FARMERS 1 REGISTER. 



[No. 1. 



viz: the non-grazing, and the constant stirring of 

 our soil. The land is so frequently turned over, 

 and that deeply, that it never becomes so very 

 hard and tenacious as to cause a suspension in our 

 operations. It is also mellowed and kept porous 

 by the shade and roots of the clover, and the great 

 quantity of other vegetable matter which is given 

 to it. It is worthy of consideration, too, that 

 three-fourths of the entire farm receives the ame- 

 liorating effects of the frost. It is true, that I have 

 found it advisable for the relief of the teams to 

 double them, or add one or two more to a plough; 

 and have ploughed with as many as five; but this 

 has rarely occurred — only once in eleven years. 

 It is a great fault with Virginia farmers generally, 

 that they keep too little team. Their work is fre- 

 quently badly executed, and it results from this 

 false economy. If I were to pursue the three- 

 field rotation, (and which I certainly never shall) 

 I should unquestionably keep and consider this 

 number of hordes (or rather mules) necessary. 

 It will be recollected that I work but few oxen — 

 so few as scarcely to be taken into consideration. 

 Having more corn land to put in wheat, and more 

 in corn, I should consider it not more than suffi- 

 cient at those particular seasons; for it is the corn 

 land with me that is so difficult to seed. The land 

 ie most always grassy, and of a wet season it is 

 frequently almost impossible to plough on account 

 of this impediment. This fell I seeded 100 acres 

 of fallow in seven days, and was nearly four weeks 

 seeding 68 acres of corn land. After the fallow is 

 finished, by the last of September, it rarely re- 

 quires more than harrowing in. The corn land 

 has to have the corn removed, and to be plough- 

 ed, harrowed, sowed, and then harrowed again, 

 at the most pressing season; for at this crisis, there 

 must be no time lost, or the season has passed. 

 Your corn land for wheat should be better drain- 

 ed, being more liable to suffer from water, not 

 having the vegetable matter in it which the clo- 

 ver fallow has. It has to lie out longer, and if not 

 drained with care, your clover may be killed from 

 wet in a hard winter. You know, that in a farm 

 of 400 acres, there is only 33^ acres of land in 

 cultivation under the three-field course more than 

 you would cultivate under the four-field course, 

 and this is in the fallow for wheat, and which I 

 have before said is done when the teams would 

 have nothing else to do were they not so employ- 

 ed. There will be too, an additional 33J acres in 

 corn under the three-field course, and about which 

 you are engaged in some way, the whole year. 

 Now, I believe it is universally admitted, that all 

 land intended for corn (perhaps it would be better 

 to say all stiff soils) should be turned up as early 

 in the winter as possible, for reasons which it 

 would be superfluous here to mention. How 

 rarely do we see it done. And why? Because we 

 have not had time, having so much of it to do. I 

 should say, as our winters are so variable and un- 

 certain, that this would be a season of unusual 

 pressure: more, or as much so as the seeding sea- 

 son — for when the weather opens, every exertion 

 has to be made to get through in due time. We 

 are enabled the better to get through it in the pro- 

 per time, because we have less of it to do. I 

 should remark, that as the wheat crop will be 

 much less, and consequently under the three-field 

 course will take a shorter time to thrash and de- 

 liver, the teams would be kept at this heavy ex- 



pense the longer. The time for seeding wheat 

 being short and limited, that system should be pur- 

 sued by which we can get in the most in this given 

 time, and at the least expense. I would ask why 

 it is that those who pursue the three-field rotation 

 do not finish seeding before those who fallow'? 

 Not in consequence of the excess of team; assured- 

 ly not: but because we have had six or eight weeks 

 to prepare one -half of' our whole surface, while on 

 the other hand you arc doing nothing towards it. It 

 is put in, in a few days, before you are scarcely rea- 

 dy to commence, or at least the fallow land can be 

 sowed, while you are seeding the excess of corn 

 land. There is only one-ninth more land in culti- 

 vation annually under the four than the three-field 

 course, and this ninth is the fallow, which as I 

 have repeated before, is done when we should be 

 unemployed with our teams, and we should have 

 two-ninths more in wheat. Now let me inquire, 

 which would be the greater press of the two, to 

 prepare and seed two-ninths in ten or twelve 

 weeks, or to prepare and seed one-ninth in four 

 weeks. Again, by way of farther illustration, 

 suppose we had but one team, say two or three 

 horses; which would be the most easily accom- 

 plished, to prepare and seed with the same team 

 and hands two-ninths in ten or twelve weeks, 

 (which time you would have, say until the last of 

 October,) or to seed one-ninth in four weeks, hav- 

 ing the corn to remove? You could not commence 

 ploughing for the latter, before the former would 

 be already prepared, and would require but har- 

 rowing in, which may be done in a lew days. In 

 the other case, if the month of October should be 

 a very wet one, you would have but little or no 

 wheat seeded. One may be accomplished, and 

 the other might be impossible. This may be 

 thought an extreme case, but it matters not, as it 

 goes to show the principle, and in the same ratio 

 with the entire crop, will the fallow be sown. Fi- 

 nally, if I were to choose between putting 133£ 

 acres of land in wheat and cultivating 133^ in 

 corn, and putting 200 acres in wheat, one-half fal- 

 low, and cultivating 100 acres in corn, with the 

 same team and hands, I should unhesitatingly 

 choose the latter, independent of its greater re- 

 ward, as I shall presently show. 



As W. B. H. is such an advocate for a substi- 

 tution of horse-power for manual labor in some 

 other respects, I am surprised he should be so un- 

 friendly to the fallow system, which is accomplish- 

 ed almost entirely by their agency. A farm can 

 be improved and profitably managed, with a good 

 team and few hands, but it cannot be with a good 

 force of hands, and an indifferent team. The ex- 

 pense of the one will be small compared with the 

 other, taking into consideration the first cost, &c. 

 I shall ever bear in mind the opinion once ex- 

 pressed to me upon this subject, of a good practi- 

 cal and strictly economical farmer, who had accu- 

 mulated quite a large fortune by tilling a poor soil, 

 the late Major James Dillard of Sussex county. 

 He wondered that farmers generally, and particu- 

 larly on the wheat estates on James River, did 

 not keep more team than they did. He was once 

 of the impression, that more than enough merely 

 to till the soil, and that very imperfectly, were 

 eating up their owners; but by experience had 

 found out his error, and then thought a double team 

 economy. He had substituted mules for oxen al- 

 most entirely. He believed oxen kept to perform 



