514 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



1SS5.] 



wheat, and perhaps more than that of any other 

 agricultural product of this country; but I think 

 the labor of a wheat crop the most, severe. A 

 much greater proportion of women and boys can 

 be usefully employed in making a crop of tobacco, 

 than one of wheat. 



Mr. Young's inferences from this passage in 

 Mr. Jefferson's notes, are certainly very unfavor- 

 able to the agriculture of Virginia, and I am afraid 

 not altogether unjust. The subject is one of great 

 moment to the cultivators of middle and lower 

 Virginia. I trust, however, that as the exhaus- 

 tion of our soil has been owing to particular cir- 

 cumstances necessarily attending our husbandry, 

 his prediction that it is to be ruined by the cultiva- 

 tion of wheat will not be realized. 



In clearing and cuitivating our lands, when a 

 large proportion of our most fertile soils were 

 clothed with their native woods, and might be 

 bought at very low prices, the most natural, I 

 -will not say the most proper course, would be, as it 

 generally was, to cultivate the cleared lands as 

 long, and perhaps longer than they would pay 

 the expense of cultivation — and to goon from year 

 to year clearing fresh lands and subjecting them 

 to the same process of cultivation and exhaustion: 

 and in this way the gross annual products were 

 not diminished, while the land was growing worse. 

 This course of husbandry might long since have 

 worked its own cure, and forced upon us a more 

 improving system; but the immense extent of fer- 

 tile and unoccupied lands in our western country 

 opened a new field to industry and enterprise, and 

 thus individuals who had exhausted their lands in 

 Virginiaby severe cropping, with a moderate share 

 of prudence and industry, were generally impro- 

 ved in their circumstances by migration, while the 

 soil of Virginia was becoming more exhausted. 

 One circumstance has checked, in some degree, 

 this tide of emigration. The higher prices we are 

 able to realize from our crops, by our being so much 

 nearer to good markets. But lor this, I appre- 

 hend that our population, which has been in ge- 

 neral regularly increased, would have been in a 

 rapid course of diminution. With this advantage, 

 which we are likely to retain ibr a long period of 

 time, I am persuaded that our more fertile soils, and 

 even those that are much exhausted, if the means 

 of improvement are within reach, may yield a 

 very fair return for the skill and industry employed 

 in their cultivation. The culture of tobacco has 

 gradually given place to that of wheat, as fresh 

 lands have become scarce, and the facility of 

 getting crops to market in the country above tide- 

 water, increased. Agreeing fully in opinion with 

 Mr. Young that wheat is a most exhausting crop, 

 I think we should gain little by this change if we 

 were not able to counteract its effects, by connect- 

 ing with the cultivation of wheat, that of clover — 

 a plant invaluable for its fertilizing qualities, and 

 peculiarly suited to corn in the same rotation for 

 wheat. It has long been cultivated most success- 

 fully on our fertile wheat soils; and I have no idea 

 that those which have been worried by severe 

 cropping can ever be restored without it; but this 

 blessing of providence will have been bestowed on 

 us in vain if we want the care or skill to turn it 

 to account. It is true that some of our most fer- 

 tile alluvial soils will produce heavy crops of clo- 

 ver without assistance — a good crop can be ob- 

 tained on lands inferior to these, but such as may 



be denominated as fertile and in good heart, by 

 the aid of plaster; but ciover seeded on soils that 

 have been worried by severe cultivation will never 

 produce a heavy crop without the assistance of 

 lime, marl, or a heavy dressing of manure — and 

 even when such a crop is obtained, a succession of 

 grain crops will soon reduce the soil to its lormer 

 condition. I have ne.~. er thought so meanly of our 

 Virginia husbandry, so far as relates to our annual 

 crops, as most others; on the contrary, I believe 

 the management of our tobacco from the time the 

 seed is sown till it is ready lor market, is generally 

 excellent. Our wheat crops on our most fertile 

 soils, where wheat is the principal object of culti- 

 vation, are in very many instances, managed in a 

 way that would not be discreditable in any coun- 

 try; and the culture of Indian corn is no where 

 better understood or, more skilfully conducted. In- 

 deed I have often thought it too good for the land 

 on which it was bestowed. I wish I could extend 

 my praise farther; but I think in the collection and 

 application of manures, the foundation of all good 

 husbandry, too many of us are lamentably defi- 

 cient. I have no right to set my opinion above 

 that of others, who are as capable at least as my- 

 self of forming a correct one — and I am not at all dis- 

 posed to enter into the controversies that have been 

 carried on in your Register with regard to the 

 three-shift, four-shift, and five- shift rotations; one 

 may be preferable to the other, according to the 

 character of the soils to which they are applied; 

 with good management, all and each of them may 

 succeed, but except on lands of extraordinary fer- 

 tility, I am persuaded that in the course of time, 

 and that not a long one, without the aid of ma- 

 nures, they must all fail. Let us take for exam- 

 ple, the four course rotation of clover, wheat, corn, 

 and wheat. If the crop of clover has been a fair 

 one. and it has been turned in, or even cut and 

 carried off', if the growth has been luxuriant, a 

 good crop of wheat may be expected after it. 

 The succeeding crop of corn will require all the 

 manure that can be collected for it. If well ma- 

 nured, the product in a favorable season will be 

 large, and the crop of wheat following it through, 

 in a o-eneral way, inferior to that sown on the clo- 

 ver ley may still be good — and if it receives, at or 

 after seeding, throughout, or on such parts as most 

 require it, a top-dressing of manure, the clover 

 sown on the wheat will hardly fail if the season 

 be favorable — certainly not where the top-dressing 

 has been properly applied, and in this way the fer- 

 tility of the soil may be kept up, or even increased 

 — but leave out the manuring, and the land will 

 sooner or later, according to its degree of fertility, 

 be reduced to the condition which Mr. Young an- 

 ticipates. Plaster applied to the clover will aid 

 manure, but cannot answer as a substitute for it. 

 Marl and lime are without comparison more bene- 

 ficial than plaster, as they improve the soil itselfj 

 while plaster only acts on the crop. In the lower 

 country, where marl or shell lime can be easily 

 obtained, the task of improvement is comparative- 

 ly easy; but you will agree with me that their 

 operation is greatly aided by animal and vegeta- 

 ble manures. Holding these opinions, I have 

 observed with regret that some of your intelligent 

 correspondents, I think most of them, seem to 

 have a great antipathy to live stock. While I 

 agree with them that close pasturing on arable 

 lands is very injurious to the crops; and thinking as 



