The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1867-02-14
yntelligenter,
4GRIGULTURAL DEPlRTMENT
Commercial Manllres.

S1CS4 4LACS14tAA W.
Editors of the Chronicle and 'Senftees.: s-:
GENTLEMEN Your well-timed ana and !orc'-
Bile article in your issue OF the zzo lhs..'
on commercial manures, inviting those 1c
who have tried any of them to Puoli:sh
the result of their experiments, has IN
dnced me to avail myself Of your invita-
ton and give my experience.
Believing. as You do, that if we want
to farm successfully under the present
labor system, we must cultivate less land,
and cultivate it better; that is; prepare
thessoil carefully manure abandantly.
I determined last year to try what deep
blowing, assiduous attention atthe proper
time, and artificial fertilizing- could do, as
compared with the old system OF scrat ten
ING the land with an instrument called a
Scooter" and leaving the atmosphere TO
sunnlv the elements of fertility.
( cultivated few acres of thin red clay
land adjoining my residence, and planted
corn cotton, Irish potatoes, turnips, and
tho usual garden vegetables. l naa m Tue
land we'll broken with two,horse turn
plows, then cross plowed, and then bcdded.
All this. was done in season and at the
nroper intervals of time. used the fer
fiJizer known as Reid's Phosphate, man.
nfactured. by Messrs Brightwell & Bar
row at Matey's Depot, Oglethorpe county,
Ga. selected this because I knew the
manufacturers, and was confident that
the article was. unadulteratcd, because |
believed that the Snper-Phosphates of
lime are the most valuable Of all the man.
ufaetured manures, from the fact that
they stimulate the crop and permanently
improve the soil, and because this fcrtili-
ger. was: the only one of Southern nanw-
facture. 4 sowed it in herows forcotton,
and in the hills for corn at the rate of 250
lbs. to,the7acre, and planted the seed on
the manure, and I cannot better give you
the result than by referring you to the
following certificate which l gave the
manufacturers at the end of the year:
ATHENS, Nov. 6, 1866
1fesSs. zBrightueN &; Barrow-Gentle-
men: I.have used Reid's Phosphate this
year on cotton, corn, Irish potatoes, gar
den vegetables, and grass, and have found
it to be the mostvaluabl fertilizer[ know.
On fourteensacres of poor red land, near
Athens, I shave picked overfive bales of
cotton. i have gatheredtwenty-three and
a half bushels Of, corn to the acre, and
the grass seeds .sown in my front yard
late in April withstood sthe protracted
drought of this year, and are. now as
thick and strong as if Ishad 'sodded the
space which they cover OF Irish pota-
toes and garden vegetables, i have had
an unusually large crop. My onions from
seed were finer than any ever raised be-
fore from buttons. So certain am I that
your fertilizer is the best. thing TO renew
Our lands and give us healthy and early
crops, 1 mean to use it next year. on my
plantation, in sOglethorpe county, to as
great an extent as.my means will allow.
Respectfully, VIM. III. BRowNE.
Without manure, with so unpropitious
an agricultural season as that of last year,
shouldnot have made more than from
200 to $50 pounds of seed cotton, land from
800 to 500 bushels of corn. L remarked
that this phosphate gave. the crop such a
start as to enable it to bear the drought
that it matured the cotton earlier. than
any other artificial manure Except genu-
ire Peruvian guano) ever saw tried, and
that its fertitizing properties are not OK
hausted by the crop to which it isapplied.
1 tested the last named property by
planting turnips where had previously
planted and gathered an unusually abun-
dant yield of Irish potatoes, and without
any additional manure l had as large q
crop, bothzin quantity and quality, as [
ever saw.
The character of the manufacturers is
a guarantee against fraud or deception as
to this manure, and this renders it espe-
emily valuable to planters now, none of
whom can afford to pay 500 per ton of
1000 lbs for red dirt with a guanoish
odor.
can only say in conclusion, and with
out attempting to Judge of other fertili-
zers, that I mean to use Reid's phosphate
on my plantation on every acre 1 plant
I Intend to plant no more than can ma
nure abundantly.
fze Very respectfully yours,
g = s',a ,WILLIAM NJ. BROWNE.