839] 



FAR M E R S ' REGISTER 



511 



EXTRACTS FROM TIIK EDITOR S rRIVATE COR- 

 RESI'OXCKXCi;. 



Matthews, July 18, 1839. 

 The season so far, has been v(^ry llivoi'aliie for 

 corn. 1 tiiiiik the wheat crop in Virginia wiil fall 

 very Hir short of expectation ; I have just sent 

 mine to market. 



Rockbridge, July I9lh, 1S39. 

 Our harvest is closed, the fields are literally 

 studded with sltocks of grain, hein<r the most 

 abundant crop ever cut in the county; in some 

 sections the wheat is slightly injured by the smut. 

 Corn and clover have suffered from drought, but 

 it is now raining, and which makes the prospect oi' 

 a corn crop flattering. 



.rtbemarle, July 31, 1839. 

 IMy lime improvements have completely suc- 

 ceeded, and I have now a very productive fiu'm, 

 where there was before nothing but a dreary gul- 

 lied waste. 



Lynchburg, Aug. llth, 1839. 

 Crops in this and the contiguous counties are 

 extremely promising. Indian corn is nearly ma- 

 tured, and will be very abundant. The crop of 

 tobacco is^ uncommonly early, and will, I think, 

 be nearly secured by the twentieth of September. 

 Scarcely any disa-ler can prevent the quantity 

 from being large ; but the season during the next 

 thirty or forty days must deierm.ine whether the 

 quality will be good. The crops of wheat and 

 oats, which have been secured, are abundant, and of 

 fine quality. Upon the whole, it promises to be one 

 of the most fruitful years we have had since 1817. 



SEASON AND CROPS. 



The unusually favorable season has continued, 

 without any exception, save the disadvantage 

 which is so unusual in this month, of there hav- 

 ing been too much rain. The excess has not 

 done visible injury to growing crops; and, on the 

 contrary, has added to the general vigor and lux- 

 uriance of vegetation. But, though a good crop 

 of corn is now sure, eiill we do not believe that 

 \he produce will equal general expectation. We 

 rest this opinion less on actual observations (which 

 have been very limiied,) than our general opinion 

 that a season wetter than necessary, produces 

 stalk and leaf in quantity out of proportion to the 

 crain; and this will be found true as to ail grain 

 crops, and at all times. 



The ravages of the chinch-bugs, which were 

 expected to be so extensive and destructive to the 

 corn-fields, after the wheat and oats no longer af- 

 forded them food, have done comparatively but 

 little general injury. It was not that these in- 

 sects did not pass, as usual, and in immense num- 

 bers, to the corn-fields, but the quantity of rain 

 kept them in check, and also gave such vigorous 

 growth to to the plents, that they were enabled 

 to withstand the draught made by these devourers. 



Tobacco is very luxuriant and well advancetl. 



Cotton has almost ce.ised to be a field crop in this 

 rciiion, and we have no information in regard to it. 

 The earth has been all this niontii softened enourrh 

 for ploughing liillow for wheat — which is an ad- 

 vantage rarely enjoyed in lower and middle Vir- 

 ginia. 



AGRICULTURAL, CONVENTION OF SOUTH CAR- 

 OLINA. 



We rejoice "to see that an agricultural conven- 

 tion lor the state of South Carolina, is to be held 

 in November next. If zealously and efficiently 

 carried through, there is no initiatory measure 

 more likely to render service to the declining agri- 

 cultural and general interests of South Carolina; 

 and no state in the confederacy needs such aid 

 more, or is better fitted, by the ofiered bounties of 

 nature, to profit by the first eflbrts, and what we 

 hope may be the consequences of the action, of a 

 properly operating agricultural convention. In 

 referring to the means for resuscitating, and giving 

 new and herelolbre unknown vigor to the soil of 

 this state, (or at least a large portion of it,) we 

 allude principally, though not exclusively, to her 

 immense and as yet untouched and profitless beds 

 of fossil shells, or marl, which alone would serve, 

 if judiciously and prcperly availed of, in a fi'w 

 years to increase the gross products four-fold, and 

 the net product ten or twenty-fold, of all the region 

 underlaid with this calcareous deposite. And we 

 firmly believe that this immense amount of im- 

 provement, and of created wealth, might be se- 

 cured, by an outlay of annual expense not greater 

 than the actual cost of removal annually incurred 

 by the thousands of emigrants from South Caro- 

 lina, who are continually deserting her in her de- 

 cay, to seek more fertile lands in the new soulh- 

 weslern states. This declaration will probably be 

 deemed ridiculously extravagant. Nevertheless it 

 is our firm beliefj founded upon large experiment 

 and very extensive observation of the use of cal- 

 careous manures in the similar region of lower 

 Virgiiiia — though applied there as yet very insuffi- 

 ciently, and generally injudiciously, in almost 

 ever}^ case. Where marling begins, emigration 

 ceases. We are not among the adventurous class 

 of speculators, or of those who are willing to ex- 

 change a certain benefit in hand, for the chance of 

 a much greater one in prospect. Yet — if it were 

 possible to try the chance — we would not hesitate 

 to exchange all the possessions that we have yet 

 acquired, and our labor for the next twenty years, 

 for the one-hundredth part oC the net profit which 

 South Carohna alone would gain by the ju- 

 dicious, economical, and general use of marl, after 

 the mode, and in accordance with the theoreti- 

 cal views, which we have tried so vainly (or at 

 least with such lia'iited influence,) to iuijness u|)un 

 the great agricultural public. 



