84 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



the particulara of their different practices, would i 

 furnish interesting matter for the consideration of i 

 others. As there was no intention of this at the 

 times of conversation, and no notes made, it is } 

 very likely that mistake or forgeiluinees may now ' 

 cause some errors of statement. If so, I shall be 

 glad to be corrected, and also to he fully inlbrmed 

 in writing, lor publication, on every part touched 

 on. Should such be the result, even my mis- 

 Btatements by mistake may produce light, and 

 render service heretofore withheld from agricul- 

 ture. For two of these very intelligent and suc- 

 cessful farmers (though long-continued and ap- 

 proving readers of the Farmers' Register) have 

 never contributed, directly, a single line to the 

 pages of this publication; and the third, though 

 he has done much more in that way than most 

 other subscribers, by furnishing several valuable 

 communications, still has not communicated near 

 as much of valuable facts ascertained, and obser- 

 vations made, as he might have done, from his 

 abundant resources. 



Mr. William Old's farm is in Powhatan, and 

 forms part of a very remarkable strip of peculiar 

 and good soil, which extend* nor only through 

 that county, but also Nottoway and Goochland, 

 and perhaps still I'ariher. This strip was originally 

 known as the "oak land," it not having a single 

 pine among its forest growth. The strip varies in 

 breadth from 5 to perhaps 15 miles, and was, be- 

 fore being cultivated, much richer land in general 

 than the land on either side, or elsewhere in that 

 region. Alter long cultivation and great exhaus- 

 tion, and turning this land out of culiivation, it 

 then throws up a growth of pines, a short- leaved 

 kind, [and of course not the " old-field pine" of the 

 tide-water region.] Mr. Old has a large body of 

 this worn-out and now pine-covered land. But it 

 is not of value lor furnishing vegetable matter, as 

 the acid pine lands are. The leaves there never 

 cover the ground thickly, and seem to rot much 

 faster than elsewhere. [This is an interesting con- 

 firmation of the doctrine of the antiseptic quality 

 of acid soils. This soil not being acid, cannot 

 preserve on it several successive crops of fallen 

 pine leaves, as do acid soils.] 



Mr. Old's singular two-field rotation of oats 

 and tobacco, alternated continually, was deseribed 

 by one of his neighbors last year in the Farmers' 

 Register, (p. 308, vol. ix.) The oats'are suflered 

 to fall and remain on the ground as manure for 

 the succeeding crop of tobacco, and are (ound lully 

 Bufficient alone to maintain the high degree of 

 fertility necessary for good tobacco crops. All 

 the lots for tobacco are thus managed. Desiring 

 to increase Ihe crop of wheat, at one time this 

 two-field rotation of the tobacco lots was changed 

 to a three-field, of 1st, clover, 2d, tobacco, and 3d, 

 wheat. But the frequent failures of wheat caused 

 this plan to be subsequently changed to the pre- 

 vious oat and tobacco two-field rotation, which has 

 been thus but lately restored. In these two rota- 

 lions, and without other manure than the oais or 

 the clover, (after the first enrichment of the land by 

 other manure,) one pan of the loia has been 17 

 years so cultivated, without deterioration of the 

 land or its products. The land on which all this 

 tobacco cropping is done, is of broad " creek 

 flats," or low-grounds of smaller streams running 

 into the Appomattox, (the farm does not extend 

 to the river,) and the soil waa originally very rich, 



thongh shallow. It was, as elsewhere, much impo- 

 verished by exhausiiiig and injudicious cropping, 

 before cominir into Mr. Old's possession ; but, as 

 the result shows, is capable of being restored to 

 fertility, fully and profitably, by self-manuring by 

 its own growth, or by other putrescent manures 

 applied. 



Gypsum is used generally, and acts well on the 

 highland, once in each course of crops, which is 

 the five-field rotation of 1, corn, 2, wheat, 3, clo- 

 ver, 4, wheat, (on fallow,) 5, clover. On ihe 

 originally poor parts gypsum has done no good. 



Mr. Old is altogether opposed to the practice of 

 graduated ditching on hill-sides, generally through 

 a liirm, for the purpose of preventing the washing 

 of the land. He uses somesfiort ditches of this kind, 

 on very favorable positions, and as merely a partial 

 preventive. He has seen land thus treated, which 

 the ditches alone spoiled more than all ihe wash- 

 ing could do in a century of other judicious culti- 

 vation ; and which was far more disfigured and 

 injured afterwards, by the water breaking over the 

 banks, aa it certainly will do, with all the care 

 that can be used. Supposing even (what is far 

 beyond the truth) that the best arranged and con- 

 structed diicliee, ahcays kept in perfict order, 

 could effect their designed purpose, of carrying 

 off the redundant rain-water, it would be impossi- 

 ble, by any farmer's care, to prevent accidental and 

 unlooked-for stoppages, which would be first 

 made known by turning out the water of a ditch, 

 cutting a gully, breaking by ihe accumulated 

 force across the next ditch and bank below, and 

 increasing its track of devastation thence to the 

 bottom of the descent. As an example of the in- 

 security of the system, he relerred to one of the 

 graduated ditches, (such as above-mentioned,) 

 through his corn-field, which being short, and 

 frequently under hi^ eye, he had several times 

 himself examined throughout its whole length, 

 and with a hoe removed every commencing ob- 

 struction. This care was in addition to all gene- 

 ral superintendence and repairing. Late in the 

 year he Ibund that the water had broken over, 

 and had begun to cut a gully. The cause was, 

 that the fodder not having been gathered on a part 

 of the adjoining corn, ae it decayed on the stalks 

 the small light bits had been blown off by the 

 wind, and some had fallen in the ditch. The 

 first rain floated this light stuff along the ditch, 

 until a straw or small roof, or some such thing, 

 caught and stopped a few bits, which served to 

 stop more ; and as the muddy water settled and 

 filled the crevices, finally made a dam sufficient to 

 throw out the water. Had this ditch been at. the 

 top of the hill, and several other ditches below, 

 this slight cause would have broken every one, 

 and with more and more damage ai every succes- 

 sive breach. 



The fi-equent and generally increasing disasters 

 and failures of ihe wheat ciop in the middle pari 

 of Virginia. Mr. Old is at a loss to give a reason ; 

 for. It he had judged merely from his own land, 

 he would have ascribed it to the use of gypsum, 

 and its supposed power of attracting moisture to 

 the soil, as well as otherwise giving increased suc- 

 culence to tlie growth of wheat. 



Mr. Old considers that all dry arable land, even 

 though clayey or stiff, requires grazing, to tram- 

 ple and consslidate the soil. He does so once in 

 every courBej and keeps a large stock ©f eatile, 



