412 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



ment of the land, have nfiver been heavy. The 

 average may probably be set down at Irom eiizht 

 to filieen bushels, tlie cropa havinj:: been of late 

 years very materially injured by rust. Mr. Wea- 

 vei'ij object is corn, of which immense quantities 

 are consumed by his iron establishment. Were 

 wheat his staple crop, he would sow it upon a clo- 

 ver ley. 



Mr. Weaver informs me that clover did not 

 succeed well on his new ground until it had been 

 well cleansed by hie second coiirpe ol" crops. It is 

 now generally very heavy. His fields were at 

 first much infested with sorrel, which has at length 

 been almost entirely extirpated. Mr. Weaver re- 

 gard* it as all-important to the success of his clo- 

 ver, that it should be plastered, at the rate ot half 

 a bushel to the acre, about the time oT sowing the 

 seed. He sometimes even strews plaster on his 

 wheat in December or January, previously to 

 Bowing his clover se'd. He attributes the rapid 

 improvement ol his soil to the shelter aflbrded to 

 his land by the thick growth of standing clover, 

 as well as to the heavy coat of vegetable matter 

 which it enables him to plough under. II' clover 

 is sown for tlie improvement of the soil, he re- 

 gards it as a great error to graze it at all. He con- 

 tends that his standing pastures, which in a lew 

 years are covered with white clover and green- 

 sward, yield him more and better pasturage lor 

 his cattle than his clover fields would atford. 

 Consequently he never ploughs them up. 



No lime has ever been applied (o this land, nor 

 any manure, except a few loads annually from the 

 raule stable to the poorest spots. The improve- 

 ment has been efiecied exclusively by the use of 

 clover and plaster. The land, as steep as it is, 

 does not wash — a result which Mr. Weaver attri- 

 butes to his deep ploughing, and to the large 

 quantity of long vegetable matter the poil con- 

 tains, which binds ii together, and at the same 

 time keeps it loose and porous, enabling it to ab- 

 sorb and retain a large quantity of water. 



Mr. Weaver lays great stress on applying plas- 

 ter to his clover fields, either in the winter, or very 

 early in the spring, that it may be thoroughly dis- 

 solved by the early rains. He attributes much of 

 the benefit he has derived Irom the use of plaster 

 to his practice in this respect, in which he says he 



tiona of the grub worm, &c., in obtaining an 

 abundant stand ol plants. He commenceis plough- 

 ing his corn with the ordinary shovel plough, as 

 soon 88 he has finished planting, by which lime 

 his first planting is generally well up. He 

 ploughs and hoes twice, thinning at the first hoe- 

 ing to the distance of about 2^ leet in the row. 

 This is all the work his corn ever yets, and he 

 always lays it by before harvest. He endeavors 

 to finish working his corn as early as practicable, 

 in order to iiijure the roots as liitle as possible. 

 With this culnvaiion his corn field, under his sys- 

 tem of improvement, is kept throughout the sea- 

 eon both clean and loose — the great points in the 

 management of the corn crop. 



This year Mr. Weaver has 200 acres in corn. 

 He commenced plougrhing the Isi of March with 

 six McCormick ploughs, drawn by two sioui mules 

 each; and, with the assistance of his overseer 

 and six additional hands, he finished planting the 

 whole 200 acres by theTtli of May, having in the 

 meanlinie, with the same force, broken up and 

 seeded ninety acres of oats. Since planting, the 

 whole 200 acres of corn have been cultivated by 

 twelve hands, six ploughmen arid six hoe hands, 

 and six mules, and was laid by at harvest, about 

 the 1st of July. Seventy acres of the corn on the 

 home farm were ploughed and hoed only once, 

 the corn having been previously harrowed in the 

 row with heavy two-horse harrows. This field, 

 which was a clover ley, will probably yield about 

 40 bushels to the acre. Mr. Weaver confidently 

 estimates hie entire crop of corn this year at not 

 less than eight th.ousand bushels. His 90 acres 

 of oats were supposed to average between 40 and 

 50 bushels to the acre — m^iking, with his corn, an 

 aggregate crop of twelve thousand bushels of 

 grain, as the f)roduct of the labor of 12 hands, 

 with the above-mentioned teams, for the brief 

 period of (bur months. His is what I would call 

 very energetic and successful (arming. Is it ex- 

 celled, or even equalled, by any other farmer in 

 the United States, under any thing like similar 

 circumstances 1 



Mr. Weaver has a fi-'Id of 40 acres on his 

 home (arm, which he cultivates for two successive 

 years in wheat, and two in clover lor hay and 

 seed. His first wheat crop, on the clover ley, 



is sustained by Prof. Liebig. Plaster, it is well has averaged, by actual measurement, thirty-six 



known, absorbs a large quantity of water, and 

 does not operate on growing plants until it is dis- 

 solved. 



Mr. Weaver''s mode of cultivating corn is as 

 follows : In the month of December he sows one 

 bushel o( plaster per acre upon his clover field de- 

 signed the next year for corn. He prefers this 

 mode to plastering his corn in the hill, as more 

 beneficial to the corn and to the land. About the 

 1st of March, and not earlier, for Mr. Weaver 

 prefers spring to winter ploughing, being more 

 recent, it leaves his land looser and in better order 

 for a crop, he commences breaking up his corn 

 ground, as deeply as possible, with McCormick 

 ploughs, drawn by two stout and fat mules, run- 

 ning around his hills, so as to throw all the fur- 

 rows down hill. About the 1st of April he lays 

 off his ground in rows in the same direction, 4-| 

 feet apart, and drills his corn very thick, as he 

 never replants. His usual allowance is a bushel 

 of seed to five acres. With this quantity of seed 



bushels to the acre, weighing 60 lbs, to the bushel. 

 The second crop is never as heavy as the first. 

 He has frequently made two hundred barrels of 

 flour from his wheat crop on these forty acres — 

 being an average of twenty-five bushels of wheat 

 to the acre. Mr. Weaver does not object to tak- 

 ing several successive crops of corn or wheat from 

 the same land, provided it is rich. He contends 

 that it is necessary to take two successive crops of 

 wheat fiom his clover field, in order to cleanse and 

 pulverize it sufliciently to secure a good stand of 

 clover. It should bestaied that considerable quan- 

 tities of manure from Mr. Weaver's barn and sta- 

 bles are applied to this field, on the young clover. 

 Mr. Weaver uses all his manure as a top-dressing 

 to his grass lands and clover lots. He disapproves 

 the practice of ploughing under manure. 



Mr. Weaver's standing pastures are the finest 

 I ever saw, consisting of a most luxuriant growth 

 of white clover and green-sward. The only ob- 

 jection to them is, that they are too much infested 



he has never failed, notwithstanding the depreda- with "rich weed," as it is termed,' and thistles, 



