FARMERS' REGISTER— HENRICO LANDS AND HUSBANDRY. 



653 



ol' clover. The improvers of exhausted land jn 

 every ])iirt of ihe state consider their work nearly 

 accoin|)]ished as soon as lliey can c,'et it well 

 covered with red clover. Good plonghintr, a pro- 

 per rotation of crops, and non-i';razin<r, with the 

 use of plaster, have seldom in such cases, liuled to 

 restore the soil to its original fertility. To go be- 

 yond that, requires calcareous matter or heavy 

 dressings cf putrescent vegetable or animal ma- 

 nures. I have an old field of this sort of land that 

 put up, when I took possession of it, nothing bat 

 hen's grass. Tlie soil was originally very good; 

 but it had been worn down to the lowest point of 

 sterility. From the very promising appearance 

 of the substratum, I thought that it could be 

 renovated by good ploughing, and the use of plas- 

 ter, so as to produce clover. It was accordingly 

 ])loughed from iour to six inches deep, sown in 

 oats, clover and orchard grass, plastered at the 

 rate of a bushel to the acre. The oats were very 

 infijrior to what I exj.ected, but better than antici- 

 pated by those who knew the land. They were, 

 however, not sown until Aj^ril; for I did not take 

 possession until late in March. The clover came 

 up very badly, and except upon some j)ortions of 

 the field that had been partially manured by the 

 former owner, was an entire failure. The grass 

 seeds sown on this field cost me ,<f!l52. Having 

 as much rich land as I had force to cultivate, and 

 reclaim, I determined to let this field as well as 

 others on the same farm, rest and take the chance 

 of gradual improvement by timh, and one or two 

 ])lougliings, until 1 could take hold of it. In 1829 

 the whole field was first treated as above stated. 

 It rested two years, and in 1832 was in wdieat — 

 crop very inferior, except where my small stock of 

 manure was put — a third of the field was not 

 worth cutting, and w-as left to rot on the ground. 

 It rested in 1833 and 1834. The visible improve- 

 ment that has taken place in the appearance of 

 the land — the thicker cover of vegetable matter 

 including strong and bold weeds — induced me to 

 conmience ploughing in the winter, to put it in 

 corn this year, to be manured in the hill, whh fiirm- 

 pen manure, ashes, plaster, &c. It has been un- 

 avoidably pastured, but not heavily during the 

 years of rest. IfJ in 1829, the [ilaster had been 

 sown before tallowing, or just belbre the harrow 

 that put in the oats, the improvement would, in 

 my opinion, have been greater. 



About twenty acres of this field have been kept 

 under a different system, both for convenience and 

 experiment — divided into two plots. No. 1. was 

 the richest part of the field, as it had been ma- 

 nured slightly by my predecessor — No. 2. was 

 quite as poor as the average of the whole. 



Plot No. 1. 1829. In oats clovered and plaster- 

 ed — cro]) a fair one, cfjual to 

 average in the noighborliood. 



" " 1839. Clover— cut most of it — very 

 irregular in growth from un- 

 even manuring former!}'. 



" " 1831. Clover— pastured by calves, 

 &c. — greatly depreciated. 



" " 1S32. Manured before the plough 

 and put in Avheat with rest of 

 the field-crop excellent-though 

 still very irreguku'. 



'' " 1833. Wheat again — crop more pro- 

 ductive and not so irregular. 



Plot No. 1. 1834. Rye — cropcom|)aralivelygood 

 — sown too thick — though the 

 field, more than ten lor one of 

 seed. 

 Plot No. 2. 1829. Oats, clovered ami plastered 

 — cro}) interior, just worth cut- 

 ting. 



" " 1830. Clover — crop inferior — cut but 

 a few hundred weight, and that 

 in spots. 



" " 1831. Clover— plastered like plot No. 

 1 — clover almost entirely disap- 

 peared. 



" " 1832. Wheat — crop very inferior — ■ 

 hardly worth cutting. 



" " 1833. Corn— lightly manured in the 

 hill with corn-stalk and farm- 

 pen manure — crop not measured 

 — supposed about three barrels 

 to the acre — and as irregular as 

 the different juu-cels of manure, 



" " 1834. Whcat,lightly top-dressed with 

 farm-})en manure, when frozen, 

 or there was snow on the ground 

 — crop about ten lor one. 



You will observe that the plot No. 1. has been 

 in small grain the three last years, and has been 

 tendetl four years in six. The whole manuring 

 would be about equal to one good dressing of ma- 

 nure: yet the crops have been quite respectable — 

 and the clover is at this moment (23rd February) 

 so promising, (without ever liaving been seeded, 

 exce[)t in 1829,) that 1 intend plastering it, and 

 exempting it li'oai the corn crop intended for the 

 whole field. Plot No. 2. w^as the poorest — has 

 been four years in croji, and one a corn crop. 

 Still the light top-dressing given to the last Avheat 

 crop, has caused the clover to appear (though 

 sown in 1829,) so thick and vigorous, that, by a 

 single plastering, I expect to make a fair crop, 

 which will bear one cuttmg and keep the land im- 

 proving until the whole field can be brought to the 

 same point of improvement. 



These plots have been thus managed, because 

 they are very convenient for the employment of 

 the idle servants about my yard, &c.; and it was 

 easy to use the. manure on them, while more im- 

 portant and distant operations called lor the use 

 of all the two, and four-footed force, I could com- 

 mand. Another reason influenced this course: 

 these plots had become excessively Ibul with high- 

 land blue grass, wire grass, running briers, &c.; 

 and they are not half exterminated now. The 

 plastering given the whole field in 1829 seemed 

 to give a sort of magic existence to these pests. 

 The running biier, or dewberry, is a great an.noy- 

 ance on this whole field. It is vv'orse than the sas- 

 safras; for that can be destrojed by cutting it down 

 some inches above the ground with a brier knife 

 twice in one summer, orby putting hungry animals 

 to eat off the leaves and prevent the atmospheric 

 elaboration of sap through the leaves, Avithout 

 which, plants and vegetables soon die. This brier, 

 is not so, the plough does not go to tlie bottom of 

 its root, ;ind when cut off nine inches beloAV the 

 sun'lire, it puts up three or four shoots instead of 

 one, that will run ten feet in a season, and, with 

 the least encouraixement, ta.ke root, and propagate 

 new nurseries. Tliis is one oi" the e\ils of resting 

 land, without grazing. But I believe that this 



