1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



25 



dunghills, mouldy and sometimes of* an infectious 

 smell, the canton of Marcillac is capable of pro- 

 ducing various qualities of very good wine, the 

 best of which would yield in nothing to the finest 

 wines of France. That the art of wine-making 

 may reach this high degree of perfection, only 

 three things are required, instruction, inclination 

 and capital. Are we advancing towards a future 

 which permits us to hope that they will at last be 

 found united? I dare not on this question affirm 

 anything, except that this future will be realized 

 only inasmuch as there shall be great profits in at- 

 tending to the quality, and as this attention shall 

 be excited by powerful exanqjles; or in other 

 words, it will not be realized till the contrary of 

 what now exists shall happen; 



Among the obstacles to perfection in wine-ma- 

 king may be reckoned, the temperature of the cel- 

 lars, most of which, like the vineyards, have a 

 southern aspect; the retail trade; which leaves the 

 wine of the casks which have been broached} ex- 

 posed for a lon«r time to the contact of the air; the 

 terrible prejudice that all wine managed by a new 

 process is an adulterated wine, which will produce 

 deleterious effects on health, and which should 

 consequently be distrusted, however agreeable 

 may be its taste; the substitutions by which the 

 carriers, to the prejudice of the quality, know how 

 to render their unfaithfulness undiscoverable by 

 measure; a fraud of old date which became in 

 1550 the object of a severe sentence by which it 

 has not been abolished. 



The wine of Marcillac, the trade in which 

 scarcely extends beyond the limits of the depart- 

 ment of Aveyron, will soon be indebted for a 

 great market to the immense and magnificent es- 

 tablishment of Decaze-Ville, situated in a canton 

 contiguous to that of Marcillac, and near which 

 Will be soon collected a people of" smiths: to these, 

 often thirsty, this wine will appear much more 

 agreeable and more wholesome than the fiery 

 wines of Languedoc. It is thus that great enter- 

 prises give life to the countries that become the 

 theatres of them: honor to those who undertake 

 them with all the means which presage their suc- 

 cess. 



FOUR-FIELD FALLOW SYSTEM; AS OPPOSED 

 TO THE THREE-FIELD ROTATION, 



Being a Cursory Review of an article No. 0, Far. 



Reg. ( Vol. I.,) under the signature of JVm. H. 



Roy, Esq. in support of the latter; 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



I sing the tillage ohl Virginia knows, 



Which cheats. with hope the husbandman who sows; 



Not such as M.'ir'o sUng in deathless strains, 



To piping shepherds and Italian swaitis. 



With "crops immense" no "barn here ever cracks," 



The wheat comes always badly from the stacks, 



The corn falls ever "most immensely" short 



Of vague conjecture,' or of false report. 



********* 



Myself a farmer of that sort i'fegs, 

 Who rip the goose to get the golden" eggs. 



********■> 



Who rear no clover on a- thirsty soil, 

 For why? — it grows not to reward their toil: 

 Who strew no gypsum, but absurdly rail, 

 A"d swear 'tis nothing to the old cowtail. 

 These are their follies — these their crying sins, 

 Despite the pamphlet of the enthusiast Biiins; 

 I own the charge and cry myself, peccavi: 

 I read, but follow not, Sir Humphrey Davy. 



Old Virginia Georzics. 



Vol. Ill— 4 



In reviewing the causes which have operated to 

 retard the agricultural advancement of Lower 

 Virginia, it has long been the settled conviction of 

 my own mind, that the most extensive and fatal, 

 if not that of" paramount importance to all others, 

 was to be found in the odious three-field system. 

 It is still a question of doubtful solution, to which 

 of the two principles mankind have alternately 

 yielded the most absolute dominion; that of the 

 sanctity of time, and custom, on the one hand — or, 

 of an inordinate spirit of innovation on the other. 

 While the latter is decidedly the master spirit of 

 the age, and has extended its influence to ail other 

 classes of the community — even that of the agri- 

 cultural — the former still retains and exercises its 

 ancient and uncontrolled supremacy. In no de- 

 partment of the arts, or indeed of the sciences, (tor 

 to that distinction may agriculture now confident- 

 lyaspire,) have greater improvements been effect- 

 ed than in the theory, philosophy, and practice of 

 farming. Chemistry has shed a flood of light over 

 the whole subject, illustrating its principles, and 

 establishing its laws, on the sure basis of scientific 

 truths — improvements of acknowledged practical 

 utility are daily made; errors both in principle and 

 practice exposed. But yet by the great mass of 

 our community; they are received with distrust, 

 denounced as innovations, or passed unheeded, as 

 the illusions of the theorist; and they still plod on 

 in the "good old way" to ruin — with the same 

 pertinaceous adherence, and no better reasons, 

 than did the old Dutch settlers of Kinderhook, 

 because forsooth, their fathers had done so before 

 them. To the influence of this principle are we 

 indebted for that system, the delects of which, it 

 is my present purpose to expose. Looking as I 

 have done to the explosion of this, and the adop- 

 tion of some better system, as the only hope lor 

 any extensive, or permanent improvement in our 

 agricultural condition, I had early designed ma- 

 king it the subject of a communication, if for 

 no other purpose than that of inviting others more 

 competent than myself to the task. 



In this design however, I happily found myself 

 anticipated, and after the two able, and. to my 

 mind, conclusive articles of Messrs. Selden and 

 Carter, considered the whole ground as completely 

 occupied, and that more, neither could or need be 

 said. Presenting as they did, a plain and un- 

 questionable record of practical results, read, dis- 

 cussed, and admitted, as they generally were, I 

 had anticipated from them, the most happy effects 

 — all things, in fact, seemed to afford the most 

 favorable auguries. Through the joint influence 

 Of your Essay and your Register, a spirit of in- 

 quiry had been aroused — better hopes had been 

 inspired — the vis inertia, so long felt, removed, 

 and a new impulse every where given to the work 

 of improvement. In the translbrming effects of 

 calcareous manure, an approximation seemed 

 really made to the long sought principles of the 

 alchemist, and in the fond hopes of the farmer, 

 were again amusingly revived the bright visions, 

 and early dreams of that visionary — a new era 

 had indeed arisen — the revolution so important to 

 be effected, seemed at least in progress of success- 

 ful accomplishment, and the future in bright per- 

 spective, broke forth in all the beauty of renovated 

 nature: our worn out fields, and poverty stricken 

 herds, (the too faithful moral portraiture of our 

 condition) had assumed a new aspect, and already 



