FARMERS' REGISTER— MR. CRAVEN'S REPORT. 



229 



ing, or paiiit, — tliese, with a dilapidated dairy and 

 a lew wretched negro cabins constituted the im- 

 provements. 



Tliis being the general condition of the far.Ti 

 when I became the piircliaser, it was my first ob- 

 ject to get it hudotr into four fields, or shifts. Its 

 situation not admitting of tlie fifth shift, I was 

 compelled to substitute that from some other part 

 of n\y land, as I am never willing to cultivate a 

 field in corn more than once in five years. But I 

 was compelled to depart even from this order in the 

 first round that I took, as in all the fields there was 

 a large proportion of the land that was not worth 

 cultivating in corn; indeed there are small parts 

 of two of the fields that have never been cultivated 

 in corn yet. My rotation is. No. 1, corn, seeded 

 down with wheat, rye, or oats, and with clover 

 the last of March, or first of April. No. 2, fallow- 

 ed for wheat, and sowed down in clover in like 

 manner the second year. No. 3, in corn, and sow- 

 ed down in like manner. No. 4, fallowed and sow- 

 ed down in like manner the third year. No. 5, in 

 corn, and No. 1 in fallow. As I never fallow un- 

 til after harvest, I have seldom found it necessary 

 to sow clover in my fallow land; indeed, J have 

 several times had my land well taken with clover 

 after being cultivated in corn, and some of the 

 thickest and most regular clover I had this season, 

 was at'ter a crop of corn. Thus 3-ou will observe 

 each field gets two entire years rest in five, which, 

 under a good cover of clover, and a bushel of 

 plaster to the acre, with as much manure as the 

 farm will produce, converting every thingsuscepti- 

 ble of it into manure, and taking great care to get 

 the whole on the ground before it goes through the 

 fermentation if possible, gives a good assurance of 

 considerable improvement. During the summer I 

 seldom move the manure out of the stable, until 

 the cart is ready to haul it out; and during the hot 

 weather I prefer to have it ploughed in immedi- 

 ately. 



That part of the farm lying on the east side of 

 the Rivanna, of which I have been in possession 

 eight or nine years, is divided into six fields of very 

 unequal size. Two causes render this unequal di- 

 vision necessary. One is, the irregular meanders 

 of the river on one side of the farm, while it is di- 

 vided in two by a public road running directly 

 through it: the other is, the running the lences in 

 the valleys, that horizontal ploughing may be more 

 perlijctly done; so important in our hilly lands for 

 their improvement, and for the greater expedition 

 and fixcility of ploughing deep. And I am deci- 

 dedly of opinion, that our deeper ploughing is one 

 great cause of the advancement in agricultural 

 improvement of this count}-, beyond some of those 

 adjoining. I believe there is no one among us, at 

 this day, who is not satisfied that the deeper he 

 ploughs, the more his land is improved. How 

 different from the state of things twentj^ years ago! 

 vvhen, nineteen out of twenty of the old settlers 

 thought it would ruin the land. I have been asked 

 the question very often, if I was not afraid of in- 

 juring the land by ploughing so deep; so far from it, 

 I am disposed to consider that a princijial cause 

 of its improvement. There is nothing in which I 

 am more particular, than in seeing that my plough- 

 ing is well done — and my constant directions to my 

 ploughmen are never to fear ploughing too deep, 

 if the horses can pull the plough. I stillpreferthe 

 old bar-.share plough to any other I have ever used; 



considering it superior both in durability, and the 

 ease with which it works both to man and horse. 



I have now a plough of this description which 

 has been in constant use for eight years, while I 

 have never been able to procure any other kind 

 that will last me two years. The great objection 

 to the M'Cormick jilough, is, that it has not 

 strength enough for our rough lands. 



It was my practice some years ago to break all 

 my lands Avith lour horses, but from the great dis- 

 advantage in turning and ploughing round the hill 

 with four horses, 1 now work three horses only, 

 which I think areas lew as can possibly do the 

 work well 



My long and constant practice has been to raise 

 every thing on the tarm lor its support; say horses, 

 hogs, cattle and sheep — I have on my ^iiffcrent 

 farms, thirty-six head of horses; thirty-two of 

 which I have raised myself I not only find it more 

 convenient to raise than to purchase, but the horses 

 are really more valuable; and it is much more con- 

 venient to sell a horse now and then, than to pur- 

 chase one, when I have not the money to pay for 

 it. Every farmer certainly has it in his power to 

 raise his own horses. Some of the best horses I 

 have ever owned were raised until they were fit for 

 work, without having eaten one barrel of corn or 

 grain of any kind. I have no doubt it will be 

 tbund to be the interest of eveiy farmer to feed all 

 the [irovender he raises on the farm, to his own 

 stock in preference to selling it; and that the farm 

 will be much more benefited by it. I have also 

 endeavored to manuficture as much of the clothing 

 necessary for the use of the family, (black and 

 white,) as possible, from materials raised on the 

 farm; say wool, flax and hemp, the cotton yarn 

 being purchased in preference to spinning it. 



I must be excused by the committee from stating 

 any precise amount of the nett proceeds of the 

 farm now ofl^ered for premium , having always, viiih- 

 out distinction, blended together the crops from my 

 different farms: nor am I able to sa}^ precisely 

 what force I work on these farms — It is not, how- 

 ever, less than eighteen steady hands, men and 

 women, with the addition of four or five boatmen, 

 during the season that boats are not running. 



As far as I am able, I will now proceed to give a 

 statement of my two last crops, commencing with 

 Ihe field No. 3", at Franklin. The crop of 1827. 

 was seven hundred and fifty bushels of Lawler 

 wheat, from less than thirty acres. The house, 

 yard, and garden, stand in the middle of the field, 

 and must occupy more than one acre. My crop 

 ol the last year from the same farm, field No. 1, 

 containing ninety-one acres, produced twelve hun- 

 dred and fifty bushels. This crop was very much 

 injured by the rust, none of the wheat weighing 

 more than fifty-seven pounds to the measured 

 busheL Ten or twelve acres of this field also 

 were very poor, having been entirel}' gulhed when 

 I purchased the land; and this was the first crop 

 made from it. IMy crop of wheat, rye, and oats, 

 from the field No. 1, on the Park farm, was — 

 wheat, four hundred and fitly bushels; rye, four 

 hundred bushels; and, oats, five hundred bushels. 

 This was after a ver\- heavy crop of corn the pre- 

 ceding year. On this same field the present year, 

 I have cut more than one hundred thousand weight 

 of clover hay, from less than half the field, not 

 having cut any except where the clover was very 

 heavy. My constant care has been to keep every 



