264 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER, 



a single horse. Ninety-nine acrce in the hundred 

 vvere°broken up by one-horse ploughs; and half 

 ol the whole quantity with the irowel-hoe, or 

 fluke-hoe plough, having cutting wings to the 

 share on both sides alike, and no mould-board. 

 The ploughing was rarely deeper than three 

 inches, (often less,) and even that depth, on the 

 naturally poor lands, olten reached the barren sub- 

 soil. Harrows, and the advantages of harrowing, 

 to ffet rough ploughed land in good order, which 

 no1arraer°can now dispense with, were scarcely 

 known. On most larms, the only approach to a 

 harrow was the '-drag" with large wooden leelh, 

 used to smooth newly sown wheat land, after the 

 seed had been covered by the trowel-hoe plough. 

 The wheat was almost universally trodden out 

 of the straw by horses (sometimes aided by oxen) 

 on the earth, and out of doors. Thrashing ma- 

 chines, (and those very inferior, on the old Scotch 

 plan,) vVere not on half a dozen farms on James 

 river, and perhaps not thrice as many in all east- 

 ern Virginia. • 



It can now scarcely be conceived how land 

 could be broken up, and left in tolerable order by 

 Buch ploughs and ploughing. Nor could it be 

 done on even the poorest land, if suffered to be 

 at rest long enough for its surlace to be clothed 

 with grass, or the earlier and more scant growth 

 of weeds to remain. But most of the farmers 

 who broke up their corn fields with trowel-hoe 

 ploughs, secured the feasibility oi' the process 

 by cultivating the land in corn every other year, 

 and grazing as close as possible the intervening 

 years. Of course there was no turf, and scarcely 

 a living root, on poor land. Very many did not 

 break up the land at all, at first, but merely ran a 

 furrow with the trowel-hoe ploughs along each 

 of the former corn-rows, checked by similar 

 cross-rows, then planted,and ploughed the intervals 

 at leisure some 6 or 8 weeks after, when the 

 corn was several inches high. Many persons 

 objected altogether to using mould-board ploughs, 

 believing that turning over the furrow slices would 

 exhaust the soil by greater exposure to sun and 



air. 



Since, perhaps the error has been in the oppo- 

 site direction. Many improving farmers have 

 been even too ready to buy new and highly priced 

 ploughs and other implements ; and there are 

 but llew who have not had to throw aside, as 

 worthless, at least as many kinds of new imple- 

 ments as they have retained. However, ploughs 

 of good construction are now in general use. 

 Two-horse ploughs are common wherever there is 

 any farming better than the worst ; and three- 

 horse, and even four-horse ploughs are used 

 where the natural depth or subsequent improve- 

 ment of soil requires ploughing 8 or more inches 

 deep. Good thrashing machines, either fixed or 

 portable, of several kinds, are in general use, ex- 

 cept on very small farms ; and many a large wheat 

 farmer would now abandon the culture of wheat, 

 rather than to have to return to treading out every 

 crop, as formerly. 



The processes of tillage have fmproved with 

 the implements for tillage ; and imperlect as both 

 yet are, these two improvements are now more 

 advanced than the more important improvements 

 of the fertility of the soil, and the preservation 

 and economy of the means and resources for fer- 

 tilization. 



Defects of agriculture still remaining. 



What has been said of improvements made, will 

 prevent the necessity of treating of the remaining 

 defects of agriculture at much length, copious as 

 may be that°subject. The m.ost important defects 

 may be despatched in a few words, as they are ei- 

 ther the omitting, or negligently and imperfectly 

 executing, any such of the foregoing named im- 

 provements, as may be suitable and wanting 

 to the particular circumstances of each farmer. 

 But there are also minor branches of these se- 

 veral general subjects, and also other distinct sub- 

 jects, of neglect or omission, wh'ch remain to be 

 briefly considered. 



In regard to the application of marl— although 

 it has been more universally or generally and ex- 

 tensively adopted and practised than any other as 

 new and as great innovation in agriculture, and 

 although the unusual rapidity with which the 

 new practice has spread, is as remarkable as the 

 extended space of operations, still very few of 

 those farmers who have adopted this mode of im- 

 provement have operated properly, or to half the 

 profit that even their actual expense therein, it 

 properly directed, would have returned. The far 

 greater number of persons commence and conti- 

 nue the always heavy business of marling, with- 

 out providing for it any additional force, or sus- 

 pending any of the previous cultivation and fufl 

 employ°ment on their farms. Few had before 

 been able to perform properly all the ordinary la- 

 bors required ; and yet'ihey count on marling their 

 whole farms with no m'ore labor than was before 

 enwawed. They marl only "at leisure times; 

 and for want of regular and continued operations, 

 verv little can be done at all, and that little at dou- 

 ble'cost. But suppose that there were no such 

 disadvantages, but only the slower rate of work, 

 and that the owner of 600 acres to be marled, 

 could cover 10 acres a-year at odd jobs and lei- 

 sure times, or 100 acres by merely suspending a 

 third of his cultivation, and devoting the labor so 

 released to regular and continued marling. In 

 the first case 36 years would be required to marl 

 the whole surface, and in the latter only six years. 

 In the latter case there would be no diminution ot 

 product by the lessened tillage, even in the first 

 year ; for the two-thirds of the first field marled 

 would yield, in the first year, more (and usually 

 much more) than the whole without marling. 

 And the increased rate of product of the farm, at 

 the end of the 6 years serving to marl the who e, 

 would more than pay for thrice the labor usually 

 required for the marling. The mere diff'erence to 

 the farmer of having his land all marled, say in 

 1842, or not until 1852, would be the loss of the 

 increased product for ten years. And on most ot 

 the lands of lower Virginia, that increased pro- 

 duct, from marling alone, would be equal to halt 

 the gross product, (or 100 per cent, on the origina] 

 product,) and would amount to more in 10 yeairs 

 than the previous fee-simple value of the whole 

 farm. He who has determined to marl his land, 

 and yet delays to do it, is thereby submitting, du- 

 ^inc' the delay, to a loss in every crop fully equal 

 to all that is made on the unmarled laud in tillage. 

 But putting aside this enormous waste oi va ue, 

 incurred by mere delay of operations, the marling 

 actually done, (and at double cost, from irregular 

 working and want of method,) does not yield 



