The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-08-23

with the production of one. No land
can stand such depletion and pay the
producer. The best evidence of the fer
tility of our lands is that they have been
able to stand such system of culture
and produce anything. I have travelled
over some of the. best farming lands in
the Northwest, the New England and
Middle States. The same system would
and did, for time, render these lands
very poor. The owners, however, saw
the error of their culture, and adopted a
system of rotation-planting piece of
land once in three years, sowing grass
and limeing. What was the result ?
Their lands increased in yield steadily
until they surpassed their virgin state.
The same thing can be done here, with
equal success, by a rotation of crops
sowing peas and clover and turning in
the same. Do not take these from the
land because they look so fine and you
are short of rough food for your mules
and cattle. The natural fertility of our
lands cannot be disputed. No State has
more natural advantages than South Car
olina. We can grow all the crops that
are grown on the Continent, from the
olive and banana down to the most sub
santial needs of people. Where can
we find such an Eden Yet, with these
natural advantages, we are poor. Cen
tlemen, the remedy is within our reach.
First, we must settle in our minds that
we will stay where we are. There is no
better place to move to, and then we
must work in the constitution of the
land. The land holds the power to pre-
pare the food for the plant, but you have
to put the material into it, just as you
supply the stomach with food, which is
then churned up and distributed to make
blood, bone and muscle.
How is the fertilizer to be used with
the largest result to the farmer? Is it
by applying large quantities to the acre ?
I emphatically say, no. You require
only what the land will utilize for the
plant to consume, and all over that sup
DIV is wasted for that year, and I think
is lost to the farmer. How will you as
certain the quantity the land will enable
the plant to use? Up to this time that
has been experimental and calculated by
the result obtained. In some instances
it has been remunerative, in others the
reverse. assert, without fear of contra
diction, that fertilizers cannot be used
successfully without ascertaining first,
what the land has been exhausted of;
second, what quantity of fertilizer the
land will enable the plant to consume
This can be obtained only by analysis.
This would be expensive to the farmers
singly, but not so as whole. There is
one fact to be kept in mind. The consti-
tutional tone of the. land must be parti-
ally restored before you can reap large
results from the use of fertilizers. Land
that will produce 600 pounds of seed cot
ton without the aid of fertilizers will GER
tainly produce from one-third to one-half
more by their use. 1t may double the
yield. That, however, would be too
large an estimate as a general rule. |
have had, with the application of 200
pounds of Pacific guano, on river land, a
yield of 1900 and 800 pounds per acre
of seed cotton, which did not yield more
than 500 to 600 pounds without it. l
have also had the same result from the
Etiwan, both beating Peruvian guano.
This land, however, seemed particularly
adapted to the application of fertilizers,
and the crop has never fallen back in the
past four years.. These lands were
cleared by the Indian, before the white
man settled the country.
The manner and mode of applying
fertilizers is very uniform; it is sowed
in a deep furrow and the dirt Tapped
upon 1.-THE cotton being planted upon
the top of the bed. Sometimes a second
application is made after the cotton is
thinned to stand by running furrow
close to the cotton, sowing the fertilizer
and throwing a furrow upon it. This
second application gives new impetus
to the plant, and goes far to perfecting
its fruit if there is enough vitality in the
land to give sustenance to the plant for
so long time. There is very often visi-
BILE in the month of August upon the cot
ton what is called rust by many farmers.
The leaves decay and drop off and the
plant dies. I say it is not rust in most
cases, but proceeds from the soil being
unable to supply food any longer, the
fertilizer having exhausted all the vitali-
ty that was in the land for that crop.
The cotton had attained a good size, we'll
fruited, all opened and picked early in
September. 1t may be said by some that
preaching and practice are two different
things. T admit that you may preach
always, bat unless we practice we cannot
expect to cure the land of poverty. The
longer the land is without medicine and
food for the plant, the more difficult will
be the task of building it up. There is
no time like the present to begin with
the remedy.