The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-10-23
The Pillow is the Remedy for Droutll.
Southern Cttltiyator.

year the crops were never more promis'
ing, both corn and cotton, also peas, po'
tatoes ard gardens, when drouth set in
and changed the fattering prospect to
one of dependency and failure. Fortu,
nately, old corn was nearly made, and it
sustained only an injury of about ten
per cent, but late corn vas ds maged fully
fifty per cent, if not more, and potatoes
and gardens ruined. The time is near at
hand for sowing wheat and oats, and the
ground is so hard and dry 20 plowing can
be done. These destructive drouths seem
to be of more frequent occurrence; last
year it was ruinous, also this year. And
whether we are undergoing a series Of
years of drouth, or only a temporary
period, it is very evident that our long
cultivated fields cannot stand drouth, not
even an ordinary droutb, without the
crops growing on them Immediately CIV
ing way; and if the drouth be protracted,
a total failure is the result. We cannot
regulate the seasons or predict with any
certainty what they will be-whether wet
or dry. But we can guard against ordi-
nary drouths to great extent, by man.
aging and preparing our lands in such
manner that will cause them to stand
drouth without injury to the crops, pro
vided it is not a protracted drouth. Well,
what must be done to prepare our lands
against drouth? The first thing is to
restore the land humus which has become
exhausted by long culture, and without
humus it cannot stand drouth or produce
fine crops. Humus is the life and exist
ence of land, and without humus it
becomes exhausted and barren. Then
how are we to restore to it humus? Only
by incorporating with it vegetable matter
to rot and become humus and that must
be done by rotating crops. Sowing down
small grain, clover, peas, ETC.; and with
the pillow turn under stubble, clover, pea
vines, weeds, grass, cornstalks, anything
that will rot. Depend on the plow and
vegetable matter to bring up your lands
with, and haul leaves and straw in your
lots to make manure to compost with
your cotton seed to use as fertilizers, and
abandon commercial fertilizers /; for l
have seen more farms and farmers ruined
by cotton planting and fertilizers since
the war than from any other cause. In
short, it has ruined all who gave up their
farms to cotton crops and commercial
fertilizers. The plow, and vegetation
turned under, is the only salvation of the
country. Diversity your crops, and let
them be largely in grain and grass, and
stock raising, and then will come a
change for the better. Make the farm
elf.sustaining, as nearly as it can be
done, and give up buying bread, meat
and fertilizers for the farm.
AS before remarked, our lands cannot
stand pow even ordinary drouths, for the
want of vegetable matter incorporated
with them. There is nothing to hold the
moisture in the land so, what rains fall
run of, or are lost by evaporation. The
commercial fertilizers furnish no humus,
hence they hold no moisture; but in dry
seasons hasten the burning up and de.
struction of crops. The pillow and vege-
tation is the salvation of the country.
So, go 10 work and plant such crops as
will furnish vegetable matter to turn
under. And after the wheat and corn
crops are harvested, don't turn stock on
them to Craze, but keep them off; and
let weeds and grass and vines grow on
them to be turned under with the plow.
And if the lands are 80 exhausted they
cannot produce crop of weeds then sow
down cow peas to be turned under, and
rely also on clover.
This fall as soon as the grounds can be
plowed, SOW down largely of wheat and
oats. For should the corn crop be in
jured by drouth, these crops will save you
from being short of provisions, and it is
the crops your lands need. And the oats
we want are the kinds that will give us
long straw, so we can cut high and have
long and an abundant stubble to turn
under. The fault I find with the rust.
proof!are they don't grow high enough,
and the least drouth they are so short
they have to be cut too low. The grazing
oat 1 have always found best for the
farm; they yield abundantly and make
an abundance of straw, which value as
much as the grain, and stand drouth bet
ter than the rust proof oats. My desire
is in having such crops as will afford the
most vegetable matter to turn under for
the belefit of the land; for our interest
now is to benefit the lands and keep up
their fertility.
JNo. II. DENT.