176 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



think a part of hia land does not come under a 

 hoe crop but once in six years. Now surely it 

 could not be advisable to put an old worn out es- 

 tate of naturally poor land under (he same system 

 as Mr. Tabb'e, if we desire or expect a rapid, or 

 indeed improvement at all. 



Let us now take a view of Mr. Roys estate, 

 with his three-field roiaiion. Mr. Ruy's estate 

 lies in Maihewe, ilie adjoining county lo Glou- 

 cester ; liis land, not originally ol'ilie naturally ler- 

 tile soil ol the Gloucester low grounds, but siill I 

 believe it was what we call good land, ol charac- 

 ter to retain all that is put on it in the way olim- 

 provement. 1 do not know that he h;is used marl 

 or lime ; if he has not used the latier. it must be 

 because he does not think liis land requires it, as 

 he could 1 suppose easily command it in any 

 quantity and at a cheap raie. But this I know, 

 that he, his manager, and his father belbre him, 

 have been good manuiers, and if I mistake 

 not, he manures the greater part of his field in- 

 tended for corn every year that it comes mio cul- 

 tivation ; so that I should not think it at all strange 

 that his land should improve under the, three-field 

 rotation. But it must be kept in mind that, siiu- 

 ated as Mr. Roy is, immediately on an inlet of the 

 Chesapeake bay, he has access to as much sea weed 

 as he can use, and perhaps other resources lor 

 making manure, that are not available to everyone, 

 and no one ever doubted that if you could manure 

 your land every year, it would improve under an 

 annual tillage. Whether the Mathews lands suc- 

 eed well in fallow for small grain 1 am not advised ; 

 if they donot, doubtless ihe three-field rotation may 

 be the most profitable they can adopt. But even 

 that 1 should doubt; as a longer action of the at- 

 mospherical influences upon the same surliace, to- 

 gether with the increased quantity of stock and 

 manure, which a more lengthened rotation would 

 admit of being kept and made, would, I have no 

 doubt, with less labor, produce a greateramount 

 of crop. 



We will now visit Brandon, and see if Mr. Har- 

 rison enjoys no facilities Ihr improving his land, 

 other than are common to farmers generally. 

 There can be no doubt but that the land on the 

 Brandon estate must have greatly improve*d un- 

 der the occupancy of the present owners, as I 

 have been credibly informed that the product is 

 now double of what it was under the regime of 

 the father of the present occupant. But I am ra- 

 ther under the impression that some of the Bran- 

 don land is under the four-field rotation, and that 

 they fallow on at least a portion of the estate. 

 But be that as ii may, I have always heard that the 

 land on thai estate was originally good, ifnot rich; 

 itisalso, I believf, a fine wheat soil, and well adapt- 

 ed to clover, and I presume the plaster acts well. I 

 believe now the lands of those estates are all limed 

 or marled ; how much they had improved before 

 they commenced liming, J am not aware. An- 

 other advantage I think 1 have heard those es- 

 tates enjoyed was, that of an extensive marsh or 

 piece of wet land, loo wet for cultivation, but af- 

 fording good pasture to a large number of cattle, 

 thereby indirectly adding another field to the ro- 

 tation, grazing the cultivated fields only at cer- 

 tain periods of the year, giving the arable lands 

 the benefit of all the manure they make both 

 winter and summer; and I presume grazing is al- 

 lowed partially at particular teasons. I do not, 



therefore, Mr. Editor, think that either of the farm- 

 ers alluded to by N., pursuing the three-field ro- 

 tation, ought, properly speaking, lo be held up as 

 models for a general system. Nor do I think it 

 by any means proved that either of these gentle- 

 men, under a more lengthened rotation, with their 

 general good management, would not have ar- 

 rived at much Ingher results than they have yet 

 attained. They have no doubt thought it best to 

 '' let well alone," and in their situations doubtless 

 they were right. But "as one swallow does not 

 make a summer," neither do three good farmers, 

 being comparatively successful under peculiar cir- 

 cumstances in a particular rotation, make that ro- 

 tation prelerable to all others. 



Aa your correspondent N. seems to have pass- 

 ed over the four field-rotation, it might not be ne- 

 cessary that I should no ice it in this communica- 

 tion; but as we are writing and speaking for in- 

 Ibrmation upon the subject of rotations, 1 will 

 even give it a word in passing. The Arator four- 

 field system I have seen tried in all its varieties, 

 and have never seen much good corn from it in 

 any way. It is true Arator himself succeeded 

 very well with it at Hazlewood ; but no where 

 else that I am aware of. That is, he succeeded 

 very well in bringing back his land to its original 

 fertility, and he made very heavy crops of corn ; 

 but never made wheat successfully, as I have been 

 inlbrmed. But be it remembered, that Hazel- 

 wood was originally ol the best description of Rap- 

 pahannock low grounds. The four-field rotation 

 as pursued on James river of late years by those 

 successful and justly celebrated farmers, Messrs. 

 Carter, Selden, Harrison, &c. &c., on originally 

 good land, of deep soil, with the management of 

 these gentlemen succeeded very well for a time, 

 but the two former have abandoned it, thinking 

 the five-field a better, or even six-field preferable, 

 when circumstances allowed it. This 1 inferred 

 from their communications a year or two ago in 

 the Register. But there is a four-field rotation 

 which a friend of mine is now trying, which, if he 

 succeeds with making clover take v?ell after corn, 

 will, I think, supersede all others on natural corn 

 land, that is, on land naturally better adapted to 

 corn than wheat, particularly all those extensive 

 flats lying on our tide-water rivers, where corn is 

 the hiain staple, and navigation at the doors. The 

 rotation then, which my friend is now proposing to 

 try, is simply reversing the Arator four-field sys- 

 tem ; that is, by following wheal with corn instead 

 of corn with wheat, say thus, 1st wheal, 2nd 

 corn, (sowing clover seed the last time the corn 

 is cultivated,) so that the third year the clover 

 will be at maturity ; that year let it ripen and 

 fall on the land, and the fourih year pasture it, 

 and that fall fallow it and sow it in wheat, re- 

 serving as much for oats the next spring as 

 the farmer may deem advisable. By this system, 

 if the clover succeeds after corn, you will have the 

 full benefit of the clover crop by protecting the 

 lands from the summer suns as well as the winter 

 frosts, and washing after corn. And the next 

 year the stock (as much by the way as the land 

 will well maintain) trampling and breaking the 

 dry vegetable matter lo pieces, and depositing 

 their manure and urine upon it, your land will 

 have a fine lop or surface dressing of vegetable 

 and animalized manure. The latier I hold to be al- 

 together indispensable to the attainment of a high 



