THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



279 



offers the best commentary on, and justification of 

 his doctrines, in this respect. It should, however, 

 be observed, that by using both these rotations on 

 contiguous farms, he is enabled to oblain the pe- 

 culiar benefits of each, and to avoid ihe peculiar 

 disadvantages of both, belter than if pursuing 

 either one ot these rotations only. 



Product of crops.— The growth of wheat is 

 subject to such great disasters, and the products 

 of different years are therefore so variable, that 

 even if the general average product of acres and 

 of years were accurately stat,ed of any particular 

 farm, it would (urnish but a very inadequate idea 

 of the true average power lor production. Thus, 

 on a field, that under very favorable circumstances 

 may have produced 20 bushels to the acre, 

 in another year, of the preceding or succeeding 

 course of crops, under an unusual (but by no 

 means unprecedented) degree of infliction of 

 Hessian fly, chinch-bug or rust, might yield 

 only 2 bushels. The average of these two ex- 

 tremes, would be 11 bushels per acre; which, 

 however correct as a statement of actual average 

 product, would be altogether false and deceptious 

 as an indication of the deorree of fertility, or pro- 

 gress of improvement. For these obvious rea- 

 sons, the reporter preferred to learn and to state 

 precisely the best products of wheat on each 

 farm, (or entire crops, from which each reader 

 may lor himself estimate what may be expected 

 on the average of seasons, or in the worst of years. 



The best crop of wheat which has ever been 

 raised on the Lower Brandon farm, was in 1838, 

 the average of the whole being within a email 

 li-action of 19 bushels per acre. Two thirds ol 

 the whole surface under wheat was corn-land o( 

 the previous year, and one third only was clover 

 fallow. The best crop on the Church Pas- 

 tures farm was the same year, and averaged 17^ 

 bushels to the acre. A general average of years 

 and of land, on these two farms, under the rotation 

 pursued then and since, supposed to be 13 or 14 

 bushels to the acre. 



On Upper Brandon, the best crop of wheat, 

 on all the land sown (in 1838,) was 24 bushels to 

 the acre. The general average of seasons and 

 of land for the whole liarm, supposed to be about 



15 bushels. On the Upper Quarter farm, (1838) 



16 bushels average — and a general average of 

 seasons and of land, for that farm supposed to be 

 12 or 13 bushels to the acre. 



The reporter would here remark, that these 

 best products are not of the best lew acres, nor of 

 even but part of a crop. They are of the full 

 wheat crop of each farm, each including its full 

 proportion ol inferior land. As all these best 

 crops happened to be made in the same year, on 

 four different farms, under their respective regular 

 modes of cultivation, and under three different 

 schemes of rotation, it is manifest that the greater 

 than usual product was owing to a peculiarly 

 favorable season, and not to the superior fertiliiy 

 of the fields producing the best crops. Such a 

 superiority of land may well affect the result 

 of a single year's product on one farm only, and 

 still more if not under a regular rotation with 

 fields of something like equal productive value. 

 But on lour separate farms, all under their re- 

 spective and regular and judiciously planned 

 courses of crops, it would be next to impossible that 

 there should be a general and considerable su- 



periority of fertility found in all the fields, seven 

 in number, in wheat in any one year, of the four 

 larms. The reporter therefore infers that the 

 large crops made in 1838, were not greater than 

 may be produced in any other year of equally 

 lavorable season and other circumstances, on 

 whatever other fields might happen to come 

 under wheat. 



All the best crops of corn were also made in 

 one year, 1840. On Lower Brandon and Church 

 Pastures, the crop made a general average of 

 7 barrels (35 bushels) of corn per acre. The 

 general average of years, and crops of both farma 

 supposed to be about 6 barrels. On Upper Bran- 

 don farm, the same year, the crops averaged in 

 product 7 barrels, and on Upper Quarter, 8 barrrels 

 per acre. The general average of years and 

 crops for the Ibrmer supposed to be 6 barrels, and 

 of the latter, 6 to 7 barrels per acre. 



No product of clover has ever been ascertain- 

 ed ; but the usual growth of the best land is be- 

 lieved to be now, and of latter years, as heavy as 

 on first-rate soils elsewhere, either in this country 

 or in England. As was belbre observed, when 

 speaking generally of such lands along Jamea 

 river, clover was raised here belbre liming and 

 the other parts of the recent system of improve- 

 ment had been in operation. But, (as JVlr. Field- 

 ing Lewis also reported of his Weyanoke larm,*) 

 there was no good and regular success except on 

 the highest improved lots. Clover did not answer 

 under general field-culture. In one of the com- 

 munications to the Farmers' Register, belbre re- 

 ferred to, (p. 242, vol. iii.,) in 1835, Mr. Harrison, 

 after having just staled that his main reliance for 

 future improvement was placed on his expected 

 clover cro|)s, made the Ibllowing incidental remark: 

 "My best [clover] has certainly grown after lin)e 

 and manure. Indeed, without ihe previous use of 

 lime, my clover hardly pays me for the seeding; 

 but in a lew years we hope to have the whole 

 arable surface here improved in that way, having 

 already more than half accomplished it.'' 



Liming.— This, the foundation of all other im- 

 provements on these farms, was first begun on 

 Lower Brandon, in or about 1819, by its proprie- 

 tor, George E. Harrison, who had then but lately 

 arrived at age, and the possession of his property; 

 but who displayed in this, as in other things, his 

 excellent judgment as a farmer and an improver, 

 almost from his earliest operations. The liming 

 there was continued for some years thereafter, at 

 what was then deemed a rapid rate, though very 

 far exceeded since, there and elsewhere, when all 

 early doubts of the large amount of profit had 

 given place to perfect confidence. During those 

 first years, the amount applied did not exceed the 

 lime burnt from 200 hogsheads of oyster shells in 

 any one year. Afterwards, the rate of progress 

 was greatly increased. Before the death of the 

 proprietor, nearly all the land of Lower Brandon 

 and Church Pastures had been limed over once; and 

 much of the same land has since received a se- 

 cond and lighter dressing. The second liming 

 has been usually applied to the parts of the fields 

 which had remained two years in clover, and pre- 

 ceding corn. 



It was 11 or 12 years after the first liming on 



* Report of the farming on Weyanoke, p. 17, vol. 

 i., Farmers' Register. 



