The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-07-23
BREAD, MEAT AND .FoDDER.
CoKEspuRY, July 20. 1869.

CoKEsBURY, July 1O 1859.
TO TKF EDITOR OF TIE NEWS.
The recent publication in The NEWS Of much
that interests the planter, induces me 10 ask
! the inse'ti in your columns OF an article
| more appropriately designed for an agricultu-
raj journal. AS q large proportion Of your
readers are planters, Il suggest for their con-
sideration the following inquiry Does corn
planting on uplamd in South Carolina. or
! throughout the snnth, Il mean the cotton helt
Of the South,) remunerate the planter? r"
A negative reply comes this year from all
quarters, and the same will be the case two
years in three. The twenty-acre field Of no.
land, that will produce this year ten bushels
per acre. will be the exception one-thrd ot
this goes to the freedman, aud the remaining
two-thirds will be consumed by wear and tear,
blaoksmith's bills. interest, insurance, taxes,
and the mule. The planters profit will be
nothing. Then why do planters persist in
| cultivating so exhaustive and still SO unremu-
nerative crop? [ can assign no other reason
than the one assigned by the boy who was
asked, why he went to mill with bushel OF
meal in one end OF the big and rock in the
other He replied, he did it because daddy
did 1t. ttH<
Advising against growing upland corn ann
not an advocate for the cultivation OF cotton to
the exclusion Of forage and provision crops.
Not at all. Corn should be grown more Or less
on all plantations, but solely upon such lands
as will p ~ best in corn. In my judgment there
is not labor enough in the South to glut the
market, were every acre of cultivated la, d
planted in cotton. But it would be rulnous in
more ways than one to pursue such policy;
breadstuffs would be greatly enhar ced, and
provender would become an expensive neces.
sity. The quantity Of corn; however, con-
sumed by man is but an item in tho products
OF the farm. It is the stock that are the costly
consumers. And the object Of this article is
to suggest method by which stock can be
more economically ted, labor more advantage
ously employed, plantations improved, and,
wi,hal, no corn cultivated upon up.ands.. /,
Any field capable of producing ten bushels
, OF corn per acre, will yield the same number
OF bushels Of rye; and one b:shel Of rye,
ground into meal aud made sinto s'mast"
with out rye straw, wall feed horse or mule
one-fourth longer time than bushel or corn. 4
The same fieid gown in rcd oats, anytime be- 4
tween 1st October and let April, will produce
Aareshed oats enough (the straw being sal.ed
and fed % fodder to feed q number OF apimals
one-half longer than the corn ana fodder from
the same field. N
Any piece Of land. having an admixture OF
clay in its soil. sown in wheat in November,
and top-dressed with ten dollars worth OF
commercial manures per acre, any time be-
tween the Let February aud the 1st April fol-
lowing, will yield wheat enoughfo pay for the
manures, bread the family, and buy the corh
the land would have produced. e@ "
Any field manured at seeding-time with ten
dollars worth per acre Of co nmercial manures.
and sown in barley. and again top-dressed as
suggested above Tor wheat, will rIodnce grain
enough to pay tor The manures, ana buy twics&
as much corn as the land would have produced
without manure. @-'@~-'- o& ,it;a4sAh
= Any laborer that can cultivate elk acres OF
ttoniand Elk Of corn, can just "a easily culti.
vate ten acres Of cotton and eight acres OF
either ;ot the cereals. E9 @ rTa,
These assertions are not made at random:
they are the result of my own experience. And
if these facts be true. each planter has but to
calculate for himself the difference in cost xf
seeding and harvesting small grain crop, and
Of cAltivatine o corn crop. Imay be INST with
the remark that wheat and barley are too cost.
ly to be fed to work animals. reply. II they
are worth double In market what corn is, and
can bushel Of corn, they are less expsnsive
feed for my stock than corn would be. II
their marketable value would be greatly re-,
du;ed by being more extensively sown then
we would only Re the happier people. because
breadstuffs would be cheaper .ag
For all small grain erops the land should be
thoroughly prepared as soon after the 1st
October as practicable, and the grain brushed
or narrowed in, not ploughed in, and the land
rolled. Harvesting should, il possible, be
done with a reaper, not with cradle. The
best GRADER will, in luxuriant small grain
crop, in spite OF himself lose from three 70 Eve
bushels per acre. IF the land is properly pye-
pared. the reaper saves it all.
We're q more extended area Of Morouahly
prepared land upon all OF our cotton planta-
tions sown in that small grain best adapted
to the respective plantations, we could live
more Independently, raise more stock, set .our
own price upon cotton, aud not bs SO solicit
GUS about labor. An Intelligent laborer aceus-
toned to improved machinery con cultivate
more land aud harvest more grain than any
half dozen men who use the uncouth imple.
ments Of slavery times. as q planter, I feel
that the great want OF the agriculturall inter
ests Of our State is the introduction Of that
class Of skilled laborers. who. bringing their
improved implements with them, will become
land proprietors, rather than the immigration
of hordes OF illiterate foreigners, who would
soon become as demoralzed aud tuncontrolla-t
bic as our existing labor. ~ -.re
Very respectfully,
ID. WyArT AIKEN.
-e-es-aansee@-e- e..-
NO PLACE LIKE ROMEy ss.
RETURN OF Confederate Colonists from
RrazlR-AH SSesx M the nm r0osu