FARMERS' REGISTER— VISIT TO ALBEMARLE. 



233 



on an adjacent mountain, and which is intended 

 for a grazing larm. 



To feed and clothe my laboring hands well — to 

 keep them in good, dry and conilbrtable houses, 

 warm in winter, and airj^ in sunnner — to he care- 

 ful not to have them exposed in bad weather— I 

 consider to be the dictate not only of humanity, 

 but of the strictest economy. I hope this remark 

 will be attended to. Working negroes in wet and 

 very cold weather, affording them low, contracted 

 huts argues to say nothing worse, a deiective 

 judgement, and a narrow and mistaken j)olicy. 

 Those who pursue this plan will find their hands 

 in good weather confined by diseases, which have 

 originated from exposure in bad. 



I prefer mules to horses, when they can be got 

 of good size; considering them longer lived, much 

 hardier, and requiring much less Ibod; particularly 

 grain. My horses as well as mules are principal- 

 ly fed on clover hay for rack food; on ground lye, 

 mixed with rye straw, or clover hay cut at all feed- 

 ing times, except in the morning, with about four 

 or five ears of corn previously soaked 24 hours in 

 brine. The oxen in summer are chiefly fed on 

 grass or hay; at twelve o'clock in the daj^, they 

 have a good feed of chopped grain with cut straw 

 or ha}-; in the winter, short corn with hay or top 

 fodder. INIy sheep, about forty in number, are 

 seldom fed, having good pasturage; about the time 

 of yearning and when there is enow, they have 

 some meal and blade fodder. My hogs are kept 

 during the winter and spring in a woodland pasture 

 until the clover blooms, when, their noses being 

 cut, they are turned into the clover field and fed 

 with one or two ears of corn each per day; after 

 harvest they are turned into the grain fields, where 

 they remain until those fields are gleaned, when 

 they are again turned into the clover fields. 



With respect to ploughs, I use the M'Cormick, 

 Carey, and Barshare. I think them all good. I 

 would prefer the M'Cormick, if it had more eleva- 

 tion in the throat, so as to avoid choaldng in rank 

 clover. 



My average crops are about 3000 bushels of 

 wheat, 500 barrels of corn, 3 or 400 bushels ofrj-e 

 and 4 or 5 hogsheads of tobacco. The amount 

 of sales from my farm in 1827, was about three 

 thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars; in 1828, 

 four thousand five hundred dollars. 



The v^ariety of particulars necessarily embraced 

 in this communication, has deterred me from en- 

 larging as nnichon some of them as I could \As\i. 

 I am unwilling to be tedious, and shall therefore 

 refrain from giving so fully as otherwise I might, 

 my views, even if they could be of any avail, on 

 the advantages and disadvantages of the different 

 ehifts and rotations of crops in genei'al use. I be- 

 lieve there is much to be said on this subject; I will, 

 however add, that, having lately purchased a farm 

 adjoining to Cloverton, containing near 300 acres 

 a considerable part of which is cleared, I shall 

 change to the seven shift system, believing that 

 preferable to the six. The latter plan allowing the 

 'first clover crop to stand only one year before it is 

 turned in for wheat; whereas the former allows it 

 to stand two years, which ought alwa\s to be the 

 case, and the rotation will then be corn, wheat, clo- 

 A'er, clover, wheat, clover, clover. I know there 

 are objections to such a number of shifts, arising 

 from the impression of too great a portion of land 

 Ipng out of cultivation; but the strictest attention 



and long experience have convinced me that those 

 prejudices are ill-founded; and that taking ten or 

 fifteen years together, independent of the improve- 

 ment, much greater profits will be realized by the 

 seven, than the six shifts. My confidence in this 

 plan is such, that nothing now will ever induce an 

 abandonment of it: unless the blue-grass should 

 increase so as to injure the v/heat and clover very 

 materially. 



JOHN ROGERS. 



A GLAIVCE AT THE FARMIXG OF ALBEMARLE. 



For the Farmers' Register. 



The pressure of unexpected private business 

 having a few days ago required my immediate 

 presence in Albemarle, I gave the small portion of 

 spare time afforded by so hurried a visit, to a very 

 hnsty view of some of the farms in that interest- 

 ing region. Had my engagements permitted, it 

 would have been to me both gratilying and in- 

 structive to have devoted as many days to this ex- 

 amination, as in fact I was able to give of hours: 

 but my business compelled my return homeward 

 to be as speedy, as the visit was sudden and un- 

 foreseen. Under these circumstances, it would be 

 most prvident to refrain from offering to the public 

 any of the imperfect impressions received during 

 so short and humed a view. But I am induced 

 to take the opposite course, with the hope that the 

 deficiencies may be excused, and (if merely to sup- 

 ply the evident deficiencies, and to correct my mis- 

 takes,) that some of the farmers of the South West 

 Mountains may be induced to furnish to the Far- 

 mers' Register a better and more full account of 

 the remarkable soil and excellent farming of that 

 region. There is no part of Virginia which pre- 

 sents to the eye of a stranger such a combination 

 of beauty, fertilitj^, and peculiar qualities, as the 

 range of "red land:" — and yet from all this rich 

 and extensive district, embracing so many good 

 farmers, and intelligent, well educated, and public 

 spirited men, not one communication has been 

 made to the Farmers' Register relating to the hus- 

 bandry and characteristic features of this region. 

 I hope this state of things will not be permitted to 

 continue, and that even my humble effort will 

 have some effect in stimulating to action those 

 who can render in this way so much more import- 

 ant service. 



It Avould have better directed my inquiries if I 

 could have previously seen the reports of the pre- 

 mium farms, published in 1829, by the Agricultu- 

 ral Society of Albemarle:* but I could not obtain 

 a copy until the moment of my departure home- 

 ward. It has since been read with a degree of 

 interest much heightened by my having la,tely 

 seen some of the (arms described. But valuable 

 as is (his report, it has one defect, which is ver^' 

 (jenerally found in all similar papers. The pecu- 

 liarities of the soil, &c. are described as slightly 

 as if every reader was previously well informed in 

 that respect: and though the want of such details 

 may not be felt by the residents of that region, it 

 would serve to destroy the principal value of the 

 report to strangers. On this account, my remarks 

 will be principally directed to those peculiarities of 



* Tfie report referred to, is that which precedes this 

 communication, in this No. of the Farmers' Register. 



