Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1868-03-19
Agrifaltnral department,
HOW TO CULTIVATE LARGE FARMS
WITH FEW LABORERs. -----

Iule Hul CnrOW mduy ucSToes ouC VI TGyH-
lar employment, and farmers will hereafter
find less difficulty in procuring extra labor
at harvesting and at other times of press
ing work. Under the old system the ope-
rations of the farm were mainly regulated
by the number of hands necessary to keep
down grass during the months of May and
June. A farmer with ten slaves could cul-
tiyate from $50 to 200 acres of land
These hands having to be fed all the year,
he did not feel sensibly any loss from hav-
ing them employed all the winter in the
plowing and preparation of his fields for
the ensuing crop. Now, suppose, by i'm
proved machinery, by using large plows,
&C., &C., he could make two hands do the
winter work and employ the additional
eight hands; only three or four months in
the year, how great the saving would be.
But here comes up the old objection,
these things don't suit our country. We
can't use the cast iron plows, because, if we
bring the clay to the surface, the land will
''run together" bake and be utterly killed /;
and we can't use drilling, reaping and NOW
ing machines, because Of stumps and roots.
Now the real difficulty is, We do not begin
at the right time and in the right way
Land may be injured if turned over late in
the winter, and then planted in some crop
which requires plowing and hoeing in spring
and summer, Though we do not believe
this always true but if after bringing the
clay to the surface, the land is manured
and seeded down in small grain, then al
lowed to remain fallow the ensuing sum-
mer, our word for it, no regrets will ever
be felt. .,.. ... .
Again, the use of one machine oftentimes
pre-supposes the use of another. We can't
use the s'rooter" plow until the axe has re-
moved the trees and bushes, and so, the
stump puller must precede the reaper and
mower. But, interposes an objector, we
have not money enough to buy these expen-
sive machines-grant it-then let several
in the neighborhood club together and pur-
chase them, or let one individual, whose
capital is not invested in farming opera
tions, obtain the necessary machines and
do the work of the neighborhood, as is done
now, with wheat threshers, cotton gins, &c.
Division of labor can be carried much far
ther still, in farming operations, with deci-
ded profit. One stump puller could re-
move all the stumps on many farms at tri-
fling cost to each. One man supplying
himself with proper teams and plows might
do the breaking up and turning over Of
land for neighborhood, better and cheaper
than each individual could do it for himself
in like manner !; another investing in rea-
per, could harvest all the small grain more
rapidly and at less cost, than could be done
with the sscradle." Think of these things.
We have been accustomed to other ways,
and it is hard to change habits, but every
thing else is changed and habits must
change with them. Read the following ex-
tracts from a letter to the Richmond Chris
tian Advocate, from Colonel Johnson, Pres
ident of Randolph Macon College, Virgin
ia, giving an accoun: of what he saw in the
West.-Editor Southern Cultivator.
ssI have lately travelled extensively in
Illinois, Iowa and Missouri, and will give
you some account of what I saw. Land
ing at Dubuque, Iowa, I travelled out on
the Dubuque and Sioux City Railroad for
a hundred and forty miles, and there pro-
cured buggy. I travelled north nearly to
the Minnesota line, and circled around to
the west, and returned to the point where
I left the railroad. Every depot that I
passed was crowded with all kinds of agri-
cultural machinery. Every farm saw, no
matter how humble the dwelling, had these
labor-savers. I confess, I newer saw so
much wheat, and oats, and corn, and so few
people to raise it. There men break up
their land with strong teams, pulling, at the
same time, two or three plows attached to
the same beam, that run two or three fur
rows, and operated by one man. When
the land is broken up, the farmer puts in
his wheat with the seeder, of which there
are two kinds, one that drills the wheat
and the other that sows it broadcast. The
machine is on two wheels, and drawn by
two horses: the box is filled with wheat,
and the farmer mounts on the top of the
box and drives backwards and forwards till
the whole field is seeded and covered
When he plants his corn, he brings out his
corn-planter, bitches two horses, puts his
corn in the box, mounts the machine and
goes ahead. 1t lays off the ground, drops
the seed and covers it. When the corn
comes up he brings out his sulky plow--
with it's wheels nearly as large as the old
fashioned sulky-beneath the axle of which
is suspended four plows, which can be reg
ulated to throw the dirt to or from the corn.
The horses walk in the middle of the rows,
the wheels straddle the corn row, and in
the early plowing two revolving solid wheels
prevent all possibility of covering up the
corn. When the corn gets stronger so as
to bear the dirt, these wheels are taken of
and the plows made to hill the corn. The
driver has the means of regulating the
depth of the plows, and by means OF le-
yer lifts the plow over rocks and other OBJ
structions. All the blowing of corn after
planting, is done with the sulky plow. This
plow enables one man with two horses to
do the work of four men, four plows and
four horses by the ordinary methods. The
great saving is, that it absolutely dis
penses with the labor of three men and two
horses, and thereby saves their feeding and
wages. This saving is enormous, and con-
stitutes great profit.
"When the wheat and oats get ripe, they
are cut with the reaping machine, OF which