The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1874-04-10
Agriculture

ness the phantOms of hope, who expect
thst age will realize the promises of
youth, and the deficiencies of the pre-
sent time will be supplied By the mor-
row, attend to the history" of the cotton
planter of the Southern States assert
ed in my last communication, Messrs
Editors, that the Southern farmer was
running his soil by demanding its every
energy in the production of one single crop,
feeding year after year upon exactly the
same kind of plantfood. And that no
soil, and particularly our light silieious
one, could long stand such uuwise de-
mand. That the elements of fertility
extracted yearly must be restored by
manure, either barnyard, commercial or
green crop turned under. That by
rotation of crops, we would take differ
ent elements from the soil; as varied
PLAINTIFF required different kinds of food,
and that this rotation not only gave res
liefto the soil in not having to part with
exactly the same elements yearly, but
that enlightened rotation should inS
clude crops (elover for instance, or peas,
or grasses to be turned undeF) that
would restore to the soil all and even
more of the elements that had been
taken away by previous ezhausting
crops. That we gained and did not lose
by rotation in more ways than one
in the annual yield of our crops; in the
constantly increasing, instead of con-
stantly deprecisting fertility and value
of our lands; in econonrising from ac>
tual field labor time amply sufficient to
manure, ditch, stop washes and haul
earth from the woods upon the galded
acres that now consume valuable time
with man and mule, never paying back
the expense of cultivation; in soon hav-
ing all the arabic lands inside our fences
good and productive soil, and conse-
quently having less expense in fencing
in being enabled to reft our farm build
ings, and even erect others for our stock
in winter, thereby effecting a eonsidera"
BILE saving of provender, for now a large
portion of the food given to our half
frozen stock IN winter is required to
generate warmth in them, and is too
much diverted from producing fat in the
animal; in enabling US to raise and
feed mere stock, TO fill up the meat house,
and to increase the manure heap; in
shielding US from the calamity that often
falls upon those who rely upon one crop
only, viz complete failure; in enabling
US to plant more largely of the cereals
and grasses, and at the sametime realize
as much money (strange as it may ap>
pear, yet nevertheless true,) from our
dearly beloUed Cotton alone, as we did
when We made double the amount, and
worked doubly as hard to make and
prepare the crop for market; in having
labor abundant, whereas, we are now
ransacking Georgia and 1.-THE rest o man
kind" to secure q man and a mule for
every fifteen acres of our arabic lands,
and when we have secured him, and
rail-roaded him to the old homestead,
we wake up next morning to find he has
been taken with great disgust, and
soiIh tearing. All this, and greatly
more, Is fairly chargable to our immod-
crate, excessive, and uncomfortable de-
termination to make all cotton, OF faint
in the effort. Perish land, prosperity,
comfort, everything and everybody, es-
pecially the children, but give me cotton,
"or give me death III" Now, don't
wish to be misunderstood in this matter
l do not wish to be understood as advo-
eating the total abandonment of raising
cotton; very far from it. Ny idea Is to
act in concert with the people of the
| cotton States who are moa0 moving to
lessen the crop produced, and make cot
ton at an enhanced price, by making
less of it, and at the same time increasr
ing our prosperity and material comfort
| by increasing our bread and meat crops
which will also insure the improvement
of our lands. am fully aware that the
cotton plant is not a great exhauster oil
| fertility in the soil, per Sc, but that i
is the clean and shallow culture it re-
! quires, and the consequent teaching Of
the soil attendant upon this culture il
our gently undulating and broken lands
that have made it the bane of the South.
Reduce the number of acres devoted tC
it on each farm to onehalE Keep it or
the level land as near as can be, and i
it ever goes upon a hill side see tina
your rows are as nearly horizontal al
possible, and let it be but once in five
years, then to be followed by grass Of
clover, and it becomes a blessing instead
of a curse. / mean to ourselves, no
especially to the world at large, for an
not one of those who think that the man
ufacturing and commercial, as we'll al
the social interests and demands o.
creation for cotton must Re met at thu
expense of the Agricultural interests o
the Southern States or that our chill
drens, interests are to be forever destroy
ed, and humanity in the Southland beg
CARED for ali time, that the matrons o
the Sandwich Islands may sport a Doll
Warden, or the stately friend and brother
the noble red man of the forest, may
cover his nakedness with breech-clou
made from the very life blood of South
ern soil, Sooner might EIlen's man. o.
Shacknasty Jim enter society in
| short muskrat roundahouk
Ny objection is to the practice O
making cotton cur main crop-almost
positively our only crop. 1t should b.