28 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No.l. 



certain degree, (and with us such improvement is 

 always pre-supposed) admits of but littie question. 



The greatest obstacle with which we have to 

 contend, arises, I have long thought, from the 

 fact, that from the. neglect of the cultivated grasses, 

 our lands have become so completely pre-occupied 

 by noxious weeds and other grasses, as to afford 

 in the contest for possession, a very undue ad- 

 vantage to these, the primitive and rightful tenants. 



The efficacy of plaster, in consequence of our 

 contiguity to the sea, and the supposed neutraliz- 

 ing effects of saline atmosphere, has also been 

 much questioned. So far us experiments have 

 been made, their results have been so equivocal 

 and unsatisfactory, as to leave the subject still 

 entirely problematical. The use and value of 

 ashes, calcareous manure, &c, in counteracting 

 this effect, (as suggested by yourself and others,) 

 ps a subject of interesting inquiry, well worthy the 

 attention both of the practical and scientific ag- 

 riculturalist. 



But, say the advocates of the opposite system, 

 what obstacle is there to the cultivation of clover 

 .under the three-field rotation, with the addition of 

 a standing pasture? To this I will simply object, 

 that it is a begging of the question — that it con- 

 stitutes no part of the system — that clover is prin- 

 cipally valuable as a fallow crop for wheat — that 

 corn requires a clean preparation, and (as gene- 

 rally admitted,) seldom succeeds on a clover lay. 

 It is in the application of manure, that the beauty 

 of the system is particularly seen. Manure is to 

 the farmer, what principal is to the money lender. 

 The value of both depend upon the activity with 

 which it is employed, and the return annually 

 made, if it is a sound principle with the one, to 

 .collect punctually every year his interest and add 

 it to his principal, it must be a bad one for the 

 other to await a precarious return but once in 

 three years. There is nothing so discouraging to 

 a farmer, as to find at the expiration of lhat time, 

 all his labor lost, (as is the case in most of our 

 soils,) and nothing but an increased necessity for 

 renewed exertion. If his manure is to be evap- 

 orated and lost, why not derive the benefit of it to 

 a crop. Here the clover crop interposes its kind 

 offices. By this it is taken up, secured from loss, 

 held in trust for the benefit of the land, and in the 

 admirable economy of nature, returned in a new 

 and modified form to the purposes of its own sup- 

 port. 



The value of clover admitted, and the practi- 

 cability of its cultivation established, the superi- 

 ority of the four-field fallow system must be con- 

 ceded — three-iourths of your land being in active 

 production, and the remaining portion under a 

 course of regular and progressive improvement. 

 The limits assigned to an article like this, (and 

 which I have already greatly transcended,) forbid 

 me farther to enlarge on the many other advan- 

 tages which might here be mentioned. Facts, 

 however, "after all afford the strongest arguments." 

 Compare then those sections in which the two 

 systems have been respectively pursued — point 

 out the individual instances of success under each 

 — show me the estate under the three-field sys- 

 tem, which, either in its profits, or the rapidity of 

 its improvement, can compare with that of Wood- 

 stock, Westover, Shirly— raised as if by the manic 

 of a system, from the ruin and desolation to which 

 they were reduced, by the scourging effects of an 



opposite course. We have among us intelligence, 

 energy, and enterprise — no where are the evi- 

 dences of these more obvious — neatness, order, 

 good cultivation, and general good management 

 are striking features — and challenge from every 

 observer a proud contrast, with that of most other 

 sections of country. But yet our lands, with few 

 exceptions, are scarcely stationary — our citizens, 

 worn down with toil, and disappointed in their 

 expectations, are seeking in the "far west," the 

 land of hope and promise, and leaving to ruin and 

 abandonment, the neglected fields and deserted 

 homes of their fathers. Let others seek in the 

 romance of their feelings, the wildness, vigor, 

 and untamed luxuriance of the west. Give me, 

 (and would that I could inspire others with the 

 same hallowed feeling,) give me, the endearments 

 of early life, the social enjoyments, and solid com- 

 forts of the old states, pressing rapidly onward as 

 they are, in their career of improvement, and 

 destined as they soon must' be, to rival even the 

 old world, in all the improvements and refined 

 elegancies of life. 



W. T, T. 



Gloucester County, Stpr'd, 1835. 



FREDERICK AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES — RE- 

 MARKS ON THE CHARACTER OF THE COUN- 

 TRY, AND THE SYSTEM OF CULTIVATION. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Most of the readers of the Farmers 1 Register 

 have heard much, and few comparatively have 

 seen any thing of the Valley of Virginia, that par 

 of it especially which borders upon the Shenan- 

 doah and the Potomac rivers. Some remarks upon 

 t-he character of the country, the system of cul- 

 tivation, &c. may not be unacceptable to the pub 

 lie. No part ot Virginia has been improved to sq 

 great an extent, and with so great rapidity, as the 

 region of country which I have mentioned. 



The best portion of the county of Frederick 

 lies to the east of the Opequon and borders upon 

 the Shenandoah river; it joins the beautiful county 

 of Jefferson, which through its whole extent, hag 

 the same river as its eastern border, and the Poto- 

 mac river as its northern limit. The same vein of 

 land runs through the upper and better portion of 

 the state of Maryland, and through Pennsylva- 

 nia to Philadelphia, embracing in its course, the 

 justly celebrated counties of Cumberland, Lancas- 

 ter, York, and many others. My remarks are in- 

 tended to apply to the part of the county of Fred- 

 erick above mentioned, and to the county of Jef- 

 ferson, because with them I am familiar. The 

 extraordinary point of improvement, fertility, and 

 value to which the Pennsylvania portion of the 

 valley has attained, has been produced by the ab- 

 sence of slavery, and the consequent division and 

 subdivision of the land into farms of from ten to 

 one hundred acres. Of course we can enter neither 

 into comparison nor competition with them in the 

 absence of the cause of improvement to which I 

 have referred. I believe however, that the por- 

 tion of Virginia alluded to, is in no respect inferior, 

 in natural fertility, to any part of Pennsylvania. 



Our lands are very much broken with ledges of 

 limestone rock, causing great laborand expense in 

 their cultivation — though this inconvenience is 

 very unequally felt in different places, diminishing 

 generally as we approach the rivers. The coun- 



