283 



F A R M E R S' REGISTER. 



[No. 5 



when it has been established that calcareous manures 

 will remove that natural delect of those soils, this let- 

 ter may be far more serviceable for that region than 

 when it was written, or than its writer could then have 

 anticipated. Ed. Far. Reg.] 



jBremo, Fluvanna, '2lst IJecember, 1830. 



Dear Sir, 



Yours of the 2cl December, did not rpncli me 

 until within a lew days, trorn the circimistarice of 

 its not being sent to my usual post olfice. This 

 will excuse me for not beinii; more prompt in my 

 answer to you. The consciousness that you have 

 counted too largely upon the inlbrmaiioti I am 

 able to impart, on the various agricultural subjects 

 referred to in your letter, and the anxious desire I 

 feel to encourage the spirit of inquiry, vyhich seems 

 to be spreading itself amongst the cultivators of 

 every section of the state, induce me, the more 

 readily, to comply with your wishes, as well I'o 

 evince my peri'ect willingness to contribute what T 

 can in so good a cause, as tq apprise you promptly 

 of the necessity of your applying to other and bet- 

 ter sources, tor the desired inlbrmation. 



Your queries shall be taken in (he order in 

 which they are made, and withour confining my- 

 self to the direct answers, shall add such general 

 remarks as appear to me any way connected with 

 rural economy. 



1. "The processof fiillowing as practised by my- 

 self." This is to plough in a crop of clover, as. 

 nearly as possible at that stage of its gr.owth, 

 when It is in the best state for cutting to make hay. 

 Of course, where there is a full portion of your ro- 

 tation in clover, there can be but a part of your 

 fallows ploughed exactly in the proper time, with- 

 out extra teams, and unijsual seasons. Heno-e, the 

 necessity of beginning a little before the clover has 

 attained the precise point, to yield the greatest ad- 

 vantage trom being turned into the earth — and 

 hence too, the necessity of a second ploughing, 

 where your first was early, and the season favora- 

 ble to vegetation after the process. But I deem it 

 less important to be minute upon this head, as for 

 reasons hereafter to be as-sio-ned, I do not think 

 summer lUllows and the clover husbandry (which 

 I consider as inseparable,) suited to the sandy soils 

 of the lower part of this state. 



2. "The advantages as to product of a clover 

 fallow over wheat after corn?" This may be stated 

 to vary from nothing to a double crop, depending 

 upon the opportuneness and perfection of the pro- 

 cess, and the adaptation of the land to the use of 

 plaster of paris. Soils suited to plaster, witli a 

 heavy crop of clover ploughed in, at the proper 

 time, previously dressed with three or four pecks 

 of gypsum to "the acre, f()l!o\ved by fiivorable sea- 

 eons lor rotting the buried clover, and seeded in the 

 month of October, will rarely tail to ffive two 

 bushels, lor one fron) the same land after Indian 

 corn. On the other hand, a crop of clover (and 

 the heavier the worse for it,) dried by our powerful 

 sun, and consequently imperleclly buried, from the 

 hard and unmanageable sta'e, into which the 

 earth is brought frequently by the summer drouiihts, 

 will often not yield a better crop than the same 

 land would produce after corn. 



3. "The difierence in the quantum of labor in 

 fallowing for wheat, and wheat after corn." This 

 can only be decided by referring to the number 

 and kind of operations which are perlbrnied in 



each process, and as these ouitht to uepeiin, m 

 number and kind, upon a variety of circumstances, 

 the relative ex|ien.seof the two modes of husband- 

 ry must necessarily vary in like manner. Under 

 a fortunate concurrence of circumstances, liillows 

 may be seeded upon the first ploughinir. and com- 

 pleted vvith a sinixle harrowing; but it ofien hap- 

 pens, that a .second ploughinir, and under particu- 

 lar circumstances a third, and two harrowings, may 

 be necessary to do justice to the crop. In like 

 manner, a single operation, with a single horse 

 plough) and a slight chopping the step, will fre- 

 quently do more ample justice to the wheat crop 

 after c/irn, than, underother circumstiinces, will re- 

 sult from cutliiif^ np youn corn, breaking up vvith 

 the double ploiitxh, harrowing to receive the seed, 

 and sometimes [jjouyhinir with single ploughs be- 

 fore the second and la.st harrowing. 



4. '"The eflecis as to improvement and exhaus- 

 tion." These are also much influencpd by the cir- 

 cumstances already adverted to a? atFectiiig the 

 production, l>ut it u)ay be assumed, that the land is 

 left in much better heart after a lallow crop, than 

 after wheat succeedinir corn ; when the last, how- 

 ever, has credit by the greater quantity of ijrain 

 yielded by the two crops over the oi;c, it exhibits 

 too im|)Osingaclaim,'u|)on the score ol" profit, to be 

 given up, feveii on our clay lands. On the liffhl 

 sandy lands of the lower country, so much better 

 suited to [ndian corn, and less adapted to fallows, 

 I am of the opiniori, that wheat after corn, is the 

 most profitable and judicious course of h'i.=bandry. 



5. "Oh what soil's is the practice oflidlows most 

 ben6fici<U?" Wheat soils, or those having a con- 

 siderable proporiion of clay in them. This being 

 the soil, only upon which clover carl be profitably 

 and extensively cultivated, I wftuld recommend 

 summer fallows only, where this description of soil 

 was !()und, and the clover husbandry practised. 

 Upon this kind of land, without clovet,- 1 should not 

 hesitate to adopt winter fallows; in oth(^r words, 

 the English naked tiillows, stirring them with sin- 

 gle ploughs through the summer, in preference 

 to depending on a late summer lallow. The in- 

 fluence of the sun on this description of soil, recent- 

 ly exposed, is not as injurious as on sandy soils, 

 and by no means equal to the evils arising from the 

 hard and untillable state into which our summer 

 sun bakes it. 



The remarks on this head sufficiently express 

 ray o|)inion, as to "the profital)Ie inirodiiciion of 

 fallows where a reduced' sandy soil and hot sun 

 preclude clover." 



6. "Wiiat is the difl^erence of product between 

 wheat alter one ploughin<j on ijrazed land, and 

 that not grazed, or is either practised." Both are 

 practised, and when the veiretable matter is turned 

 into the earth, in a liivorable state for rotting, that 

 is, with some remamin<j succulence, and succeed- 

 ed by a suitable season to promote putreliiction, 

 the great agents of which are moisture and heat, 

 the more that has been turned in, the better the suc- 

 ceeding crop, and the less the injury su^^tained li'om 

 its maturation. But in the two last dry summers, 

 I have known some fields of fidlowed wheat al- 

 most destroyed by the dry vegetable matter re- 

 maining undecomposed in the soil. It seems, 

 therelbre, to follow, that the less vei>'etable matter 

 turned into the soil, the better lor the immediate 

 crop, unless it is prepared by decomposition into 

 the food ol veijeiable life. 



