1830] 



FARMERS' REGIS IE R, 



113 



operator may easily deceive olhers, If he chooses: 

 and, even if actuated by the strictest regard lor 

 (futb, the wish to obtain a particular result, will 

 often cause him to deceive himselll But in the 

 results of" any general practice, continued (or ten 

 or twelve years on a well known farm, it is im- 

 possible that the cultivator can deceive either him- 

 self or his neighbors. For this reason, those who 

 have read the statements of the experiments pre- 

 sented in this essay, may require to know what 

 proportion the success of my subsequent and ge- 

 neral practice bore to their results. The personal 

 objections which caused me to exclude theibllow- 

 ing detailed answer to this requisition from the 

 first publication of this essay, are not removed. 

 But it has appeared that the omission has caused 

 distant readers to place an estimate on the wri- 

 ter's merit and general success as a farmer, fiir 

 above the truth — and many others may err as 

 much by measuring the value of the system of 

 improvement recommended, by the known and 

 acknowledged faults of the writer's general ma- 

 nagement. Either of these inferences would be 

 erroneous, and, in different ways, would operate 

 to impair the value of the opinions and facts 

 which have been presented to the reader. These 

 considerations induce me now to submit the de- 

 tails which will follow, of matters which, in any 

 other aspect, are of no importance to any but my- 

 self. The objectionable character of egotism is 

 necessarily conspicuous in these details ; but that 

 fault cannot be pos.-ibly avoided in a work which 

 is, in fact, but a statement of the opinions, expe- 

 rience, and personal labors of the writer. 



Having kept written memoranda of my farming 

 operations as long as they engaged my personal 

 attention, I am enabled to present a taljle of crops, 

 which shows the griT,in crops of Coggin's Point, 

 from 1813 to this time, 1S26,* with as much accu- 

 racy as can be expected under such circumstances. 

 This woulil be the best of all modes of fixing the 

 genera! effects of any system of improvement, if 

 the fields, and the rotation, had remained without 

 alteration. But, like most others in our country, 

 my tiirm has been in a state of continual change 

 in these respects, which prevents as accurate con- 

 clusions being drawn, as other circumstances 

 would have allowed. From 1813 to 182G, the 

 arable land (excluding all waste spaces, not culti- 

 vated,) has been increased (i-om472 acres, to 602. 

 by.clearing wood-land, and some draining. The 

 rotation has been changed from 3 to 4 shifts, and 

 still is not regular, as the poorest land is sometmies 

 left out when it comes in turn lor corn, (so as to 

 have three years of rest, and bear only one crop 

 of grain) — and the richest land is sometimes made 

 to bear three, and, in some rare cases, even four 

 grain crops in succession. Si ill, however, some 

 of the fleets are not atiectcd by any such sources 

 of error, and will serve to show the miserably low 

 product of what was called, (in conunon par- 

 lance) "a good James River plantation;" and 

 from which may be inferred something like the 

 usual product, of the back lands generally , 

 which were so much inferior to those on the 

 river — and which still remain as poor as ever, 

 where no nmrl has been used. 



* The time when this was written. I have thouglit 

 it best not to change its form, but to add the observa- 

 tions afterwards, that my experience has funiishod, 

 from 1826 to tliis lime, 1S34. 

 Vol. VII— 15 



Of the 472 acres of arable land, about 100, on 

 the river, consisted of neutral soil, including a 

 much smaller proportion of what was calcareous. 

 All this had been very much reduced below its 

 great original fertility, by severe and careless til- 

 lage, and still more by the washing of rains. The 

 produce of this once fine soil was still equal to 20 

 bushels of corn, (and in some cases 25 or nriore,) 

 on the richest places, which were too level for the 

 soil to be washed away by rains; and as low as 15 

 bushels or less, on a larger proportion. This kind 

 of land, (though generally a light loam, and none 

 of it clay,) formed the only good wheat soil on the 

 farm. It did not form one'body — but was cut up 

 and separated into many pieces, by hill-sides, ra- 

 vines, and strips of wood, marsh, or other waste or 

 worthless land. The same objectionable surface 

 and form belong to nearly all the old cleared land 

 on the farnr ; a large proportion being hilly, and 

 more or loss injured by washing — and many deep 

 natural ravines with wet bottoms, which were 

 covered with trees, serving to kill the land all 

 along their margins, to shelter vermin, and greatly 

 to increase the labors of every year. Nearly 300 

 acres, which lay next to the neutral and calca- 

 reous soils, were of the land penetrated by these 

 ravines; and all this was supj^osed to have been 

 or'iginally of that kind of soil called free-light land, 

 though not as light, except a small portion, as the 

 soils described in experiment 14 [pp. 46, 47, of 2nd 

 ed. 'Essay on Calcareous Manures.'] The remain-^ 

 in(T 70 to 90 acres were outside of the heads of the 

 ravines, and like the adjacent wood-land, must 

 have been always unproductive, as well as acid 

 soils. The greater part of the land added by 

 clearing afterwards was of the same bad charac- 

 ter; and not so much as 20 acres ol' new land was 

 of durable fertility. Nearly all the inferior quali- 

 ties of soil were acid sandy loam — though a snrall 

 proportion was of acid clay. 



This general description of soils, and their situ- 

 ation, if considered in connexion with my doc- 

 trines as to the action of calcareous manures, are 

 enough to prove that the farm was not favorably 

 constituted to be highly benefited by those ma- 

 nures. Their greatest efiects have always been on 

 the most acid soil. The great body of the old clear- 

 ed land, showed less benefit, even where level, 

 and still less in proportion as its natural soil had 

 been lost by washing. As to the spots so much 

 washed as to be barren "galls," the worst of them 

 still remain in that state, and never can be made 

 productive, except at a cost exceeding their value 

 alter being improved. The neutral soil has been 

 still less improved by marling. Irr addition, the 

 excessively heavy applications of marl on more 

 tharr 150 acres, caused the benefit of that manure 

 to be almost lost lor some years, and the v.'holc 

 damage has not yet been overcome. 



The crops of corn have not been actually mea- 

 sured by the barrel, except in those cases marked 

 [thus •'] in the talale. In the other cases, esti- 

 mates of quantity were made by the cubic con- 

 tents of the houses filled with corn, or by the num- 

 ber and average size of the cart-loads brought 

 from the field. After the first five corn crops, nei- 

 ther tlieir amount, nor average to tire acre, indi- 

 cates the I'ate of improvement, for several reasons : 

 the usual extent of cultivation was much lessened 

 lor some years, to furnish labor lor marliirg, and at 

 other liuies on account ul" liic low price of corn, 



