1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



187 



of the agriculture of the northern states over ours. 

 I have more than once gone over the usual track 

 of travellers in New England, New York, (ex- 

 cept its rich western country,) Jersey, and Penn- 

 sylvania, and have long been of opinion (perhaps 

 erroneously) that, except from the farmers, gene- 

 rally Dutch, on the rich lands of Pennsylvania, 

 we have little to learn at the north in the manage- 

 ment of our usual crops. I have seen a great 

 deal of as good ploughing in Virginia as L have 

 ever seen at the north, and I think we can fairly 

 compete with them in the whole management of 

 our grain crops. Still I freely admit that with us 

 there is great room for improvement. 



It would give me great satisfaction to be able to 

 hold the opinion of numbers of your correspon- 

 dents, that the soil of our middle and lower country 

 was originally, in general, a -fertile one, and that 

 it is steril only through bad management. That 

 there were, and now are, in both these districts, 

 considerable tracts of rich land, I freely admit, and 

 I wish I could persuade myself that this is the gen- 

 eral character of our soil: but I have long thought 

 that the very indifferent crops that we raised on a 

 great portion of our lands are so, as much or more, 

 from the land being infertile, or from bad cultiva- 

 tion. As a great part of the country is still cover- 

 ed by its native woods, it seems to me unquestiona- 

 ble that these lands are generally in the same 

 state with regard to fertility, that they were at the 

 first settlement of our country, and any person at 

 all capable of judging, would, from the growth of 

 wood on them, at once pronounce them to be nat- 

 urally infertile; and if, not regarding these indica- 

 tions, he should examine the soil and find it thin, 

 light, and sandy, or a stiff pipe clay, or gravel, 

 and on investigating the sub-soil in ravines and 

 gulleys, he should find it sandy, gravelly, or rest- 

 ing on sandstone or granite, he would come to the 

 same conclusion. There are, however, some cir- 

 cumstances in favor of this, comparatively, unpro- 

 ductive soil. It generally lies well, is free from 

 stone, and is easily cultivated. I may very proba- 

 bly be mistaken, but I have long thought that our 

 climate is a very favorable one to grain crops, es- 

 pecially Indian corn, which is so valuable, and so 

 productive. 



With these views I am far from despairing of 

 the improvement of the soil of lower and middle 

 Virginia. Our rich alluvial soils, though they do 

 not form a large proportion of the whole, are of 

 considerable extent. So far as I am acquainted 

 with them, they are generally well ploughed, and 

 the crops well managed. The greatest fault in 

 the husbandry of these lands, as I think, is the 

 perpetual recurrence of exhausting crops, and in 

 most instances, (though there are numerous ex- 

 ceptions,) a want of due attention to the collec- 

 tion and application of manures. A great propor- 

 tion too of our higher and less fertile lands I think 

 are capable of great improvement. The inex- 

 haustible beds of the richest shell marl which have 

 been already found in almost every part of our 

 lower country, and which I am persuaded are but 

 a small proportion of those that actually exist, 

 with the aid of animal and vegetable manures, 

 will by degrees fertilize this district; and I hope you 

 will see the day when this improvement, to which 

 you have so largely contributed, is extended 

 through the greater part of it. 



Our middle country, notwithstanding some slight 



indications to the contrary recorded in your Regis- 

 ter, I fear is generally destitute of marl. This 

 range of country commonly rests on granite or other 

 rock that I believe geologists denominate primi- 

 tive, and I understand that marls do not belong to 

 this formation. I believe that limestone has not 

 been found in this district, except a small stratum 

 that runs through the country about twenty-five 

 miles from the Blue Ridge, and nearly in the same 

 direction. However, the soil of the middle coun- 

 try being generally stiffer than that of the lower 

 country, is better suited to clover, and much may 

 be done toward the improvement of this region by 

 crops of clover, aided by gypsum, with animal 

 and vegetable manures. A practice (whether 

 a new one or not, I cannot say,) is now gaining 

 ground in a part of it, probably not elsewhere, of 

 top-dressing wheat, as well after, as at the time of 

 seeding, with the farm-pen and stable manure; 

 and I am assured that clover seeded on it in the 

 spring, even upon thin land, seldom fails to turn 

 out a heavy crop. Still whatever plan of improving 

 on our less fertile lands is adopted, I am fully per- 

 suaded that a rapid succession of exhausting crops 

 will soon return them to their original state, or re- 

 duce them still lower, unless they are kept up by 

 liberal supplies of manure. 



Having already advanced the opinion that our 

 agriculture; so far as it relates to the management 

 of our usual crops, will bear a comparison with 

 that of the northern states in general, I ought per- 

 haps to advert to one point of comparison in which 

 the agriculture of the New England states, a 

 great part of the other northern states, and of our 

 mountain country, has the advantage of ours in 

 the middle and lower country. The climate of those 

 regions being cooler and more favorable to the 

 growth of herbage than ours, and a great propor- 

 tion of their soil being very hilly, or encumbered 

 with stones, it is less suited to the plough. It is 

 a natural and almost necessary consequence, that 

 pastures and meadows should occupy a much 

 larger portion of their land than of ours — that they 

 should have much larger stocks of cattle — and a 

 much smaller proportion of their soil being under 

 the plough, they are able to manure it much more 

 heavily than we can possibly do. In New Eng- 

 land, we seldom see a field ofcorn that is not high- 

 ly manured: our very extensive fields get little, 

 and much the larger part no manure at all. Their 

 crops, of course, ought to be much heavier than 

 ours. This difference then, between their system 

 of agriculture and ours, seems to be mainly owing 

 to natural causes, that are, in a great measure, be- 

 yond our control. Both our climate and soil being 

 better suited to the plough than to pasture, our 

 course of husbandry is, I am afraid, necessarily an 

 exhausting one; and though we may countervail 

 this tendency in some degree, I have never heard 

 of any system of management, that in my opinion, 

 seemed likely to do it effectually. The. plan that 

 is most generally approved, is to keep the arable 

 lands that are at rest, free from the tooth and 

 hoof of stock; and as all our cleared lands are ara- 

 ble, to have as small a number of sheep and cat- 

 tle as possible — and that small number is general- 

 ly deemed injurious to the soil. I am persuaded 

 that our arable lands, during the short periods of 

 rest that, are allowed them, will be better able to 

 bear a new succession of scourging crops if the 

 natural grasses with which they clothe themselves, 



