190 



FARMERS' REGISTER— IMPROVEMENT OF WORN LANDS. 



IMPROVEMENT OF WORN LANDS. 



Brookfidd, I2th July, 1834. 



To the Editor of the Fanners' Register. 



I observe in your Register for June, some re- 

 marks by S. B. trom Powhatan, on "Exhausting 

 and improving cultivation." In addition to his 

 modes of improving, exliausted or naturally poor 

 land, I would beg to lay before your readers, a 

 mode of improvement adopted in many parts of 

 Europe, and particularly in England and Scotland. 

 Many of your readers muf^t be acquainted with it 

 from theory, but I am not aware of its ever having 

 been put properly into practice in this country. 

 The mode to which I allude if?, the fdlowing of 

 land with a crop of turnips and eating them off 

 the ground with sheep, either the whole of the 

 crop, or two-thirds of it, as it may be abundant or 

 deficient. The mode as adopted in Scotland, where 

 t have had it in extensive practice, is, land which 

 is wished to be laid dov>''n in grass and in good 

 condition, is well prepared in the early part of 

 the season by repeated ploughing, as the nature 

 or condition of the soil may require, until proper- 

 ly pulverized: the ground generally receives a par- 

 tial manuring. Bone manure is generally used 

 for that crop, and is sown in the drills with the 

 machine at the same time the turnips are. In the 

 absence of^a supply of bone manure,stable-yard ma- 

 nure is used. The turnips are regularly ploughed, 

 hoed, and thinned out to a given space, plant: from 

 plant, as the kind of root may require.- Early in 

 winter a moveable fence is used to inclose a space 

 of the field proportioned to the number of sheep. 

 In addition to the turnips, the sheep have oat straw 

 or hay given to them in severe weather, which is 

 placed for them in a moveable and covered rack, 

 and this moveable fence is extended or removed 

 from time to time as the whole are eaten off. The 

 ground is then ploughed up for the recejition of 

 the grain meant to be sown in it. This mode of 

 Improving worn out or poor soils in Scotland, has 

 been attended with the most beneficial results. 

 Land which to my own Icnowledge a few years asco 

 was scarce worth the fencing in^ is iloW, from this 

 mode of manuring, producing from thirty to forty 

 bushels of wheat an acre. It is to be observed, 

 that it does not generally succeed well in wet 

 or low lands. From the difference of climate 

 I am not fi-om experience prepared to say that the 

 .same mode would be attended in this country with 

 the same amount of beneficial result; but as so 

 much is wanted here to improve worn out land, I 

 should think the matter worthy a patient trial; if 

 it failed, it could be no great loss — and if it suc- 

 ceeded it would be of incalculable benefit. The 

 spirit of agricultural improvement in this country 

 is now evidently beginning to expand itself It is 

 doubtless the duty and interest of every one to 

 aid the good work so far as in their power. The 

 number of emigrations from this part of the county 

 is a source of general remark and regret; and it 

 is doubtless a matter of deep regret, that so many 

 of the industrious citizens of the Atlantic States 

 should be compelled to remove to the far-ofi' 

 western country. And the general reason as- 

 signed for such emigration is, that the land here 

 will not now, as formerly, repay the labors be- 

 stowed on it, or, in many instances, aff^ord even a 

 scanty subsistence to its owners. This failure, 



ture of the soil, is the unavoidable result of an 

 injudicious, improvident, and ruinous S3'stcm (if it 

 can be so called) of agriculture; but the fact that 

 they carry with them the same injudicious system, 

 is a matter of deeper and more serious regret, than 

 the bare fact of their emigration. For, al'ter they 

 have labored hard for a i'ew years to clear a few 

 acres of land of its timber, they, by following 

 their old system, must unavoidably after a few 

 years have the same difficulties to encounter, and 

 another removal fiirther into the interior be the 

 result, until the whole face of the countr}--, natu- 

 rally rich and productive, become a comparative 

 barren waste These emigiants are termed the 

 pioneers of the forests, and have to encounter 

 many a hardship, and sacrifice many an endearing 

 tie. But those men who become the owners of 

 the lands which they have left, have a task no less 

 difficult and arduous, and certainly much more deli- 

 cate to perform than clearing land from Avood* 

 They, in order to obtain a subsistence, must re- 

 claim land which has been exhausted by an im- 

 poverishing mode of fiuming, an object Avhich can 

 only be obtained after a lapse of time and much 

 perseverance. Let the citizens of this common- 

 wealth think on the numbers of their forefath- 

 ers who died under the tomahawk and scalping- 

 knifc of the savage and unreclaimed Indian, in ob- 

 taining for them their noio peaceful possessions, 

 and on the thousands of patriots who died in the 

 defence of their dearest rights, and in securing for 

 their descendants a glorious liberty and inde- 

 pendence. And was all this blood spilt to obtain a 

 country so unproductive as not to supply her chil- 

 dren with bread? Certainly not. Citizens of this 

 happy and free country, providence has cast your 

 lot in a land capable, under judicious management, 

 producing every comfort, necessary, and luxury of 

 life even to overflowing, and will you not avail 

 yourselves of these important blessings? If meanf3 

 are amply in your own hands, it only wants ex- 

 ample, energy and enterprise to secure to you and 

 your children their full enjoyment. Your patri- 

 otic forefathers nobly withstood the efforts of a 

 proud ambitious and invading foe, and victory and 

 independence was their rich reward. 



You have now a foe within yourselves in the in- 

 ternal management of your dearly purchased pos- 

 sessions, which strikes as deeply (and much more 

 insiduously) at the root of your dearest interests, 

 and which, if not speedily met and combatted with, 

 must ere long present you with the appalling spec- 

 tacle of your lands reduced to barrenness, and 

 3"our children without bread.^ Come forward then, 

 and let every energy be aroused, and every preju- 

 dice manfully combatted with, and you will have 

 the pleasing reward of seeing yourselves and j-our 

 children enjoying those blessings s(5 hardly pur- 

 chased, not only in peace, but in comfort, plenty, 

 and happiness. This great, and rapidly increas-^ 

 ing republic, already stands second to none in com- 

 mercial importance and in the trading enterprise 

 of her citizens. Why should she not also rank 

 high amongst the first of nations for her agricul- 

 tural enterprise and prosperity? Her ships, or 

 rather her floating palaces are held up as models 

 of naval architecture to the world: why should 

 not her agricultural implements rank on the same 

 scale? Surely they are of as much importance. 

 Her mariners and machinists are considered equal 



which is unjustly attributed to the ungratefijl na- 1 if not superior to any hi the civilized world: why 



