1S35.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



29 



try is for the most part abundantly supplied with 

 limestone streams — though we have reason to fear 

 that this great advantage is lessening every year 

 from summer droughts. Certain it is lhat both the 

 springs and streams (lowing from them are much 

 less copious than they have been within the re- 

 collection of many living witnesses. In fact, the 

 great enemy with which we have to contend is 

 drought. Our lands burn easily from the great 

 quantity of limestone at and near the surface, and 

 hence our cropping is precarious, except vipon well 

 improved lands. With all of these disadvantages, 

 (and I may add to them a harsh and most capri- 

 cious climate) agriculture is in a prosperous con- 

 dition, and the price of'lands immensely high. It 

 will be recollected that about the year 1817 lands 

 had attained a price totally disproportioned to 

 their productive value — from sixty to eighty dol- 

 lars per acre being the current rate. The reac- 

 tion, which afterwards followed, reduced them as 

 much below as they had been above their real 

 value. One of the best (arms in Jefferson coun- 

 ty sold under my own observation, for twenty dol- 

 lars per acre. It has now settled down at a mean 

 between the two extremes, and the present value 

 of good land may be fairly stated at from thirty to 

 forty dollars. 



Clover and plaster of Paris are here, as else- 

 where, the instruments of improvement. Soon 

 after the introduction of plaster among us, our 

 most energetic farmers used it with great effect; 

 and judging that the benefit would be" proportion- 

 ed to the quantity used, it was laid on with a lavish 

 hand. Hence it resulted that the land became, as 

 it was termed, "plaster sick," and no continuing 

 benefit seeming to follow, it was in a great mea^ 

 sure abandoned. The circumstance was eagerly 

 seized upon by those averse to the expenditure of 

 money upon their lands, to justify their neglect of 

 its use altogether. As soon however, as the ef- 

 fects of its former use had worn off" from the lands 

 which had been benefited by it, it was discovered 

 that the clover ceased to grow luxuriantly, and of 

 consequence that there was an end of improve- 

 ment, most sensibly felt in diminished productive- 

 ness. It was therefore again brought into free 

 use, and is now in as high favor as ever, with a 

 much better understanding of its properties. No 

 farmer now thinks of using clover without plas- 

 ter, it beins; a concession, that it is entirely depen- 

 dent upon this valuable auxiliary for ifs efficacy. 



Manuring is also extended as far as practicable 

 by every one— though the manner of applying it 

 is various. Many persons feed their stock through 

 the winter upon the hills and- galled spots in the 

 open fields. Others pen them near the straw- 

 ricks, and leave the manure to be afterwards haul- 

 ed upon the field where it may be wanted; while 

 others (more particularly small farmers) adopt the 

 old system of bringing every thing to the barn- 

 yard. No attention is paid to mixing manures for 

 compost: that which is in order is usually put upon 

 the corn land in the spring, while the rough or 

 only partly rotted is reserved for fallow in the au- 

 tumn. The old practice of ploughing in the ma- 

 nure generally prevails, though many^ofus have 

 been induced by what we have read in the Farm- 

 ers' Register, and elsewhere, to try the top-dress- 

 ing, and I think the latter plan is growing into fa- 

 vor. While I do not question its adaptation to 

 the porous and sandy soils of the lower country, I 



have apprehended great loss from evaporation in 

 our stiff', unyielding lands. It is a question of 

 great importance, and it is hoped that continued 

 discussion and experiment may lead to some satis- 

 factory solution. 



Our staples are, as you know, wheat and corn; 

 rye and oats are made forborne consumption. The 

 market for corn has been confined to the neigbbor- 

 hood sales, from its not. bearing the cost of distant 

 transportation. Indeed, no effort is made to pro.r 

 duceit beyond the point of home consumption, and 

 the necessity of freeing the land from blue-grass. 

 W r heat is our only article of export, and every 

 thing is made to yield to its culture. 



Here, as in almost every other part of Virginia, 

 the land has been reduced by close grazing. We 

 are, however, fast awaking to the impolicy of 

 this course. Even those who have been in the 

 habit of purchasing cattle for future sale, (the only 

 profitable grazing,) are giving il up. We have 

 no standing pastures, being dependent upon the 

 cropping fields for pasture. Add to this, we 

 have discovered at last, that our corn-stalks and 

 straw will yield mote manure when wastetlilly 

 given to a few cattle, than when altogether con- 

 sumed by man}'. 



I do not think that a particular rotation of crops 

 is much observed among us. We cultivate in 

 corn those fields which are too grassy to promise a 

 crop of wheat without cleaning, and generally fal- 

 low in alternate years those which will answer tor 

 wheat, as long as their condition will permit. I 

 will here remark, that we understand the term 

 "fallow" to mean exclusively those lands which 

 have laid out of cultivation for a year or more, 

 whether naked or in clover, and which are broken 

 up for wheat in the summer and autumn. 1 

 think the term has been frequently used by your 

 correspondents in a different sense. Corn field 

 wheat, except when highly manured, very rarely 

 yields a tolerable crop. Hence, a practice is last 

 obtaining — more especially in Jefferson — of leav- 

 ing the corn land over for fallow the succeeding 

 year. However adverse to sound theory it may 

 seem, to leave land thus naked, certain it is, that in 

 practice it answers remarkably well; and I believe 

 that it will be within a few years very commonly 

 adopted. I understand that this practice is very 

 general in Frederick and Washington counties, in 

 Maryland, where the lands are admirably farmed. 

 Our proper rotation will then be as follows: 1st. 

 Corn. 2d. Rest. 3d. Wheat; followed by clover. 

 4th. Rest in clover. 5th. Wheat — growing a crop 

 of corn and two of wheat fallow within five years. 

 W'hen a good crop of clover has been turned under 

 for wheat, many of our best farmers venture to 

 stubble for a second crop. 



An interesting experiment has been tried upon 

 corn land; just after the last ploughing, clover-seed 

 has been sowed, and the result would have been 

 highly satisfactory but for the summer drought, 

 which we rarely escape. 



Corn land is also very often left over for oats and 

 cloverin the spring, and has always produced better 

 than other oat. land. The clover sown upon the 

 fresh land immediately after the oats are harrowed 

 in, will very generally succeed much better than 

 when put in the usual way upon the wheat lands. 



The heavy expense attending the carriage of 

 our products to market has been heretofore a great 

 drawback upon the prosperity of the valjey, and 



