580 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



pounds rent, and make more grain from half ihan [ 

 they formerly did frum three-lburilis of Ihe farm. 

 These great and imporiani changes Iiave been 

 made in Scotland, in ahoul Ibrty years. | 



A sale rule by which to proponion ihe crops of j 

 grain is, not to suffer more liian from a half to ! 

 three-fifths of ihe Itirm lo be in grain in one year. | 

 Let the land that can be manured, be ihe iimii of! 

 the corn crop, to be succeeded by wheat, rye or 

 oats, according to the soil, and tlie relative value 

 of each species ot grain, and then complete the 

 rotation by alternate crops of small grain and clo- 

 ver, allowing one field to be alway.s in grass for [ 

 pasture. I fear many farmers will be deterred | 

 from following this advice, from a belief that it is { 

 impracticable to accomplish what I propose. I 

 pledge myself that any man who will make pro- 

 per exertions, may make the quantity of manure 

 that will be necessary. A liirm of three hundred 

 acres in six fields will have six of filly each ; 

 twenty loads of forty bushels to the acre, will re- 

 quire a thousand loads for a field, to be spread over 

 the surface equally. If the manure be applied to 

 the hill or the drill, one-fourth of the quantity will 

 be sulRcient for the corn crop. The application in 

 either mode will give from two hundred and fifty 

 to three hundred barrels of corn li-om the field, as 

 the year is favorable or otherwise, in one of these 

 modes, 1 know it is in the power of every man 

 upon such a farm, to manure fifty acres; if he will 

 provide winter and summer food for his stock, and 

 use due diligence in making and saving manure, 

 and consume all his wheat straw and corn stalks 

 as litter for his stock. In this way, then, half llie 

 land will be made to produce the quantity of corn 

 usually made, with a great saving of labor, a cer- 

 tain and constant improvement of his .'arm, and a 

 crop of wheat, double what he would make, when 

 one-third of his land was planted in corn, and all 

 his wheal made upon corn land. 



The nature of the soil should have Ihe greatest 

 influence in deciding upon the crops to be made. 

 Jn most cases, that crop will pay best, that the 

 land ie best adapted to. If the distance iiom mar- 

 ket is too great to transport grain of any sort, still 

 it is made lo great profit, for fattening stock and 

 for distillation. On the south branch of Polo- 

 mac, corn is the principal crop. Where the U\ud^ 

 are peculiarly adapted to corn, let that be made 

 the staple ; so as to wheat, and every other plant 

 which is cultivated. Upon the dry, thirsty up- 

 lands of the mountainous country, corn is as pre- 

 carious a crop, as wheat is upon the light lands of 

 the lower country. 



The great error in Virginia, heretofore, has been, 

 that we have cultivated our lands without inter- 

 mission ; that we have attempted crops without any 

 attention to the quality of the land, or the fitness 

 of its culture; that we have taken every thing 

 from the soil, without reluming any thing to it, 

 and that even now, when there is a strong solici- 

 tude to improve our lands, we are attempting it in 

 a way that cannot succeed. I believe that by the 

 due application of plaster, and the proper mixture 

 of clover crops, if the clover succeeds, good land 

 may be kept in heart ; but if our lands should tire 

 of clover, or become clover sick, as has happened 

 in other countries, this resource will fail. Is there 

 any man so credulous as to believe, that by clover 

 and gypsum alone, the gullied and exhausted 

 lands of Virginia can be reclaimed ? I believe not ; 



if there should be, I can assure him he will be 

 disappointed. Belore clover will perform its office, 

 the land must be made capable of holding and 

 sustaining it ; nothing but manure will enable such 

 land lo do this, and to have manure, there must 

 he slock on every farm, vviiii a sutRciency ol' food 

 liir winter, and pasture for summer. Soiling for 

 .-ome time, may he practised to advantage, but it 

 13 not lo be relied upon in this dry, hot climate, 

 with any certainty, lor more than tvvo months, 

 and can scarcely be practised at all in the harvest 

 month, from the middle of June to the middle of 

 .Tilly; becaupe the fiirm hands are hilly employed 

 m securing the grain crops. Instead then, ol' ex- 

 cluding stock from our farms, they should be con- 

 f-idered indispensable, not only for the purpose of 

 making manure, and for the necessary supply of 

 the fanner, his (imiily and laborers, with meat, 

 milk and butler, but as a means of affording in- 

 come. Instead of Virginia having a surplus of 

 meat and horses, as she ought lo have, our supply 

 is drawn to a very serious and alarming amount 

 from other stales. A vast proportion of the beef 

 and pork consumed in our towns, and much of 

 that which is used in the country by the fanners, 

 is brought from oiher states. I am sure it is a 

 reasonable estimate to say, that Virginia has paid, 

 in the last five years, to the people of the western 

 country and North Carolina, not less than a mil- 

 lion of dollars a year lor cattle, horses and liogs, 

 nearly one-fifth of ihe value of our tobacco crop, 

 thereby impoverishing the people, as well as the 

 land ot Virginia. 



I have no scruple in saying that at this day 

 there is less pasture land and less stock in Virgi- 

 nia, in the country east of the Blue Ridge, than 

 there was thirty years ago. I must not be under- 

 stood to approve of the ancient management of 

 stock and pastures, when the stock was permitted 

 10 roam over the plantations, during the winter, 

 and poach the earth, nibbling every atom of her- 

 bage that escaped the frost, and snatching every 

 particle of the spring growth, as fast as it was 

 iiigh enough to enable them to bite it. Under 

 this management, the land was injured and Ihe 

 supply of [hod inadequate ; the stock miserably 

 kept through the winter, a great loss in the spring 

 of every year, half starved through the summer, 

 and the manure from them at all seasons, small in 

 quantity and meagre in quality. Instead of which, 

 I recommend the forming of lots lor the spring 

 use of milch cows, yearling calves, mares and 

 colte, and ewes and lambs : the more hardy stock 

 to be kept upon dry food until the woods will sus- 

 tain them, which they will do for two or three 

 weeks in all the upper and most of the lower 

 country; after which, towards the middle of May, 

 the common pasture of the farm may be used, 

 and soiling commence. One-twelfth or fifteenth 

 of the farm of suitable land, in three or more 

 grass lots, on a farm of any size, to be sown in 

 greensward, orchard and herd's grass, meadow 

 oat and red clover, will be of as much value as 

 the same number of acres, in any crop, deducting 

 the expense of culture, that ought to be charged 

 to either grain or tobacco. When the common 

 pasture is open to stock, or when it shall be sus- 

 tained by soiling, the lots to be shut up for sum- 

 mer use — after the first of September there ia 

 never a want of pasture. From that time until 

 March, the lots should not be depastured ; the fiiU 



