1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



S8f? 



drained; and I could not give you a true description 

 of those crops without incurrmg suspicion of inac- 

 curacy. To make two or ihree times as much as 

 I have ordinarily made, is ahnost matter of alarm; 

 but I hope to get through vvith it, and could I per- 

 suade my friends and neighbors to lime their land, 

 I should think that I had lived lor some purpose. 

 One thing is inexplicably strange. I have fine clo- 

 ver; and yet I am told that this has failed both in 

 the lime-stone and mountain countr}'. No address 

 that I can use with my neighbors, can persuade 

 them; they are far worse than Thomas O'Dedi- 

 mus; for fijeling or seeing will not avail me. But, 

 sir, our march is onward; self-love, that powerful 

 and controlling feeling, will make sure our success; 

 for though pride may retard, interest will ultimate- 

 ly prevail. At a future time I will give you some 

 account of the crops of my predecessor, compared 

 with those now made; not for the purpose of 

 boasting, for I feel that ! have done but little; but 

 to show you that, in spite of conceit and ignorance, 

 our march is onward. That you will live to receive 

 the homage of a grateful community, I doubt not, 

 (or you well deserve it. Lime. 



P, S. I look soon for the day, when farmers will 

 leave the dirty mire of party politics, and contend 

 for the cheapest, and most sure protection of per- 

 son and property. This is their duty and interest; 

 and they cannot be so unwise as not to see it. 

 One-half' of the eflort made in party politics would 

 niake millions of dollars' benefit to agriculture. 

 Who can doubt therefore the ultimate results? 



L. 



Fairfax county, June 3rd, 1839. 



ON THE SVSTKM OF HUSBANDRY I'RACTISED 

 IN LOUDOUN COUNTY, VIRGINIA. 



From the American Farmer. 



Loudon County, jiugust l'2th, 1818. 



Dear Sir, — I have the pleasure to acknowledge 

 the receipt of your's of July, and I venture, al- 

 though but an indifferent pensman, to answer your 

 queries on Loudoun husbandry. 1 hope you will 

 excuse my manner of writing, and attend only 

 to the matter which I shall communicate, which 

 is founded on a long experience in agricultural 

 pursuits ; and as information is all you want, ( 

 shall endeavor to answer your queries, by taking 

 them collectively, and in so doing, 1 shall confine 

 myself to stubborn fiicts which cannot be disproved. 



The first thing that I shall notice, is the plough. 

 The improvement of this valuable machine, was 

 the first step we took to improve our lands, we 

 formerly adopted the absurd plan of shallow 

 ploughing, leaving the under stratum unbroken, 

 which should have been torn up and mixed with 

 the surface ; we have constructed our ploughs 

 much larger and stronger than they formerly were; 

 the mould-boards are all of cast iron. We sel- 

 dom break up our land with less than three horses 

 to a plough, which enables us to plough our ground 

 deep. In the fall or early ia the spring we break 

 up our corn ground, then harrow it well with a 

 heavy iron-toothed harrow ; this done, checker it 

 with a shovel plough, leaving our rows from 3^ 

 to 4 feet apart, ready fur planting. When we 

 commence planting corn, we take out water and 

 plaster of pans, and after wetting the corn, then 



put on as much plaster as will slick to it, and 

 make the grains separate li-eely, and keep it in 

 that stale by adding water and plaster when ne- 

 cessary, until we are done planting. When our 

 corn gets to the usual size for harrowing, say four 

 or five inches high, we hitch two horses to a har- 

 row, and run once over each row, minding to 

 straighten all the corn that gets bent or covered 

 up by this operation. When our corn is fit for 

 thinning, we generally leave but two stalks in a 

 hill ; after we have done this, let our land be never 

 so good, we take as nmch plaster as we can vvith 

 a thumb and two fingers, and drop on each hill 

 of corn ; should drought succeed alter we have 

 done plastering, we do well to work ou." corn so 

 as to cover the plaster, as long droughts and hot 

 sun are injurious to its stimulating powers. Thia 

 method of cultivating corn, is generally pursued 

 here, and seven or eight barrels to the acre, is 

 considered a saving crop, but ten or more to the 

 acre is very common here. 



I have been in the habit of using plaster more 

 than twenty years, and its efiects on every kind 

 of vegetation (sedge-grass excepted, which it di- 

 minishes,) are surprisingly great. There is no ara- 

 ble and left unsown with clover seed here, — neither 

 is plaster of so much benefit to land left bare of 

 grass ; plaster is not a manure, but a stimulus ; it 

 stimulates clover, and clover manures the land; 

 three pecks of plaster are enough as a top dres- 

 sing lor clover per acre, and all kinds of small 

 grain including hemp and flax, are benefited by 

 the same quantity to the acre. Early in the 

 spring we sow plaster on our clover pastures and 

 grain fields. Our sheep are not permitted to run in 

 the clover fields in the winter, and are kept out 

 in the spring, until the clover is well grown — at 

 this lime also hogs are permitted to graze upon 

 it, and if they are well salted, ihey will thrive as 

 long as the clover lasts. The second crop injures 

 slock, particularly horses, very much, by creating 

 a slavering, and it is best to keep them off, and 

 devote the second crop to seed, as it makes the 

 best seed. We generally salt our clover hay, 

 and put it under cover, not much together: mix- 

 ing it vvith straw, answers a good purpose. In 

 saving clover seed, the heads should be gathered 

 quite dry, and kept in thai state until sown. Those 

 who save seed for niaiket loo often heat it, which 

 prevents it from coming up; the good or bad quality 

 of clover seed, may be discovered by filling a glass 

 tumbler half full of water, and dropping a few 

 seed in, those that sink are good, those that swim 

 are generally deprived of their vegetating powers. 

 Clean seed should be sown in the following man- 

 ner. Let the weather be calm (which is also ne- 

 cessary tor sowing plaster) and let the ground be 

 laid off into eight ftjet lands; take as much seed 

 as you can between your thumb and two fingers 

 lor every two casts or steps, and let the casts not 

 exceed the width of the land. But we generally 

 raise our own seed, and sow it in the chaff. 



Wheat is grown here mostly upon fiillowed 

 land, which is prepared as follows : in the months 

 of August and Setember, we turn our clover un- 

 der nine or ten inches deep, in ten or fifteen days 

 after we harrow the ground well, then sow and 

 plough in the seed with a shovel plough in eight 

 feet faiids, lliis method saves the trouble of staking 

 off the ground in the spring of the year, for sow- 

 ing clover seed and plaster, which should be done 



