3o6 Review of Kouchefoucalt' s Travels, July 



third, peas or potatoes; in the fourth, vetches: in the fifth, wheat ; 

 and, in the fixth and feventh, clover. Thus, each of his fields 

 yields fome produce evxs year ; nnd hi« rotation of fucceflive 

 cn'ture, while it prepares the foil for the following crop, increafes 

 its pro '',rce. The abun:'anc'" of clover, potatoes, peas, &c. will 

 enable hirn to keep fnfRcient cattle for manuring his land, which 

 at preHnt receives hardlv any dung at all; independently of the 

 great profit which he will in future derive from the fale of his 

 cattle. 



*■ Each farm, under the dire£lion of a particular fteward or 

 bailiff is cultivated by four negroes, four negreffes, four oxen, 

 and four horfes. T he bailiffs, who in general manage their farms 

 feparatelv, affift each other during the harveft, as well as at any 

 other time, when there is any prefling labour. The great de- 

 clivity of the fields, which would render it extremely trouble- 

 fome and tedious to carry the produce, even of each farm, to one 

 common central point, has induced Mr Jefferfon to conftrudl, on 

 each field, a barn, fufficiently capacious to hold its produce in 

 grain. The produce in forage is alfo houfed there ; but this is 

 generally fo great, that it becomes necelTiry to make ftacks near 

 the barns. The latter are conftrufted of trunks of trees, and 

 the floors are boarded. The forefts and flaves reduce the ex- 

 pence of thefe buildings to a mere trifle. 



" Mr Jeffeifon poffelTes one of thofe excellent thrafhing ma- 

 chines, which, a fev,r years fince, were invented in Scotland, and 

 are. already very common in England. This machine, the whole 

 of which does not weigh two thoufand pounds, is conveyed from 

 one barn to another in a waggon, and thrafhes from one hundred 

 and twenty, to one hundred and fifty buftiels a day. A worm, 

 whofe eggs are almcft conftantly depofited in the ear of the 

 grain, renders it neceffary to thraih the corn a fliort time after 

 the harveft. In this, cafe, the heat, occafioned by the mixture 

 of giain with its envelope, from which it is difengaged, but with 

 which it continues mixed, deftroys the vital principle of the ^%'gt 

 and protects the corn from the inconveniences of its being hatch- 

 ed. If the grain continued in the ears, without being ipeedily 

 beaten, it would be deftroyed by the worm, which would be ex- 

 cluded from the eggs. This fcourge, however, fpreads no far- 

 ther northwards than the Potowmsck, and is bounded to the 

 "Weil by the Blue Mountains. A few weeks after the corn has- 

 been beaten, it is free from all danger, winnowed, and fent to 

 market. The Virginia planters have generally their corn trod- 

 den out by horfes ; but this way is flow, and there is no country 

 m the world where this operation requires more difpatch thau 

 in this part of Virginia : Befides, the flraw is bruifed by the 



treading 



