658 



FARMERS' REGISTER— THREE AND FOUR-SHIFT ROTATIONS. 



ccssful farmers as these gentlemen (who condemn 

 thesystem)havingac/ojO<ecZ (7 themselves, speaks vo- 

 lumes for it, I beg leave to malie a few remarks on 

 the subject. Mr. Wicl;ham says he has been led 

 to his remarks by the "heavy censure that is cast 

 on the barbarous course of two grain crops, corn, 

 and wheat, in three years, and the approval of 

 three grain crops, wheat, corn, wheat, in four 

 3'-ears; as if two grain crops in three years ex- 

 hausted the land, and three grain crops in four 

 years improved it;" but that is not a fair state- 

 ment of the question. I Oiily condemned the old 

 three-shift s}stem as ibrnierly practised in Virginia 

 — that is, corn the fust year, v»"hcat the second, 

 and pasture the third — the last of which was much 

 the severest part of the system, as the land was 

 literally grazed to death, having no standing pas- 

 ture to relieve it, and no clover of course — because 

 if clover was sown, it Would be destroyed by the 

 excessive grazing. JNIr. Wickham also says he 

 has yet to learn that clover would succeed 

 better after three grain crops in succession, than 

 after two; but I imagine he has not yet to learn 

 that it will not succeed at all after two crops of 

 grain, and then grazed to death by cattle, sheep, 

 horses, and hogs, not to say any thing of the 

 rooting of the hogs into tlie bargain, as practised 

 in the old three-shift system of Virginia. Now 

 if you add a standing pasture to the three-shift 

 system, sow clover, and instead of grazing it 

 closely, turn it under every third year, it may be a ve- 

 ry good system, though I do not know any one Vvdio 

 practises it; but in my humble opinion it would not 

 be as profitable a system as the four-shift, though 

 possibly the land might improve under it as fast, 

 or faster. However, of that even I am doubtful 

 — because the three grain crops would enable you 

 to make more manure, and give you more capital 

 to imj)rove with, and tiiereby enable you to restore 

 the more, for the greater exhaustion of the three 

 grain crops. Mr. Wickham again says, ''the four- 

 field system may answer with judicious manage- 

 ment, with the aid of animal manures, lime or 

 marl, and standing pastures, but would hardly suc- 

 ceed without these helps." No one pretends to 

 say it will. The standing pasture, and extensive 

 manuring, are parts of the system which cannot be 

 dis|jensed with, (the lime, or marl would be a 

 great addition of course, though without them the 

 system is still a good one,) and judicious manage- 

 ment is all-important in any system. In my com- 

 munication to the Farmers' Register, on the four- 

 field system, (Vol. I. p. 132,) I did not suggest the 

 idea that it would suit all lands, but that I thought 

 it a good system lor good wheat and corn lands — 

 and the idea of recommending it for universal 

 adoption never entered my head. 



The very intelligent gentleman under the sig- 

 nature of W. B. H. condemns the four-field sys- 

 tem, first, "foritsexpensiveness." He says, "an 

 unusual large horse-power will be required to fal- 

 low up one-fourth of the arable surface of the 

 farm, particularly in dry seasons, &c., and the su- 

 pernumerary horses that are required for that pur- 

 pose, and for seeding, are kept during the rest of 

 the year at considerable expense when their labor 

 is not at all necessary." Now in my opinion, and I 

 am borne out in it by the experience of my neigh- 

 bor, Mr. John Selden of VVestover, you can tallow 

 a fourth of a farm every fall with the same team 

 that you would ref[uire to plough a third of the 



same farm for corn in the ispring, and cultivate it 

 through the summer. For instance, on a fiirm of 

 four hundred acres in the four-field sjstem, and 

 standing pasture, twelve nudes and twenty oxen, 

 if the land is strong, and slifF, but if light and 

 clean, ten mules and twelve oxen would be suffi- 

 cient to fallow one-fourth, or one hundred acres 

 every fall — to sow two hundred acres in wheat, 

 and cultivate one hundred acres in corn every 

 spring. Tlic oxen in the fall are in good order and 

 eflicient when the most work is to be done. In 

 the spring the horses, or mules are the only effi- 

 cient anitnals on a Virginia jilantation, the oxen 

 having gone through the winter are poor,* and 

 unable to work until they have had the summer's 

 run on the pasture. 



On a fiu'm of four hundred acres in the three- 

 field system, it would require as many as twelve 

 horses or mules (the number of cattle or oxen 

 would be about the same in both systems,) if the 

 land was strong, and stiff", but ten if light and 

 clean, to brealf up one-third, or one hundred and 

 thirty-three and a third acres, haul rails, wood, 

 &c. during winter, (having one-third more fencing 

 to do in the three-shift system than the four-field, 

 as in the ibur-field system you divide the fiirm into 

 two equal parts, and in the three-field system into 

 three equal parts — ) and tend yourcorn duringsum- 

 mer. After your crop of Vv'heat is thrashed out, 

 which is generally by the 5th or lOih of August, 

 in the three-field systeni, your horses are idle un- 

 til you can cut up your corn for sowing wlieat, 

 which is generally not sooner than the 25th of Sep- 

 tember or 1st of October; and the very thing that 

 W. B. H. complains of in the four-field system 

 occurs — that is, the feeding idle horses: whereas 

 in the four-field system, your teams era fa'lowinir, 

 and your oxen come much more into play in the 

 four, than in the three-field system, as they are in 

 good order and strong in the fall when most want- 

 ed for the four-field system, and in the winter and 

 sj)ring they are poor and weak when most wanted 

 for the three-field system, having then, as I said 

 before, more rails to haul, and more land to break 

 up. 



The second objection of W. B. IT. to the four- 

 field system is, that the "more valuable crop of 

 corn is sacrificed in part, to the crop of wheat, 

 v.'hich is less so." W. B. H. I imagine, is rather 

 singular in his opinion as to the value of the two 

 crops — wheat and corn. As precarious as the 

 wheat crop is in our climate, he will find on an ac- 

 curate examination of the relative prices of the 

 two crops, that the same land would have pro- 

 duced much more profit in wheat than corn for the 



*Though it may appear to be very bad management 

 to let the oxen get poor, and weak in the winter, so 

 as to require a run in the pasture during summer to 

 enable them to fallow in the fall, yet in my ojnnion, it 

 is sound policy. In winter on a Virginia plantation 

 there is very little for oxen to do. and if you were to 

 attempt to get your oxen fat after the fallowing and 

 seeding season was over, and keep them so all winter, 

 they would "eat their heads off" every winter: so that if 

 you^can can keep them in tolerable order on your wheat 

 straw, chatf, sliucks, and other oilai during winter, 

 when they have very litUe work to do, and give them 

 the run on the pasture dnring summer, they will get 

 fat and strong lor your fallowing in the fall, and not 

 cost you a cent in food, but convert your offal into ma- 

 nure for you. 



