1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



235 



fore may be used to the greatest advantage where 

 the peculiarity of soil favors the growth of ihe 

 Magothy .Bay bean — and forbids (as is supposed 

 to be the case here,) the adoption of other courses 

 of crops, which would be incompatible with the 

 growth of that valuable plant. 



It may be asserted then, according to the fore- 

 going views, that the mere difference of using 

 this green crop directly as manure, or for grazing, 

 will serve to place the usual tillage of this country 

 under a mild and improving rotation — or under 

 one which, though it seems not to be ruinous here, 

 well deserves to be so, and would be so, I think, 

 on any other land to which my labor, or personal 

 observation, has been directed. And why it should 

 be otherwise here, I cannot jiear or conceive a 

 satisfactory reason, though the fact is readily ad- 

 mitted to be true. The reason which is generally 

 assigned for the sandy soil here bearing up so long 

 under the worst use of the corn and oat rotation — 

 and for being actually improved under its best use 

 — is the beneficial influence of the air, which is 

 supposed to be loaded with salt vapor from the 

 adjacent and almost surrounding waters of the 

 Chesapeake and the ocean. Without discussing 

 the truth of the fact of salt being thus continually 

 conveyed to the soil, it seems incredible that salt 

 in any quantity can act as an alimentary manure 

 to grain crops, or perpetually renew the whole or 

 any portion of the wasted fertility of soil. From 

 time to time, persons have discovered great value 

 in salt as a manure — and much more frequently 

 its use has been found of little value, when not 

 decidedly injurious. But the most sanguine ad- 

 vocates for the use of salt as manure, have not 

 supposed it to give directly food for plants, as dung 

 does, or as being a manure which by annual repe- 

 titions can possibly continually renew the produc- 

 tive power of land. If this were so, surely men 

 might copy nature's practice in this respect, and 

 wherever the price of salt did not forbid its use, 

 inexhaustible fertility might be produced and main- 

 tained. But 1 cannot think that any vapor, salt 

 or fresh, can be serviceable to grain crops, except 

 as furnishing additional supplies of moisture: and 

 this effect, though highly beneficial to grass crops 

 and grass husbandry, when considerable, is at 

 least of* very doubtful advantage to grain crops. 



But I repeat that there is no question of the 

 great power of these lands to resist exhaustion 

 under a scourging and barbarous .course of tillage 

 — nor of their fitness to be easily and profitably 

 improved by the best practices already (though 

 rarely) here in use. I do not rely lor this conclu- 

 sion on the experience of any one farmer, how- 

 ever intelligent and well qualified to judge, and 

 however much entitled to command belief ] and the 

 utmost respect for his opinions— nor on the state 

 of any particular farms, long kept under either 

 good or bad culture. I have heard many proofs 

 of these kinds which might be adduced by others. 

 But my cursory views and hurried inquiries having 

 been limited to but a few days of personal obser- 

 vation, they were not sufficiently accurate for such 

 detailed statements, even if that course were not 

 forbidden by the length to which they would ex- 

 tend this sketch. Such details, however, from 

 those possessing better means for observation and 

 the collection and comparison of facts, would be 

 highly valuable and interesting — and it is earnest- 

 ly hoped that such will be given to the public at a 



future time, by one or more of those better fitted 

 by their location for the task. If I can attract 

 attention to subjects which deserve it, and induce 

 any others to furnish more accurate informal ion, 

 my end will be accomplished: and even the inac- 

 euracies,or unintentional misrepresentations, which 

 my very imperfect notices may perhaps exhibit, 

 will not be regretted, if other persons should be 

 thereby drawn forth for their correction, and to 

 supply the more numerous deficiencies. This has 

 been the motive of my offering such hasty and 

 imperfect observations, and must serve as my apol- 

 ogy for doing that which in general ought always 

 to be avoided — that is, writing and publishing 

 opinions on subjects that we know very little about. 

 But by such means, in several former cases, very 

 valuable and interesting communications have 

 been elicited from others, and discussions have 

 been produced which have shed much light on 

 agricultural practice and opinions. To similar ef- 

 fects, I hope these imperfect notes may be the hum- 

 ble instrument of impulse. 



To return to general results. Very little land 

 in Northampton, compared to the mainland of 

 Lower Virginia, has been "turned out" of cultiva- 

 tion, because exhausted, to grow up in trees. And 

 where this has been done, though of course the 

 most impoverished land was so treated, the mo- 

 tive was in part to permit pine timber to grow, to 

 supply the place of that which was taken off from 

 the small amount, of woodland on the farm. Wood 

 and timber are very scarce, and but little land is 

 given up to even the growth of what they have, 

 which is unfit for building purposes, and but of 

 small value for fencing or fuel. The extensive 

 clearing and destruction of good timber has been 

 caused by the demand for land for cultivation, and 

 encouraged by almost every acre of dryland being 

 fit and profitable for the plough. I have seen 

 scarcely any land recently "turned out:" and all 

 which has been at any one time thrown out of 

 cultivation — admitting all to be on account of ex- 

 treme poverty, and tor the purpose of being re- 

 cruited in fertility under pines — must be incon- 

 siderable. Therefore the continued productive- 

 ness of the county in general, cannot be materially 

 aided by this cause. Neither is it to be attributed 

 to the great and profitable improvements made by 

 particular individuals, by means of using manures 

 not derived from their own fields, whether putres- 

 cent or of a more permanent character — for these 

 examples have, unfortunately, been too few to 

 have a considerable effect on the general products 

 and profits of the county. The lands which have 

 produced nine-ienthsof all the grain in the county, 

 and those which now produce as large a propor- 

 tion, probably may embrace not one farm which 

 has been so badly cultivated as to have been kept 

 up by the "turning out" system — the pine-tree- 

 manuring it may be called — nor one on which the 

 owner has used lime, shells, or any manure pur- 

 chased or brought from abroad. Excluding then 

 the most exhausting and bad cultivation, and also 

 the most improving and profitable, the remaining 

 lands will show fairly the effects of the usual mode 

 of tillage in this county — and in general, they ap- 

 pear to be such as will be now stated. 



According to the system of tillage" described, 

 there is no such thing as any field having a year 

 of rest: every acre (except the small amount of 

 woodland reserved for timber and fuel, and the 



