750 



F A RMERS' REGISTER, 



[\o. 12 



being continued beyond the proper time lor a 

 change to better farming. With the usual obsti- 

 nacy of adherence to old practices, tobacco con- 

 tinued to be the principal market crop in lower 

 Virginia, until the interruptions of commerce, 

 which preceded and accompanied the last war with 

 .England, reduced the price to less than what hay 

 sold for soon after, for the support of ca.'alry 

 horses.* In this, as in other cases, political com- 

 pulsion, more than reasoning and proper estimates 

 of profit, drove us from the old general system of 

 tobacco culture. Ft is now< ontinued only in the 

 middle and upper parts of '. irginia; and the pro- 

 cesses for its preparation for market have been 

 there so greatly improved, that much skill and 

 judgement are required, and are exercised, for the 

 profitable management of the crop. 



Wheat was long in taking its place as a large 

 crop — and would have been longer, but for the 

 very high prices, (sometimes $2, and even $2 50 

 the bushel.) caused by the genera! war in Europe. 

 The crops were at first so foul with weeds, and 

 the grain so badly cleaned, that such would not 

 now be marketable. Then came the ravages of 

 the Hessian fly, which diminished the quantity of 

 the crops, as much as slovenly preparation injured 

 the quality of the grain. But improved tillage, 

 and greater care, have served to compensate all 

 such causes of loss, and have made the wheat 

 crop of Virginia, and of the James River lands 

 especially, a most important item of the total ag- 

 ricultural products of the state. This culture, 

 however, which was so difficult to be established 

 on a proper footing on our lands the best adapted 

 to it, was next, by blind imitation, extended to al- 

 most every firm, even though the least suited to 

 wheat, by the composition of the. soil. Some pro- 

 portion of lime is essential to constitute a good 

 wheat, soil — and very little land in Lower Virginia, 

 naturally possesses that proportion. Still, so much 

 and so peculiarly are the tillers of the soil the 

 creatures of habit, and example, that the culture 

 of wheat was long persisted in, in spite of frequent 

 failures, and general ill success, on soils altogether 

 unsuited. At last the season of 1825, so fatal 

 throughout the eastern half of Virginia, did not 

 leave enough of good wheat on many farms, to 

 again sow the fields — and that circumstance, more 

 than reasoning and previous experience, induced 

 wheat culture to be abandoned on the soils least 

 suited to it, and its place to be occupied by the 

 then novel field culture of cotton. 



Indian corn has always constituted much the 

 greater part of the food of the people — and with 

 its offal forage, the food also of our live-stock. 

 Hence it is the most important crop for its abun- 

 dance and value, though its great home consump- 

 tion makes its export but of small amount. 



Cotton, as has been already stated, was intro- 

 duced but recently in Virginia, as a field crop — 

 and its long previous disuse, and its now successful 

 and wide extended culture, present another strik- 

 ing example of the slowness with which new 

 truths in agriculture make progress. During the 

 last war, when our coast was blockaded by hostile 



* Immense quantities of common tobacco were sold 

 at less than $2 the 100 lbs.; and hay of very inferior 

 quality, from natural wet meadows on the writer's 

 farm, was bought and shipped to Norfolk during the 

 war, and sold there at $2 50, the 100 lbs. 



fleets, all the cotton that supplied the northern fac- 

 tories was conveyed through Virginia, in wagons, 

 over the worst of roads, and sold sometimes even 

 here at 37 cents the pound. None of us then 

 thought of making it as a crop for sale, though 

 neither our wheat, corn, or tobacco, would then 

 bring remunerating prices. It bad long been usu- 

 al on almost every farm to cultivate a little "patch" 

 of cotton for domestic supply — but such small cul- 

 ture is seldom otherwise than neglected, and there- 

 fore unprofitable — and thence grew the general 

 opinion that it would be in vain to attempt the cul- 

 ture of cotton on a large scale. Since, it has lie- 

 come the principal market crop of several of our 

 southern counties — and yielded fair comparative 

 profits, even when as low as 10 cents the pound. 



Still more slowly, after its first dawning, was a 

 general system of good farming established any 

 where in Virginia. Though there are now many 

 farms that, may vie with any in the world in good 

 management, and profitable returns, (considering 

 the difference of existing circumstances.) it must 

 be confessed that over a large portion of our terri- 

 tory, the good farming which is founded on, and 

 mainly consists in, economy of means and fertili- 

 zation of the soil, has yet to be introduced. Much 

 has been done for improvement, for profit, and as 

 example, by many of our enlightened farmers — 

 but a thousand times as much still remains to be 

 done — and from the neglect of which, our country 

 at large is losing, or wasting, continually and enor- 

 mously. 



Manuring, the basis of good farming, until a 

 time comparatively recent, was almost entirely ne- 

 glected — so much so, that the opinion generally 

 prevailed that putrescent animal matters (the ef- 

 fects of which no one could avoid observing,) 

 were alone worth being used for the purpose of 

 enriching land. To the illustrious farmer and pat- 

 riot John Taylor, Virginia is mainly indebted for 

 the removing of this gross, but widely diffused er- 

 ror. From his writings, and from the practice of 

 other still more successful, but less celebrated im- 

 provers of the soil, it became known that far 

 greater resources for fertilization existed in the al- 

 most unlimited amount of vegetable matter. This 

 was no more than was previously known to all 

 well informed agriculturists: but a remarkable 

 practice founded on that general truth was scarce- 

 ly known in Europe, because inapplicable where 

 land has been highly enriched, and the processes 

 of agriculture have reached a high state of perfec- 

 tion, though most valuable in a region of poor 

 and low priced lands, and where labor and float- 

 ing capital are scarce. This is the ''enclosing 

 system," or the prohibition of grazing the fields 

 when not under tillage, by which the land is ena- 

 bled to manure itself by the decay of its own ve- 

 getable growth. This was a great step towards 

 improvement, (on suitable soils,) even when the 

 covering of the fields consisted merely of the na- 

 tural growth of common weeds — and far greater 

 was the benefit when clover was substituted, 

 which furnishes the richest, possible coat of vege- 

 table manure. When firs system is adopted on 

 soils suited to clover by nature — or made suitable 

 by the use of calcareous manures — and still more 

 when the mysterious and wonderful aid of gypsum 

 is added — the farmer lias found resources lor any 

 amount of fertilization that his industry and intel- 

 ligence will secure. As vegetables, especially of 



