Buch lesen: «Soil Culture», Seite 8

CHARCOAL

There are but few who realize the value of charcoal applied to the soil. Whoever will observe fields where coal has been burned, will see that grass or grain about the bed of the former pits, will be earlier and much more luxuriant than in any other portion of the field. This difference is discernible for twenty years. It is the best known agent for absorbing any noxious matter in the soil or in the moisture about the roots of the trees. No peach-tree should be planted without a few quarts of pulverized charcoal in the soil. This would also prove highly beneficial to cherry-trees on land where they might be exposed to too much moisture. Its color also renders it an excellent application to the surface of hills of vines. It is quite effectual against the ravages of insects, and so absorbs the rays of the sun as to promote a rapid growth of the plants.

CHESTNUTS

Are among our best nuts, if not allowed to get too dry. When dried hard they are rather indigestible. The tree grows well in most parts of the United States, provided the soil be light sand or dry gravel. If the soil be not suitable, every man may have a half-dozen chestnut-trees, at a trifling expense. Haul ten or fifteen loads of sand upon a square rod, and plant a tree in it, and it will flourish well. Five or six trees would afford the children in a family a great luxury, annually. The blossoms appear so very late, that they are seldom cut off by the frost. The second growth chestnut-tree is also decidedly ornamental.

CIDER

The usual careless way of making cider, in which is used all kinds of apples, even frozen and decayed ones, and without any reference to their ripeness; without straining, and neglecting all means of regulating the fermentation, is too well known. This is the more general practice throughout the country; but it makes cider only fit for vinegar, although it is used for general purposes. We give the most approved method of making and keeping cider, that is better for invalids than any of our adulterated wines (and this is the character of nearly all our imported wines). Our domestic wines, and bottled cider, should take the place of all others.

Select apples best suited for cider, and gather them at the commencement of hard frosts. Let them lie a few days, until they become ripe and soft. Then throw out all decayed and immature fruit. Grind fine and uniform. Let the pulp remain in the vat two days. It will increase the saccharine principle and improve the color. Put into the press in dry straw, and strain the juice into clean casks. Place the casks in an open shed or cellar, if it be cold weather, give plenty of air and leave the bung out. As the froth works out of the bung, fill up every day or two, with some of the same pressing kept for the purpose. In three weeks or less this rising will cease, and the bung should be put in loose, and after three days driven in tight. Leave a small vent-hole near the bung. In a cool cellar the fermentation will cease in two days. This is known by the clearness of the liquor, the thick scum that rises, and the cessation of the escape of air.

Draw off the clear cider into a clean cask. If it remains quiet it may stand till spring. A gill of fine charcoal added to a barrel will secure this end, and prevent fermentation from going too far. But if a scum collects on the surface, and the fermentation continues, rack it off again at once. Then drive the vent-spile tight. Rack it off again in early spring. If not perfectly clear, dissolve three quarters of an ounce of isinglass in cider, and put it in the barrel, and it will soon be perfectly fine. Bottle between this and the last of May. Fill the bottles within an inch of the bottom of the cork, and allow them to stand an hour, then drive the cork. Lay them in dry sand, in boxes in a cool cellar, and the cider will improve by age, and is better for the sick than imported wines.

CITRONS

Are only used for preserving. Their appearance and growth resemble in all respects the watermelon. Planted near the latter, they utterly ruin them, making them more citron than melon. They are injurious to most other contiguous vines. They are to be planted and cultivated like the watermelon. Are very fine preserved; but we think the outside (removing the rind) of a watermelon better, and should not regret to know, that not another citron was ever to be raised.

CLOVER

The only varieties successfully cultivated in this country, are the red and the white. Red clovers are divided into large, medium, and small. The white is all alike. The long-rooted clover of Hungary is an excellent productive variety, enduring successfully almost any degree of drought. But in all the colder parts of this country it winter-kills so badly as to render it unprofitable. Clover makes good pastures, being nutritious, and early and rapid growing. Red-clover makes fair hay, though inferior to timothy or red-top. White clover is unsuitable for hay; it shrinks so much in drying, that it is very unproductive. It is the best of all grasses for sheep pasture, and its blossoms afford in abundance the best of honey. Red clover plowed in, even when full-grown, is an excellent fertilizer. It begins to be regarded, in western New York, as productive of the weevil, so destructive to wheat. Further observation is necessary to settle this question.

Red-clover hay is too dusty for horses, and too wasteful for cattle. The stalks are so large a proportion, and so slightly nutritious, that it is unprofitable even as cut-feed. It is best to cultivate clover mainly for pastures and as a fertilizer. Sowing clover and timothy together for hay is much practised. The first year it will be nearly all clover, and the second year mostly timothy. But sown together, they are not good for hay, because they do not mature within ten or fifteen days of the same time. But, for those who are determined to make hay out of red clover, the following directions for curing may be valuable: mow when dry, spread at once, and let it wilt thoroughly; then put up into small cocks, not rolled, but one fork full laid upon another until high enough;—it will then shed water; but when rolled up, water will run down through. Let it stand till thoroughly dried, and then draw into the barn; it will be bright and sweet. Another method is to cut when free from dew or rain, spread even, and allow it to wilt, and the leaves and smaller parts to dry; then draw into the barn, putting alternate loads of clover and dry straw into the mow, salting the clover very lightly. The clover is sometimes put in when quite green, and salted sufficiently to preserve it. It is injurious to cattle, by compelling them to eat more salt than they need. Cattle will eat but little salt in winter, when it stands within their reach; too much salt in hay compels them to eat more, which engenders disease. Clover cured as above makes the best possible clover-hay, if great care be used to prevent excessive salting.

Saving clover-seed is a matter of considerable importance. The large red clover is too late a variety to produce seed on a second crop the same season, as do the medium and small. The first growth must be allowed to ripen. Cut when the heads are generally dead, but before it has begun to shell. The medium and small red clovers will produce a good crop of seed from second growth, if it be not too dry, immediately after mowing. Cut when the heads generally are dry, rake into small winrows at once, and soon put it in small bunches and let it stand until very dry, and then draw in. Raking and stirring after it becomes dry will waste one half of it.

COFFEE BEAN

This grows in a pod somewhat resembling the pea; easily raised, as other beans; and is very productive. Browned and ground, it is used as a substitute for coffee. By many persons it is much esteemed. If this and the orange carrot were adopted extensively, instead of coffee, it would afford a great relief to the health, as well as the pockets, of the American people.

CORN

This is the most valuable of all American products of the soil, not excepting wheat or cotton. It is used for human food all over the world. And there is no domestic animal or fowl, whose habits require grain, whether whole or ground, that is not fond of it. It is easily raised, and is a sure and abundant crop, in all latitudes south of forty-six degrees north. The varieties are few, and principally local. The soil can not be made too rich for corn. It should be planted in rows each way, to allow cultivating both ways with a horse. The distance of rows apart has been a subject of some differences of opinion; there is a disposition to crowd it too near together. In western New York, where much attention has been given to it, the usual distance is three and one half feet each way; others plant four feet apart. On all land we have ever seen, we believe four feet apart each way, with four or five stalks in a hill, will produce the largest yield. It lets in the sun sufficiently around every hill, and the proportion of ears to the stalks will be larger than in any other distance. Planting with a span of horses, and a planter on which a man can ride and plant two rows at once, is the easiest and most expeditious. We can not too strongly recommend harrowing corn as soon as it comes out of the ground. It increases the crop, and saves much expense in cultivating. All planters should know that Indian corn is one of those plants which will come to maturity at a certain age, whether it be large or small; hence, anything that will increase the growth while young will add to the product. Corn neglected when small receives, thereby, an injury from which it will never recover; after-hoeing may help it, but never can fully restore it. If there are small weeds, the harrowing will destroy them, and give all the strength of the soil to the young corn; if there are no weeds, the effect of the harrowing will be to give the young plants twice as large a growth in the first two weeks as they would make without it. Harrow with a V drag, with the front tooth out, that the remaining teeth may go each side of the row. Use two horses, allowing the row to stand between them; let the harrow-teeth run as near the corn as possible. Never plant corn until the soil has become warm enough to make it come up quickly and grow rapidly. If you feed corn to cattle whole, feed it with the husks on, as it will compel them to chew it better, and will thus be a great saving. Crib corn only when very dry, and avoid the Western and Southern method of leaving cribs uncovered; the corn thus becomes less valuable for any use. A little plaster or wood-ashes applied to corn on first coming up, and again when six inches high, will abundantly repay cost and labor;—it will pay even on the prairie-lands of the West, and is quite essential on the poorer soils of the East and North. It had better never be neglected. The crop will weigh more to the acre, by allowing it to stand as it grew, until thoroughly dry. The next larger crop is when the stalks are cut off above the ear (called topping) after it has become glazed. Still a little less will be the product when it is cut up at the ground, while the leaves are yet quite green. The two latter methods are adapted for the purpose of saving fodder in good condition for cattle. Intelligent farmers regard the fodder of much more value than the decrease in the weight of the grain. Corn thus cut up, and fed without husking, is the best possible way for winter-fattening cattle on a large scale, and where corn is abundant. To save the whole, swine should follow the cattle, changing yards once a week.

Seed-corn should be gathered from the first ripe large ears before frost, and while the general crop is yet green. Select ears above the average size, that are well filled out to the end, and your corn will improve from year to year. Take your seed indiscriminately from the crib at planting-time, and your corn will deteriorate. The largest and best ears ripen neither first nor last; hence, select the largest ears before all is ripe, and reject the small earliest ears. Soaking seed twenty-four hours, and then rolling in plaster before planting, is recommended; it is conveniently practised only where you plant by hand. Soaking without rolling in plaster is good, if you plant in a wet time; but if in a dry time, it is absolutely injurious. Once in a while there occurs quite a general failure of seed-corn to come up. Farmers say that their corn looks as fair as ever, but does not vegetate well. When this is general, there is a remedy that every farmer can successfully apply. The difficulty is not (as we have often heard asserted) from the intense cold of the winter: it is sometimes the result of cold, wet weather after planting. But we do not believe that such would be the effect, with good seed, on properly-prepared land. The difficulty is, the fall was very wet, and the seed was allowed to stand out and get thoroughly soaked; when it was gathered it was damp, and the intense cold of winter destroyed its vitality, without injuring its appearance. There is no degree of cold, in a latitude where corn will grow, that will injure the seed, if it be gathered dry and kept so. Our rules for saving seed, given above, will always remedy this evil. This is, perhaps, the most profitable of all green crops for soiling cattle. Sown on clean, mellow land, it will produce an enormous weight of good green fodder, suitable for summer and early fall feeding of cows, just at a time when dry weather has nearly destroyed their pastures. Corn-fodder, well cured, is better for milch-cows than the best of hay. Cut fine and mixed with ground feed, it is excellent for cattle and horses. It is best preserved in small stacks or large shocks, that will perfectly dry through. The tops and leaves, removed while green, are very fine.

COTTON

No product of the soil is more useful than this. To this country alone we give the highest value to Indian corn. But, in usefulness to the whole world, corn must yield the palm to cotton. It employs more hands and capital in manufacturing, and enters more largely into the clothing of mankind, than any other article. The history of cotton and the cotton-gin, and of the manufacture of cotton goods, is exceedingly interesting. The eminence of Great Britain as the first commercial nation of the world is due, in no small degree, to her cotton manufactures. And the influence of this great staple American product upon all the interests of this country, social and political, civil and religious, is universally felt and acknowledged. The cotton-fields of the South, at certain stages of growth, and especially when in bloom, present scenes of beauty unsurpassed by any other growing crop. It does not come within our design in this work to give a very extended view of cotton culture. This business in the United States is confined principally to a particular class of men, known as planters. They cultivate it on a large scale, having the control of large means. Such men seek knowledge of those of their own class, and would hardly condescend to listen to an essay on their peculiar business, written by a Northern man, not experienced in planting. And yet an article, not covering more than ten pages of this volume, might be written, condensing in a clear manner all that is established in this branch of American industry, as found in the publications of the South. Such an article, well written, by a man who would be regarded good authority, would be of vast pecuniary value to the South. Whoever carefully reads Southern agricultural papers, and "Turner's Cotton-Planter's Manual," will see a great conflict of opinions on the subject, and yet a presentation of many facts, that one thoroughly conversant with soil culture in general would see to be true and important. The embodiment of these facts and principles in a brief, plain article that would be received and practised, would add value to the annual cotton crop, that would be counted by millions. What better service can some Southern gentleman do for his own chosen and favorite region than to write such an article? We give the following brief view of the whole subject, not presuming to teach cotton-planters what they are supposed to understand much better than we do, but to throw out some thoughts that may be suggestive of improvements that others may mature and carry out, and to lead young men, just commencing the business of planting, to look about and see if they may not make some improvements upon what they behold around them. This will not fail of being interesting to Northern men, most of whom know nothing of the cotton-plant, or the modes of its cultivation. It is interesting, too, that some of the most essential points are in perfect accordance with the great principles of soil culture throughout the world.

There are three species of cotton: tree-cotton, shrub-cotton, and herbaceous cotton. The tree-cotton is cultivated to considerable extent in northern Africa, and produces a fair staple of cotton for commerce; being produced on trees from ten to twenty-five feet high, it is not so easily gathered. The shrub-cotton is cultivated in various parts of the world, particularly in Asia and South America. Growing in the form of small bushes, it is convenient, and the staple is fair. But these are both inferior to the herbaceous cotton. This is an herb growing annually, like corn, a number of feet in height, more or less according to soil and season, and producing the best known cotton. Under these species there are many varieties: we need speak only of the varieties of herbaceous cotton. Writers vary in their estimates of varieties; some say there are eight, and others put them as high as one hundred. This is a question of no practical moment. The sea-island cotton, called also "long staple" on account of its very long silky fibres, is the finest cotton known. Its name arose from the fact of its production in greatest perfection on the low, sandy islands near the coasts of some of the Southern states. It does well on low land near the seashore. The saltness and humidity of such locations seem peculiarly favorable to its greatest perfection. It yields about half as much as the "short staple" called Mexican and Petit gulf cotton, and known in commerce as upland cotton. But the sea-island, or long staple, sells for three or four times as much per pound, and, hence, is most profitable to the planter, in all regions where it will flourish well. The Mexican is very productive on most soils, and is easily gathered and prepared for market. There are quite a number of other varieties; as, banana, Vick's hundred-seed, Pitt's prolific, multibolus, mammoth, sugar-loaf, &c., &c. The sugar-loaf is highly commended, as are some of the others named. They have had quite a run among seed-sellers. Most of these varieties are the improved Mexican. It is well to get seed frequently from a distance; but any extravagant prices are unwise. Improvement of cotton-seed is an important part of its most profitable culture. While much said about it by interested parties is doubtless mere humbug, yet there is great importance to be attached to improvement of seed. This is true of all agricultural products, and no less so of cotton than of others. Two things only are essential to constant improvement in cotton-seed—selection and care. Select from the best quality, producing the largest yield, and maturing early; pick it before much rain has fallen on it after ripening; dry it thoroughly before ginning, and dry it very thoroughly after it is clear of the fibre, before putting it in bulk. Cotton-seed, without extra care in drying, has moisture enough to make it heat in bulk, by which its germinating power is greatly impaired. It is this, and the effects of fall rains, that causes seed to trouble planters so seriously by not coming up: this makes it difficult to obtain good even stands, and causes much loss by diminished crops. Care in these respects would add many pounds to the acre in most cotton-fields of the land.

Preparing the Soil for Planting.—On all land not having a porous subsoil, plow very deep; it gives opportunity for the long tap-root of the plant to penetrate deep, and guard against excessive drought. The usual custom is to lay the ground into beds, elevated a little in the middle, and a depression between them, in which excessive moisture may run off; also to increase the action of the sun and air. The surface of the soil to be planted should be made very fine and smooth. This is true of everything planted—it should be in finely-pulverized soil; it comes up more readily and evenly. Soil left in coarse lumps or particles gives the air too much action on the germinating seeds and young plants, and retards and stints their growth. Deep plowing guards alike against too much or too little moisture. Too much water has room to sink away from the surface and allow it to dry speedily. It also forms a sort of reservoir to hold water for use in a drought. The seed should be planted in as straight a line as possible, from three and a half to five and a half feet apart one way, and from fourteen to twenty-five inches the other, according to the quality of the land, and the growth of the variety planted. Rich lands will not bear the plants so close as the poor. Many are great losers by not securing plants enough on the ground. Straight lines greatly facilitate culture, as it can mostly be done with the plow or cultivator. Turning land over deep, just before planting, is the best known remedy for the cut-worm; it is said to put them back until the plants grow beyond their reach. The best planters generally cover with a piece of plank drawn over the furrow in which the seed is dropped. It would be far better to roll it, as some few planters do; the effect on the early vegetation of the seed and rapid growth of the young plant would be very great, on the general principles given on "Rolling." The object of cultivation is to keep down the grass, which is the great enemy of the cotton. Plowing the last thing before planting aids this, by giving the cotton quite as early a start as the weeds or grass. Cultivate early, and the grass will be easily covered and killed. Always plant when it will come up speedily and grow rapidly; this is better than very early planting, and certainly much better than very late. Thin out to one in a place, as early as the plants are out of danger of dying. Gathering should commence as soon as bolls enough are in right condition to allow a hand to gather forty pounds per day. It is better and cheaper than to risk the injury from rains after the crop is ripe.

Manures.—Perhaps this is, at the present time, the greatest question for cotton-planters. The application of all the most approved principles and agents of fertilization would do more for the interests of the cotton crop than anything else. Cotton-plantations are sometimes said to run down so as to render it necessary to abandon portions of the land, and select new. Instead of this, land may not only be kept up with proper manuring, but made to yield larger crops from year to year. The following analysis of the ash of the cotton-plant will indicate the wants of the soil in which it grows:—

This analysis shows that the soil for cotton needs much lime, bones or bone-dust, and wood-ashes, besides the ordinary barn-yard and compost manures. All the preparations and applications of manures specified in this work, under the head of "Manures," are applicable to cotton. The usual recommendations of rotation in crops is, perhaps, more important in cotton culture than anywhere else. Judicious fallowing, on principles adapted to a Southern climate, is another great means of keeping up and improving the land. This is also the only effectual means of guarding against the numerous enemies and diseases of the cotton-plant. The health of the plants is secured, and they are made to outstrip their enemies only by the fertility and fine tilth of the soil in which they grow. This is confirmed on every hand by the correspondence of the most intelligent planters of the South. Let cotton-growers go into a thorough system of fertilization of their soils, and attend personally to the improvement of their cotton-seed, by selection, as recommended above, and the result will be an addition of one eighth, or one fourth, to the products of cotton in the United States, without adding another acre to the area under cultivation. When this comes to be understood, men of small means will cultivate a little cotton by their own individual labor, as the poorer men do corn and other agricultural products, and thus improve their condition. The above suggestions are the conclusions to which we come, from a thorough examination of what has been published to the world on this subject. We recommend the careful perusal of "The Cotton-Planter's Manual," by Turner (published by Saxton and Co., New York), and increased attention to the subject, by the intelligent, educated, and practical men with whom the cotton-growing regions abound.