440 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 



possesi?ing all the virtues of that article made from 

 cows led on May pastures, it will be only neces- 

 ■sary to say that by a very little trouble they may 

 realize their wishes. 



The communication alluded to above will be 

 found subjoined. 



"The carrot tiourishes best on a loam or sandy 

 •soil. The ground should be prepared by plough- 

 ing very fine to the depth of ten or twelve inches, 

 fine manure, in quantity sufficient for common 

 crops should be ploughed in, and the ground har- 

 rowed merely sulRcient to level it, the seed should 

 be sown in drills from twelve to fourteen inches 

 apart ; a machine made (or the purpose is the best 

 lor sowing : four or five plants to a loot is sufficient 

 to be left to come to maturity ; a good day for 

 plantinir corn is a good day for sowing carrot 

 seed. The crop is usually from four to five hun- 

 dred bushels to the acre. There is not a more pro- 

 fitable croj) for feeding stock, raised in the N. 

 England Slates, than the carrot, where the soil 

 suits the crop ; with a little more labor, you will 

 get as many bushels of a much richer vegetable 

 than the potato. One experiment has been 

 made, by puttmg six cows into the stalls in De- 

 cember, and feeding five with corn-meal and 

 hay, and one with corn-meal and carrots, and 

 when slaughtered, the one led with carrots was 

 pronounced the fattest and handsomest beef. They 

 are equally good for milch cows, increasing the 

 quantitj'', and adding color and richness of fla- 

 vor to the butter, but little, if any, surpassed by 

 the best pasturing. They can be profitably used 

 in many others ways by a liirnier." 



THE DROUGHT. THE GREEN SPRING LANDS 

 OF LOUISA COUNTY. 



To the Editor of the Fanners' Register. 



Fluvanna, Sept. 10, 1838. 



In compliance with a request in your last num- 

 'ber of the Register, that reports of seasons and 

 crops might be made to that journal from the dif- 

 ferent sections of country in which it circulates, I 

 give you one which I am sure cannot be surpassed 

 in melancholy of detail by any that may appear 

 from other quarters. Confining myself to the sec- 

 tion of country between the James and Rappa- 

 hannock rivers, parallel with, and extendingthirly 

 miles below, the South-West Mountains, 1 .can 

 say from ocular proof and certain infora)ation, 

 that no drought has ever come under the ol)serva- 

 tion of the oldest inhabitant, that will compare in 

 severity with that which has visited this country 

 since about the middle of June. Within this 

 range, I have heard of but one neighborhood, 

 (about New Canton, on James river,} in which 

 the corn and tobacco crops have been at all bene- 

 fited by rain. On other water-courses, and on 

 good highlands, they have been curtailed from 

 more than half to nothing on inferior grades of 

 soil. Pastures and meadows are burnt up, and 

 the most luxuriant green-sward turf in our yards 

 destroyed even to the root. To add to these 

 grievances, the little fodder that had escaped be- 

 ing entirely blasted by drought, and a sirccco-like 

 wind, which has prevailed throughout the sum- 

 mer, was killed on most flat lands by a frost, 



which occurred on the night of the 3d instant 

 biting also, and in some instances destroying, a 

 portion of the tobacco on low situations, particu- 

 larly in those Vv-anting sufficient circumambient 

 moisture to protect them. For a week past, there 

 has not been a mill within fifty miles of my resi- 

 dence that can grind more than a lew hours in 

 the mornings, and very few of them at all. In- 

 deed, such is the impracticability of procuring 

 meal, that I keep a man constantly beating coarse 

 meal and hominy for my negroes, having neither 

 potatoes nor peas from large plantings, to substi- 

 tute for bread, /shall not want another such sea- 

 son to admonish me of the importance ol'a horse- 

 mill on every farm where water-power cannot be 

 relied on. Wheat crops have been fine through- 

 out this country, but for want of corn the small 

 farmers and planters and many of the larger ones 

 will be compelled to use from the whole to a part 

 of what is made, for bread and horse feed. By 

 the way, could not your disinterested Baltimore 

 correspondent R., extend his benevolence to our 

 starving communit)' — after first taking care of 

 Maryland — in telling us whereabout in Virginia 

 he ever saw such abundant crops of corn at ^1 

 and t^l 50 per barrel? Or might he not be in- 

 duced to change his trade for the sake of a profit 

 of two or three hundred per cent., which /(who 

 am also "well known") will ensure him?* On a 

 late visit to the Green Springs neighborhood, in 

 the county of Louisa, I found that this truly green 

 and fertile country had been visited by the same 

 desolating evil, to a degree which an acquain- 

 tance with it of nearly thirt}^ years had not allow- 

 ed me to conceive. Still, it was refreshing to one 

 whose sight as well as hopes from the soil had 

 been seared by the presence of a universal de- 

 sert, which had taken the place of luxuriant 

 fields and green meadows at home, to witness 

 even the partial contrast presented to the eye by 

 the more flourishing appearance of vegetation 

 here, where, superadded to the superiority of soil, 

 there had been one shower more than was gene- 

 ral in the parclied region, which is the subject of 

 my remarks. Had other evidence of the favored 

 condition of this delightful country been wanting, 

 the comparatively fat herds of improved cattle 

 and flocks of Bakewell sheep with their creased 

 hacks and well-covered ribs, were enough to sa- 

 tisfy me of the superior richness of its grasses. 

 By-the-by, sheep delight in and will liatten most 

 kindly on grass partially killed by drought. 



It may not be unacceptable to you. Mr. Editor, 

 who feel, I know, a fostering interest in all that 

 concerns the agriculture of Virginia, to receive 

 some accounts ot this garden-spot of it. which I 

 believe you have never visited. The cognomen, 

 "Green Springs," is, I suppose, derived from the 

 mineral springs in the heart of this tract ol coun- 

 try, on the property of Dr. James M. Morris. 

 They were once very much resorted to, and with 

 great benefit to invalids. Their constituent pro- 

 perties are said to be, (as the flavor of the water 



* The piece referred to was not a communication to 

 this journal, but to a Baltimore paper. It was copied 

 (for exposure) in the report on the " Season and state of 

 crops," which accompanied No. 6, in an extra sheet, 

 and which will bo republished, immediately following 

 this communication. — Ed. Far. Reg. 



