320 



FARMERS' REGISTER— ON WATER FURROWING. 



titles, and for pounding them, would commence the 

 business, and intelligent and improving farmers would 

 buy the new manure. The prices in England have 

 been regulated by long and accurate trial of the effects 

 of the manure — and farmers have been thereby con- 

 vinced that they can alford to give prices varying be- 

 tween fifty and sixty -six cents the bushel. Here they 

 might be profitably prepared by millers at half that 

 cost — and therefore miglit be applied with double profit 

 by the purchaser. We hope that some one of the 

 owners of the gTeat flour mills in Richmond or Peters- 

 burg, whose machinery and water power are almost 

 without employment for the greater part of the year, 

 will make a trial of crushing and grinding bones for 

 sale, and that their neighbors, the "town farmers," will 

 take care that the want of purchasers shall not cause 

 loss to the enterprise, or put a stop to the work before 

 a full and fair trial of the effects of the manure.] 



ON WATER FURROWING, 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Goochland, July Slst, 1834. 



Believing the agriculturist's to be the basis upon 

 which the prosperity of eveiy other avocation de- 

 pends, and feeling well assured that your invalua- 

 ble paper happily comporls with its design, of 

 sustaining the interest of the farmer, I have pre- 

 sumed to transmit to you a few, though very im- 

 perfect thoughts, relative to one out of the many 

 interesting topics, which require consideration. 

 This being a day peculiarly noted for energy and 

 activity, I believe it to be the imperative duty of 

 every man who is a fi'iend to his countrj^ and to 

 mankind, to contribute his mite, however small, if 

 it can have a tendency to promote the interests of 

 his fellow men. 



It must be apparent to the least minute observer 

 that the present dilapidated aspect of our country 

 must be ascribed to the pernicious S3'stem practised 

 by our forefathers, viz: that of ploughing and til- 

 ling their crops up and down the hills. I believe 

 our lands, especially of the upper country, sustain 

 more injury from washing than from any other 

 cause. If so, it should be a primary object with 

 the farmers to adopt a plan, which Avill prevent 

 the surface of his hills from gliding into the bot- 

 tom, thereby impoverishing the former, while the 

 latter AA^ould be iuinLshed with more than can be 

 digested. 



As a remedy I would recommend the trencliing 

 or furrowing system, which though simple, is pow- 

 erful in its effects. From exj^erience and observa- 

 tion, I am well satisfied that if they are judiciously 

 run, the soil on our hills may retain its primitive 

 location, I would recommend that they be run 

 with as little descent as will carry off the water, 

 and at the same time preserve them unbroken. I 

 would have them made immediatel}' after plough- 

 ing, so as to insure the land to sustain no injury. 

 Their number should be multiplied in proportion 

 to the declivity of the hill on which thoy are made. 

 As a straight line is the nearest distance between 

 two points, and as water generally manifests a 

 disposition to take a straight direction, which is 

 very different from the one I would have it go, I 

 would always have a hand to visit my wheatlield 

 ufler each rain, for the first two or three after the 



wheat is seeded, and observe the disposition the 

 water has in each furrow to follow the prescribed 

 channel, and if a disposition lo digress is seen, he 

 should lay before it inducements, or p>ut such bar- 

 riers in its way, as that the desired course shall be 

 necessarily followed. Thus our hills would not 

 only improve in fertility, but our fiats would be 

 secured from the continued deluge of red lava, if 

 I may so call it from its tendency to overspread 

 with barrenness the most fruitfuf soils. I would 

 also state, as perhaps I should have done before, 

 that we should exerci.se some ingenuity in the lay- 

 ing off of our corn and tobacco rows, which should 

 be done in such a way as that each row shall take 

 off its own water, and thereby rendering the sepa- 

 rate burden of each one light. In case that they 

 should fail to comply with the proposed end, I 

 would introduce a few furrows, and cause tlie 

 ploughman to be very careful to preserve them, 

 and if filled up by him, make it a rule that the 

 hoes remedy all defects. 



Thus our hill-sides would not only occupy a 

 useful space on our farms, but by this and other 

 improvements, equally essential in their places, 

 such as restricting our stock from grazing only a 

 specified portion of our farms, (and I would here 

 say the fewer the number the better;) by clover, 

 by manuring from our farm pens, &c., they would 

 soon possess the attraction of cohesion, and vie in 

 point of luxuriance with our most fertile plains: 

 which would enable us to transmit to our posterity, 

 estates capable of rewarding industrious, enter- 

 prising, and economical habits — and secure them 

 from that rambling impulse, which is doubtless 

 excited to a considerable extent, by the distress- 

 ing ap];earance which our once fertile, but in many 

 places, now exhausted farms exhibit. 



R. D. KKY. 



PRESERA'ATION OF TIMBER. 



From tlie Genesee Fannei. 



The season of the year being one in which 

 fencing occupies the attention of the farmer, has 

 led to several articles in your valuable paper on 

 the subject, with various suggestions for the pre- 

 servation of posts, &c. Some are for pickling, 

 some for burning, some for lime, and then again 

 ashes are recommended, while others are for turn- 

 ing them bottom upwards. Elsewhere, regard to 

 the quartering of the moon is gravely insisted on, 

 and even ahorse shoe nailed on the bottom is by 

 some held to be a specific against decay. How is 

 it that perhaps the 7nost important and valuable 

 communication that has appeared in the Genesee 

 Farmer, or any other agricultural paper, has not 

 superseded all these recommendations for preserv'- 

 ing tim.ber? Why not give their attention to the 

 really scientific and almost conclusive experiments 

 of Mr. Kyan? It would seem as though that 

 valuable and interesting article, selected for your 

 paper under the signature B., had passed unread 

 or without the consideration due to it, coming as it 

 does supported by the result of five years' experi- 

 ment. It would seem so, because it has excited 

 no further notice nor inquiry in relation to it! and I 

 tear it has given rise to no experiments, or I think 

 some more particular information would have 

 been called for by the practical farmer. Under 

 this im])reBsion — not having the paper within my 

 reach conlainincr B.'s extracts— I will again ask 



