FARMERS' REGISTER^EXIIAUSTING CULTIVATION. 







To till! Editor of the Fanners' Register. 



EXHAUSTING ASD IMPROVING CULTIA^ATION. 



Powhatan, y/pril 13th, 1834. 



I have, for some time, desired that some one 

 would undertake to correct the evils prevailing in 

 out county, to the devastation and entire destruc- 

 tion ol'tlie value of our lands, by hard and exces- 

 sive culture, and which ought to have opened the 

 eyes of more gentlemen who are really practical 

 farmers, well-inlbrmed, and influential in many 

 laudable things, but who appear to me, to have 

 yielded without a struggle to this ruinous system 

 of management. By pursuing this course, detri- 

 mental to their own interest and diminishing the 

 wealth of our beloved commonwealth, they liave 

 already caused, and will continue to produce that 

 abandonment oltheir native state and emigration 

 to the west, which lias been forced upon our people 

 by their increasing necessities. That this diminu- 

 tion in the value of our lands is too mucii oiving to 

 neglect and bad management, and that an im- 

 proved jilan of cultivation ^vill, -with but little ad- 

 flitional industry, effect a very great and desirable 

 change in the present gloomy appearance of our 

 lands, must, I think, be evident to all who bestow 

 even a slight degree of attention on this important 

 subject. To reclaim our exhausted lands, is not 

 so imj)racticable as it has been considered: but it 

 requires the dissemination of information acquired 

 by experience, and the free interchange of o]>inion 

 on agricultural subjects. The work in which you 

 have engaged, is a proper channel for the commu- 

 nication of this mutual instmction, which I look 

 upon as a safeguard of our happiness, and a har- 

 binger of our luture prosperity: and I' consider it 

 the duty of each subscriber to tlie ' Register, ' to 

 contribute all in his power to the general stock of 

 information. Under a sense of this duty, and not 

 with a vain expectation of imparting any material 

 benefit to my brother farmers, I have been induced 

 to address you; and I have been the more en- 

 couraged to do so, trom having already observed 

 the good which has resulted from the communica- 

 tions of some of your earlier correspondents. 



Having lor eight or ten years past, been in the 

 habit of jjartially grazing my land, and having 

 found, as I supposed, an improvement therefrom, 

 I took up an idea that by pursuing this course, 

 with the addition of all my manure, (a scanty por- 

 tion however,) I could restore my farm to its origi- 

 nal productiveness. But the period within which 

 I had hoped to effect this desirable change passed 

 away, and instead ofimproving,! had impoverished 

 my land. I determined, therefore, to resort to clover; 

 and in 1831 I sowed a lot of about twenty- four 

 acres with twenty gallons of clover seed. Upon 

 about one-third of this lot, immediately afler sow- 

 ing, I scattered the chaff of three crops of wheat, 

 which had a veiy haj^py effect: for although the 

 whole of the seed took tolerably well, it came up 

 much thicker upon this portion of the lot, and 

 would have produced more than twice the quan- 

 tity, by weight, had it been cut and tried. The 

 clover here lodged. It should be mentionetl how- 

 ever, that the land on this part of the lot was better 

 than the rest. In April, twelve months after the 

 clover was sown, I had plastered it vv^ith one ton 

 of plaster to the whole. This clover was turned 

 under last August, (1833) with double ploughs, 

 breaking the land to the depth of eix or eight inches. 

 Vol. II.— 2 



I tlien, with a couple of largo two-horse drags, 

 harrowed the land the same way it was broken 

 up, which smoothed the suiface, although the 

 weather was very diy. On the 27th of September, 

 following, I commenced sowing upon this lot about 

 twenty-five bushels of wheat, harrowing it the 

 same way that the land was ploughed, and lapping 

 about half the -width of the liarrows, by which 

 means the land was gone over twice, the lajiped 

 part finishing tlie work as it went on ; the hoe 

 hands followed, chopped over, cleared out the 

 water-furro\^'s, and grips, and broke up all the 

 clods. The prospect Ibr a crop is, at this time, 

 very promising, and I shall not be much mistaken 

 in my calculation when I say that the product will 

 be more than seventy-five per cent, greater than 

 I have ever made from the same land. I am con- 

 fident that I have added to the fertility of this land 

 more in two years than could have been done in six, 

 in the way I at first attempted its improvement; and 

 that by some similfvr course of cufture, land may 

 be so highly improved,that a ci-oj> of small-grain will 

 lodge upon it, and render the cultivation of other 

 croj)s necessaiy to reduce its exuberant fertility. 

 Having abandoned the three-shift system alto- 

 gether, and pursuing noAV a different mode of cul- 

 tivation, I may hereafter give you the results of my 

 experience, when I have acquired more than I now 

 possess. In the mean time, it may be not unin- 

 teresting, to give you some account of the present 

 state of* my little farm. It consists of about two 

 hundred and thirty acres, divided by a fence run- 

 ning nearly throuirh the middle of the plantation. 

 On one side of this fence is the fresh land, being 

 the smallest portion, and containing about one 

 hundred acres, which is already sown in wheat 

 and clover; (the clover up tolerably well:) on the 

 opposite side are one hundred and thirty acres of 

 land, much more lean. Each of these divisions 

 will be subdivided by turning-rov/s, so as to make 

 two fields of fitly acres on one side, and two of 

 sixty-five on the other side of the fence. It is not 

 my intention, however, to commence with corn 

 upon anj- one of my fields until the year 1836: in 

 the meantime the division of one hundred and 

 thirty acres is to be fallov,'ed in the course of this 

 summer, and laid down in wheat this fall; and in 

 the spring ensuing the -whole of this part will be 

 sown in clover. 1 have no standing pasture, but 

 use a tract of rented land for grazing; and should 

 be pleased to learn ^vhat kind of grass would be 

 most profitable, and prosper best, if sown in the 

 woods for a standing pasture, the undergrowth 

 being first cleared up, the brush cleaned off, and 

 the leaves raked up and hauled away. 



The production of my liirm in small grain, has 

 been moderately increasing for several years, by 

 its having been a little more nursed than some 

 others..' I have lor some time been in the habit of 

 top-dressing. I have top-dressed clover one year 

 old with v>^heat straw, put on in the fall. This 

 plan is well adapted to produce a -vigorous growth 

 of clover in the ensuing- spring. I have also used 

 ashes on the surface, at the rate of one bushel to 

 thirty feet square, well spread, upon wheat and 

 clover, then covered with litter from the stable; 

 consisting principally of wheat straw, thrown out 

 ever}' morning into a pen, and allowed to go 

 throuffh a fermentation. This I tliink the beet 

 top-di-essing I have ever tried. 



I have top-dressed land too poor to bring a crop 



