The Osceola times., 1875-11-27
PLANTATION TOPICS.
NORTHERN EXPERIENCE ON SOUTHERN
SOIL.

The natives of any country or region,
accustomed to routine handed down
from father to son for generations, are
very apt to be blind to the faults of
the system of agriculture practiced
among them. 1t is easier to run in the
old ruts than to break out new paths.
1t requires no outlay of thought, and
they follow the beaten track, no matter
how devious. A stanger, coming in
contact with conditions of climate, soil
and labor, new 10 him, finding the
routine to which he has been accustomed
broken up, and being compelled to
study the novel problems before him,
is far more likely to find new and bet
Ter ways of doing things. If candid
and free from prejudice, he will examine
with respect the methods pursued by
his new neighbors, many of the details
of which are the results oflong expert
ence, and will adopt them, so far as he
finds them apparently good but while
learning many valuable lessons, he will,
in return, teach those around him
that is if they, too, be found willing to
learn-some things which they, from
being so welded to their old ways,
would not otherwise have found out.
We may laugh at the blunders which
the northern farmer, commencing OPP
erations in the south, is pretty sure to
make, even if he be not particularly
conceiled, but, ten to one, he will, if
he perseveres, make Il better southern
farmer than ma ority of those to the
manor born. A correspondent Of the
Country Gentleman, writing from
Aiken, 5. G., furnishes case in point,
and also a good illustration of the ad-
vantages which the south holds out to
immigrants from the north and west.
The writer was New Yorker--a
business man--broken down in health,
and seeking, first of all, rest and recu-
peration. At Aiken he found large
number of old residents, who, origi-
nally brought there to die, had re-
mained there summer and winter, and
in the course of years had entirely re-
covered eirstrength. The testimony
as to their former condition, and the
evidence of their complete restoration,
led him to purchase plantation near
Aiken, and enter upon the novel life
ofa southern farmer.
Sunlight, fresh air, the opportunity
of outdoor exercise every day with
the absence Of injurious influences
such as dampness, malaria etc, con
stitute the remedies which nature
| furnishes, in favored localities, for tn,
healing of diseased lungs, or indeed
for almost any deblitated condition O
the body. These he found there, anC
they brought back his lost strength
and he became again well man. Il
is with his farming experience, how
ever, that we have to do. His article
is too long to be copied in full, but We
make copious extracts.
LIME FOR COTTON.
We planted the first year but one
acre of cotton. From reading agricul.
tural papers, and from observation,
had developed theory that cotton
needed a great deal of lime. So in
planting my experimental acre, re.
solved to test that idea. | selected a
piece of land with a sandy loan on
the surface, but with subsoil of yel-
low clay only about six inches from the
top of the ground. About half the
acre had been at one time garden
the other half had never been manurcd.
The rows were laid off three and a
half feet part; a furrow was opened,
subsoiled, and two hundred and forty
pounds of Peruvian Guano (Chincha)
sprinkled in them. Four burrows, of
light one-horse plough, were then
thrown into bed over each manured
furrow, a shallow furrow was made in
the bed with n narrow "bull tongue
plough, exactly over the guano, the
cotton seed was sprinkled in this firrow,
two bushels TO the acre, and covered
with fiat board fastened upon a
plough-stock.
All this was, of course, done by the
direction of my foreman, as | knew
nothing of preparing land for cotton.
Now came my part, and when ordered
three barrels of air-slackedt tstone) )lime
to be sowed broadcast upon the surface
of the ground, over the newly-planted
seed, there were predictions that the
crop would be burned up by the lime,
etc. But an order from the owner
must be obeyed, and the lime was spread
as directed. The cotton came up in a
few DAYS and at once turned such a
dark, greasy color, that my negro
hands shook their heads, declaring that
they never saw cotton look like that
before, NV foreman, however, was
delighted, and foretold great things
from the experiment 1t was tended
in the usual way, except that it grew
so fast that it could be ploughed but
twice, instead of four times-the
ordinary number. We had Il drouth
of over five weeks duration in July
and August, but the subsoiling enabled
the cotton to endure it without losing
many forms. We gathered from the
acre one thousand eight hundred and
sixty-seven pounds of seed cotton,
(which, after being ginned and balcd,
sold in Augusta for a few cents over
one hundred and four dollars.