The Darlington flag (Lydia, SC) 1851-1852, July 16, 1851, Image 1
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VOL. 1.
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AamcmTimB.
How blest the farmer’s simple life.
How pure the joy it yields!
Far from the w’orld’s tempestuous strife,
Free ’mid the scanted fields.—Everett.
From the American Farmer.
South Carolina, June 30, 1825.
Sir—I have been a constant reader
of your paper, and have derived both
improvement and pleasure from its
columns. The earnestness with which
Ifevc sought for communications hea-
d<5r“ cotton culture,” has frequently
admonished me, that I was as much
bound to communicate my experience,
as were any of your correspondents,
from whoso labors I have profited; and
who, being less backward, are there
fore more deserving : nor will I lie lon
ger deterred from such communication
because I am conscious I have not
reached perfection in the culture of a
particular plant The buoy is some
times as important to the mariner, in
showing him where he ought not to go,
as is the pilot, at another, in directing
him where he may. The cultivators
of cotton have contributed less than
other planters to make your paper val
uable. These observations will serve
to augment the numlier of good in
tents on their part, if nothing more.
The cotton plant, while in the seed
leaf, is very tender, perhaps as much
so ns any other of the most tender of
our garden vegetables; when it has ar
rived to what vve call the cotton leaf,
it is probably more hardy than any of
them. The product of an aero of rich
land is increased, in my opinion, more
by the length of time it is allowed to
grow, than from any other single cir
cumstance: hence it is advisable to
plant as early as the absence of the
frost will admit; and being in its ear
ly stage very tender, too mnch care
and labor, in preparing the ground for
the seed, can hardly be given. My
method is to plant in drills, on beds
made with the plough and hoe, or
plough and horse-rake, or harrow, ac
cording to the nature and circumstan
ces of the soil. Laud that will pro
duce ten bushels of corn to the acre,
can yield five hundred pounds of seed
cotton. The drills on such land, I
make three feet apart; and thin out
the cotton to the width of the hand
between the stalks. If the drills were
marer, the product might be some
what greater, but the use of the plough
would be more difficult From land
that has yielded me seventy-MR bush
els of com to the acre, I have weighed
twenty-three hundred pounds of seed
cotton. This was planted at seven
feet distance between the drills, and
thinned out to three feet between the
stalks; these extremes embrace the en
tire distances of which I have any ex
perience and by which I am governed.
When I have land sufficient for these
changes, my course of crops is cotton,
corn and small grain. My first pro
cess is, to run furrows as deep, with a
Freeborn, No. 1 1-2 plough, as two
mules can draw it, at the distance from
each other that I mean to have my cot
ton rows. Into these furrows I draw,
with the weeding hoe, (we call it “ list
ing,”) all the stubble and vegetable
reen the rows; having
plaister on it, I break up
intervals ttetween the
deep as possible, with the
same Description of plough. When
this is done in old land, or land pretty
clear of stumps, I prepare and finish
these beds, thrown together with the
plough, generally, with the horse rake,
by (piling them on the beds back-
wards and forwards, until the surface
be pulverized sufficiently to receive the
seed. When in new ground, abound
ing in Ipnps, the cloda arc broken,
and the surface prepared, with the
weeding hoe. If the land be very stiff
cloddy, I prepare the beds with
harrows, instead of the horse-rake.—
My harrows are made in two parts, at
tached together by hooks and hinges,
and when put together, form an angle
less than a right angle triangle; when
at work, the joints or hinges, being
over the middle of the beds, admit the
teeth to touch and work the whole sur
face, sides as well as tops of the beds,
at once. When the beds are too dry
and hard, I find it advantageous to se
cure on each leaf of the harrow, a
block of wood, more or less heavy, ac
cording to the nature and state of the
ground; these are worked easily by
two mules. My horse-rakes are made
with a piece of timber two feet and a
half long, five inches thick and twelve
inches wide, worked of!' at the two
ends, and hollowed out in the middle,
so as to be in a semicircular form, five
inches by six inches when finished; in
to the hollow edge two rows of iron
teeth, half an inch thick, three quar
ters wide, to show five inches, are in
serted; the front row placed opposite
the intervals of the back row; the
rows three inches apart, and teeth four
inches in the rows from each other;
on the top of the semicircular piece,
fasten two pieces of oak four feet long,
three by two in size, resembling some
what the hind bounds of a wagon,
with a nose-iron, where the two for
ward ends are joined together, for the
swingle-tree; above these attach two
handles, like a common plough. This
horse-rake I have found very advanta
geous, not only in preparing the beds
for the seed, but also in covering them
when dropped in the drills. When the
ground is in proper order for work,
they finish the beds in a beautiful and
most regular manner. The seed may
be covered with them better than in
any other way; and as they expedite
the work very much, it rarely happens
that I may not wait for the ground to
Im? in the best possible state for cover
ing. A man and one mule may pre
pare with in from six to ten acres a
day, and can cover as much, accor
ding to the state of the ground and
the width of the rows. The beds be
ing thus made, and the season for
planting at hand, I proceed to open
the drills; this I do with a drill plough.
It is made, by fastening to the bottom
of a piece of two inch plank, ten in
ches wide, two feet and a half long,
square at the hind end and pointed at
the front one, a piece of oak, by way
of keel, of the same length, one inch
thick at the bottom edge and three at
the upper. The bottom edge is armed
with an iron plate half an inch thick,
so pointed and squared at the front
end, as to enter the socket of a coul
ter of the common form, the upper end
of which is wedged securely in the
beam—the upper fixtures are like those
of a plough secured to a plank by a
helve; the keel ought not to be more
than two inches deep. This plough is
very light, and is worked by one mule,
walking the top of the beds, and can
open as many drills in a day as a horse
rake can cover.
For several years last pasl, I have
omitted to cover the seed at the time
of dropping it. In stiff land, the ad
vantage results from lessening the
chances of the soil being “caked” over
it by hard rains, through which the
cotton cannot penetrate, and which
must be raked in some way, or re
planted. In light soils, the rains which
fall after the seed is dropped, will cov
er them sufficiently—but if this does
not happen, by having a proper num
ber of horse-rakes, each lieing capable
of covering ten acres in the day, the
whole crop may be covered in two
days, and of course commenced at the
very moment when the ground is in
the best possible state for the opera
tion. By this mode of covering, the
whole surface of the bed is stirred and
dressed nicely, later after the seed is
dropped, and in a more expeditious
manner than any other 1 have seen
tried.
Having planted my cotton, which I
ought, perhaps, to have said, I invaria
bly begin on the last of March, or first
day of April, I begin thee ulture of it
as soon as the progress of other busi
ness will admit, whether it has got up
or not The first operation is to hoe
it This is done for the first time, by
shaving down the beds, as near to the
plant, and as light as possible ; if there
be weeds or grass too near the plant
to he removedThy the hoe, they must
be picked ontTOth the fingers: this is
indispensable, to save time and labor
afterwards. Immediately after the cot
ton is hoed, t. e. a sufficient quantity
to admit the plougha, not waiting to
complete the first hoeing, I commence
the first ploughing: tills I* done by
running one furrow as close to the
cotton and as shallow as possible, on
each side of the rows, throwing the
furrow-slice from the cotton. All the
com I have not heed previous to the
hoeing of cotton, (I prefer there should
be none,) I now hoe; and then com
mence the second hoeing of the cot
ton. This is done by chopping through
the rows of cotton, either with the
comer of the hoe, or to its full width,
if the soil bo rich, leaving the cotton
in hunches of four stalks between the
chops, stirring the beds on both sides,
and filling up the chops with fine soil,
drawn up from the sides of the beds.
Now follows the second ploughing:
reverse the furrow-slice of the first
ploughing, by throwing it towards the
the tedious operation of “ laying off”
the rows. Corn grows kindly after
cotton, and with less labor. Cotton
succeeds to small grain advantageous
ly, because of the quantity of vegeta
ble matter left for “listing” into the
deep furrows intended to be the base of
the cotton beds, and which, with the irec
of the plaster, amply repays both la
bor and cost.
I will add a little on the subject of
manure. We frequently hear much
surprise at the qgM|tity of manure that
is used by parwupr individuals; in
deed there are but a very few, if any
planters, who have not at some time or
other, complained of the scarcity and
cotton, by one furrow on each side of the difficulty of procuring it. Later
the rows, the moul-board next to the
cotton of course ; the balks, or “ mid
dles,” are then to be flushed up, cither
with shovel, skimmer, or double iron
mould-board ploughs, according to the
state of the weather; if it he dry, I
experience and more attention induce
me to say, there is nothing in the sou
thern countiy more abundant; at least
the materials with which to make it:
nor can we be ever in want of them,
until black-jack leaves and pine-straw
prefer the two first—if wet, the last is become scarce; a circumstance which
best. Thus I proceed, alternately hoe- ' every traveller,, passing through our
ing, always drawing up the soil after State would be apt to place at a very
the first hoeing and ploughing; always remote period indeed. In truth every
with the mould-board to the cotton af- man who shall use the means within
ter the first ploughing, until the limbs
have grown so much as to prevent both
hoe and plough from passing between
them without breaking them off. This
his power, will
only
find the supply limited
by his ability to collect and apply
it. Generally, when we have carried
into the field the droppings of our eat-
happens generally about the first of tie in our cow pens, and our horses in
August, by which time I have usually the stable, we laud ourselves for the
hoed the cotton eight or nine times, improvement we have made in good
I find it necessary to hoe such a por- husbandry ; and in fact this is gaining
tion of the corn, at the end of each much, for since my recollection, nei-
hoeing of the cotton, as will give to it ther was thought of—the first having
a sufficient quantity of work to keep it served only to making a turnip patch,
clean. I also endeavor to have each ai >d the last remained a constant mi
series of ploughing began at a little noyance throughout the year. Now,
distance farther from both cotton and Irom these alone, we may elaborate as
corn, than that which preceded it; 1 much good manure as we can haul in-
thus cutting the principal roots of both, to the fields in season for planting. In
at each plowing, farther from the stalk making this manure, it is only necessa-
than it was cut before. By this pro- ry to he willing to collect from the
cess, I believe, the small fibres are in- woods, leaves of any kind, pine straw
creased, and additional mouths opened, as good as the best, ami place them in
through which the plants draw their ! our cow-pons anti stables, to find the
nourishment.
I conclude, from examination of the
roots, that they grow in small knots
when cut, and issue from these, and
from between these and the stalks,
small fibres, other than would issue if
they were not cut; of course they
ought not to he cut back, or a second
lime nearer to the stalk than they w'ere
previously. The last operation in the
cultivation of cotton w ith the plough,
should be to run a furrow w ith a bull-
tongue, or with a coulter plough, in
the middle between the rows, and as
deep as may be; ploughs being very
narrow, may be passed between the
rows without injury, later than any
other. Except this furrow, I endeavor
to cultivate as shallow' as jmssihle.
Cotton should be thinned after the
first hoeing. At the second hoeing, I
chop through the drills, leaving it in
hunches ; at the third hoeing I reduce
these bunches to two, or even to one
stalk, if the plant bo forward, or the
hoeing backward and the weather fa
vorable ; afterwards the thinning should
lie continued so as
to prevent it from
being crowded: according to the rich- hones of which are valuable,
ness of tho soil, I leave it more or less > «l* letting them rot on tho
quantity of excellent manure increas
ing beyond-our expectations. If top
soil of any kind be scattered among
them, so much tho better. This may
be bad from the corners of the fences,
the sides of the roads, ponds occasion
ally dry, and such parts of the planta
tion as from situation will never be cul
tivated. There are but a very few plan
ters to whom any one of these sources
of supply would not bo abundant; no
one can exhaust all of them that are
convenient to him. I might add weeds:
can any one apprehend a scarcity of
these ? and pond grass, which last, w ith
plaster, I have found admirable for
sweet potatoes, on very poor land.—
Should care be taken to carry into tin-
fields of light sandy soil, that which
has been collected where clay abound
ed, and vice versa, so much the better:
w ith or w ithout such care, he who will
try it, will find bis time and labor re
paid with usurious interest.
It is not for planters to complain of
the want of manure, until they have
proved how excellent even are the car
casses of their dead boasts, the very
Instead
surface,
is prevented from escaping during the
process of fermentation, and arrested
and retained by the top soil and leaves.
I have used each of these component
parts of the compost separately; and
so completely was tho fertilizing quali
ty distributed, I could discover no dif
ference in their effects. While the
mounds are kept well covered, and
properly patted with the spade, so en
tirely is the evaporation prevented,
there is no smell perceived near them:
every cotton planter knows how of
fensive a large bulk of rotting cotton
seed becomes, exposed to the sun and
rain.
Additional supplies of manure are to
be bad from feeding our cattle in pens.
Colonel Taylor lias shown in his A ra
ter, bow much may be done in this
way with dry corn stalks alone. I
have derived as much benefit from
keeping my cattle out of my fields, by
this system of feeding them in pens,
as from the large quantities of manure
made in them. But those processes
require labor to collect the materials,
and labor to distribute the manure;
and that which is still more difficult to
regulate time also. When l have done
all that my labor and time will admit
of in these ways, to complete the
course of manuring, I sow such parts
of my lands, each year, in oats, that
I have not been able to manure other-
w ise. From these, I collect only seed
enough for the ensuing year, and
plough in the rest, having first plaister-
ed it. The seed is gathered, by strip
ping it with the hands, from the stems
•standing in the field. I think this is
the easiest and most expeditious method
of saviug out seed that l hare seen tried.
The oat straw is best turned under by
attaching a skim-coulter, or iron bolt,
to tho beam of the plough, with the
outer end turned down; this should
project from the beam horizontally, a
little forward and beyond the mould
board. Oats sown for manure, or in
deed for any other purpose, need no
other labor than simply sowing; this
being done in the cotton field immedi
ately before the hands la-gin to pick
cotton; or in the corn field la-fore it is
gathered, will come np very well. It
is only necessary to sow them before
either operation is commenced to have
them raise well.
It was my intention to say some
thing of my manner of applying ma
nure. I have, however, already said
more than I had intended. For the
encouragement of those who are w il-
ling to make some additional efforts,
allow me to add, by the means above
hinted at, 1 have converted considera
ble portions of my fields, which were
literally exhausted, into as productive
soil as any I now cultivate—and this
has been accomplished sinse 1808, by
D. R. WILLIAMS.”
distant in the drills ; of this each plan- :dike disgraceful to our rare and -lan-
ter must necessarily judge, and con- ■ gerous to our health, if we will not
earning which many differ.
In my opinion, the aggregate pro
duct of a field of cotton is very little
affected in quantity by thinning; par
ticularly if it be rich soil; but the
quality of the staple, which is of as
much importance as tho quantity, cer
tainly is very materially. My experi
ments on this part of the business have
satisfied me this opinion is correct
As early as the first of August 1
top the cotton. This is done by pinch
ing off the bud. 1 sometimes extend
make the best use of them, by com
pounding them with six times their
hulk of top soil—at least bury them in
the field, where they will distinguish
tho place by superior fertility for many
years.
If any man, living in a poor sandy
soil, will fill a single furrow- across one
of the plats in his garden with black
jack leaves, taken from the woods, even
in a windy day of March—bed on
them, ami plant a row of (teas, he will
require no farther encouragement to
this to the limbs also; w-hen the plant make a larger experiment: fortunately,
is large and flourishing, and the pods 1 ‘
backward, I think it may be done ad
vantageously. If the season be moist,
the plants luxuriant in growth, apjiear-
ing full of sap, snekering is very pro
per; but if these indications have sub
sided, by the plant appearing more
every additional act to increase their
fertility will be rewarded with addition
al returns.
By a process analagous to the above,
I make, every year, an excellent com
post, by substituting cotton seed for
animal dung. Beds, rather mounds,
w-oody, and the leaves have become formed with alternate layers of cotton
small, or are decreasing fast, suckering top soil and leaves of every kind,
is unnecessary, or may be omitted I or pine straw* in the fields, immediately
without much loss. 1 do not doubt
that topping and succoring tend to in
crease the quantity of the crop some,
and the quality much, and therefore
should be done as extensively as cir-
cumstances will admit; the last, how
ever, is so tedious, and our crops are
now so large, but a vesy small portion
of them can be thns treated.
When I have open land sufficient, I
have found it advantageous to follow
the cotton crop with one of corn, and
this last with small grain; taking care
to plough the com, the
while the ginning is going on, in such
number and place as the size of the
field may mqnirfRpflin whole covered
up with the soil nearest to the mound,
and patted dose with the spade; I
have found, on opening these in the
spring, to be used for cotton or corn,
very rich manure. This mode of using
the cotton seed, is economical of la
bor ; advantageous, by distributing it
throughout the field, to be manured at
a period most suitable and convenient;
and very abundant in quantity. I think
one wagon load of cotton seed thus
. „ , two or three
last times, the way I mean to have royi disposed of, is as valuable as ten in the
cotton rows when the field is nexti usual way. The entire evaporation of
planted with chiton—thus ^voiding ♦ *>e oily and other matter of the seed,
* *
From the Washington Republic.
TRADITIONAL ERRORS.
Every day the labors of learned men
are exposing the falsity of traditionary
facts, and weeding history of the er
rors which seem to have been sown
wide-spread in every department of
human knowledge. Nothing in fact
is reliable but scientific truth and even
many of them or at least what have
passed current for such have been pro
ved false. But of all the uncertainties
of tradition there is nothing so uncer
tain as the sayings of great men. The
reni ritii rici Cn-sar and the pithy des
patch of Berry announcing his victory
on Lake Erie are matters of record,
and may be trusted in; but the dying
words of Lawrence, don’t give np the
ship,” have been denied. As for
Cromwell’s directions to his soldiers
to trust in Providence and keep their
poweer dry there is no evidence of its
its Cromwellian origin Wellington has
said that he never heard of the tamous
words, “Up guards, and at em which
have been currently attributed to him
ever since the battle of Waterloo until
he saw thorn in a newspaper. AD the
surviving British officers of the attack
Non ew Orleans some twenty-five
years ago, published an affidavit to the
renowned watchwords. “Beauty and
, booty,” wore never used on that me
morable. occasion. General Taylor
too, denied ever having said, “Give
em jessy,” or even. “A little more
grajs? Captain Bragg^’ Some wiseacre
attempted a few years ago to prove that
Gettygal Putnam was a coward and a
bully, Y>ut luckily for the reputation of
Oldrut he found a defender in ou(,
present Secretary of State, who, in a
masterly article in the North American
Review, clearly established the right of
the gallant soldier to his traditionary
fame. One of the latest and most sur
prising instances of the detection of a
traditional mistake, is thediscovery by
that genial philoaopher^Ae learned Sig-
nor Riccabocea, that Bacon is not tho
author of that popular apothegm
Knowledge is power!” that in fact no
thing of the kind ever had an existence
in his writing nor in those of any other
philosopher. It is a mere cryptologi
cal fungas that suddenly sprung up
once upon a time and as suddenly be
came a petrifaction in men’s mind’s.—
We imagine there are very few persons
in the world who will not be amazed
when they find that Lord Bacon never
even beard of that great Baconian a-
pothegm knowledge is power. Signor
Kiccaboccaastonished even that erudite
Englishman, Parson Dale, by telling
him the fact and wo doubt if there be
a “learned pundit among us who will
not also be astonished to learn it. As for
ourselves we have been willing to bet
any reasonable sum that could com
mand that we could point out tho ap
horism in Bacon’s works not that wo
ever saw it there, but having seen it so
many thousands of times atttributed to
the great philosopher that we never
doubted it was bis property. But ns
Dr. Riccobocca said to his abashed
pupil that be a warning to us never to
fall into the error of the would-be schol
ar and quote second-hand. Balwer
Lytton in his new novel, put the mat
ter at rest in the following note :
“This aphorism has been probably
assigned to Lord Bacon upon the mere
authority of the index to his wor k I,
is the aphorism ol the indcx-niakcMrcr-
tainly not of the great master of induc
tive philosophy. Bacon has it is true
repeatedly dwelt on the power ofkiiovv-
ledge, cut with so many explanations
and distinctions that nothing could he
more unjust to his general tneani* than
to attempt to cramp into a sentence
what it cost him a volume to define
Thus if in one page lie appears to con
found knowledge with power in an
other he sets them in the strong antithe
sis to each other as following “Adeo,
signanter Bens opera potent he et sapien-
tke discriminavib But it would be as
unfair to Bacon to convert into an ap
horism the sentence that discriminates
between knowledge and power, as it is
to convert into an aphorism any sen
tence that confounds them.
THINGS WORTH READING.
Don’t live in hope with your arms
folded. Fortune smiles on those who roll
up their sleeves, and puttheir shoulder
to the wheel that propels them on to
wealth ami happiness.
He who waits for good luck to come
to him is destined to <!io in poverty—
No one has the right to expect a good
fortune unless he he goes to work and
deserves it.
When dunces call us fools, without
proving us to be so, our best resort is to
prove them to be fools without condeg-
sendiug to call them so.
The tongue of a fool isth^kuy of his
counsel which, in a wise man wisdom
hath in her keeping.
A man’s wedding day is called his
“bridal day.” The orthography of
that word is wrong—it should be , writ
ten bridle day.
Borrow not too much upon time to
come.
Borrowed garments never fit well.
Bought wit is best but may cost too
much. 4
Breaking your faith may gain you
riches, hut never get you glory.
Bring your line to tho waft, not the
wall to the lino.
Buyers want a hundred eyes, sellers
none.
By others faults wise men correct
their own.
Care will kill a cat yet there’s no liv
ing withont it.
Casino dift into Jhe well that has
given yoD water.
Cast not the helve ifter they
l hanty and pride have ch
yet both feed the |K*or. A
Children have wide
tongues.
Cleanliness is both decent and ad
vantageous.
Young gentlemen who would pros
per in love should woo gently. It is
not fashionable for young ladies to take
ardent spirits
It costs more to be miserable than
would make us perfectlp happy.
“Is that women's tongue always go
ing ? I never heard ipwhen it wasn’t.”
A pretty girl was lately complaining
to a Friend that she had a bad cold,
and was sadly plagued in her lips by
;*Frisi*d,” said Ofadiah, “ thee should
never suffer Re chaps to Maae'netr
thy lips." ^