1837] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



361 



for him, should attempt, such a calculation, I did 

 it; but bciui,^ at sucii a distance trom tiic country 

 ol' whicii I wrote, and havinsj been absent I'rom 

 tiiat and the subject in consideration, many years, 

 I could only, lur my facts, recur to my own recol- 

 lection, weakened by time, and very dill'erent ap- 

 |)licalions, and I had no means here ol' correcting 

 my (acts. 1, therefore, hazarded the calculation, 

 rather as an essay of the mode of calculating the 

 profits of a Virginia estate, than as an operation 

 which was to be ultimately relied on. When I 

 went last to Virginia, I put the press copy of those 

 notes into the hands of the most skilful and suc- 

 cpssiul farmer m the part of (he country of which 

 I wrote. He omitted to return them to me, which 

 adds another impediment to my resuming the sub- 

 ject here. But indeed, if I had them, I could 

 only present the same facts, with some correc- 

 tions, and some justifications of the principles of 

 calculation. This would not. and ought not, to 

 satisfy Mr. Young. When I return home, I shall 

 have time and opportui^iity of answering Mr. 

 Young's inquiries fully. I will first establish the 

 facts, as adapted to the, present times, and not to 

 those to which I was obliged to recur by recollec- 

 tion, and I will make the calculation on rigorous 

 principles. The delay necessary lor this will, I 

 hope, be compensated by giving something which 

 no endeavors on my part shall be wanting to 

 make worthy of confidence. In the mean time, 

 Mr. Young must not pronounce too hastily on the 

 impossibility of an annual production of 7501. 

 worth of wheat, coupled with a cattle product of 

 125/. M}' object was to state the produce of a 

 good farm, under good husbandry, as practised in 

 my part of the country. Manure does not enter 

 into this, because we can buy an acre of new land 

 cheaper than vve can manure an old one. Good 

 husbandry with us, consist in abandoning Indian 

 corn, and tobacco: tending small grain, some red 

 clover, fallowing, and endeavoring to have, while 

 the lands are at rest, a spontaneous cover of white 

 clover. I do not present this as a culture judi- 

 cious in itself, but as good in comparison with 

 what most people there pursue. Mr. Young has 

 never had an opportunity of seeing how slowly 

 the fertility of the original soil is exhausted, with 

 moderate management of it. I can affirm, that 

 the James river low-grounds, with the cultivation 

 of small grain, will never be exhausted; because 

 we know, that, under that cultivation, we must 

 now and then take them down with Indian corn, 

 or they become, as they were originally, too rich 

 to bring wheal. The high-lands where I live, 

 have been cultivated about sixty years. The cul- 

 ture was tobacco and Indian corn, as long as they 

 would bring enough to pay the labor; then they 

 were turned out. After four or five years rest, 

 they would bring good corn again, and in double 

 that time, perhaps, good tobacco. Then they 

 would be exhausted by a second series of tobacco 

 and corn. Latterly we have begun to cultivate 

 small grain; and excluding Indian corn, and fal- 

 lowing, such of them as were originally good, soon 

 rise up to fifteen or twenty bushels the acre. We 

 allow that every laborer will manage ten acres of 

 wheat, except, at harvest. I have no doubt but 

 the coupling cattle and sheep with this, would 

 prodigiously improve the produce. This improve- 

 ment, Mr. Young will be better able to calculate 

 than any body else. I am so well satisfied of it 



I myself; that having engaged a good farmer from 

 the head of Elk (ihc style of fiuniing there you 

 i know well), 1 mean in a fium of about 500 acres 

 ! of cleared land, and with a dozen laborers, to try 

 'the |)lan of wheal, rye, potatoes, clover, with u 

 mixture of some Indian corn with the potatoes, 

 ;nid to push the number of sheep. This last hint 

 I have taken li-om Mr. Young's letters, wiiich 

 you have been so kind as to communicati- to me. 

 I had never before considered, with due attention, 

 the profit fiom that animal. I shall not be able lo 

 put the farm into that form exactly the ensuing 

 autunin, but against another I hope I shall; and 

 I shall attend with precision to the measures of 

 the ground, and to the product, which may, per- 

 haiis, give you something hereafter to communi- 

 cate to Mr. Young, which may gratify him; but 

 I will furnish the ensuing winter, what was de- 

 sired in Mr, Young's letter of January 17, 1793.- 

 I have the honor to be, &c. 



TiiOMAS Jeffersoiv. 

 To the President of the United Slates, 



Philadelphia Jane 20th, 1793. 

 Dear sir: 



I had prepared the inclosed a considerable time 

 ago, but have waited for a communication fi'om a 

 person who does the niost in the grazing line of 

 any person I have heard of. But he has not 

 made the communication, from a silly belief that 

 it is not for a public purpose, but a private one,- 

 that I wish to get the account from him. I 

 therefore, delay no longer to send you the best 

 answer to Mr. Young's query, I can make. 

 I am, &c. &c. 



Richard Peters. 

 To the President of the United States, 



OBSERVATIONS ON AN EXTRACT OF A LET-- 

 TER, DATED 15th JANUARY, 1793, FROM 

 ARTHUR YOUNG, ESq. TO THE PRESIDENT 

 OF THE UNITED STATES. 



1 "Your infbrmation has thrown me afloat on 

 the high seas. To analyze your husbandry, has 

 the difficulty of a problem. Is it possible that the 

 inhabitants of a great continent, &c. can carry on- 

 fiu'ming as a business, and yet never calculate 

 profit by per centage on capital?" &c. 



I know not where to land Mr. Young from hie 

 sea- voyage, unless fads, well known -and felt here, 

 serving as pilots to guide him into a safe harbor, will 

 enable him to arrive on a shore, pleasant in its 

 prospects, and abundant in its resources; not so 

 nmch indebted to art as to nature for its beauties 

 and convenienciefe. Let him but realize his propo- 

 sals of coming among us CI presume as a visitant,) 

 and judge for himself. He will not be embarrass- 

 ed with unavailing conjectures, or laborious calcu- 

 lations : he will find, that, added to our situation 

 as a new country, where much land is to be had 

 for little money, our political arrangements contri- 

 bute to our happiness, and to our moderate, but 

 competent wealth. We have no princes, to in- 

 dulge the grades more immediately beneath them, 

 in their pleasures and their passions, that they may 

 themselves be supported at the expense of the na- 

 tion, in their schemes of ambition and luxury — no 

 over-grown nobles, to wanton on the hard earn- 

 ings of" an oppressed yeomanry! Pie will find a 

 respectable clergy, chosen by their respective con- 



