FARMERS' REGISTER 



123 



ol' beiiij^ originally good Jand^ and 1 knew had 

 lieen culiivaleil by good ami judicious iarmeis, in 

 19 years had only arrived at 7 barrels ol corn per 

 acre, under ihis, liis lavoriie ibur-tield liiilow sys- 

 tem, I abandoned that also. I then determined 

 iIkH. the live-Held rotation was the shortest upon 

 which any judicious system of agriculture could 

 be based, and this i now believe too short by one. 

 JVly rotation is, Isi, corn, 2nd, oats and wheat, 

 enough of tiie loriner lor the use ol" all tlie horses, 

 &c. on the liirin, then by selling that amount ol 

 corn, oats being a more certain crop alter corn 

 llian wiieat,' 3id, clover, and lall lallowed lor 

 wheat, 4th, wheat, and this spring I sow orchard 

 and other grass seed with the clover lor pasture 

 the next year, 5ih, pasture, and as soon as 1 can 

 improve my fclanding pasiure sulliciently to bring 

 it into the regular rotation, I shall s.iy, 6ih, pas- 

 ture. I would lengihen the rotation, first, because 

 J do not think the one field will sup|)ort a suffi- 

 ciency ol' stock to consume, or convert into manure, 

 the sturt' made on a productive larm, and second- 

 iy, 1 do not think that IS months, the time liom 

 coming oU the oats and wheat, to iis being lal- 

 lowed lor corn, is long enough lor llie relbrmation 

 of the soil alter the grain crop rotation, wliich I 

 think is, oj- should be, a sine qua noii m all lota- 

 tions, as all who have paid any attention to soil 

 must have noticed the natural tendency of all 

 land 10 approximate the soil near to the surlace, 

 as it is dependent upon light aiid atmosphere lor 

 its lorn:ation ; and in my opinion the plough should 

 not again be brought into action belbre the sod is 

 relbrmed, which will be in two years, in any land 

 that is in any tolerable condition. And this Ibr- 

 mation oC sod is, I think, the tost of relbrmation 

 ol' soil. In the rotation as lately suirgested hy 

 my Irien I, 11. Carter, esq. olShirley, the latter ob- 

 ject may be attained to a certain extent, but not I 

 think lully. The objection to his rotation, with 

 me, is bringing three grain crops togetiier, and 

 the one field will not aiiord a sufficiency of pas- 

 ture, lor a sufficient quantity of stock. I am aware 

 that the opposers ol' lengthened rotations will bring 

 up Flemish and Chine.-e husbandry, and may be 

 that ol' otiier countries, to prove the superiority 

 and greater profits of the shorter ; to those I would 

 say, that wiih their soil, climate, and circum- 

 e'ances, theirs is doubtless the best system lor 

 them. But in all these matters, our situation is 

 widely variant lioni theirs. I speak only of the 

 county with which I am acquainted, and in which 

 I have operated as a farmer, in the tide water dis- 

 trict of Virginia, and what I pa_v is the result of 

 experience, and the best observaiion my judgment 

 enabled me to make. Others I have no doubt will 

 say, why I sha'n't live six years : that may be ; 

 we none of us know how long we are to live. To 

 such as expect to die soon, I would say, lay a good 

 Ibundation, that your (losleriiy may raise a super- 

 structure upon. To thofe who advocate the en- 

 tire non-grazing system, I would remind, in ad- 

 dition to what has Iveen already said, thai the 

 weeds, grass or whatever it may be, that is de- 

 pastured off, is not taken from the land, bui is re- 

 turned in the shape of manure, havin<r passed 

 through the animals; which ! should think was 

 much better calculated lor its improvement, than 

 a rank growth of weeds, which will have lost tlie 

 greater part of their fructilying properties by ex- 

 Eiccation and evaporation, before they are return- 



ed to the earth. As (o tiie popular notion of co- 

 vering land being one of tlie means ol imjiroving, 

 it may be true to a certain extent, but certainly 

 not to tht! degree ascribed to it by some ; Ibr if 

 you cover land Ibr several years, and then expose 

 It to the sun in the cultivation of a corn crop, it 

 will not produce so well, as that which has been 

 more exposed, as it will not stand a drought at all, 

 nor the common summeis' suns, half as well as 

 land around it which has been less jirotected; this 

 1 have seen I'ully proved. I therei'c)re inltjr that 

 land requires acclimating as well as animals, and 

 that if it has to be exposed in the cultivation of 

 ihe crop, it should not be too much housed at other 

 times. I would also liere remark, that 1 have 

 never succeeded in getting a good stand of clover 

 upon light land, that had not been trampled, iiot- 

 wiihstanding it may have been well marled. 



1 hope none will inlt»r liom what I have said, 

 that 1 am Ibr giving back nothing to the earth in 

 the shape of vegetation, as they will recollect that 

 there is in the system recommended by me, no re- 

 gular grazing until the fifth year, by which time, 

 as I suppose, the laud will become as it were sa- 

 turated with vegeiable matter, and that it is now 

 lime to leave it in the earth to become converted 

 into soil. And I would recommend in addition 

 to the clover, &c., a practice that I have Ibllowed 

 sometimes with very great benefit, that of sowing 

 ihe corn land that is to come in wheat, the last 

 time it is worked, in black-eye peas ; it will gene- 

 nerally give a good green lay, which 1 think gives 

 to the land about as much as the corn crop takes 

 trom it ; indeed I have never made a good crop of 

 wheat after corn, except upon a pea lallow. The 

 peas to be sure will not arrive at that maturity, in 

 all seasons, that is desirable belbre being turned in, 

 but upon good land with a liiir season, the growth 

 i.s generally as much as can be turned in with 

 convenience. It has also the good eHectof inter- 

 posing a leguminous crop, between the two grain 

 crops, as well as that of keeping the land clean of 

 crop grass, the nursery of Hessian fly. 



My objections to the Ibur-field system of Ara- 

 forare not aliogether theoreiical. VVithlhe James 

 River practice I have had no practical experience; 

 but with the first 1 have, having had under my 

 management Ibr some years a liirm which has 

 been cultivated in that way, saving the entire ex- 

 clusion of stock, although not heavily grazed, and 

 the improvement has not been at all commensu- 

 rate with expectations. But that certaiidy ie bet- 

 ter than the horrid land-killing, profit-starving, 

 three-shift system of lower Virginia. It ie true, 

 some have succeeded pretty well with Aralor's 

 system, the late Mr. Lewis of Weyanoke, per- 

 haps, better than any one else that has come with- 

 in my knowledge ; but wiih his judicious manage- 

 ment, and eternal manuring, any system would 

 have answered well ; but even he did not succeed 

 to any extent belbre he commenced the use of 

 lime; as in frecjuent conversations I have had 

 with him upon the subject, he never spoke of the 

 product of any other than his limeil land. How- 

 ever successful though some may have been with 

 this system, it does not prove that they would not 

 have been much more so wiih another, under 

 equally good management. Anoiher unanswera- 

 ble objection with me to the entire non-grazing 

 plan is that there can be no good system of hue- 

 baudry which does not raise a isufficitncy of stock 



