242 CALCAREOUS MANURES— APPENDIX. 



productive than when my labors c^n menced, and that on much of it, a 

 ten-fold increase had been made of t le previously lari^e space of galled and 

 gullied hill-sides and slopes. 



When more correct opinions had been formed in after-time of the actual 

 condition and requirements of such poor soils, it seemed an astonishing delu- 

 sion, which would have been altogether ludicrous but for its serious effects, 

 that 1 should have counted so much on improving such a soil, and by such 

 means. With the exception of a small part near the river banks, (perhaps 

 one-fifth of the then cleared and cultivated land,) which had been originally 

 of very fine quality, and, however abused and exhausted, was still good 

 land, the farm generally consisted of a soil of sandy loam, usually about 

 three inches deep, and through which a single-horse plough could easily 

 penetrate and turn up the barren and more sandy subsoil. Grazing the 

 fields, when not under tillage, liad been the regular practice ; and under it 

 very little growth was to be seen except the light and diminutive " hen's 

 nest grass," which formed the almost universal cover of the poor fields of 

 lower Virginia, in the intervals between tillage. Add to these circumstances 

 of very poor and shallow soil, and barren and sandy subsoil, and almost 

 no vegetable cover to turn under, that every field was more or less hilly, 

 and liable to be washed by heavy rains— and the judicious reader will see 

 nothing but false confidence and ignorance displayed in my bold adoption 

 of Taylor's system. Nor was I convinced of my error until after nearly 

 all the fields had been successively thrown into ridges by two-horse ploughs, 

 and all the hilly and more slightly inclined surface had been awfully washed 

 and gullied, by the exposure of the loose sub-soil to the action of the 

 streams of rain-water. 



While these my supposed measures of improvement were in progress, 

 I was in habits of frequent and familiar intercourse with my oldest and best 

 friend, and former guardian, Thomas Cocke, who resided then on his Aber- 

 deen farm, and since and now, on Tarbay, adjoining my own land. My 

 friend was a man for whose mind and mental cultivation I could not but 

 entertain a very high estimation. But though all his life a practical and 

 assiduous cultivator, and finding his greatest pleasure in his farming labors, 

 he yet was a careless, slovenly, and bad manager, and of course an un- 

 profitable farmer. Therefore, on this subject, I held in but light esteem the 

 opinions which he maintained, which were opposed to my own. One of 

 these, (and which he had first gathered from some old and ignorant, but 

 experienced practical cultivators of his neighborhood,) was the opinion that 

 our land which was naturally poor could not "hold manure," to any extent 

 or profit, and therefore could not be enriched. For years I heard this 

 opinion frequently expressed by him, and the evident inference therefrom, 

 that the far greater part of our lands, and of the whole country, was doomed 

 to hopeless sterility ; and as oiten as heard, I rejected it as a monstrous 

 agricultural heresy— as treason, indeed, to the authority of Taylor, and of 

 every other author on agriculture whom I had read or heard of. But at 

 last I was compelled, most reluctantly, to concur in this opinion. 



What was then to be done ? I could not bear the idea of pursuing the 

 general system of the country in continuing to lessen the already small 

 productiveness of my fields, by their course of cultivation. The whole 

 income, and more, was requi)ed for the most economical support of a then 

 small but fast growing family; and for any increase of income or net profit, 

 there was no hope, save in the universal approved resort, in all such cases, 

 of emigrating to the rich western wilderness. And accordingly such be- 

 came my intention, fully considered and decided upon, and which was only 

 prevented being carried into effect by subsequent occurrences. 



