Richland beacon. [volume] (Rayville, La.) 1869-1890, 1876-02-12
AGRICUL UR AL.
From the Southern CulliNa'Or for Frbrnar
Thoughts for the Month.

Routine work, such as breaking land clean
ing up, repairing fences, making ditrhes, &c,
Is stll in order Everything Of this kind
should be pushed ahead and got'en ont OF the
way before spring work begins, for il is inf
niicly better to he Il litrle ahead than lirte
too late. Many Il crop has been ruined by
farmers being "iirle behind IN the spring.
A delay of one Tcek in planting. sometimes
decides the fa,e OF a crop. whether ii shall be
good or bad. Not only should all preparatory
work he finished up, but all the means and
contrivances for spreading manure and seed,
and covering them rapidly and well, should
be studied out and made read; in advance.
Planters overhanled, r!oughs repaired, barrels
for rolling seed geared up, larrows, bUardS,
or other contrivance> for covering seed gotten
ready. Rainy days may be most probably
spent in looking after these things. Now
that cotton seed and acid phospfat-s are being
20 largely used as manures, some contTivance
for distributing in the trl from | j 10 80 bush
els OF seed, uniiormiy and rapidly, !, much
needed. Ordinary planters, like the Dow
! Law, will 20 the work effectively, but with
these the hopper needs filling tou often when
| such large quantities are being disIrii.ue
| One tia: can carry enough with one loading
/ TO 20 Over one fourth TO one-haf acre. Is the
! thing now II .eded. Labor costs too much for
! one To have four or five han Is Stationed al
| different points to feed planters Of small
aIa:i,y. Nho can suggest an arr u e,nen,
10 meet the casc2 Let MS take Coz e TO
! gcihcr al.o as TO the best and most rapid
meth d OF distributing bulGy manure, a
barnyard composts, &c. If any of our reader:
! have good plans o: arran Irments for it lease
/ lei Us hear from them al oace. The heavy
job Of hauling out and di iputins these, i,
( one Of the main causes of farmers getting
Lehind i'll the spring.
PI CHING THE CROP.
We hope no reader of the Cul,ivator vii
! pitch his crops this year without mature lie
! liberation. Beware oil the "delu>ive phan
toms of hope, aud count well the COS; bet, rt
| beginning. See we'll To it that you do moi
orCr crop yourself not only in the sense O
planting more than you have mules or hands
TO tend OF nlanures to feTtlize, bu, in the still
more important sense OF have medns 10 pay
as you 90. Avoid credit in every shape anC
form. Ii has made the "middleman' the op
| pressor, and is the parent OF all our agrcul
tural troubles. You may attempt to explain
them by lhIs, that and tue ether, but they al
20 back at last to this miserable credit system
which las cursed the land for ten years past
( Examine your cribs aud barns, and il yol
have any more mules than you can Feed well
sell the overpus at once and reduce you
crop. Pay wages if possible to hands. aud i
you have means TO hire only few on TIN
basis, reduce your crop accordingly Rent you
surplus land to tenants who have the mean
10 plant without your Lacking" or else SOW
them in grains or grasses, or let them rest
is in tins sense that we urge you not to -over
crop" yourself
APPoRTIoSMENT OF LAND TO CRorS
For forn-BouoIn lands, Of course, if ther
are any on the iarm-if not, then the leas
Thirsty" lands TO be had Other things bein
equal seIec; fields in cotton or peas the pre-
yious year, as corn does best after these nitro
gen furnishing crops. On upland the chic
point TO he guarded agains, is drought. Fo
this reason we suggested the selection OF th
least thirsty and would now add free bu
jndicicus manuring. There is no doubt tia
all crops properly fed Withstand drought, col
and all other adverse circumstances bette
than those sfinted or stdrutd; and a corn Gro
can be greatly strengthened in this respect
by feeding il literally. with cotton seed-an
especially with cotton seed treated with aci
ahosphate-lOO lbs. latter TO 20 TO 80 bushe
seed. On well prepared upland, in goo
heart, we should not hesitate to apply a
much as fifty bushels cotton seed, thus treated
per acre. Even on the sandy lands Of South
ern Georgia, Mr.. Hardaway applies from g
to 100 bushels per acre without firing corr
True, his land has been well manured tor
number of years, and his crop Jud'ciousl
rotated. His rule. which is perhaps as goo
as any, is to apply three:fjfhs Of The manu'
in the drill before the corn Is painted an
f,co. .ffihs in furrow at the I'll working {
the corr. On bottom land, where there
no fear Of drought, two or three times ui
above quantities of manure may be prohaol
; applied, taking care with heavy manuring
, have sufficient number OF stalks TO make
large yield. On thin upland, lightly nanure'
good distance is ail-imporiani-On boito'
land, heavily mannred, crowding is equal
essential for the best results; 3x3 with
stalks in a hill is none too thick if there
manure enough 10 make 100 bushels corn ps
acre. In pcrfcc,ins your plans for a col