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THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



my best land, 1 am now prepared to admit that 

 a very considerable degree oi' improvenien! may 

 be attamed under it on ali lands that can be re- 

 lied on wiih certainty to brinpj clover, unless 

 light soils should prove an exception ; and I ra- 

 ther incline to think that land of that des^cripiion 

 will not bear as hard fillanre. ft must, however, 

 in candor, be stated that 1 have made a very free 

 use of lime on the (arm on which this system 

 lias been in operation (or some years past ; and 

 by ensuring the clover, and otherwise improving 

 the land, it has undoubtedly been a great aid to 

 me. It must be recollected, loo, that this system 

 has been so lar modified in this instance as to give 

 very lull crops of corn, there being a light field 

 attached to the tarm, which has been exclusive- 

 ly devoted to corn ever since this system was 

 first adopted. The crops of wheat and corn have 

 both increased very considerably on this larm, and 

 one year, a very remarkable one with us, 1 harvest- 

 ed nearly or quite 24 bushels of wheat through- 

 out the crop per acre. The part, however, after 

 a previous crop of wheat and corn, amounting to 

 about 105 acres, had failed completely as a fal- 

 low ; which no doubt made the 3d crop much 

 better than it would otherwise have been. On 

 an adjoining farm, which has been sutijected to 

 the three-field system, and has had the benefit of 

 lime and a standing pasture, clover and plaster, 

 and the fields been never grazed till the fall, and 

 then very lightly, the degree of improvement 1 

 consider to have been far greater than on the 

 farm in four fields, which is of rather better quali- 

 ty naturally; and ought therefore to have im- 

 proved faster, if the system pursued had been 

 equally ameliorating. Of course great care is 

 taken in collecting and applying putrescent ma- 

 nures, but the one farm has no manner of advan- 

 tage over the other in this respect. 'I'he crop 

 of corn of last year on this farm will, I believe, 

 make fully 8 barrels per acre, which is the larcjest 

 yield from a field of the same extent that I have 

 ever known to be obtained in this neighborhood. 

 This crop of corn was laid off in checks, 2 stalks 

 left in a station ; and cultivated after the first 

 ploughing with the double shovel plough, except 

 Uie wetter portions of the field, comprising not 

 more than a fourth of the crop, which we were 

 compelled to have in beds that the water might 

 run off readily. On the whole I am convinced 

 that land of original fertility, with the aid of a 

 standing pasture, lime, clover and plaster, and 

 with proper attention in collecting and applying 

 other manures, may he improved as rapidly as 

 necessary in three fields, and that it is an excel- 

 lent system with these aids, in comparing the 

 two systems, I should say that the amount 

 of sales would be considerably greater under the 

 four-field system, but that the expenses would 

 also be greater, and that the improvement would 

 be steadily progressive, though less rapid than 

 under the three-field system. On a fine wheat 

 estate, where the teams and labors are equal to 

 it, I should uiu]uestionably prefer the four-field 

 system, as combining a great deal of profit with 

 sufficient improvement. Many of your readers 

 may consider this subject to have been long ago 

 exhausted ; but as fiar back as in 3d vol. of the Far- 

 mers' Register, I engaged at some future time to 

 give the results of yiy experience in regard to this 

 system, when 1 fhouU! liave tested it lairiv ; and 



I trust that I shall be excused for having redeem- 

 ed that promise on the present occasion, and that 

 I will not be found to have shown too strong a 

 leaning to my former opinions. 



The practice of having winter farm-pens con- 

 tiguous to the land to be improved, is, I b»^lieve, 

 very general on the lower James river, and can- 

 not be too highly recommended. In driving 

 the cattle to and from water, 1 have observed, 

 both here and elsewhere, that the land is some- 

 limes very much and very extensively poached, 

 and that the servants, whose business it is to 

 drive them to water, are very much exposed in 

 bad weather. It occurred to me several j'cars 

 ago that a well in our flat country, for the use of 

 the cattle during winter, would be a great com- 

 fort both to them and to the servants, and that 

 the expense of digging would be very inconsi- 

 derable. 1 accordingly adopted the plan, and 

 can confidently recommend it to others, situated 

 as we are, where water may be obtained by 

 goincr down about 20 feet. Some of these wells 

 are kept open to be used on future occasions! 

 lor t'lie same purpose, and others are filled up as 

 soon as the cattle are removed. In the tobacco 

 country, where, however, my observation has not 

 extended very far, I do not recollect ever to have 

 observed their temporary farm-pens in use, and 

 i cannot but believe that the general use of them 

 in that region would be attended with great be- 

 nefit, in this vvay, remote parts of a plantation 

 may be improved, which would never receive 

 the njanure if made at some central point, be- 

 cause the labor necessary to get it in place in the 

 spring can never be spared at that busy season, 

 if the manure has to be hauled any great distance. 

 Where this plan is pursued, (he rou<rh food and 

 litter lor the cattle are carried to the liarm-pen, 

 from time to time, during the winter, as conveni- 

 ence and necessity require, and in the busy sea- 

 son of spring, the whole mass is at a convenient 

 distance from the land to be improved. It must 

 be recollected, too, that in the spring oxen are 

 weakest, and least able to endure hard work, and 

 to lighten their labor at that busy period is a great 

 point gained. Perhaps it may be thought that I 

 am trespassing u|)on the patience of your readers, 

 in formally reconmiending temporary winter farm- 

 pens ; but I beg that it be recollected, that this 

 practice, old and common as it is, may yet be 

 unknown to many of your subscribers, and to 

 every such one I can venture to say that these 

 farm-pens properly managed will he found a 

 valuable aid in the improvement of all large 

 farms. By-the-by, the habits of selecting sub- 

 jects that are novel, and overlooking whatever 

 is not much out of the common road, though per- 

 haps far more useful, is, 1 verily believe, one of 

 the greatest impediments to the general diffusion 

 of agricultural knowledge. Agriculture has been 

 practised too long to admit of many new disco- 

 veries being now made ; and, therefore, to ascer- 

 tain and collect the most valuable practices, is as 

 much as any ordinary man at least can hope to 

 achieve. Indeed i am fully of opinion that if all 

 the most valuable practices now known, even in 

 Virginia, could be collected and brought into suc- 

 cessfuf operation on any one farm, the result 

 would be such as to astonish even the most san- 

 guine cultivator of the soil. 



It is much to be lamented that there are so 



