The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1888-12-13

uuu6E SuI uOb ouLuEicI duuy !oA oumuI0A
crops where sueh applications are made.
Otherwise these manures had better be
applied months before hand to some
preceding crop. Sometimes marvellous
and unexpected results are obtained, in
illustration of which I am able to give
one instance at least from my own xper.
fence. I began planting something more
than quarter off century ago, an enthu-
siast in favor of drainage, deep ploughiDg
aud manuring.
THE. SCHOOL OF EXPERIENCE
The frat year deep pIoughipg was ap.
piled mainly to the corn land, with
results which were at least encouraging.
The same season I planted 920 acres in
cotton and made 925 bales averaging in
weight 410 pounds. This Has very far
short Of satisfactory. The land vas
sandy loan, ploughed tot thahy years to
the depth .ofsix inches, and kept in good
heart By repeated rests and the applica.
ton of moderate Quantities of manure
whenever planted. Tho next year I
threw out 345 acres of the thinned land,
and broke the remaining 575 to the depth
of eleven inches, and applied about 30
per cent more manure than had been
customary, though this was BY no means
high mannring. The subsoil Tas yellow
and gray sand and as the fields we're
covered all over with it to the depth of
four or FIVE inches, their appearance
during the winter was by no means prom.
Using, aid tie heighboring planters
declared they were rtiined and could not
recover for many years.. But, notwith.
standing q storm in September which
destroyed not less than so bales, the
yield was 475 bales of the same weight
as the preceding year. -Four hundred
and sevehty.fve bales on $40 acres
against 1926 bales on $40 acres-that WAS
indeed wonderful aifferehEe, But
although continued to break the land
deep for twelve years wherever cotton
Was to be planted, and even up to the
present time never fail in any season to
break portion ofit, if only one or two
small fields, to the depth of ten inches, L
have never in twenty-five years been able
toget a repetition of those results, or
anything approaching thereto. I am
satisfied that I have lost the money which
T made that year fotr times over in my
effort to duplicate the results of that
experiment. There was one remarkable
feature. Not only did the yield of the
manured lands increase from 500 and 600
to 1900 and 1900 pounds of seed cotton,
but certain test acres which we're planted
without manure yielded over 1000
pounds, which was nearly double their
natural capacity. What was the explain.
alton of these somewhat remarkable
results? There is but one solution at all
satisfactory. The plough run to one
depth for q number of years had cause to
form at that point hard strata of earth,
known to planters as hard pan. Into
this, as into reservoir, had leached the
soluble parts of the manure which had
not been consumed by the plants. Itis
true that the amount Of manure applied
each year was small, but the aggregate of
many years was large, and when. brought
to the surface by the deeper ploughing
afforded mine of wealth for the succeed.
ing crop. That this is the lesson taught
by that experiment has been confirmed
by much subsequent experience.
HOW DEEP FLOWING WASTES MANURE.
It has long been known that the
mineral salts, like potash and phosphate
of lime, sink below the ordinary level Of
the plough, and more recently Sir J. B.
Lawes has found at Rothamsted consid.
erable quantities CT nitrogen in the water
from bis tile drains. Wherever their
land has been ploughed for series Of
years and manured, no matter how stiDgt
", these accumulations will be found not
wholly but largely in the subsoil, and it
is safe practice to go there in search of
them. Not so, however, when no manure
has been used and the soil has been rob.
bed and exhausted by repeated groupings
without manure.
It is true that there are soils, rich and
deep soils, which always respond to the
plough and seems to be practically ex-
haustless. Such are cur inland black
swamps when reclaimed by thorough
drainage. On such soils, with which the
writer has had much to do, it is only me-
eessary to go deeper, and bring up from
the depths below two or three inches of
soil which has never seen light before to
restore for a time almost their original
productiyeness, provided always that the
drainage is good. Bnt there is no creative
power in deep ploughing though there
may be something near akin. to it in
thorough tilth. It cannot benefit ex-
hausted land, except that in some instan.
ces the drainage is improved by breaking
the underlying hand pan, and the land is
thus prepared for manure, which is
always the indispensable adjunct to deep
ploughing on all ordinary soils. It
must not be expected that the riches
which have leached into the subsoil and
are brought back to the surface by the
plough will prove permanent. Take the
instance just given. The succeeding year
the land was again deeply broken ano
manured and planted in corn, and the
yield was nearly thirty bushels, which
was 80 per cent more than it had ever
made before. But the third year it was
again broken in the same way and plant
ed in corn without manure, and the yield,
notwithstanding good season for coru,
scarcely reached ten bushels, while the
growth exhibited every sign of poverty.
It will be seen that this tallies with the
results on the two acre patch, which soon
became exhausted after producing
nearly $500 pounds of seed cotton per
acre.
WHERE DEEP PLoUGH1NG is A NEcEs-
sITY.
Presupossing good drainage-where
land is scarce, and the purchase price or
the rent is high, as in populous countries
or the neighborhood oflarge cities; when
it is necessary that the quality ofthe crop
should be the best, as in truck farming
where the gross income flom an acre is
large, from 5000 to $4,000 for single
crop, of which two or more are grown in
single year, as in truck farming; or