable and inorganic substances
have not their due proportion, it will be deficient
IN its power of production. Some require one pro-
portion and some another. Corn, and cotton, and
wheat have each their several afinitits. These d.
rections carefully followed, with thorough draining
would make Eastern Carolina the garden.spot Of
the world-as certain portions of IT now are or at
least were before the blast of sectional war, re-
minding one of old England those portions oc
carolina, | mean, on the Albemarle Sound and
North OF Edenton, and especially ca the Pasquo-
tank Its wheat and corn, particularly the former
its aobie horses, its fine stock sunptuous living
and splendid mansions, apd sleek slaves. fully at,
test What science and skill can effect.
Oar ntate possesses every aIvantage-rich lands
and fertilizers IN abundance. know a wheat plan
taton IN Carolina cultivated time immemorisl. and
yet its soil appears as virgin as ever. Carolina
yields to none in her noble forests for building pur
poses. The main producing interests of the State
originally, were wheat and corn, especially whest:
afterwards wheat and corn and cotton then wheat
corn, cotton and naval stores and now wheat, corn
cotToh, naval stores and tobacco Every portion
vi lue o'ate, from point not very remote from the
seashore quite or nearly to the valley of the Cataw-
o. with the exception of narrow strip in the For
sythe country is adapted to the growth Of cotton
aad none of this territory has such advants~es M
Wake, that contains Raleigh, the Capitol of the
State. Heretofore the cultivation of this stanlaho
given employment to large number of our slaves
sn addition to this, the Albemare country together
with Hyde and other counties on the sea6oard have
called into requsition large slave force for the Gull
tivstian of wheat and corn which used to find a
market in the neighboring Northern and Southern
States -