382 



FARMER S' REGISTER 



A few lines now, Mr. Editor, in fulfilment of 

 my second design. Before the chinch bug made 

 its appearance an)ongst us, it was easy enough lor 

 every farmer to raise as much corn ami oats as 

 his wants required. There was no occasion ro 

 cast about for, and bring into requis^ition, auxilia- 

 ries to those two staples of plantation support. 

 Sweet potatoes, like the Irish, were regarded (as 

 they unfortunately are even now,) as mere garden 

 vegetables — a mere luxury, not a necessary ; and 

 cow-peas were considered to cost more in their 

 harvest — occuring as it does in the midst of the 

 cotton picking season, than they were worth. Bui 

 a change has come over the face of things : and 

 we must now harvest, at any cost, what our 

 j^emorseiess enemy will permit us to produce. 



I regard it as impossible to devise means lor the 

 destruction of the chinch bug, as it is to account lor 

 their origin. Their whole existence is a mystery; 

 and, i( I may be allowed to use a seeming paradox, 

 ihey are collectively the more Ibrmidable, Irom 

 their individual insignificance. All that remains 

 for us to attempt, then, is to counteract their ten- 

 dency to reduce us to laraine, by planting a variety 

 of crops, and especially such as are exempt from 

 their ravages. 



Last spring, about the first of May, I planted 

 seventy-five acres of my corn in cow-peas, and 

 Irom them gathered, in the fall, a sufficiency of 

 grain in the horns or pods, to sustain twenty ani- 

 mals, exclusively, lor seven months; besides that 

 those which were shelled by liauling were given 

 to my negroes. The only addilional labor they 

 cost me arose from having to plough but one way, 

 (which I regard as an incidenial advantage to my 

 land,) and the harvest, which occupied ten or 

 twelve days in the I'all. 



They cannot be made in perfection, in the up 

 country, if planted afier the middle of May, I am 

 convinced, by experinicnis made five years suc- 

 cessively. Many, to save labor and trouble, plant 

 them while laying by the corn ; but I have never 

 seen the attempt successful ; nor ought we to 

 complain that it is so, lor in that way they would 

 be made too easy to leave nian's cur^e in opera- 

 tion. Nor do I approve of planting them on the 

 side of the ridge, or in the centre of the middle: 

 especially in the latter place, from which allihe 

 soil has been previously withdrawn. My plan, 

 and it is borrowed from the invariable custom of 

 the low country, where the pea crop is proverbial, 

 is to drop irom 6 to 9 grains between, and in a line 

 with the corn, which stands 4 feet apart on the 

 beds. 



In the up country there is a prejudice that peas 

 are unwholesome Ibnd for horses ; hut the expe- 

 rience o( the whole low country is opposed to this 

 .theory. 



A FRIEND TO MODERATION. 



June 5th, 1S40. 



GRFEN MANURES. BUCKWHEAT. 



Fiom the Cultivator. 



Manures cannot b8 conveniently carried to all 

 parts of a large plantation. They should therefore 

 be applied to the fields near where they are made; 

 and the more distant fields must be enriched with 

 green crops. Tares are much used for this pur- 



pose in Europe, but whether these would grow an 

 rank and as rapidly in our dry climate, we are not 

 certain. We think they have not been extensive- 

 ly tried. 



Oats have been sometimes sown to be ploughed 

 in, but they give only a small layer when the land 

 is poor. Rye will grow on poor soils, but we must 

 Uf^e much seed, or we must let it grow tall, else, 

 we have but little to bury with the plouah. 



Round turnips Ibrm a good green crop for the 

 plough, but they will give no top in poor ground. 

 Indian corn has been recommended and partially 

 tried. This is not more exhaustmg than oats or 

 rye, and on fields not worn down low, probably 

 no green crop would furnish more matter to be 

 covered by the plough, than this one. But on 

 quite exhausted land, this would not answer our 

 purpose; and the quantity of seed necessary lor 

 such a purpose, would be Ibur or five bushels, quite 

 an objection with economisti=. 



Buckwheat is a grain that will irrow on most 

 poor soils. It delights most in dry locations, a 

 soil inclined to gravel or sand. It has many 

 qualities that recommend it hiirhly as an article to 

 be grown lor the purpose of filling the soil with 

 vegetable matter, of which it has been much ex- 

 hausted in the slates of which we have spoken. 



In the first place, it will grow and produce a 

 handsome layer for the plough, on lands that will 

 produce nothing else. In the second place, we do 

 not find it an exhausting crop. We can raise \l 

 many years in succession on our poor lands with- 

 out any manure, and we very commonly save 

 fifteen or twenty bushels of the grain from an acre. 

 This plant has a very small, fibrous root, and is 

 easily pulled up by hand. It has also a large 

 branching top that never could get its support 

 from this root. It has therelbre probably greater 

 facilities for procuring nourishment from ilie atmo- 

 sphere, than most plants have. 



All theory and all experience unite in showing 

 that this plant takes less from the soil, than any 

 other of the same size. In the next place, it has 

 a rapid growth, six weeks, in Massachusetts, being 

 long enough to bring it in full blossom, when it 

 should be ploughed in. Three crops may there- 

 fore be turned under in one season in V'irginia, 

 and then it will be early enough — (Sept. 1st) — to 

 sow down with grass seed. 



Another advantage attends the raising of this 

 for grain or lor green crops; the expense is not 

 great. It U!=ually bears the same price as our best 

 corn, and is worth quite as much for fattening 

 animals, and one bushel of seed is enough for the 

 acre. When it is raised for the purpose o(" saving 

 the grain, we often sow but half a bushel. The 

 straw is also greedily eaten by the young cattle 

 and by horses — colts may be wintered on it. Yet 

 we have known large piles of this straw to be 

 burned in the field v;here it was thrashed ! 



Now with this article — this old, neglected, 

 abandoned, and abused buckwheat — we could 

 soon renovate the once beautiful plains, formed 

 flom the washings of the gulf of Mexico, and 

 laying between the Alleghany ridge and the At- 

 lantic ocean. Much of this fine tract has been 

 cropped, time out of mind, while nothing was 

 grown that could make any adequate return lor 

 what was abstracted. 



The natural advantages of this tract of country 

 are superior, in our humble opinion, to the far- 



