478 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 8 



clover was equally uneven. Where the marl 

 reached, it grew knee high, and was deep colored; 

 elsewhere ankle high, and being of pale color, 

 though both was equally plastered in the spring. 

 Where I spread broad-cast at the rate of 100 

 bushels to the acre, the crops of com, wheat, and 

 clover have attracted observation by all travellers. 

 I have taken a crop of one kind or other from it 

 every year; the second growth of clover seem- 

 ing to keep up the fertility, and rather to increase 

 it, I think. Certainly the crop of clover was bet- 

 ter this year than when cut belbre. The piece 

 marled in the hill has never been aided by manure: 

 has been cropped in the same way, and that is 

 much improved. I cut a good crop of clover from 

 it this year, and observed the same rank spots 

 where the marl reached, as at first. While my 

 mulberry orchard is growing, these two years to 

 come, if I live, I shall, now that my heavy clear- 

 ing is over, enter into marling with some spirit. 

 I am encouraged to do this, not only by my own 

 experience, but that of many others. Mr. Wil- 

 liam Jessee, and others in Middlesex, and Mr. 

 William Wickham and Mr. James T. Sullon in 

 Hanover; besides many acquaintances in King 

 William and around me. My neighbor, Mr. 

 John H. Bernard, Francis W. Taliaferro, and 

 Henry Tayloe have all demonstrated the great 

 value of marl, both shell and blue, upon their es- 

 tates. 



Your valuable work on calcareons manures, 

 and the Register, have given a happy im- 

 pulse to this essential means of improvement. 

 The community is having its eyes opened to the 

 fact, that permanent improvement of land is im- 

 possible without the use of marl or lime, to fix the 

 putrescent matter in the soil, and give activity to 

 its capacity tor generating the proper salts and 

 other ingredients on which vegetation feeds. May 

 the good work increase and prosper! It may be 

 truly said, that every man who marls an acre of 

 land, is a benefactor to his country, and deserves 

 the thanks of the community. 



In conclusion, I will give you another statement 

 of a trial which I have made, which cost little, and 

 has satisfied curiosity. 



About this time last fall, in hunting by the side 

 of my spring branch, below the great fall of it 

 over a blue marl bank, I came across a large 

 bunch of gama grass, with fifteen or twenty seed 

 stems seven feet high. Last spring I took up 

 the bunch (about ten inches diameter,) and sepa- 

 rated the plants by the roots, and transplanted a 

 row on the side of my garden paling, and about as 

 many more,(say fifty,) in lively land near where I 

 found the bunch, and worked both once to keep 

 them clear of weeds. Those in my garden are 

 rankest of course, but grew so slow and puny, al- 

 though in rich soil, that I am satisfied our climate 

 will not, permit it to be of much account — at least, 

 not worth the attempt to raise a lot for summer 

 soiling, as I had hoped. I shall have a fairer ex- 



Eeriment in the next year's growth, as the roots get 

 etter footing and more vigorous. I find the seed 

 ripen by degrees, and drop as quick as ripe, so 

 that, it is hard to save the seed of it, and I fear the 

 early frost has injured most of them, though the 

 blades are untouched. 



JOHN DICKINSON. 



STATKJVIENT OF TILLAGE AND PRODUCT OF 

 CORN, ON STAUNTON BOTTOM LAND. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



I have been requested by two or three of my 

 fr'unds, who saw a small field of corn growing the 

 present year on my premises, to give an account 

 of its produce, to the public, through the columns 

 of the Farmers' Register. I have measured and 

 penned ihe corn that grew on three acres of the 

 above mentioned field, and will confine my re- 

 marks to the three acres, which were the best in 

 the field. I do not recollect the precise time when 

 litis corn was planted. I commenced planting 

 about the time my neighbors did, and the field 

 was planted several days later than my first plant- 

 ing; so that I conclude it, was neither late nor ear- 

 ly planting. The ground it grew on was the best 

 Staunton river bottom, which had been cleared up- 

 wards of a century. In the year 1833 it was not 

 cultivated, and produced a fine coat of vegetable 

 litter which was su tiered to rot (ungrazed) on the 

 land. The succeeding year, 1834, it was cultiva- 

 ted in tobacco, and in 1835 planted in corn. The 

 spring ploughing was a bed upon two shovel- 

 plough furrows for half ot the three acres, and the 

 other half was bedded on two coulter furrows. 

 The bedding was done by two-horse dagon 

 ploughs, as deep as practicable. I generally pre- 

 pare my flat land with three-horse ploughs, but 

 this field had been well broken, under the pre- 

 vious tobacco crop, and the two-horse ploughs ef- 

 fected as deep ploughing as a three-horse plough 

 would, on a naked fallow. The beds were about 

 four feet apart — rather under that distance. The 

 corn was planted eighteen inches apart in the bed, 

 (in the step, as it is usually termed,) and two 

 stalks were left in a place after weeding. At weed- 

 ing, the beds were thrown down by a dagon 

 plough, and a deep coulter furrow run on either 

 side of the young corn — as near to it as practica- 

 ble. The second and last, working was done by a 

 single-horse dagon plough, the rows being too near 

 to admit two horses abreast. The produce ol the 

 three acres was fifty-five barrels of sound corn 

 and several barrels of rotten, that were not mea- 

 sured — making upwards of eighteen barrels of 

 sound corn to the acre. 



My principal object in making the above com- 

 munication is, to direct the attention of com plant- 

 ers to the subject of thick planting on rich, moist 

 land. There is much land in this vicinity as fer- 

 tile as the land above mentioned, and yet, the 

 product to the acre seldom exceeds nine or ten bar- 

 rels. 



The three acres were accurately measured, and, 

 to prevent misapprehension, it may be proper to 

 add, that ten bushels of corn in the ear were al- 

 lowed to the barrel. Two rows were permitted 

 to stand with only one stalk in the hill: these were 

 gathered and measured with two adjoining rows 

 with two stalks in the hill; the latter measured be- 

 tween a fourth and a fifth more than the former, 

 thus conclusively determining the advantage of 

 thick planting. The two rows with only one stalk 

 in the hill were thinned at weeding time. 



The little experience I have in farming and 

 planting, has convinced me of the great importance 

 of making the land we cultivate rich — "cultivate 

 less land, and make it rich" should be Ihe motto 



