180 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 3. 



COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE AGRICULTURE 

 OF VIRGINIA AND THE NORTHERN STATES. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Kegister. 



Wheal began this letter I did nol thi 

 writing on any otb ;r than the one I have 



mentioned, but while 1 have my pea in hand J 

 will add, thatthoughl highl; a pro\ etjie general 

 conduct of your pi ■ m irkabJe 



coincidence in our opinions on agriculture, ! occa- 

 sionally meet with some very fanciful, and, as I 

 think, some very erroneous opinions among your 

 correspondents. This I know cannot be avoided 

 in such a work, and perhaps if it could, it ought 

 not to be: as arguments on different sides of a 

 question often aid in coming to a right conclusion. 

 But I think that a greater number of your corres- 

 pondents than I could wish, seem disposed to 

 compare our agriculture with that of the northern 

 states, much more unfavorably than is warranted 

 by facts; In page 739, Vol. II, I find a very neat 

 and well written article by a correspondent, on the 

 agriculture of Rhode Island. A few years since 

 I spent a part of the hot season in that delightful 

 spot, and do not wonder that he is so much ena- 

 mored with it. The scenery is beautiful; and the 

 morning fogs, and cool and moist breezes from the 

 ocean cover their meadows and pastures with ver- 

 dure; but I did not think their agriculture superior, 

 nor indeed, by any means equal, to that of the gen- 

 erality of fertile and we'll managed estates in Vir- 

 ginia. That their crops of onions and potatoes 

 are much better than ours, is, 1 think unquestion- 

 able; and this I believe is mainly owing to the cli- 

 mate. Their onions, which are a field crop, are 

 sown in the spring, throw out a great number of 

 offsets that cover the ground, and do not come to 

 maturity till the cool Aveather of autumn sets in: 

 they will then bear transportation to the New York 

 and southern markets. The onion with us is of no 

 value but as a garden crop. It must be sown late 

 in the season, and the button onions transplanted 

 in the spring; they make very lew offsets, and 

 come to maturity in the heat of summer. They 

 must then be gathered, and being subject to rot 

 at that season, it is with much difficulty that a 

 small supply can be preserved for family use. As 

 to potatoes, which are a valuable crop in Rhode 

 Island, and shipped from thence in large quanti- 

 ties to different markets, I think they are of no 

 value with us except for the table, and then 

 chiefly for use in summer, and a little later. — 

 In the autumn and winter they are very inferior to 

 those we get from the north. This difference I 

 think, is owing to climate. If planted in the spring 

 they come to maturity, like the onions, in the heat 

 of summer — are preserved with difficulty, and are 

 besides, except early in the season, of a very in- 

 ferior quality, hardly fit for table use. At our Vir- 

 ginia springs, and in the recesses of the Allegany, 

 I think the potato is decidedly better than in Rhode 

 Island or Connecticut, and only inferior — if it be 

 inferior — to those that, are brought from Liverpool. 

 This difference too, I think, attributable to cli- 

 mate — the summers being generally cooler in our 

 Allegany country than in those parts of New 

 England. 



As some time has passed since I was in Rhode 

 Island, I hope their agriculture has since improved 

 — there was certainly much room lor it, and I can- 



not otherwise account for the very favorable view 

 your intelligent correspondent has taken of it. 

 The pastures, (which were well stocked with 

 sheep as well as horn sd cattle,) and their mea- 

 dows were, I think, pretty free from annual weeds, 

 as lands that have been long in grass generally 

 are; but both appeared to me to be in a rathejf 

 slovenly condition, with a good deal of "rubbish, 

 briers, bushes, &c." in spots. Their ploughing I 

 thought decidedly inferior to ours; nor did I won- 

 d"i at it — their ground being much encumbered 

 with stones, and their ploughs drawn sluggishly 

 and heavily by oxen. With regard to their crops 

 of corn, 1 agree with your correspondent in think- 

 ing them very good; but they did not appear to 

 me to be in as clean order as ours generally are on 

 our best, or even on our inferior lands. This per- 

 haps was owing to the moisture of the climate fa- 

 voring the growth of weeds. I observed the hills 

 of earth round the corn which he mentions, a fash- 

 ion which formerly prevailed in this country, and 

 has long since been changed, I believe with good 

 reason — and supposed it might probably be a good 

 practice on lands unsheltered by woods, and ex- 

 posed to tempestuous winds from the ocean. 

 I can easily believe that the crops occasionally 

 amounted to ten barrels the acre, and think it not 

 more than ought to be made on lands originally 

 strong and manured "ad libitum''' 1 as well by 

 the marine weeds your correspondent mentions, as 

 by the large stocks of cattle, sheep and hogs 

 which are kept on the island, of which it appeared 

 to me that at least five-sixths were in meadow and 

 pasture. Without controverting the account your 

 correspondent gives of the produce to the acre, I 

 can say for myself, that in travelling through the 

 northern states, and in our mountain country, I 

 have seldom if ever been able to get any other 

 than conjectural accounts. Ask a farmer in Penn- 

 sylvania or our mountain country, how much 

 wheat, he made for market the last year, and he 

 will tell you to a bushel, for he has his miller's 

 receipts for the whole: but his corn being got out 

 at different times, as leisure from the other busi- 

 ness of his farm admitted, and not being regularly 

 measured, he can seldom give any certain account 

 of it. 



As to the rare-ripe corn planted in Rhode Island, 

 it is no doubt suited to that climate, as our good 

 old fashioned gourd seed is to ours. If we were 

 to plant their sort, and they ours, I think both 

 would fail in a crop. 



I take it for granted the implement for raking 

 stubbles, of which your correspondent gives a cut, 

 is unknown in his part of the country, and proba- 

 bly in other parts of Virginia; and he has acted 

 properly, and I hope rendered a service to those 

 districts, in publishing an account of it. In my 

 neighborhood, just such an one has been long and 

 pretty generally used on the large wheat planta- 

 tions, and I think a good deal of wheat may be 

 saved by it if the season has not been so wet as to 

 injure the wheat lying scattered on the ground. 



I trust you will not understand me as being dis- 

 posed to to censure your correspondent in any par- 

 ticular. He is evidently a very intelligent person, 

 and I doubt not, writes with perfect candor. In- 

 deed 1 should not have thought of mentioning to 

 you any difference between his opinions and mine, 

 if mine had not been different from those of many 

 of your correspondents in regard to the superiority 



