The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1869-11-05
MARIETTA, GEORGIA MORNING NOVEMBER 5. 1859.
Jht agarietta gunrual.
MARIETTA, GEORGIA.
Friday Morning Nov. S, 1860.
AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE SOUTH.

From tie Baltimore SGn.l aH
That there is a great deal Of intelli-
gence and practical good sense applied
to the agriculture Of the South no -onc,
we suppose doubts but Mr.. Horace Gree
lev and the truck-patch farmers who as
sembIe weekly in New York to enlight-
en- the world and to amuse, "the rest OF
mankind" Mr.. Greeley was not con-
tent to make himself ridiculous in his
patronizing speech at Lynchburg, in
which he delivered a lecture on the
drought and deep blowing, but going
back to New York he lectured the
Farmers's Institute for having allowed
somebody there to speak in favor of
shallow blowing, by which the poor
farmers of the South had been misled to
the loss of so many million bushels OF
corn. Bad as Southern farming is, Mr..
G. really thinks there is some excuse for
it in the unwise talk reported from the
centre of truck-patching. Southern
farmers must take notice of this and
take courage. In the course of time ii
may be that they can attain to the great
distinction in agriculture of raising
patches of potatoes, which will sell for
fifty dollars apiece, and vindicate their
claim to rank with the Greeley and
Scion Robinsons of Agriculture. In
the meantime let them be modest with
their 900 bales of cotton and their
$500, OOO,0 900 of surplus production, and
listen to Mr.. Greeley's lecture on deep
blowing.
We began with the purpose of re-
marking on publication made recent
" in Southern journal, by farmer of
North Carolina, of experiments in ma
nuring and their results, and on the gen.
eral spirit of energy in the South in the
direction of agricultural improvement.
It is seems to us that never before was
there so much of wholesome excitement
as is exhibited in the very numerous
agricultural exhibitions throughout the
Southern States, while individuals every
where are competing with each other
in intelligent and well directed expert
ment. Not only are the best methods
of cultivation taught and practised, but
immense sums are expended both in crop
making and in the more permanent I'M
provemcnt of the land. Southern agri-
culture has laid aside with slavery its
nomadic character. 1t was profitable in
former days to migrate with a large
WORKING force to fresh lands and give
away, if need bo, the fields which had
been skinned of their first fertility -
Now landholders can only afford to stay
at home, and more than ever before
they are cIinging to the old homcsteads,
endeared to them thousand fold by the
misfortunes and disasters of the years
past, and are building them up again
and investing them afresh with the
beauty and fertility of their first estate.
The author of the article above allud-
cd to, North Carolina farmer, is giving
his own experience on several points OF
practice, aud remarks on the occasion
he finds for diminishing the extensive
tiIlagc of Indian corn, a most exhaustlng
crop, and substituting others as more
productive Of food at less cost to the
soil. Whether we may concur or not in
his Judgment on this point, what he
saws still illustrates our remark as to CT
fort after more profitable modes of cul-
ture. He says: Snow any farmer who
will quit corn except as cleansing crop,
or upon highly improved lots, and who
will use brains and pain and Baugh's
Phosphate Tor any of the many equally
good, pcrhaps,l on small grain and Glow
err. and more brains and more pains on
root crops, with stable manure and
Baugh's Phosphate altcrnated, will find
his net profits increased fifty per cent,
and his land rapidly improved. To
prove this to the most skeptical Rip Van
Wrinkle, | need only say that bushcl
of potatoes has always been, is, and will
always be, equal in value in the market
to bushel of corn. l never knew in
this region of more than scventy-tive
bushels of corn being made to the acre,
and that was on a highly MANFRED town
lot; and the average yield is not above
five bushels per acre, worth five dollars
I raised on an old field, the first time 1t
was ever MANFRED in the memory OF
man. five hundred bushels of potatoes
per acre, and my neighhor did the same
on an ordinary field of new ground
The same manuring might have perhaps
produced fifty bushels of corn, worth
fifty dollars, while the potatoes were
worth five hundred dollars, showing
difference in favor of root culture OF four
hundred and fifty dollars per acre
Further, bushel of ruta bags is worth
more in Wilmington to-day than bush
Ell of corn, and Major Lynch has made
FIVE bundled bushels of turnips per
acre"
While wheat is shown to be an I'M
profitable crop, as commonly cultivated,
he saws: "Wheat must enter as an i'm
portant clement in any intelligent farm