FARMERS' REGISTER— RED LANDS OF SOUTH WEST MOUNTAINS. 315 



Mine, however, which grow tliriitily in a deep 

 sand have not matured one half the fruit. 



It has also been said, that sandy and rather poor 

 land j)roducos more perfect and richer berries than 

 soil of greater fertility, and more largely mixed 

 with clay. This, too," is contradicted by my ob- 

 servation. By tar the most thrifty and valuable 

 vine3-ard, I ever saw, comprising six or eight vari- 

 eties of the grape, on about sev^en acres, is now 

 cultivated in the county of Jasper, (Georgia) on a 

 high hill of pretty rich red clay and very stony. I 

 saw it last July in tall bearing, the fruit just be- 

 gininng to ripen, and not a berry diseased, except 

 a lew Isabellas, and, perhaps, one other variety, 

 the name not now remembered. The excessive 

 wet weather of last spring was fatal to grapes 

 growing on sandy soils; yet the vineyard in Jasper, 

 on red clay, Avas never more prolific, yielding, as 

 I understand, between one and two thousand gal- 

 lons of wine, which the skilful and fortunate cul- 

 tivator. Col. Alexander, sells readily at from one 

 and an half to two and an half dollars a gallon, 

 when tabove one year old. But this was not the 

 only instance of pretty uniformly good crops being 

 produced on rich red clay lands. 



What time may do ibr vines which grow on 

 poor and sandy land, our brief experience in the 

 culture of the article has not yet shown — such 

 lands, I knoAv, are recommended by most Euro- 

 pean writers; yet it is well known that in a state of 

 Jiature, it is our rich woodlands only that produce 

 our thriftiest vines and the richest fruit. The ex- 



Eerience of Europe may be different, or as has 

 een often stated, and yet no safe guide in this re- 

 spect to the American adventurer. 



The most productive vines I ever saw, is the 

 mother of that family of excellent grapes, known 

 as the " Devereux grape." It stands in my neigh- 

 borhood, is now thirty years old or upwards, and 

 has been trained on arbors to the length of one 

 hundred feet or more — never much pruned — pro- 

 duces a good crop every year, and grows in soil 

 almost as rich as manure can make it. I have a 

 number of thrilfy vines of the Devereux grape in 

 a vineyard of rather poor sandy land, which have 

 not perfected fruit oflener than one year in three 

 since they began to bear — they may do better 

 when older; but from the facts that have fallen 

 under my notice, I would, for the location of a 

 vineyard, select the richest red clay of suitable 

 elevation that I could find. Long spells of rain, 

 will, I fiiar, ruin the fruit of any vines in thiscoun- 

 trj^ which grow on beds of deep sand — unless, in- 

 deed, such consequences may be averted by co- 

 pious applications of manure. 



rilGHLAlVDER. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE RED LANDS OF THE 

 SOUTH WEST MOUNTAINS. 



To the Editor of tlie Farmers' Register. 



I observed in looking over the September num- 

 ber of the Farmers' Register, in an article signed 

 "A Gleaner," a notice of horizontal ploughing, as 

 adopted in Albemarle, and as he supposes now 

 abandoned. It certainly is abandoned in the 

 breaking up of land, but not in the culture of the 

 corn — the crop being planted, or attempted to be 



Elanted, in horizontal drills very generally laid ofl 

 y the eye. It is true that the eye of every 

 ploughman is not as accurate as that of a gentle'- \ 



man who had discovered that water would run up 

 hill, (for you must know he had the most accu- 

 rate eye in the world, and he had discovered by it 

 that water had run from a lower to a higher point) 

 — but sufhciently accurate for practical purposes, 

 to keej) the water dispersed, and prevent wide 

 breaches through the field. In brealdng the land 

 with the large plough, the old system of beds both 

 straight and horizontal are disused, for the more 

 expeditious and efficacious spiral method; that is 

 going round the base of the hill and terminating 

 at the top. The mould-board being kept always 

 from the hill, the earth is moved a smaller distance, 

 and tumbling over more, leaves a freer and 

 wider furrow. The growing practice of cultivating 

 corn, on Uivt] or clover, and the disuse of the small 

 plough and coulter, (depending exclusively upon 

 the supei'ficial Avork of the cultivator, and trusting 

 to the decomposition of the vegetable matter to 

 mellow the land, which is more permanent and ef- 

 fectual than the plough or coulter, better for land 

 and crop,) will lead to the entire disuse of the ho- 

 rizontal jdoughing, except upon stubble or clear 

 land, or for the relief of teams on very broken 

 fields. It may well be doubted whether' horizon- 

 tal ploughing Avould be useful upon lands less pei*- 

 meable to water than the red lands of the South 

 West Mountains. They are so, in a very remark- 

 able degree — and if the water can be arrested for 

 a moment it goes into the earth. It is a friable 

 clay, without sand; its aperient, is a round iron ore 

 from the size of the point of a pin to a partridge shot, 

 rolling Avhen it comes in contact with the plough, 

 which never cleans itself unless the land is perfect- 

 ly dry. It is adhesive in a high degree Avhen wet, 

 yet not cohesive except when dry; adhering to your 

 feet most inconveniently, j'et not cohering sufficient- 

 ly unless hard trod, or "turfed, to be turned over by 

 the plough; but shoving aside like diy sand. The 

 clay breaks in cubical fractures. These after lying 

 tempered in brick mortar forty-five hours, moulded 

 and remaining until the brick has acquired consis- 

 tence enough to bear handling, will be found to be 

 dry when taken from the centre of the moist brick, 

 having resisted the action of the Avater. When 

 ploughed in the hill it is acted on by frost, and be- 

 comes very light. A hare may be tracked across 

 a field as through snoAv. Light enough almost 

 to be blown by the Avinds, yet this is the condition 

 in Avhich it AA'iJInot Avash. The Avriterofthis article 

 recollects to have had a A'cry steep field in the 

 shape of a half funnel, in this condition in the 

 Avinter of 1822-3, exposed to a rain of nine inches 

 and a quarter, falling in about fifleen or eighteen 

 hours, Avithout the slightest Avashing, except where 

 the Avater burst out of the earth and run a few 

 feet before it disappeared. A A^ery small portion 

 reduces to an impalpable poAvder; yet that is so 

 minute as to penetrate the best made ncAv boot. 

 It exhibits no appearance upon the surface of be- 

 ing dissolved by Avater. CIoA'er seed falling into 

 holes, is found after a rain not imbedded in a clay 

 or soil deposited by Avater, but clear and distinct 

 upon the surface, as if the water had held none in 

 solution. A thin crust forms on the surface in 

 sprinff (Avhich does not crack in drying) sufTicient- 

 Ij' hard to cause cloA'er seed to lie on it as a rock, 

 and ])erish; or should a root perchance penetrate, 

 it enters a loose coarse soil, badly adapted to it.s 

 vegetation; hence it is, Avithout the roller, preca- 

 rious in the extreme, for a crop of young clover; 



