368 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 6 



on the clover, the poor and gullied river hills have 

 been every where covered whh soil, and grass, 

 and have become highly productive in grain. 



Mr. Sampson's ibrmer practice of'uppl\ingsur- 

 face manure, was given in the first number ofthis 

 iournal, in extracts liom his private letters, in an- 

 swer to inquiries on the subject. As tliere are 

 many of its present readers who have not the first 

 volumej the statements will be coj)ied here. 



" Dover, Goochland, Jan. Slst, 1833- 



" The surface manuring mentioned by my neighbor 

 Col. W. has become very much the practice in this sec- 

 tion of countiy. I have myself applied my manure 

 mainly in that way for several years past, and with 

 good effects. I have also selected my wheat fields as 

 the most advantageous application of the manure, that 

 is, for the benefit of both wheat and clover, as niy 

 wheat fields are uniformly sowed down \vith clover 

 seed. I have ascertained satisfactorily irom practice, 

 that land of inferior grade will be better taken with 

 clover with a light application of manure on the sur- 

 face, tlian land viuch better without it : nor have I any 

 doubt but that it is the best practice, if wheat alone is 

 the object. My practice for the application of the ma- 

 nure has been, to be well prepared with teams anc^ tools 

 for the speedy haulingwhen the land is frozen, in order 

 that no injury may be done the wheat. The spreading 

 may be done at almost any time, provided you do not 

 let it remain long enough to bleach or injure the wheat. 

 I am well assured that the best application that can be 

 made of manure is on the surface, for both wheat and 

 clover; and through the agency of the clover, I would 

 say the best for the land. I have no doubt that it may 

 be extended doubly as far, advantageously. 1 also con- 

 sider wheat straw worth more on the surface than any 

 other application of it: indeed I uae but little in any 

 other way, and use leaves fi-om the woods as litter for 

 my stock yards. 



"February 23d, 1833. 

 "With respect to my practice with the use of ma- 

 nure, it varies somewhat according to circumstances, 

 having such a variety of soils, and the condition in 

 which the land is found varying iioui the actual gullied 

 or galled state, to all the grades of naturally good a,nd 

 mean land. It suffices to say, that when a piece of 

 land is intended for cultivation, which is entirely ex- 

 hausted, gullied or galled, the first process would be to 

 give it a more even surface by ploughing in and level- 

 ling gullies, &-C. When this is done, 1 litter freely, fpr 

 the purpose of turning iu with the plough ; leaves from 

 the woods I prefer, as they are more readily turned un- 

 der than wheat straw, which enables me to keep more 

 straw for applying on the surface, where I greatly pre- 

 fer it. I usually plaster the litter before turning it in, 

 say at the rate of a bushel to a bushel and a half per 

 acre. On land thus prepared, I seed oats, but reap but 

 little, as might be supposed. I fallow this land again, 

 and seed wheat at the fall, when the litter thus turned 

 in is pretty well rotted. On the wlieat I top-dress 

 lightly, and plaster again, say three pecks to a bushel 

 per acre, which produces a saving crop of wheat, and 

 enables me to get the land well taken with clover, which 

 I think an all-important object where improvement of 

 the soil is wished. My wheat straw I generally apply 

 on my pasture land, twelve months, or more or less as 

 may be convenient, before ploughing in. 



The manure which I use for top-dressing is general- 

 ly pretty well rotted, having been made the winter pre- 

 vious to using it. For instance, the manure of this 

 winter's making, I a})ply the next winter, taking ad- 

 vantage of all leisure times with teams, &c. in spring 

 and summer, to collect my manure from the different 

 yards in which the different kinds • of stock are kept, 

 some kinds of which are better than others — say, from 

 etable yards, sheep, cattle and hog pens, from ash banks, 



and wood yards, together with leaves which have been 

 heaped the winter previous in the woods. 1 liaul to the 

 fields intended to be seeded with wheat, (during the 

 summer as above mentioned,) manure horn the diHer- 

 ent places named, forming heaps that will contain from 

 thirty to fifty heavy wagon loads, as the case may re- 

 quire, making those deposites at the most convenient 

 places for speedily applying them on the wheat when 

 the land is firm, (or frozen would be preferred,) haul- 

 ing alternately from all the kinds enumerated, so as to 

 form a I'egular layer of each, where it remains until 

 used. I then cut it down from top to bottom as they 

 are removing it, which mixes it in such a way as to 

 give a due admixture of all the manures on every part 

 on which it is applied. 



Manure accumulated in the difl'erent stock yards 

 from the commencement, of winter, and remaining un- 

 til midsummer or later, possibly some until fall, will 

 not run into great heat ; and should it be so disposed, the 

 fermentation will be over before applying it on tlie 

 wheat in winter. 



Yours respectfully, 



Richard Sampson." 



Mr. Sampson has not altered his opinion of the 

 value of the surtiice manuring; but other circum- 

 stances have induced him to change his practice. 

 The increased lertihty of his high-land has been ac- 

 companied by the increase of that pest, blue <rrass, 

 which requires a tilled crop to conquer it. There- 

 lore, he has been compelled to introduce corn into 

 his high-land rotation, substituting it lor oats iu 

 such parts of the field as is most inR'sted- by blue 

 grass. Then, again to do justice to the corn crop, 

 and to prevent its injuring the land, he gives to it 

 all his farm-yard manure, and that he piouirhs un- 

 der deeply, late in the spring, that being the first 

 ploughing. This deep and late ploughing buries, 

 and he hopes will conquer the blue ijrass. The 

 corn crop on hijih land will not be continued longer 

 than to efiect this cleaning purpose sulTicienily. 



Though it had not been loiig since drouiiht had 

 parched the grass, the late rains had covered every 

 part of these hills witii verdure, such as 1 liave 

 rarely seen on any hills in Virginia below the lime- 

 stone mountain land; and though I am opposed 

 to grazing any lands, of which the increased ler- 

 tilization is the prmarj/ object, it must be confessed 

 that there is fur more beauty in pasture land itsell) 

 than of similar land not grazed, besides the appear- 

 ance of the herds of fine aninials. 



3. The poor gray landi. 



No cultivated part of this class of land, on thi.s 

 farm, now exhibits the deirree of natural poverty 

 and artificial exhaustion which was manifest on all 

 but a Itiw years ago. Eut even if there was no 

 other testimony, the Ibrmer bad condition might 

 be inlljrred both irom the poverty of the adjoining 

 woodland, of similar soil, and the additional inju- 

 ry caused by the exhausting tillage and washing, 

 on other similar lands of the neighborhood. 



The great resource used ibr improving this land 

 is found in leaves and gypsum — this mineral ma- 

 nure being found to act here well, when applied in 

 combination with vegetable matter. When anew 

 piece ofthis worn land is designed to be improved, 

 the course pursued by Mr. Sampson is first to co- 

 ver it heavily with leaves, brouiiht just as raked 

 up in the neighboring woods. These are laid on 

 as thickly as they can be ploughed in well and 

 deeply by good two-horse ploughs. This is done 

 in tlie latter part of ■\\inter; and oats are sown at 



