Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

ORANGEBURG NEWS-EXTRA. -7 ? [From the Rural Carolinian.] \ David Dick son ?nrt Improved Farming. David Dioksoa, undoubtedly tho beat and most successful planter in Georgia, if not in the whole Suntli. ia of English descent, und whs born in iliiucoek County, Up., July fith, 1809. His father, Mr. Thoinas Dickson, was a uutive ot Virginia, served in the Kevolutionary army, and soon after the olose ?f the War of Independence roraoved to Georgia, where he died in 1827, at the age of a little over seventy years. His wife, the mother ot tho subject of our sketch, was born in North Carolina in 1777, and survived her husband n.auy years, dying in Im'. 1, at the ago of about eighty-seven years. Mr. Dickson, therefore, coaioa ot a long-lived slock, and inherited from his parents what has been of more value to him, and contributed moro to his success thun the largest fortune could have done?an excel lent constitution and u strong, well balauced brain?a souud mind in a healthy body. Beyond this bo received little, his share of tho paternal property amounting to only $1,201). His educational advan tages were quito limited, but his clear, comprehensive intellect, his close observation, and the best use ?f his opportunities lor reading and study, have enabled him to acquire a stock of practical knowledge, ?aeh as low with better early advantages cau boast. Mr. Dickson commenced his business-lito as a small country trader. In 1835 ho entered into part nership with Col. Thomas M. Turner, aud opened a store in Sparta, Ua., where they wcro isucccssful; doing a hoavy country business, which they eoutiuued to push with great energy for live ynars. In io4o, having ?uuliy closed liia uiorcuuiiio business and tnude all the necessary preparations, Mr. Dickson returned to the place whure ho wits born?his lather's old ho-ncstead?and commenced farm ing with a capital of &iu,000, acquired in trade. When the war broke out his property was valued at $900,000, all inude in planting. His plantation in Hancock aud Washington Couuties (adjoining) comprise about 16,000 acres, aud he owns auothor of Ul.OOO acres in Texas. These figures speak for themselves, and indioMO a degree of energy, skill and forethought which few possess, and without which suob grand results could not have been reached in any branch of business. In porson, Mr. Dickson is above the medium height, well foriuud, stout aud robust. His complex ion is fair, fresh and ruduy, and tho expression of In. countenanco grave, serious, thoughtful and be nevolent, with a vein of quiet humor, however, underlying the whole, reminding one of the best typo of the Quaker, though he is not a memocr of that respectable and peaceful sect. Ho is plain in his dress, uupreleuding in his manners, speaks his mind freely aud without fear or favor, and has very dioidod opinions on most questions Ol genernl interest. He looks younger than the figures we have given show him to be, and has all the activity and energy of a man of lorty years of age. Long may t live to leach tho South, by both precept and example, bis system of Improved Farming. mb. dickso.n's plantation. During the first week in August last, with the interests of Tub Rural Carolinian and its fifty thou sand prospective readers in view, we made a brief visit u Mr. Dickson's plantation, situated on the Little Ugoochce River, in Hancock County. From the bcuulilul little town ol bpartm, a drive of nine or ten miles through a pleasant rolling country, the wooded portions ol which preseuted a mixed growth of pine, oak aud hickory, brought us to Mr. Dick?on's hnumsieud. The soil ol the uouutry through which we passed, like the forest growth, is 01 a mixed churacter, red clay and gray sand alternating. Wo passed several neat, well cultivated plantations, which seemed to indicate that Mr. Dickson's precept aud examplo iiad not been without their influence. Collen v.-as here, as wc had observed it elsewhere during our journey, tho principal orop. Those who think our ancient king baa beou deposed are greatly in error. II* yet lives and reigns in spile ol war, emancipation aud " reconstruction." As we approach Mr. Dickson's plantation the soil loses its miked character, the land becoming what is called gray, and the forest growth being mainly long-leaved pine. On entering the plautaliou we observed thai the gales and lencea were all in a serviceable condition, and loat there was that undohuable air ot tln ijt aooul the place too generally lacking among us. lieiweuu the main road aud the house we passed a large coru-tield?tho largest aud the best we had seen during our journey. It was good coin, bui the couditiou ot the held slightly disappointed us. It was not tree lroin grass, and had not been worked in the most skillul manner. We afterwards learned that it was rented lo treeduiun whom Mr. Dickson had nut bceu able to induce to do the work just right; so when we rclerred lo ihv fluid its ihe best we bad seen, he said that it ou,-hi to have been a great deal belter, and that he would noi own it as a specimen ot his farming at all. W* met Mr. Dicksou at ihr house?a very uiudcsi collage, such as you may see on many a small farm in Georgia or South Carolina, with nothing reiuuikablo or pretentious about it in any way. Everything lor use aud uomlorl, and nothing tor show is evidently the rule. The tarm buildings aud negro quarters are more likely lo aitruci aiieuiion ibau the dwelling, as tbey are deoidedly better than are usually seen. a modul cotton-kield. The first thing that attracted our special attentiou as we approached the cotton-field was its smooth ness of aurlace?the entire absence ol those ridges and hills, liiu.de by the plow aud the hoe, which mark the rows in our fields generally. 'Iho next noticeable peculiarity was its perfect cleanness. No friuge of erab grajs aud no straggling weeds were to be seen. Mr. Dicksou doos not attempt lo make a ciop of coin.a ami a crop of g. t*s on his laud at the same time. The cotton was a sight worth trav elling all the way noui Chain ion to see. Wu bad seen nothing like it dunug our journey. Some small patches on town lots in Sparta und elsua here could show plunts quite as tall perhaps, but the pre eminence of Mr. Dickson's coiion he.- in its stocky growib, Us numerous heavy branches?and, above all, in its prolitiu fruitage?the bull* und ?yuarei ctutltriiig thickly in doublt ruin upun tht brauch?*. "1 do not culti' 'le oolton lor iho weed," Mr. Dicksou remarked, " but lor the bolls." There bad beuu a severe drouth, and much ol the cotton we had seen elsewhere had shed leaves, squares and bolls to a greater or less extent, but here w< observed no loss of this kind, the plants being fresh, healthy and vigorous from bottom to top. In brief, here was cotton that promised a yield of two bales to the acru; and it was not on rich bottom land, but on what people are pleased to call a "pine Warren"?not fresh pine barren either, bul laud that has been under cultivation for in cutj yean, and was so poor and worn out when Mr. Diokson bought it, wu were told, that no one else would have it at any priee. With these facts in view, one begins to apprcoiau the results ol his improved system of farming. The field of which we have been Speaking will, under Mi. Dickson's cultivation, produce forty bush els of corn to tho acre, and his coin orop never tails: No drouiL burns it up. "1 cau tell in the spring," Mr. Dickson said, "where the dry ttrtak will lull in summer. It always follows tho bad lariu ing." The "dry streak" never tails on am corn-Held. Wo shall see why when we come to examine his mode of planting and cultivating corn. Wc might speak al much greater length of what vvc suw and heard during our brief visit to Mr. Dickson's plantation, but whut our readers are most interested in learning is, how tho results we havo described are attained. Mr. Dickson is successful, lie makes heavy crops on poor land. He has ac quired wealth by planting. Every planter and farmer, it is piesumed, would like to be and do the same, and each is anxious to know how the thing is done. 1111. dickson's bystkh. We can toll our readers, in brief, how Mr. Dickson farms, but wo cannot ensure every man who may essay to follow his example the same success, few possess his intellectual capacity, his sound judg ment or his executive abilitu s; bul all way iniproi u und approach, it they cannot reach, Mr. Dicksou'a high position among the gieai agi icull ui ist.- ol (hi present day. The principal points in Mr. Dickson s system, as ihey struck us in our examination of his opera tions, are: 1. A deeji and thorough preparation of the soil; 2. Iho liberal use of manures; 3. Level and tUulUne cultivation ; 4. Rotation ul crops; L>. Economy ol labor. Do you say that Iben- is .lung new m all this 7 1'orhapi no., in theory tho principles which underlie the system have, In the main, been long since accepted by the best inioimed agriculturists ol Europe and Alueiica, bul our practice, With lev, exceptions, has been duilnelrically opposed lo 'hem, wni more strikingly appear wicu we look at the mallei mini what in detail. Firn, Iben, in regard > the preparation ot the soil. Air. Dickson's maxim is, "ptuin a* ilrrp m ^.m can," or ?uy lroin eight to tiileeu inches und sub-soil ov cry lourih year, accumulating all tht vegttulilt matter you run on tht ?urjuc? to bt imutit in. Eund :hn- prepared admits the air, holds moisture and and ahows ihe roots ol plains to penetrate deeply, and thus ensure themselves uguiust drouth. Do our in: uu r.? generally pit} are then son in tin.- nay, m make uny approximation to it? In the seen lid place, everybody Knows thai manure is a very good Hung lor growing crops, hut we go on, y?ur utter year, planting without manure, or with very little ot it. Mr. Dickson, knowing that manure, judiciously applied, will pay, uses it littty. hut whut kind of manure, und how much I In the lirst place he returns every thing tolheland (after being eaten or used; which he has taken from it, except ihe lint of the cotton, und, in addition, gathers leaves, pine straw, and the sciapitiga ol swamps, and digs muck to spread in bis slock yards and to scatter broadcast on his fields. Then be makes up the required amount ol the fertilising elements i.y the application ol a ooneenl rated compound composed ot Feiuviun guano, dissolved I on. s, common suit, und land plaster in equal pioporiions by weight, mix ing tbe iiigicuisuis Inmsell. Ol ibis euuipuund he has n.-tu ibis season, it we mistake nol, about S00 poonfl* to the acre (except on rented lahOj at a ooat, probably, ol not tax troin I2t> par acre. Ia taoh BiasBiftig aii mm tbn.f?ii. practice ?t mean?among out planters and iaimsv*' now HK PLANTS COTTOS ASO COUS. But it in in tho planting and working of his crops that Mr. Dickson's practice differs most strikingly from that of most planters. Lot us son how ho does it: 1. Cotton,?He makes the rows four foot apart, opening with two furrow? a trench about eight inobet deep. Into this deep furrow tho manure is scattered and covered with a scooter plow, going aboat as deep as the other two furrows, and followed, on each sido of tho scooter furrow, by a turn-plow running ?even inches deep. He opens the seed furrow with a bull tongue plow, drops tho soed thiokly and eovori lightly with a board. Tho plowing is dono with the famous Dickson sweep, running shallow? the last plowing not more thill half no inuh drop?and the plowing and booing \a repeated as often as is necessary to keep the ground perfectly clean, hut the noil in tint hen/n it vj> about the cotton nor the root* cut by either plow or hoe. When tho crop is "laid by" the ground is nearly level and smooth. 2. Com.?The liimt being broken up at least eight or nine Inches deep and sub-soiled if practicable, he lays off furrows, with a long shovel plow, seven fttt apart; then, commencing at tho opposite end, he opens out tho farrow with a longer shove) plow, leaving the furrow open teeen or ei./ht inche* deep. Whatever manure he uses is deposited in this furrow, tlirne feet apart, and the corn dropped three or four inches from the manure. Ho covers with a light harrow one ami u half inches deep. Observe that wu have hen.' deep planting, but DOl deep covering. Ho gives his corn three thorough workings, keeping .he field clean and free from grass, and planting a row of peas between each two rows of corn. The details of hifl cultivation we intend to givo at a future time. It is sufficient to ?m here that the same principle of shallow plowing is appliod to corn as to cotton. There is no hilling up, but n smooth, level Surface Does not the. reader now ree. why Mr. Diokson's corn never satiers seriously from any ordinary drouth? Having for several years planted corn on a similar plan, though not quite f<- deep, wo can sld our own testimony, were any furthur evidi nee needed, in favor of deep planting and shallow cultivation. Mr. Dickson's rotation in cropping h^ lund is: First year, Cotton ; second year, Corn; third year. Small (?ruin; fourth year, tho land lies fallow. Tile resting of tl.c laud allow- it to accumulate humus or vegetal l< matter, which may bo increased by planting peas, (or clover, where it will succeed.) to he turned in nt tho proper time. It would not seem very difficult to follow Mr. Dickson thus far, so as to keep within sight of him at least, but when we come to what we have called Economy and Labor, there lire brought into play cor tsin natural gifts with which few are so largely en do wed as he. "The farmer ini>?<t make every stroke tell, Mr. Dickson says, and he does make every stroke tell. Not satisfied with increasing the productive capacity of the soil, he develops also, and still more won derfully, the productive capacity of the laborer. This ho accomplishes by using improved implements; by time anil labor-saving modes of working, and, more tbnn nil, wu think, by his peculiar talent for training and managing the laborer himself. This prcuhar trait is most strikingly illustrated by the faot that under tae old system, when labor was perfectly under control, he was accustomed to cultivate thirty three acre* t,, thr hand, while other plunters, as a rule, cultivated only fifteen; and to accomplish this he employed no overseer or driver. Such is Sir. Dickson's farming. A general ad intion of Iiis methods, with only an approximation to his executive efficiency, would at once wort than tloublt the product* of th* South, and at the same time inareaie, year by year, instead of diminishing the fertility of the seil. [From the Rural Carolinian.J The Charleston Phosphates. That singular deposit, known as the Charleston I'hosphato Oed, possesses an interest to the geologist aud the scientific inquirer which few others can claim, there being nothing exactly like it, so far as known, anywhere else oil the gl dm. Ii is very superficial in its position, and, in the geological sense of the words, of very recent origin. The nearest approach to it, according to Professor Agassis, exists in the pampas of South America, where there are deposits of Very recent geological formation, whioh hav? been kaown to scientific men lor ha t" a century, and which contain an immense amount of fossil remains. Professor Aga?fi/. says: " Thes<? deposit* are so full of these bones thai if they bad bi conic decomposed they would hare formed phosphate of lime similar to this South Carolina deposit. A few bones are found in this phos phate of lima, which are the bones of extmet animals, also, and 1 should not t>e surprised if the progress of discovery should show that the phosphate of lime bed in South Carolina is equivalent to those of South America, and that the phosphate itself is the reitil: of the decomposed bones, which, in South America, are preserved, to give us an idea of what wi re the aoimali ol those times. That is all I can surmise concerning the origin ot that vast deposit, aud there is such a similarity between the superficial deposits of South America and North America, that I think this it) probable." Be this as it may. we have undoubtedly right here, ut our very doors, one of tho most wonderful deposits of tho remain* of extinct annuals in tho world?au "immense pala'ontological museum," as some one has aptly culled it. A lute writer says: "There are whole acres thickly studded with fos>ild. Among these, bones have boon recognized of tho mammoth, mastodon, megatharium, mylodon, megalonyx, phoeodon, several varieties of the sauri, teeth and bones of the shark, and numerous other fishes in great variety; also teeth and bones of tho horso, dog, sheep, ox und hog. differing little, if at all, from those belonging to our present domestio animals. Pieces of pottery, also, have been found, with stone hutchets, arrow heads, and other imple ments of human skill, all in this same bed, almost identical in their character with similar remains found some years ago near Abbeville in France. There have also been found one or two human hones. "This rtrangn collection, this miniature sepulchre of the ages?whero animals extinct sleep side by tide with others, the ancestors peihaps of our duily companions?where men, beasts, reptiles, and fishes, would seem to have found a common grave." But, interesting as these deposits arc in their scientific and speculative aspects, it is to their com mercial value ami their probable influence upon the future of our city and State that wo desire at present more particularly to call attintion. It is more to our purpose to show that we have hero the means uf renovating all the poor, worn out lands of South Carolina, and adding hundreds of millions to the wealth of the State, tbuu to wax eloquent over imtocn'c shark's teeth, gigantic vertebras, and ponderous maxillaries. It is with the phosphate rocks, or nodales, rather than with the bones, that we have to do at present. * Tho existence of the phosphate rocks, now found susceptiblo of being transmuted?not directly into gold, hut into cotton and corn, and thus into greenbacks?bus been known, not only to the planters who turned them over with their plows, and the cultivation of whoso fields they obstructed, but also to men of science, for a hundred years at lenst. They are found piled up on lawns, on the borders of cultivated fields, and by the roadside, as something to be got rid of in the easiest possible way. Their real worth was not. until within the past few years, even suspected. It has beim long known, however, that the marls existing in the vicinity of Charleston are very valuable as fertilisers, and that they ?ontRin from six to fifteen per cent, of phosphate of lime. It was the working of these marl beds which led indirectly to an appreciation ol the value ut the phosphate rocks. The want, then, of a cheap fertilizer, the roiisequi nt continued interest felt in the Ashley marls, and the investigation! set,on toot by \ arties interested in procuring an available basis for thosmanufacture of a concentrated manure, seems to have led, step b.v step, to n discovery of the value of the phosphate rocks; but the proximate cause, singularly enough, was ihe reading ol a little book, "Arnsted's Leo tures on Practical Ueology," in which it is staleu that there are vast deposits of phosphate rocks in the vicinity of London, just as there are in the vicinity ol Charleston, and, moreover, that these rocks near London?nearly identical in composition and iu surroundings with those near Charleston?were being turned into a valuable fertilizer. This opened the eyes ot scientific men here to the economis value of our phosphate rock- and led to their cat etui analy sis, by w hieb it was shown that they contaia from fifty to seventy per cent, of phosphate of lime and iroin .-ix to seven per cent, of organic matter. The limits of the great phosphate bed ot the Charleston basin have not been exactly defined, hut it it certain that it is very extensive, some estimating its area at thirty square miles. It crops out on the bunks of the Ashley, Ashepoo ami Couihahco Rivers, but is developed most heavily on the first named. The stratum varies in thickness from six to sixteen Inches, and occupies a nearly horizontal position, protruding at the margins of the rivers and lying deeper us the laud rises. In some places the nodules are packed very closely, and in others they are more sparsely distributed. The rocks or nodules vary in size, from that of a hickory nut to a foot or more in diameter, and ore of every con ceivable irregular shape, though bearing a general resemblance to each other. They are evidently water-worn, and are perforated with hobs ot v inous sizes. A fresh fracture in any one of thorn dis /"..mii'j arid l'hotjthate liocke.* closes the forms of shells and bones, similar to those found In the marl beds below, and emits a fetid odor. The yield of these rock* is from five hundred to on* thousand tons per SO re, which would nivs twenty millions of tons at least as the probabie yield of the whole bed. Bones, teeth and other ani mal remains are occasionally thrown out. The mining op< rations consist ordinarily (thougl M,ey differ somewhat at different mines) in a tegular trenching ol the ground to the required de. a and the loosening with n pick of the embedded nodules, which arc thin thrown out and transferred to wheel barrows, to be Ut posited in large heaps. Here they are li l t to dry and then aris earned to the washing mill, w hen, by means ol ingcuious machinery driven by steam power, they ore thoroughly eleansed and thrown out upon a platform, or directly into a ear, in a condition tor shipment. Of the agricultural and commercial value ol the Charleston phosphates there has never been any grounds lor doubt. 'I hey me just what our planters and larmeri need, and just what they have been paying Nortlurn manulacturcri g> < d rouinl prices tor, often In a badly adulterated eoudition too. I'hey are, in tact, true bone, aud l uve n composition almost identical with recent bone deprived of most ol its organic matter, the mateiial is not, then, a mineral phosphate, hut in its crude state, vi hen ground fine, can be relieo on as equal to ralcilied bone m fertilising power, or cun superior to it, since i I Mill com wins Iroui six to teren pet cent, ol urgailic anneal mutter containing nitrogen, ?rnm a ihotopieph ol specinem inkei Iron Ihe nilues at the Wando Mintt.g und ^anufarturlag Company, on Hie At-huv Kiver. 1. 1 boMtiMtw Kocks 'i. \ eitebsse ol fishes; 8. Jaw Hone ot a Crocodile I 4, a btuurk's Tooth; 6. a large Tusk i a a Bona.