The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-05-22
ESSAYS BEFORE THE STATE AGRICUL.
TURAL AND MECHANICAL SOCIETY.
Manure VS.. Phosphates.
BY PAUL s. FIELDER, OF oRANaEBURa.

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Soesety::
There are very few soils SO fertile as to dis
pense with manure of some kind. When such
soils do exist, by repeated cropping and re-
moving the produce, they will be eventually
worn ont, unless replenished in some way. A
soil, to be productive, must contain soluble
earths, and by repeated groupings some of these
soluble parts will become just as certainly ex-
ont of. and to which no corn is returned, will
pet empty. All earths are not soluble, and
consequently cannot be good for plants, and
those which are soluble enter into the compo-
sition of vegetables in different proportions.
No soil contains them in equal abundance, and
If a soil eis exhausted of only one of these
parts which enter into the composition of q
vegetable, it must inevitably cease to produce
that plant. By the continued planting and
removing of the growth of q soil, some of these
parts will sooner or later become exhausted,
and when this deterioration commences, itgoes
on with accelerated speed. There is no portion
of South Carolina with which am acquainted
that is not benefited by manuring. OF the
whole , State. I do mot know any section which
absolutely. requires higher culture and more
constant manuring than that portion in which
I live. and 7 doubt if any has paid greater at
tention or made more constant efforts In that
direction than the planters of Orangeburg.
So highly are all fertilizers valued, that cotton
seed cannot be bought at anything like rea-
sonable figure. Every planter selling bushel,
feels that he Is robbing his soil and adding to
the purchasers. The first thing noticed by
planter in Orangeburg is the location OF the
lot and its advantages for making manure.)
So certain are our seasons, and so few are the
casualties, that we judge the crop we are going
to make by the size of the manure pile and the
fertilizers that we intend to buy. I have never
planted crop without manuring the land; in
TACT. would as soon think of working my
horse without feeding him, and have never
failed to receive compound interest on all fer
tilizers. either bought or made at home. Yet,
in the face of all this, and although 1 have
been planting and manuring twenty-eight
wears, I never have had question propounded
upon which am so ignorant, and which l
find so difficult to answer, as the one now un-
der consideration. To me there seems to beno
both in the same field Never separated them.
Now, the question is, or at least the first to be
answered Is, (Which is the cheapest fertilizer,
whether domestic or commercial ~ That
places on one hand the lot and stable, and on
the other Peru and the phosphates. am
called upon to decide between them, when
use all my spare time to make the one, and all
my spare money to buy the other, and have
never had enough. It Is easy enough to tell
the cost of commercial fertilizers. Ionly have
to look at my factors bill but how cheap it is,
sult: The field is so large, and the expense so
great. that cannot see to the end of it. 1t is
not how much more cotton has it made the
land produce this year, but how much has it
improved the land also, and how much better
and more efficient labor can be commanded in
consequence, and how much more cotton seed
IL Wilt add as domestic manure, and how much
It will enhance the value of the lands and the
reputation and credit of the planter follows
Mr. President, who can calculate 1T IL
rises to my view like mountain behind noun
tain. uutii am lostin its contemplation. But,
air. L will endeavor to give my experience in
figures and facts rs nearly as possible. can
oaly approximate, as have never kept any
detailed account of my operations. have
never weighed or measured g. load of manure
or counted the loads to the acre. But what i
do know is, that with the use of domestic
manure and commercial fertilizers in connec-
ton in three years brought my land up from
200 rounds seed cotton and FIVE bushels corn
per acre, to 1000 pounds OF seed cotton and
from fifteen to twenty of corn 70 the acre: l.
will try to make an estimate of the cost OF lot
and stable manure, and to DO this viii nave
~SA
littering tie stable is concerned, that may be
put down as nothing. It is necessary for the
comfort and good keeping of she animals sta
bled. Also, the feed and feeding cannot be
CHARGED to the making of manure. Thaus, in
his principles of agriculture, says al animal
stabbed will make double the weightOf his feed
in manure, and my experience is load OF
manure for every wagon load of litter hauled
in. The plan pursued was or damp Gay 10
take all hands, some with hoes to scrape up
leaves, top soil and decaying limbs, and the
others hauling it in and scattering it over the
lot in which penned my cattle. ! put csean
straw in the stables. This was done mostly IN
the fall on wet days when no other work could
be carried on advantageously. About the first
of December, in damp weather, 1 began to
throw it up into one large pile, mixing in the
stable MANURE. When about half done Sc
lacted some two or three old cattle which
Thought it would cost more to winter than they
were worth, and in large stock there are always
snch. killed and skinned them and putthem
upon the pile. I then threw on top enough
stable manure to cover them we'll. After which
I finished my pile, completing it with lot
sscrapings. After each rain, as the Liquor set,
tied in the low places, had it dipped up and
thrown over the pile by, pouring 1t into broad
trough with holes bored about in the bottom.
About the first of January began to haul out,
nattine saw eight four-horse loads to the acre.
Fhans saws in his agriculture that thirty-six
cubic feet or 1000 pounds is load. My fields
are close to my lot, so two hands can haul easi-
weight loads per day. I will put that down
at fifsy cents per load, makes the hauling four
dollars. One hand can scatter an acre, say
fifty cents for that. The piling and hauling in
We will say costs one dollar. We tanned the
skin of the animal buried, and that pay, tor
that-so we have the cost pei acre, five dollars
and fifty cents. 1 will remark here that the
animals buried will have entirely disappeared
in three or four weeks, even the bones will all
be gone, except the very large ones. If there
is any smell little plaster goS So1rsots cas. it. t. That Ihat
phate or euano, which will cost about seven
STs It :, Nv on;n;on then land dressed