Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1873-05-01
Agrifnltnral department.
From the Rural Carolinan.
THOUGHTS FOR THE MONTH.

If the reports which come to US from all
parts of the country are trustworthy, there
will be larger area planted in cotton this
year than last, and much greater quantity
of the commercial fertilizers used to increase
the yield. With favorable season, there
fore, we may anticipate heavy crop and a
decline in prices. Well, it is useless to re-
monstrate. "Cotton on the Brain is not a
durable disease. All we can do, is to wait
till those who have contracted it shall die off,
and give place to more sensible men, and a
more diversified agriculture
Whether little cotton or much is to be put
in, the crop will now properl claim much of
the planters time and thought. Let the work
of planting be we'll done so as to secure, if
possible, a perfect stand without replanting.
Mellow beds and even rows are essential to
good cultivation. A fne,toothed harrow is
an excellent thing to run over the tops of
BEDS 1t may have a cross-bar behind the
middle with triangular piece of wood at
tached, point down, to make a clean, even
trench for the seed. This facilitates the first
working very greatly.
1t seems like the reIteration of truism, to
speak of the necessity Of diversified industry,
to give real prosperity to State or a country.
Yet, our people do not seem fully to realize
the truth, or, realizing it, do not act upon it.
Agriculture is the basis of all the other indus
tries, but basis is nothing without super
structure. We must have the mechanical
trades, manufactures and commerce, to fur
nish US with the necessary supplies of imple-
ments, machines, utensils, clothing, &c. These,
in their turn, make home market for our
cotton, our wool, and our grain, and give en-
hanced value to our real estate. 1t is, then,
as clearly the farmers interest to encourage
these industries, as it is to promote the welfare
of his own special business, since in promoting
the one, he helps the other. We want now,
particularly, cotton mills, and manufactures
of agricultural implements, and we must con-
tinue to agitate the question of manufacturing
till we get them. We are glad to see an ava
kening on this subject in all parts of the South,
and we look forward with hope of brighter
days and renewed prosperity as results.
We require not merely diversified industry,
in the general sense in which we have spoken
of it, but in our own branch Of business-di-
versifed agriculture. Why are the farmers
of the middle, and especially the northern
parts of South Carolina, and of the South gen.
orally, more prosperous to-day than those of
the low country7 Mainly, we think, because
they are pursuing wiser policy in regard to
diversity of crops. They plant more largely
the provision crops, especially small grain,
grow clover and the grasses, raise few sheep,
and give more attention to stock generally.
Their eggs are not oil in one basket and
whatever may happen in the cotton crop or
the cotton market, they are sure of something
to fall back on, and their families, and their
stock, are ensured against want. If cotton
does well and brings good price, they see
the color of the money, Cor a part of it,) which
it brings. We have never discouraged cotton
planting in the South, but we have felt it a
duty to protest against the ruinous "all cot.
ton" system, and we expect to continue to do
DR.. Daniel Lee says many good things in
the Plantation and among these we count his
injunction, "This year pull no fodder" Why?
He answers: "Simpy because you can do a
great deal better !" How? Make hay, and
drill corn for fodder. "Compare," he says,
"the small bunch of fodder one pulls from an
acre of corn, with the labor necessary, and
the injury done to the grain, if pulled early
enough to have frst-rate fodder, with twenty
four thousand pounds of fodder, cut when all
the nutriment in the seeds of this magnificent
plant are yet in its blades and stalks Put
all the nourishment there is in fifty bushels
of corn, back in the plant for hay, cure this
hay properly, and can man reasonably doubt
that an acre of such fodder is more profitable,
pound for pound, than the blades, which are
simply stra,o after the grain is made? To tell
the truth plainly, pulling a few hundred
pounds of corn straw to have little rough
ness, and keep few rough-looking cattle and
mules from starving, is sorry feature in
Southern Agriculture"