FARMERS' REGISTER 



737 



The degrees of value in manure probably rise 

 with iis permanency, and may be marked, simple 

 atmospiiere 1. Rain 2. Green herbs 3. Duni? 

 4. Dry herbs 5. Wood 6. If the reader should 

 place a larife decaying trunk of a tree mostly un- 

 der ground, and manure a spot of earth with a 

 dilferenl substance oC equal weight, he would dis- 

 cover which would longest preserve the land in 

 heart. 



Tull's theor)', "culture without manure," has 

 hitherto been the practice of the southern states, 

 with this difference, that he ploughed deep, they 

 shallow; but yet the complete destruction of a 

 6oil originally good, which it lias eHected, ought, 

 after two hundred years' experience, to explode so 

 much of it as excludes the nccesf?ity of manure. 

 The same shallow ploughing which produced 

 good crops, whilst the land was naturally rich, 

 would produce good crops if it was made anifi- 

 cially rich. The good crops obtained by bad cul- 

 ture from rich land, demonslrates that (eriility is 

 the first oi)ject lo be ellecled. 13ut whilst this is 

 admitted, the effects of uniting fine tillage with a 

 fertile soil, ought not to be forgotten, by any who 

 possess a taste for excellence or lor wealili. 



Hence, deep ploughing has been often recom- 

 mended in these essays, and to these recommen- 

 dations are added the Ibllowing remarks : 



Deep ploughing upon a naked and poor soil, by 

 which a caput mortuura is brought to the surface, 

 has frequently proved pernicious. This has been 

 owing to a variety of causes, but, among them, 

 the preservation of a flat surRice, though least sus- 

 pected, has probably been the most operative. 

 The simple process of burying under a sterile te- 

 gumeni, the little strengih of the land, neither 

 promises nor perlbrms much ; but the disappoint- 

 ment of hopes really forlorn, frequently causes us 

 to abandon effort, and embrace despair. 



By the system of these essays, inclosing, ma- 

 nuring, and high narrow ridges, are combined 

 with deep ploughing. The two first replenish the 

 earth vviih a large stock of vegetable matter, and 

 the last has the effect of collecting the existing soil 

 in the centre of the ridge, and depositing the ste- 

 rile on its two sides, there to remain for above three 

 3'ears, exposed to the action o(" the atmosphere. 

 Thus all the bad effects of deep ploughing are 

 avoided. Instead of a naked surface, it is applied 

 to one lamely replenished vviili vegetable matter. 

 Instead of Ibrcing the soil and substratum into a 

 topsy-turvy position, it collects and doubles the 

 first jbr a present crop, and provides (or the ame- 

 lioration of the other, lor a future one. It deepens 

 and fi-uctifies the soil, whilst it makes the best 

 provision lor present profit. For the reader is to 

 observe that I am speaking of poor lands, whose 

 soils require doubling, for present subsistence, and 

 improving for future comlbrt ; and not of those 

 whose soils cannot be pierced by the plough. 



Deep ploughing, (by which I always mean the 

 best to be performed by four good horses in a 

 plough.) combined with enclosing, by turning un- 

 der a good coat of dry vegetable matter, creates a 

 covered drain, and thus vastly olistructs the Ibr- 

 mation of gullies in hilly lands, even if fallowed 

 with a level surface. But such lands will admit of 

 narrow ridges as well as level, by a degree of skill 

 and attention so easily attainable, that I observe it 

 to have existed in Scotland above a century past, 

 under a state of agriculture otherwise execrable, 



and among the ignorant highlanders. It is ef- 

 lected by carrying the ridges horizontally in such 

 inflections as the hilliness of the ground may re- 

 quire, curved or zig-zag, preserving their breadth. 

 The preservation of the soil is hardly more valua- 

 ble than that of the rainwater in the successive 

 reservoirs thus produced to refresh the thirsty hill 

 sides, instead of its rushing to and poisoning the 

 valleys. This classic system of agriculture has 

 been introduced into Virginia by a gentleman of 

 Albemarle, in a style com[)Ieiely adapted to the 

 nature of the country, and which will be copied 

 by those who shall not be discouraged by its per- 

 fection. His ridges however are wide, whereas, 

 in the maize country, they ought not lo exceed five 

 or six feet. 



If enclosing, manuring, deep and horizontal 

 ploughing were unattended by any other advan- 

 tages, that of preventing the land from washing 

 away would in many views be a sufficient recom- 

 mendation of such a system. The disaster is not 

 terminated by the destruction of the soil, the im- 

 poverishment of individuals, and transmission of a 

 curse to futurity. Navigation itself is becoming 

 its victim, and in many parts of the United States 

 our agriculture has arrived to the insurpassable 

 state of imperfection, of applyin^i its best soil lo 

 the removal of the worst farther from market. 



The alternation once every four years between 

 deep furrows and high ridges, according to the 

 recommended mode of cultivating corn, and the 

 deep ploughing, by burying one portion of the 

 garlic very deep, and exposing another to frost, 

 will probably destroy it ; a conjecture founded up- 

 on its considerable diminution in grounds thus 

 treated. 



CULMIFEROUS CROPS. 



A mong these, wheat is the most valuable, and is 

 exposed to most calamities. These calamities are 

 sometimes the effect of climate, at others of bad till- 

 age, and graduallydiminish,asthe climate becomes 

 less favorable for'indian corn ; for which inconve- 

 nience the additional compensation according to the 

 same thermometer is bestowed, of a greater suita- 

 bleness for rye, oats and barley. In the climate and 

 soil proper for maize (I tpeak generally without re- 

 gard to exceptions) rye and barley seldom succeed, 

 oats are light and precarious, and wheat is prefera- 

 ble, both on the score of value and risk, to either. 

 There are two calamities only common lo wheat, 

 which may not be avoided with certainty; those 

 of the Hessian fly and rust. As to the weevil, 

 they are certainly avoided by getting it out early; 

 a habit which will prevail, so soon as it is disco- 

 vered, that wheat may be severed from the 

 straw by treading or a machine, with the labor 

 necessary to secure it in stacks or barns. The 

 facility with which the grain then comes out, has 

 enabled me in a dry harvest, to tread an entire 

 considerable crop, almost by the time the harvest 

 ended ; and I generally pursue the practice as far 

 as the weather will permit, so as lo leave a rem- 

 nant only in slooks capable of being gotten out 

 so soon alter harvest as to avoid this calamity. — 

 The best bread and seed wheat, is invariably that 

 gotten out and cleaned within a day or two after 

 ft is cut, and deposited dry, in a dry place, in bar- 

 rels, hogsheads, or chests opened or cloeed. 



