512 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



covered) by the freight steamer from Baltimore. 

 We trust, from the arrangements announced, (hat 

 our correspondent will not lose what he has so 

 much valued in the Farmers' Register; nor the 

 publication lose the aid of his comraunications, 

 which have heretofore given to the work much o( 

 its value.— Ed.] 



HEMP CULTURE FOR NORTH CAROLINA. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Big Lick, Roanoke, Nov. 18/7*, 1842. 

 A cultivator of drained swamp land, in Wash- 

 mgton county, North Carolina, desires to know 

 whether hemp would be a crop suitable for his 

 situation, as to soil and climate, and you appeal to 

 your subscribers for the inlbrmation. 



As I am a hemp grower to some extent, and 

 fiave taken a good deal of trouble to acquire all 

 themlormatioa I could with regard to its culture 

 and subsequent management, 1 will endeavor to 

 eatisfy yuur correspondent's inquiry. 



The lavorite soil of hemp is a deep, rich, dry, 

 friable mould, neither liable to drown m we!, nor 

 bake in dry weather. It is necessary that trround 

 intended lor hemp should have the most ihoroucrh 

 preparation. It must be free from grass and 

 trash and clods, and as perfectly pulverized as a 

 garden bed. This will give all the seed an equal 

 chance of vegetating. The plants will grow off 

 together, and the crop will have that de-^^ree of 

 thickness which is requisite to a great yield" and a 

 due degree of fineness in the stalk and lint. Il 

 the land IS indifferently prepared, rough or foul, 

 the seed in favorable spots will vegetate before ihe 

 rest, and the growth is so rapid that they imme- 

 diately shade the ground and so enfeeble the tar- 

 dier plants that they never attain the heic^ht of 

 the general crop. The consequence is, a thin 

 crop, coarse stalks, harsh and indifferent lint, and 

 a poor yield. From this vour correspondent will 

 be able to form a pretty correct notion of the 

 adaptation of his soil, h his swamp land is tho- 

 rough y drained, there can be no question of its 

 suitableness, from what I have understood of its 

 texture. I learned from an agricuhurai tour made 

 by yourself a few years since, that almost the 

 whole of the peninsula between Albemarle and 

 Pamlico Sounds, embracing several counties and 

 an area ol several thousand square miles, is ex- 

 ceedingly rich and productive when reclaimed. 

 On the estate of an old college cta&smate, which 

 you examined most minutely, you found a general 

 eurace soil of rich vegetable mould lwo%ind a 

 hall feet thick, with a close substratum of blue 

 cay, which sub-soil, when brought to the surfiice 

 and exposed to the atmosphere, crumbled readily 

 and was by no means deficient in lertility. Such 

 a soil certainly possesses all the important consti- 

 tuents of a hemp soil, and I can only conceive of 

 two circumstances which can possibly interfere 

 with Its successful culture. These are, the diffi- 

 culty of keeping the reclaimed marsh perfectly 

 dry, and the southern climate. As to the first, 

 there is a most encouraging instance in my im- 

 mediate neighborhood of successful cultivation on 



a reclaimed swamp, which is so deficient in com- 

 pactness and solidity, that jumping with a man's 

 weight on (he surface will make the earih trem- 

 ble lor a circumlerence of fifty or sixty feet 



As to the second impediment, of climate, there 

 may be something m it, as hemp has never been 

 adoped as a crop in countries as far south as 

 Carolina, while it has been uniformly the favorite 

 staple of the extreme norih. I„ ,hose portions of 

 mir w,s!ern coumry corresponding in latitude 



,1 ' V! f """^"" .'""'"y- '" ^"'•"1 Carolina, the 

 farmers liave small patches of hemp, apparently 



., .ir^^T'^r' "l^^'-o^v'h of more rigorous lati- 

 hP hpn ^'V.'"'?' 'h«'=°'^i«'' countries is said to 

 be be er. This, lor aught 1 know, may be true ; 

 but I believe it ,s purely speculative, founded on 

 conjecture, where there were no lacs to build on. 



hr7rnn <• '"^'"''''L^f'P'"''""'''^^ "^" examining 

 le crops o upper i\l„souri and northern Ken° 

 (ucky,and I arr. fully satisfied that our crops in 



^ t^!' '^'""^' "5"=^' '" ^'^'y ^^^P*^« •" either 



hem. Here, vve are about two degrees south 



01 the portion ol Missouri alluded fo, and the 

 same number of degrees norih of Albemarle 

 Sound. Ouraliitude will enhance the difference 

 in going towarJs the Atlantic; but if two degrees 

 maKes no sensible difference between Missouri 

 and Roanoke, I would hardly think that two more 

 degrees, evm with a slight addition lor altitude, 

 could make any very material odds. 



If you should receive noihing more satisfactory 



irom other sources, and should think what is here 



comained of any interest to your correspondent, 



you are welcome to publish it. ' 



Respectfully yours, 



W. M. Peyton. 



REPORT TO THE STATE BOARD OF AGRICUL- 

 TURE OF VIRGINIA, 



In reply to their inquiry as to the "Obstacles to im- 

 provement, including the operation of the laws or 

 governmental regulation.* 



By Edmund Baffin. 



It is not designed in this report to consider all 

 the important obstacles to agricultural improve- 

 ment in Virginia ; but only a lew of the most 

 operative and injurious, and of which the exist- 

 ence and oppression are due entirely to the lef^is- 

 laiive policy of this commonwealih, and which 

 may be removed, or greatly alleviated, easily, 

 certainly, and most beneficially to aarjcultural 

 and general interests, by legislative action. 



The evils of this kind which most injuriously 

 affect agricultural interests, and oppose aoricultu- 

 ral improvement, are produced by the delects of 



As the length of this report made it inconvenient 



and improper to insert it entire in the few remaining 

 and unappropriated pages of this volume, it was de- 

 signed to omit It entirely, as was intimated in a pre- 

 vious page. Rut as there are different subjects treated 

 of, under distinct heads, it has been determined to give 

 an extract, which embraces a portion of these subjects 

 leaving the other and larger part of the report to be 

 continued, in the first number of the new series of the 

 Farmers' Register. — Ed. F, R. 



