The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1871-08-10
- Fhnriy Hints-On Smal / Grain.

The corn crop of the cotton belt, soon
to be harvested, will this year, no doubt,
prove sufficiently abundant to supply
the wants of the cottonrplanters, in this
respect at least, until small grain crop
can be grown, for a larger area has
been reported as planted throughout
the South, and the summer has been
generally favorable to the maturity OF
the crop; but if the cotton planters de-
sire to be independent of the corn crop
market, they must not wait for, another
spring and summer. tlirough which to
gee and haw" amongst the corn rows,
but begin now, this month to foftify
themseS Ses- tagainsteany possible contin-
genoysf failure. :, - =. -, -:
Where corn pays best, by all means
plant it; but it. is difficult to find any
such spots son the uplands of the older
Southern States. Where upland will
not produce fifteen bushels of corn per
acre, and it is not favorable to cotton,
I substitute peas, or that most profitable,
bat,most unpopular crop--sorghum A
psa. crop, -ploughed under, will almost
double the crop of wheat on red land.
Sorghum being an early fall crop, fur
nishes an early pasture and clean land
upon which to SOW any kiud Of small
grain.
Ordinary upland should be cultivated
in cotton, to be followed by oats, be-
cause with half the labor more food can
be harvested from an oat crop than a
corn crop; butt; to SOW oats in cotton
land, the planter should not wait until
be can plough up his frost-bitten stalks,
as is the usual custom, but begin now, or
early in September, to SOW as I will pres
emily describe. -
The aerror heretofore has been, that
not sufficient time is allowed between
seed time and harvest in small grain
crops. Many planters SOW wheat in De
cember and oats in February, anticipa-
ting as abundant a yield as if they had
sown early in the fall. Experience proves
this to be an error. The harvest will
neither be as abundant nor as early.
Red. spring wheat sown in December
will not ripen until June. I have
sown it in October andcut it be-
fore the 10th of May. Red oats sown in
September will ripen early in May, and
be several pounds to the bushel heavier
than the same oats sown in December
or; February. This fact attaches to all
small grain, and it is questionable what
time would be too soon to SOW if the
planter could be assured of wet fall.
No agricultural experiment since the
war has been so valuable to the cotton
planter as that which induced the sowing
of small grain in cotton land early in the
fall; and I know no one who more
Justly deserves the credit of this expert
ment than DR.. w. L. Anderson, of Alb
beville county. I have known him to
average over thirty bushels per acre in
his entire crop, and seventy bushels per
acre on small area. His method is
simply to pick over the cotton at its first
opening, and Immediately "side'' it with
blunt scooter, SOW the seed and run
horse hoe or narrow harrow through the
middles. A similar method was described
in the February number of the Raral
CaroInian, where all was said that need
be said of those invaluable red oats.
Last fall l sowed five bushels of bar
lev on five acres of fresh land, then
standing in cotton. Two furrows with
fourteen inch sweeps were run in the
and beautiful stand secured,
in two drills, one each side the row of
cotton stalks. By the 1st of April fol-
lowing, the barley had stooled out suffi-
ciently to cover the ground like a green
carpet. Either of these grains might be
sown at the last ploughing of cotton if
done any time in August. A crop would
then be grown simply for the sowing as
the ploughing is necessary for the cot
ton. I once sowed a patch of barley
early in August, and it was killed by the
hot sun after it came up. This would
not be the case in cotton land, as the
soil would be in fine tilth, and well
shaded by the cotton stalks.
Tramping over the young oats, or 9th
er small grain, while picking cotton
seems to benefit rather than iniure it.
The loose earth is pressed about its roots,
and where the leaves are broken more
vigorous growth of one or more shoots is
the consequence. The following March
the cotton stalks must he broken down
to enable, the reapers to cradle the grain.
The inventive genius of our country
has an opportunity here Of adding to the
list of improved implements. We need
something, that being drawn by horses,
will first knock off the limbs and cut off
the stalks. so that reaper can harvest
the grain.
WHEAT.
Red wheat is a harder grain than
white wheat and both kinds are so IL
.bJo IN d;coetor that NV ayperinnca