The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-01-16

bushels with more certainty anu 1873 oHPe
than corn will one; and if one bushel OF corn
will feed working mule four days, Two ousnels
of red oats will feed them FIVE days, keep them
in better health. make him more sprightly, and
tend to prolong his life, whereas corn as con-
slant food has an opposite tendency: IheSe
red oats have never yet taken the rust IN South
Carolina. and have never failed to remunerate
the farmer. if sown early enough in the fall.
IF sown in August they will supply winter pas
turage for sheep without detriment to the crop,
and greatly to the benefit of the flock. Io
economic labor they should be sown on cotton
land previously to ploughing the cotton the last
time. The cotton crop requires the work, ana
the oats are thus sown with no other cost than
that of. sowing. The cotton stalks can be
knocked down in March, and the oat crop har-
vested in May.
Every policy that aims at reducing labor on
the farm should be adopted, for no question mas
SO worried and troubled the Southern planter
When labor was capital, never were two an
taeonistic elements known to harmonic more
beautifully; but at present they ars the anti
podes of each other in the South and, contra
~ to all anticipations of practical economy,
where they conflict, labor usually becomes as.
cendant. No amount of capital can control
that peculiar system of labor now existing at
the South. Fair wages will command sort of
made-shift performance. Enhanced pay, or
wages increased even tenfold, will not pereep-
tibfy improve the quality of the work. Fifty
cents an acre may "hoe" an acre of cotton, sew
enty-five cents will not perform the work any
better. Ten dollars per month will command
so much labor; twenty dollars per month Will
not improve the quality, nor increase the guam
tity of the same work. such general conai-
-. .tt tI,,~s
individual farmer may effect different ana
better result upon his own farm, but, to make
the change general, some system must be adop-
ted that will produce the same result with less
dependence upon this inefficient labor. Ii
substitution of the small grain crop for the corn
crop, upon most of our plantations, dispenses
with one third the plough animals on the plan
tation. the same system will discharge the same
proportion of labor. Six laborers are required
TO cultivate seventy-ive acres of land, If thirty
in corn and forty-fve in cotton. -Four laborers
will cultivate the same area, If thirty be IN
small grain and forty-fve in cotton, thus saving
to the employer the hire and ratlons OF one
third the laborers, as we'll as one-third the
plough stock.
This system, too enables the farmer to rest
his lands, or (by succeeding his small gram
with green crop to turn under, IN the iaii,
such as the pea crop sown drown broadcast, at
the rate of two bushels to the acre. so rotate
his summer crop as to improve his LANDS
perceptibly in few years. Large yields OF
cotton may put money In the pocket, oue IL an-
nually impoverishes the farmer. Strange par
adox! but, nevertheless, true. Any crop that
frequently turns the surface of our soil to the
bleaching agency of the sun during our hot
summer months, must by evaporation extract
from the soil more fertility than is restored to
it by sprinkling of few pounds OF caustlc
fertilizers. And our washing rains always fall
during the Summer, washing away the little
soluble matter, or plant-food the soil contains.
Hence the devotee to cotton may for a few
wears receive handsome returns for his labors
but he seldom leaves to his offspring an In
heritance of an improved plantation.
Beef cattle cannot be proftably grown in the
greater portion of South Carolina, as market
able commodity. If every farmer butchered {.
suffciency for his family, and supplied himself
with milk and butter, it should sufhce. Beyond
this, cattle, in majority OF cases, are unpront-
able stock. Their heavy tramp Is injurious to
our light lands, and being the poorest OF scaV-
engers, they require too much ieeding ~ Desween
November and May to be profitable. VI course
certain portions of the State are exceptions to
this General remark. In the Pedee section and
coast counties of South Carolina, there are
large areas of uncultiyated lands that could be
in no other manner more prottably utilized
thar, by stocking them with herds of such cat
tie as are best suited to our climate and usage.
The Brahmin and Ayreshires, with their crosses,
would be invaluable to the owners OF such lands.
Strange as it may seem the chief objection to
stock raising in this Southern climate Is the
winter feeding. Sheep will winter themselves
nnon our cotton fields and the early sown
grain. but cattle must be housed and fed. For
tunately. however, any acre of upland, thor
ouchly prepared by deep ploughing and man
uring and pulverzing, will, if left to its lndi-
gcnous growth, produce grass enough to make
sufficient hay to sustain COW or OK during the
following winter And the turnip crop, pro-
perly sown and cultivated, will feed luxurious
ly two COWS to every acre, or twenty-five sneeP
to the same area. They should be sown IN the
drill, on highly manured and well prepared
land. in July or August, cultivated once with
both both hoe and plough, and fed away as drawn
from the drill. Any of the white varieties will
keep sound until half the winter is gone, and
the yellow Aberdeen and Ruta-Baga will, II
cultivated properly survive our winter with
nerfect sorndness. One thousand bushels,
either by weight or measurement, can easily be
GROWN to the acre. About three hundred
Bushels is an average crop in South Carolina
An Ayreshire COW will keep in good milking
condition all the winter on two bushels of raw
turnips daily.
But nothing eonduces so successfully to stock
raising as comfortable housing in wet or cold
weather. Alas {! for the poor .brutes, how many
of our farmers are prepared TO house their cat
tie, sheep, or hogs, even single wet, freezing
night in mid-winter? The inevitable cowpens,
half LEG deep in mud and manure, are of South,
ern origin, and seem to be peculiarly advocated
in South Carolina An animal that is careful
" protected from the weather during winter
nights, and housed during the day, if wet or
exceedingly cold, will materially reduce the ex
pense of keeping by producing large quantl-
ty of manure, and by entering upon the spring
in such a condition as to at least gratify It's
benevolent owner
To complete the best practical system Of