302 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 5 



more than they can repist. And education has' 

 not tani^ht them the difference between right and 

 wrong; at any rate, their ideas on the subject 

 must he contused. What they learn of" the mo- 

 ral code, is gathered from observation, and the ex- 

 ample of others, their superiors. How can any 

 person, who, has no overseer, be all at hours with 

 his negroes, when he is delivering his grain tor 

 example. Let him turn his back, and a cunning 

 tellow will help himself to a bushel of corn or 

 wheat, and he will never be informed upon by his 

 fi^llow laborers, thouiih ever so honest ; for an in- 

 former, in their eyes, is held in greater detesta- 

 tion than the most noiorious thief. 



I admit that many overseers are vain, weak 

 tyrants, "dressed in a little brief authority," but 

 probably a larijer proportion of farmers of Virgin- 

 ina are indiliterent cultivators of the soil. I re- 

 gard an overseer as an indispensable agent, whose 

 first qualities should be honesty and firmness, 

 united with lorbearance and ffood temper. Sobri- 

 ety is a sine qua nan. A written aiireementshould 

 be drawn up between the employer and tiie em- 

 ployed, to be signed by both, setting forth the 

 terms, and mentioning the most important requi- 

 sitions, which will occur to every one. An over- 

 seer's wages should always be paid m money; 

 for if you give him a part of the crops, your land 

 ivill be worked to death, and never have a dozen 

 loads of manure spread upon it. In addition to this, 

 your views and his will frequently come into collision. 



Your overseer should be treated with marked 

 respect; for if you treat him contemptuously or fa- 

 miliarly, your authority and his are injured. He 

 should not be allowed to strike a ne^ro with his 

 fist or a stick, nor ever to punish with severity; 

 for it is not the severity, but certainty of punish- 

 ment, that wins implicit obedience. 



The subject belore me turns my thoughts to 

 the food, houses, and clothino; of the negro. The 

 master shold ever bear in mind, that he is the 

 guardian and protector of his slaves, who if well 

 treated and used, are the happiest laboring class 

 in the world. 



Clothe your negroes in warm yarn home-made 

 stuff in winter, with yarn stockings knit at home, 

 and two shirts, and linen for the summer. Their 

 shoes should be well made, and mended two or 

 three times durintr winter. Give them great- 

 coats, hats, and blankets, every other year, so ar- 

 ranging the matter, that one of the articles is dis- 

 tributed every year — hence it is not so felt by the 

 farmer as if ail were given the same year. The 

 clothes of the men and children should be made 

 for, and not given out to them to have made. 

 The women can make up their own clothes, and 

 those that work out should have a short kind of 

 great-coat. The youngest negro child on your 

 farm should be clothed. 



The cheap and light straw hat in summer will 

 add greatly to the comfort of your laborers. 



Potatoes, cabbage, turnips, and peas, boiled with 

 beef or bacon, will ffive your negroes a whole- 

 some meal, for breakfast or dinner; at the other, 

 they should have fish, or the same. With a lit- 

 tle attention, the above named vegetables will last 

 for twelve months. Occasionally, tresh meat will 

 be required. 



Their houses should be warm and . close — not 

 such as are constucted of the common fox-tail pine, 

 with the bark on. 



Liberally and plentifully fed, warmly clad and 

 housed, your negroes work harder and more wil- 

 lingly, will be more healthy, and their moral char 

 acter be improved,°for they will not be urged, by a 

 hungry longing for meat, to steal their masters' 

 hogs, sheep, and poultry, or to make predatory 

 excursions upon his neighbors. Your negroes 

 will breed much faster when well clothed, fed and 

 housed; which lact, oflers an inducement to those 

 slave owners, whose hearts do not overflow with 

 leelings of humanity. 



The character of the negro is much underrated. 

 It is like the |)lastic clay, which, may be moulded 

 into agreeable or disagreeable figures, according 

 to the skill of the moulder. The man who storms 

 at, and curses his negroes, and who tells them 

 they are a parcel of infernal rascals, not to he 

 trusted, will surely make them just what he calls 

 them; and so far from loving such a master, they 

 will hate him. Now, if you be not suspicious, 

 and induce them to think, by sliiiht trusts, that 

 they are not unworthy of some confidence, you 

 will make them honest, useful, and afiiectionate 

 creatures. 



Having permitted myself to write more than I 

 intended, I will only add, that, if you find these 

 remarks do not suit your purpose, give them to 

 the flames, and oblige, yours, 



From tlie Cambridge (Md.) Chronicle. 



LARGE SUGAR BEET. 



We saw yesterday a fine specimen of a crop of 

 sugar beet (species ''white Siiesian") from the 

 farm of Dr. Muse near this place. The beet 

 which was exhibited to us, was sixteen inches in 

 circumference, thirteen long, and weighed five 

 pounds and three ounces. Dr. Muse exhibited, 

 on the fourth of July, a specimen of his beet, 

 which measured eleven inches in circumference. 

 The crop has much time 3'et to grow — and at least 

 twenty-five per cent, increase, it is supposed, may 

 be fiiirly expected, wlien flilly matured. 



ON HORZOXTAT. PLOUGHING — HILL-SIDE 

 DITCHES — AND HAND-RAKES USED IN 

 CULTIVATING CORN. 



To tlie Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Goochland, July 30th, 1837. 



I see that Mr. J. Du Val, of King and Queen, 

 has made a trial with the rakes in weeding corn, 

 and seems to be pleased with them, and my man- 

 ner of ploughing to prevent land from washing. 

 Blithe thinks I give too much fall. In that I can 

 assure him he is rnistaken. I will admit that 

 three inches to twelve feet would be too much fall 

 for a trench, that is thirty yards apart from the 

 next above — because the quantity of water that 

 would collect in thnt distance, would be so great, 

 that it would wash a trench into a gully in a short 

 time. But if it is laid ofl" in twelve-feet beds, it is 

 so divided that it does not wash at all, or so little 

 that I consider it almost a perfect preventive. He 

 says he runs a line of level every thirty yards. 

 That may do in the lower country, where the 

 surliice of the hills is regular; but our highland is 

 so undulatinj;. that it will not do here. 



