238 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 4. 



told me. that he would not continue its culture for 

 the highest price ever known. His principal ob- 

 jection was to its supposed exhausting quality. 

 Others think it not more exhausting than corn — 

 but it requires rich land, and cannot be continued 

 on the same, without an immediate and consider- 

 able decline in product. But though a second 

 crop of castor bean will not do well on the same 

 land, if immediately succeeding the first, corn will 

 produce as well, and some think better, than on 

 the same land if not preceded by the bean. The 

 management of this crop is very troublesome, 

 when the time arrives to cut the ripened clusters. 

 If not cut immediately, the outer coverings open 

 and waste the seed — and indeed there is no avoid- 

 ing great waste in this way. The clusters ripen 

 successively, and ten or twelve times it is neces- 

 sary to cut over the field, before frost stops the 

 Jabor by preventing the later beans' maturing. 

 Some persons, who do not consider the crop as 

 particularly exhausting to the soil, are not satisfied 

 that they have gained by this partial departure 

 from their old and general rotation of corn and 

 oats. The castor bean has not been made a part 

 of any regular plan of rotation. 



The crop of sweet potatoes is here an important 

 object, not only on account of the soil beino' very 

 favorable to the growth, but because of the facility 

 for shipping the crop to the northern cities, where 

 good prices are always sure. 



The business of grazing livestock is very limit- 

 ed, both in extent and in profit. There are no 

 standing pastures of arable land, and of course, 

 the fields cannot, be grazed until after the oats have 

 been reaped and removed. Before that time, the 

 cattle have very scant iare in the woods, and on 

 the firmer marshes which border parts of the sea 

 side. But i\\\v give any land to artificial grasses. 

 The soil certainly cannot be naturally favorable 

 to clover: yet it is said that fine lots of this grass 

 are made by the lew who give the manure and 

 preparation necessary for the purpose. But it may 

 be said in general, that so far as green food is con- 

 sidered, the cattle have a feast from the middle of 

 July until frost, and a famine the balance of the 

 year. Of course, dairy products in general are 

 very poor. Those who have no marsh pasture, 

 or other waste land fit for grazing, and who take 

 good care of their stock, rely entirely on their 

 grain and offal of the corn and oat crop, not only 

 in winter and spring, but through half the summer. 



In the foregoing statements of the general results 

 of the system of culture here practiced, 1 have cho- 

 sen to rely more on general concurrent opinion, than 

 on particular facts; because, of the great liability 

 of a stranger to draw false inferences from the few 

 facts to which his observations must necessarily 

 be limited. Nevertheless, it may be useful to add 

 some few of even partial and defective observa- 

 tions of facts, which maintain the general views 

 already presented. 



When first reaching the shore, it was not so 

 much my object to seek for uncommon though 

 valuable improvements in farming, and the use of 

 means not generally used or accessible, as it was 

 to learn what was the general practice, and the 

 good and profitable practices which might be ge- 

 nerally adopted. My inquiries to this end led me 

 first to the farm of Mr. James Goffigon, who has 

 cultivated with success and profit, for more than 

 thirty years, a farm having no facilities for im- 



provement, except what its soil yields. It is on, 

 and eastward of the ridge, midway between the 

 waters of the bay and the ocean, and not touching 

 either. The tillage has been throughout on the 

 regular corn and oat rotation, with grazing after 

 the oat harvest. The horses, (when not at work,) 

 and the tew cattle necessary to be kept about the 

 house, and the whole stock of hogs, are kept in 

 a space of two or three acres, anil are supported 

 almost entirely on grain, and the dry offal of the 

 previous year's crop, until after the oat harvest. 

 The cattle which are not wanting are turned out 

 in the spring, and go to the marsh land on the sea 

 side. The whole stock, being kept at such dis- 

 advantage, is necessarily small, in comparison to 

 the extent of arable land; and they live in great 

 plenty on the pasture after the oatcrop, and are un- 

 able to keep down, or destroy the succession of 

 the general cover of the Magothy Bay bean. 

 Much manure is made in this very long period of 

 penning stock — is made necessarily, it may be said, 

 when litter is*given, as is done here, from the pine 

 woods, as well as the offal of the crops. But Mr. 

 G. does not speak favorably of the effects of his 

 manure — and indeed the summer penning on fer- 

 menting litter, would seem likely to be wasteful 

 of the Jertilizing principles of the manure, and in- 

 jurious to the health of the cattle. No other means 

 of improvement, worth counting, have been used: 

 yet the farm has not diminished in product ma- 

 terially, if at all, since Mr. G. has known it, and 

 according to the report of others, is still one of the 

 most productive in the county. But though the 

 farm lies in part on the "ridge," and consists partly 

 of the worst kind of soil in the county, the greater 

 part was of the best natural soil in the interior. 

 The field now in oats is the most distant from the 

 homestead, and a large part of it has never re- 

 ceived any aid from manure. Mr. G. supposed 

 that this part would now make 20 bushels of corn, 

 and in its original and most fertile state, might 

 have brought 30 bushels. He rents out the greater 

 part of his land, and the poorest, tor two-fifths of 

 the corn, and one-third of the oats, castor bean, 

 and potatoes. 



Mr. G. disclaims all pretensions to the character 

 of a good farmer, and attributes all his success to 

 steady attention to his business. He certainly has 

 been an excellent manager of his means: and his 

 undoubted and long continued success, taken in 

 connexion with the total absence of all uncom- 

 mon, or foreign means for improvement, and his 

 continued adherence to the Eastern Shore rotation, 

 serve to place in a strong point of view, the pe- 

 culiar and durable good qualities of the soil, and 

 the profit of the rotation in general. 



The smaller farm of Mr. Isaac Smith, on the 

 sea side, furnishes an example equally striking, of 

 the ease and profit of increasing the products of 

 an impoverished soil, by using proper means, and 

 such means only as may be availed of by all. 

 Mr. S. took possession of this farm in 1819. The 

 product has been gradually increased, on the same 

 surface, until it is now doubled. Being on the sea 

 side, and having some firm salt marsh for pasture, 

 he has rigidly secured his fields from being grazed 

 at any time, and thus has regularly returned to the 

 soil all of the improving crop of Magothy Bay 

 bean, and secured its regular return as a thick 

 cover of the fields. In addition to this, and to the. 

 use of the manure furnished by the stock and offal 



