Wilmington journal., 1874-07-10
From the Southern Cultivator.
AGRICULTURAL.


| light but 1nceSsiiu6 cC1I1QaIlOn ILLS
month. The intense heat-and often
drought-demanda mulch of pulver-
lied earth upon the surface, to act as
q non-conductor of heat, to prevent
the soil which surrounds the roots
from acquiring too high temperature
and to prevent the escape of moisture
and nutritive gases. A thin mulch is
all sufficient; it is not necessary, there
fore, to plough deep-nor is it desira-
BILE, because a crop approaching ma
turity makes it's heaviest demands
on the soil; and the roots should be
permitted to push their absorbing ex
tremities through every portion Of the
soil. near the surface as well as down
wards.
LATER PLOUGHINGs OF COTTON.
These should continue through this
month and into the next-just as long
as the plough can be run without
breaking off limbs-rrovided they are
shallow; if deep, the sooner they are
stopped, the better. A plough that will
leave the surface as F0t as possible,
should be used-clean cotton fields are
most liable to wash fiat culture, es
pecially when laying by, is therefore,
very important. A Dickson sweep, or
harrow or cultivator, are the prop
| er implements for the work. Ii the
| preyious culture has been properly
done. little now remains for the hoes
| to do but if there are punches OF
grass. by all means kill them. We
| have often thought Of the practicable
| tv of freeing our cultivated fields
| from crab-grass, by year after
| wear keeping it from maturing
seed. Much less of this pest
comes up in a field which was careful
| ly cultivated in cotton the preceding
! wear, than in one planted in corn or
small grain, where the grass had an
opportunity to mature seed. North
ern farmers talk great deal about ex-
terminating weeds in this manner, but
weeds are not half so troublesome to
the Southern ia mer as crab-grass; and
hardly any labor or expense would be
more profitable on a farm than that
| employed in exterminating this grass.
| Drilling peas on stubble land immedi
ately after harvest, and giving them
clean culture-hoeing cotton as long
as any grass can be found in it, and
hoeing corn much later than is GUS
| tomary, are the first steps necessary to
check this great enemy of crops.
LAST WORKINGS OF CORN.
The corn-feld is the great nursery
of crab grass. As general rule the
fodder is pulled, grass has full sweep.
Corn is so cften tangled by wind,
that late ploughing of it is sell
dom practicable. The final cleans
ing must therefore be accomplished
I TO hn
plowing, that no old grass may sur
which springs up afterwards, and
prevent grass from coming up. The
corn Itself will not need any of these
late workings but the last named. The
question however is, whether labor
thus spent would not save greatly
more than an equivalent amount of
work, in the cultivation of crops in
subsequent years: Broadcasting with
peas or rye is in itself good practice lis
a source of forage or of pasture any
Incidental grass would be clear gain.
The last ploughing of corn should be
through but shallow. The brave roots
should never be cut they develope
an enormous system of roots around
the stalk and must perform very i'm
portant functions. That it is not sim
ply that of bracing the stalk, is evi-
dent from the immense number and
extent Of the tibrous roots thrown off
from them after they penetrate the
ground. Those who have never ex-
amined these roots, would do well to
4 sJaIh vi corn aItef IL IS IIIII SrOWh,
and inspect them. Root-pruning
sometimes brings an over luxuriant
fruit tree into bearing, but it does not
benefit growing crop Of any kind.
Many farmers break their land year
after year, say three inches deep
running the plough repeatedly
at this depth, makes hard
pan which the roots OF plants
cannot penetrate. They then
cultivate their crops with scooters and
shovels, running very nearly to the
same depth, so that the roots Of their
corn and cotton are confined to thin
layer of soil Just above this hard pan
possibly one inch thick
PEAS.
We have often urged more extend
ed cultivation of this crop. The usual
objection to it is the difficulty OF gath
ering, when cotton picking is taxing
the whole force of the farm. To meet
this. we have suggested that the peas
be drilled, and then a hand with
moving blade can lay down acres of
them in day. If this is done Just be-
fore frost, the vines, leaves and pods
will make good coarse forage, valuable
for mules and COWS. They will need
no curing scarcely, and may be quick
ly stacked or stored away. The small
gsain fields recently harvested, afford
excellent land for peas. The whip
poorwill or black Virginia pea, will
mature readily, if planted to them
selves, by the 18th or Goth OF this
month.
CLOVER.
The second growth of clover devel-
opes much more seed than the first,
and old clover fields about to run out,
ought not to be cut the second time,
but allowed to ripen seed and fill
the land with these, that there may be
no necessity afterwards of buying and
sowing seed again. A field of this de-
scriptiOn. which was cultivated in cot
ton last year and sown in oats last |
winter, has given us a splendid stand |
of clover this spring. In ploughing |
land for cotton, quantities of seed were |
buried too deep in the earth to germi- |
nate, and remaining dormant until
brought mp by the plough when the
oats were sown. This was shown by
the clover coming up very thickly in
the hard bottom of some washes caus-
ed by heavy rain just after the oats
were sown. This self-perpetuating
power of red clover is one of its most
valuable qualities. On red, stiff land.
if lined, it may easily be
made weed, springing spontaneously
like other weeda, and even gaining
ground on them, as we have seen it do
III our own experience upon poor up
lands III this vicinity.
After the seeds are fully ripe, say in
September or October, turn over the
land so as to bury stems and leaves,
and give opportunity for them to de-
and make food for crops
which are to..follow. This turning over,
# pretty deep, will bury enough seeds
beyond the terminating depth to reset
1he land in clover again, whenever this
upper layer of the soil is reversed by
'he plough and the seed thus brought !
n the SI1rfaon nnon moro :