414 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 7 



5. The leguminous plants cultivated for green 

 food, as the lucerne and tare, may be termed green 

 forage-crops. 



And, lastly, the mixture of gramineous and leg- 

 uminous plants cultivated lor herbage or green 

 feed, may, in compliance with common language, 

 be still termed the sown or artificial grasses. 



Further distinguishing these different classes of 

 crops according to their eflects upon the fertility of 

 the farm, they might be divided thus: 



1. Corn-crops — exhausting crops, and favorers 

 of weeds. 



2. Pulse-crops — exhausting.but cleaning crops, 

 or capable of being rendered so. 



3. Green or fallow-crops — restorative and clean- 

 ing crops. 



4. Green forage crops — restorative, and some- 

 times cleaning crops. 



5. The sown grasses — restorative crops. 



Knowing these the general characters of the cul- 

 tivated plants, we have, in devising a rotation, to 

 cause the restorative and cleaning crops so to al- 

 ternate with the exhausting crops, as that the 

 land may be preserved fertile and clean. Fur- 

 ther when we find that land cannot be sufficiently 

 cleaned by means of cleaning crops, we must make 

 use of the summer fallow; and again, when we 

 find that land requires rest, we may lay it down 

 to grass for a longer or shorter time, taking care 

 when this is done that the land shall be in as ler- 

 tile a state as circumstances will allow, and free of 

 weeds. 



Extract from tlic New York Fanner. 



CLEAN WHEAT CATCHING THE DISEASE OF 

 SMUT. 



"A neighbor of mine, having purchased some 

 very excellent seed wheat, the same was delivered 

 in the farmer's bags of whom he had bought the 

 wheat, with a promise that he, the purchaser, 

 would return the bags immediately alter the grain 

 was sown or deposited in the drill. My neighbor 

 complied with this request, and having drilled 

 about half the quantity, from those bags in which 

 he had received the wheat, he took opportunity on 

 the following day, which day had been very wet 

 and unfavorable lor drilling the remainder, to emp- 

 ty those bags, in order that they might be return- 

 ed. Thus was this excellent, clean, and till then 

 unadulterated seed wheat, put into his (the pur- 

 chaser's) own bags, which before had contained 

 some very foul and diseased smutty wheat, as he, 

 together with his farm servants, acknowledged the 

 fact. On the third day the remainder of the wheat 

 was drilled on the same soil, and in the same field, 

 but not from the clean bags of the seller of the 

 seed wheat. 



"Now, mark the result at harvest. The clean 

 seed wheat, which had been emptied into the far- 

 mer's own filthy smutty bags, produced about one 

 twentieth part of smutty ears; whereas, from the 

 former day's drilling, not a single ear of smutty 

 wheat could be found." 



For the Fai-mars' Register. 

 VIEW OF PART OF YORK, AND THE BACK 

 RIVER LANDS. 



The lands of York county, along the main road 

 from Williamsburg, present a very general ap- 



pearance of bad farming, and neglect of the val- 

 uable and abundant resources for improving the 

 soil and increasing its products. There are some 

 exceptions, particularly the farm of Judge Semjile, 

 near Williamsburg, on which much marl has been 

 used, and most beneficially, as well as other ma- 

 nures. The. road, as in most other cases in lower 

 Virginia, is kept generally on the ridge between 

 rivers or smaller streams, and of course, on land 

 poorer than the average. There are farms on and 

 near York River, of most excellent soil, and some 

 improved to a high slate of productiveness, and 

 well cultivated. These however, are not in view 

 on this route. Above Yorktown, the lands seen 

 are mostly undulating: farther on they become 

 more and more level, and in the lower part of the 

 county, the surface is mostly so flat that it is ob- 

 jectionable, on account of not permitting the ex- 

 cess of rain water to flow off with sufficient facili- 

 ty. I was not enough acquainted with the coun- 

 try to know how much of it has marl beds of easy 

 access: but it is certainly well supplied at several 

 different, parts along the road — yet there is lor 20 

 miles the same general, indeed, almost total ne- 

 glect and disuse of this manure. The character 

 o( their cultivation is such as might be expected 

 from the disregard of the improvement of the soil. 

 No where in our country can be found such valu- 

 able and cheap resources for improvement, and 

 sure means for agricultural profits, combined with 

 such general neglect of them. 



In the vacant lots of Yorktown, and in the out- 

 skirts, I noticed a weed which was to me quite 

 new, and which, from being confined within such 

 narrow limits, seems to have been brought from 

 abroad. It. is of the thistle family, grows from 

 one to two feet high, and has a flower of a brilliant 

 and beautiful yellow color. The flower stands 

 singly, and is more than an inch across. The 

 leaves of the plant are shaped much like those of 

 the common thistle, or the artichoke, armed with 

 thorns at every point. The seed-pod is also co- 

 vered with points. I learned that it is also found 

 on the other side of the river, on Gloucester Point. 



As flat as the lands are below, there seems to be 

 almost no use made of bedding and water-furrow- 

 ing, without which such land cannot possibly be 

 kept, dry. Extensive swamps are visible on both 

 sides of the road, at some distance, which have 

 been neither cleared nor drained, nor any attempt 

 made (as was stated) to derive a profit from them, 

 except by cutting out the best oak trees, to furnish 

 timber to the neighboring fortifications, and for the 

 navy yard at Portsmouth — which business has 

 been very profitable in this low country. These 

 swamp lands are rich, and not subject to any ex- 

 cept surface water, with which they are soaked, 

 and more or less covered in winter — and might be 

 very easily and perfectly drained. 



It appeared as a striking illustration of the gen- 

 eral apathy of the people, and of the small desire 

 for any means of deriving information, that not one 

 post office was on this main mail route for the 24 

 miles between Yorktown and Hampton — nor did 

 I see the stage driver throw out for any one in this 

 distance, a way newspaper, or other periodical. 

 Perhaps they are not worse off, for this privation, 

 than other parts of the country where political 

 newspapers are taken generally, and almost ex- 

 clusively. By shutting out both the light and the 

 darkness — the truth and the falsehood— which the 



