154 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 3 



Are ihey not worth one email eflort to eecure 

 them? lor one I say they are real, and are worth 

 an hundred times what they will cost to obtain 

 them. I have tried it, and may novv spealt ad- 

 visedly. The first steps toward it, are to cultivate 

 less land and do it better, collect and apply at pro- 

 per times, and in due season, all the manure that 

 can be raked and scraped about the premises. If 

 your land is deficient of calcareous matter, supply 

 it either by the application of lime, marl, or bone- 

 dust. Cost what it may, it willrepay you, and with 

 double interest, and although your means may not 

 admit of your improving more than one single 

 acre the first year, the increased products of tliat 

 acre will enable you to improve two the second, 

 and from those two you may improve (with the 

 help of the first one) six the third year, and 

 twelve or fifteen the (burth year, and so on pro- 

 gressively. For if it be true, that money makes mo- 

 ney, so too, in a pre-eminent degree, does manure 

 make manure, for there is no usurious law to limit 

 ihe interest which the farmer may draw from his 

 manure bank. 



I was thirty years of age when I commenced 

 farming, and I affirm that no regular farmer in 

 Virginia ever commenced under such appalling 

 circumstances as I did. In 1S19 I ibund myself 

 in possession of 140* acres of land, one half in 

 wood, the oiher in hen-grass and deep gullies, 

 without a pannel of fence or a building of any 

 description on it, and without a ivh eel-barroiv load 

 of manure or any thing to make it of. 'Tis true, I 

 was in the receipt of about §700 a year from ano- 

 ther source ; but what was that when compared 

 with my wants'? Houses to build, laborers to hire, 

 feed and clothe, farm to stock, myself with some- 

 what extravagant habits to support, &c. &.c. ; in 

 short, every thing to buy, and nothing to sell ! ! 

 and what was worse than all, discouraced at every 

 step by my neighbors, who, mostly affirmed, that 

 Fairfiix land could not be improved ; and some 

 went so far as to say, that clover and plaster 

 would even impoverish it, whilst others declared 

 that plaster-of-Paris would not act at all in Fair- 

 fax, to which my general reply was, "/V/ try it.'''' 

 I was adrift in the world, without any spot on the 

 wide earth to which I could point as my home. I 

 had to choose between the life of a wanderer, 

 wasting my little income in hotels and boarding 

 houses, or in struggling against the thick array ot 

 difficulties above enumerated, in endeavoring to 

 build up for myself a home and a resting place in 

 my own native land. I chose the latter, and I re- 

 joice in the decision, and a kind providence has 

 smiled upon my exertions, and spared me to enjoy 

 the fruits of my labors, which have not altogether 

 been lost, (though often injudiciously applied) 

 even on Fairfax land. To what extent I have 

 succeeded, it would not become me to say; suffice 

 it that my farm on which 1 reside in the enjoy- 

 ment of wife, children, and friends, has (irovvn 

 from 100 (for I sold 40 acres of the original wood 

 lot, to get money to help along with) to 420 acres, 

 including the 40 sold, which I have since bought 

 back. The whole amply stocked with the choisest 

 varieties of fruit-trees, all planted by my own 

 hands. The arable land is in good heart, some of 



• This lot of 140 acres was desij^nated in the divi- 

 sion (by which it fell to me) of a larjje landed estate, 

 by the commissioners, as lot No. 3, "Poor Hill." 



it upon which I have applied lime, only com- 

 menced with six years ago, is first-rate. Build- 

 mgs* to the amount of ten thousand dollars have 

 been erected, and of live-stock, and agricultural 

 implements there is an abundant store. And next 

 to the comfortable provision which I have thus 

 made for the accommodation of my family, when 

 I am no longer present to supply their wants, is 

 the satislaction of seeing the success of my experi- 

 ment not altogether unheeded by my neighbors, 

 who begin to ihink that Fairfax lands may be im- 

 proved, though some are not yet quite sure that 

 the experiment may not be a little like the I ndian's 

 gun, "cost more than it will come to." To such I 

 would say, try it for yourselves, begin with a sin- 

 gle acre if no more. Others there are among us 

 who will not improve their land because their 

 taxes would increase as the intrinsic value of the 

 land is enhanced ! This I assure you, is a weigh- 

 ty argument with some, especially with the tenant- 

 ry, whose rents would also be increased if they 

 should improve; and in the total absence of any 

 legislative encouragement to the agriculturist, this 

 rule of taxation has something the appearance of 

 imposing a fine on a man /or improving his land!] 

 Thos. ap C. Jones. 



Product of ten acres of land on the Sharon Farm, 

 in Fairfax county. Va., improved by liming and 

 manuring, for the year 1838. 



Five acres of wheat produced 117 bushels, 

 at $1. 60, 



Straw of the same, 



Three acres produced eleven ions 16 cwt. of 

 cured clover hay, worth on the farm 50c. 

 per cwt. 



Clover seed from the same ground, 21 bush, 

 worth now $15 00 per bush. 



Rye — the straw from one-fourth of an acre, 



Three-fourths of an acre in sugar-beets, ru- 

 ta baga, carrots and turnips — not more 

 than one-fifth of an average crop, in con- 

 sequence of drought, but according to pre- 

 sent prices worth ,'p75 00, 



Fruit and cider sold from peach and apple 

 trees growing on the above land 



One acre of turnips, gross amount, as per 

 statement No. 1, (below,) 



Apples and cider and other fruits consumed 

 at home, and what remains on hand at this 

 time, 



Five pigs raised in a pen, and fed on grass 

 and otlal fruit from the above ground, and 

 kitchen slop, killed at ten months old, 

 weighed 734 lbs. at 8 cents, is $58 72 

 deduct two bbls. of corn for 



last feedinj 



8 00 

 50 72 



$ 187 



28 



130 



75 



251 



255 



86 



50 



1,113 



00 



00 



50 



20 



00 



72 

 37 



* It is not to be understood that these buildings 

 have been erected, or the additions to my land been 

 paid for directly out of the proceeds of the farm. But 

 the farm affording me a living, has enabled me to apply 

 other resources to these objects; which, without the 

 farm, would have been exhausted in the current sup- 

 port of myself and family. 



t The county assessor, acting under a law of the 

 last session of the assembly, has added just 100 per 

 rent, upon the value of my land ; of course I shall 

 have to pay double taxes; but I don't consider myself 

 much the worse for it, seeing that my products have 

 increased in a much greater ratio. 



