1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



185 



an important cnliure. Hence T infer lliat a soil of 

 petuiliar ami uiu'onimon constitntion is necessary 

 (or harley, ami that liie pecnliar (]iialiiy required is 

 a proporiinn ot' lime very unusual in ihe natural 

 soils of Vir<j;inia. 



But, some years aero, harley also became here a 

 very precarious crop. The most promisintj crops 

 were sometimes sneedily and almost totally de- 

 stroyed hy myria.is of caler|)illars ; and, in one 

 season, by souu'. other unexplained fatality, all the 

 fields of barley failed. These disasters caused the 

 sowiiiir of this o-rain to be <>:really reduced ; and, 

 thoui»;h since increasiniir, the culture in ireneral still 

 remains biit small. Another objection to this crop 

 is the uncertainty of the market, and ihe great 

 jluctualions of price. Barley is used in this coun- 

 try only for makinnr malt liquors, and the demand 

 is theretbre necessarily small. 



Corn is the great crop of Gloucester, and is 

 always a sure product. To favor the cultivation 

 of corn, it would appear, their mode of till- 

 age is especially directed, and to great loss 

 and inconvenience in the other crops of broad- 

 cast grain and clover. The fields are universally 

 kept in narrow beds, laid off generally precisely 

 five feet in width, but sometimes an inch or two 

 wider, and sometimes as little as four feet ten 

 inches. The general width, however, is five feet. 

 One object of these narrow beds is to save labor in 

 tillage; as lour furrows, thrown by a two-horse 

 plough, serve to reverse these beds, by lapping the 

 first two slices and covering over eighteen inches 

 width, unbroken, in the old alley, or water-furrow ; 

 and four other furrows, with a one-horse plough, 

 when the corn is well advanced in growth, will 

 sweep out and cover the whole interval between 

 the rows, throwing the slice towards, and up to the 



which I have practically and satisliictorily proved 

 the value on my own lands, and as it seems pecu- 

 liarly suited to ihe CJIouce.«ler low-grounds, I will 

 state my views at length, and presume — ignorant 

 and inexperienced as I am as to these lands— to 

 offer advice as to their management, to those who 

 have been long and well acquainted with them. 

 Of course, such ojiinions and such advice will be 

 considered of very little value, and deserving of but 

 little notice. 



Compared to the proper drainage of the surface, 

 the mode of tillage is olhut minor importance. So 

 much mare of the facility of cidtivation and of the 

 amount of product, would depend upon the drain- 

 aixe than upon any other part of the management, 

 that I dismiss any objections to narrow beds on the 

 score of waste of labor, or waste of product ; and 

 shall consider the shape given to the surface solely 

 in connexion with its most important object, the 

 relieving the surface of superfluous moisture. 



It should be remembered that the surface of 

 these low-grounds receives no rain-water except 

 that which^liiils directly on them ; and that all of 

 that must be either absorbed by the deep soil, or 

 the surplus part slowly conveyed to the ditches, by 

 water-furrows and shallow cross-drains. No wa- 

 ter can otherwise run off, because the surface has 

 no descent ; and none can siid<, as on higher and 

 more sandy and open soils, because the sub-soil is 

 a compact" and tough clay, impervious to water. 

 Of course, the object of the cultivator should be so 

 to slope the surface as in the best manner to effect 

 and to hasten the departure of all the excess of 

 rain-water, beyond the wants of the soil. This is 

 said, by the Gloucester fiirmers, to be done by 

 narrow beds; and I maintain that it would be 

 much more effectually and cheaply done by very 



plants. But even if labor is saved in corn-tillage, wide beds, if properly made and preserved. 

 (of which I am not convinced,) it is greatly in- | In theory the narrow beds promise well ; and I 

 creased by having such narrow beds lor broad-cast I have noticed that their advocates always refi^r to 

 crops of grain or grass. The sowing, and getting j them in a state of perfection, which is rarely found 



in the seed, must be much more troubtesome, al 

 ways imperfect compared to flat tillage, and the 

 reaping or mowing as objectionable in both these 

 respects. But so much do habit and long usage 

 lessen our estimate of difficulties and losses, that 

 none of the farmers vvith whom I talked thought 

 these objections to narrow beds of much import- 

 ance. My objections, however, are not wholly 

 theoretical, but sufficiently confirmed also by the 

 practice of several years, and on entire fields of a 

 large farm. 



But the most important object designed to be 

 gained by this plan of narrow beds, is the better 

 drainage of a flat surface; and it is an opinion here 

 universally established, that by wide beds that oh- 



in practice; and which, if greatly departed from, 

 seems to deft-at their object. !f the narrow beds 

 are separated by open, clean water-furrows, (called 

 alleys in Gloucester,) well graduated, and having 

 unbroken, and therefore not very absorbent, bot- 

 toms, over which the water will pass to cross- 

 drains and to ditches in the lower places— then 

 there is in Hict a small but open and effective ditch 

 in every distance of five feet. But this perfi;ct con- 

 dition is seldom attained; and even if attained, by 

 great care and pains, is lost, or greatly impaired, 

 by every ploughing, or other tillage operation, 

 when the field fs in corn; and even by the growth 

 of plants, (when they can be made to grow in the 

 allevs), when under a broad-cast crop, ^^'i— 



When 



ject could not be so well attained. To prove this, | under a tillaire crop, and the water-furrow is 

 the fact is adduced, that many persons tried i choked by ploughing or harrowing the beds, of_ 

 throwing two beds into one (of 10 feet) when sow- course they will be cleaned out soon after. But if 

 ing wheat ; and that the plan was found bad for | a heavy rain fiills before that operation, the sur- 

 drainage, by there remaininsr a sink in the middle lace of the land is as little fitted to discharge su- 

 perfluous water, as if no beds or alleys had been 

 made. Indeed, in such cases, or when the beddding 

 is badly executed, the water-furrows are no better 

 than indentations which serve, not to discharge, 

 but to receive and retain the excess of water. 



But it is yielding too much to suppose any 

 thing like the perfecfion of execution, at any time, 

 described above, even when most perfect. Such 

 a stale is obviously impossible. In what is con- 

 sidered land well bedded and water-furrowed, tlie 



of the new bed ; and bad for the subsequent 

 tillage of corn, when these wide beds were to 

 be brought back to narrow ones. 1 admit fully 

 these objections to this particular departure from 

 the general plan, which is liar from such as I would 

 approve; but nevertheless hold to my objections 

 to narrow bed culture, not only for the tillage con- 

 sidered alone, but as a means for surface-draining. 

 As I consider the plan which I would propose to 

 substitute as an important improvement, and of 

 Vol. VI— 24 



