1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



069 



early and rapid <^ro\vth, and its resistance of the 

 droui^lit ; but all agree, that to obtain its irreatest 

 value, it should be kept closely cropped. Sheep 

 will pass over every other grass to leed upon it. 

 It sutTered to grow without being cropped, it be- 

 comes coarse and harsh. Col. Povvel, ol" Pennsyl- 

 vania, alter cultivatmg it ten year?, declares it pro- 

 duces more pasiura<re than any artifii'ial grass he 

 has ever seen in America. After being tetl very 

 close it has been found to afiord good pastorale, 

 after remaining five days at rest. It is suitable to 

 all arable soils. It abounds in seeds, which are 

 easily gathered; but on account of its peculiar lisht- 

 ness, (7he bushel weighing from 12 lo 14 lbs.) the 

 seed should be spread on a floor, and sprinkled with 

 water a day or two before it is sown, that it may 

 swell and more readily vegetate. Two bushels of 

 seed are sown to the acre, or half this quantity 

 with clover. The orchard grass should be cut 

 early, except intended for seed, as it diminishes 

 two-sevenths in value as hay, by being permitted 

 to ripen its seeds. It will bear cutting as early as 

 clover, and the latter swath is very abundant. 

 After preparing the seed for sowing, to mix plaster 

 of Paris is recommended. It is one of the most 

 profitable grasses, and much of its success depends 

 upon the manner of sowing. 



We noticed a few days since a small lot of this 

 grass sown the last spring, a part of it had been 

 cut and fed to cattle. Where it had been cut it 

 was coming out again, and promises to make an- 

 other crop in good time. It will be recollected by 

 those who observed it last season, that tlie orchard 

 grass stood the drought better than any other; 

 from what we have seen we are disposed to re- 

 commend it to our firminir friends; but we would 

 sow in land made rich with nmnure, in preference 

 to any other, if we expected to reap immediate 

 benefit. 



tor tlie Farmers' Register. 

 FIRST VIEWS WHICH LED TO MARLING IN 

 PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY. 



By the Editor. 



Among tile persons who have read with interest 

 the ' Essay on Calcareous Manures,' and have 

 received as sound the novel theory and doctrines 

 there maintained, several have expressed their 

 curiosity which had been excited to learn the ear- 

 liest facts, or the train of reasoiiincr, which led to 

 the imputed cause of the defect of naturally barren 

 soils, and the remedy. Such inquiries have been 

 made of the writer by persons of investigating 

 and well inliirmed minds, but of very different edu- 

 cation and pursuits; and they were all pleased to 

 say, in regard to the concise verbal answers made to 

 their inquiries, that they deemed the details likely 

 to be interesting to many, and that if given to the 

 public, they might serve better to induce the consi- 

 deration and enlbrcemenf oi' the doctrines, than 

 had been dune by the mere arguments which had 

 been already published, convincing as they con- 

 sidered the arguments to be. 



Though, without these reasons and solicitations, 

 the writer michthave still refrained from touching: 

 this subject, it was not that he had not held the 

 same opinion — and, except in his own case, would 

 have urged the feame course. It is certain, that 



the tracing of tfie steps by which any new dis- 

 covery, or improvement, is reached, must always 

 be interesting in proportion to die admitted impor- 

 tance ol' the results; an<l indeed such a statement 

 seeu)s almost necessary to induce the reader to 

 accompany the author from bis first premises to 

 the ren)ot.' conclusion, and which otherwise is only 

 reached ihroui^h a devious and tedious passage, 

 and by a course of reasoning which is waminir in 

 interest, because the application and tendency of 

 the arguments and prools are not seen when they 

 are first presented. The otijection which re- 

 strnin^d the writer from before pursuing a course 

 which he would have hiirhly approved in others, 

 was, that such a narrative of opinions and facts 

 would be indeed a personal narrative, and there- 

 fore obnoxious to the charge of egotism through- 

 out. The statement of the reasoning which led 

 to the successful use of fossil shells on the poor 

 lands of lower Virginia, would be incomplete if 

 not accompanied by a narrative of early labors, 

 and the early as well as latest results and effects. 

 In the whole of this, there would be scarcely any 

 thing but statements of what the writer thought,and 

 reasoned, and performed. But the subject must be 

 so treated, or not at all ; and having consented to 

 give the narrative, the writer will tiirow aside all 

 scruples and objections, and endeavor to enter as 

 much into detail, as he, if a reader of others' ag- 

 ricultural improvements and practical operations, 

 would desire to find. 



With the beginning of the year 1813, when 

 barely nineteen years of age, the easy indulgence 

 of my guardian gave to me the possession and di- 

 rection of my property; which consisied of the 

 Coirgin's Point farm,' with the necessary and 

 [yet very insufficient stock of every kind. It is 

 scarcely necessHry to add that, at my very ear- 

 ly commencement, I was totally ignorant of 

 practical agriculture ; and such would have been 

 the case, according to the then and now usual 

 want of training of fl^irmers of Virginia, even if 

 my farniins labors fiad been postponed to a mature 

 Hire. But I had always been loud of reading lor 

 amusement, and the few books on agricuhnre 

 which I had met widi had been studied, merely 

 lor the pleasure they afforded, at a still earlier time 

 of my boyhood. The earliest known of these 

 works was an English book, in four volumes, the 

 'Complete Body of Husbandry,' of which I have 

 not sgen the only known copy since I was filieen 

 years old. This work was probably a mere com- 

 pilation, and of little value or authority; but it 

 trave me a fondness for nirricultural studies, and 

 filled my head w.th notions which were, even if 

 proper in Enijland, totally unsuitable to this coun- 

 try. ' Bordley's Husbandry' next fell into my 

 hands, and its contents were as greedily devoured. 

 This was indeed written in America, and by an 

 American cultivator; but as he drew almost all 

 his notions li-om Euirlish writers, his work is es- 

 sentially also of foreiixn materials. 



Thus prepared, 1 commenced farminir, ionorant 

 indeed, but not in my own conceit. The agricuU 

 lure of my neicrhbuiho'-.d, like all that I had ever 

 witnessed, was wretched in execution, and as er- 

 roneous as well could be in system, wbetlier sub- 

 jected to the lest of sound doctrine, or the mipro- 

 per notions which I had Ibrmed from English 

 writers. I was right in condemning the general 

 practice of my neighbors— but decidedly mistaken 



