Vor,. 6. 



GENESEE PARMER. 



169 



For me Genesee Fiuiner. 



FARMING IN VIRGINIA. 



Mr. Editor — A friend of mine livinjr in Monroe 

 County, New York, had the goodnesw t.-> innke iiic a 

 present of three Nos. of the Genesee Finnier imb 

 lished by yoii, in which I found many dcerly mt^-r- 

 est ng-, instructive, and some quite amusing commu- 

 licationf;. I vvas much pleased, also, to find that 

 you had adopted a rule to admit into your coliiums 

 a.t cl fi of small calibre as well as great. There is 

 an important consideration contamed in this course. 

 You know that many of us who are engaged in ag- 

 ricultnial pursuits, are men of common and pliin ed- 

 ucation; to all such, it is a source of pleasure to 

 know that there is a conunon repository in the shape 

 of a newspaper, where we can explain our views, 

 and ihiough which, we can converse with each oth- 

 er, though we live at the extremes of the Union. I 

 propose, if it be agreeable or worth your notice, to 

 give you some information in relation to southern 

 notions and southern farming, as held in Loudon co, 

 Virginia. I yjerceive that none as yet, have hailed 

 in the Farmer from ^'old Loudon," which I wish you 

 to understand is at the head of the list in the " Old 

 Dominion." 



1st. It is somewhat singular that the scriptural 

 declaration applies to so many different conditions of 

 human life. " As your fathers did, so do ye." The 

 great doctrine here, which is paramount to all oth- 

 ers, that every dollar that a thrifty man makes, 

 ought to be invested in Innd, consequently, to add 

 field to field, and farm to farm, is the great business 

 of a prosperous man's life. A practice coeval with 

 the existence of our country, and which I intend to 

 show hereafter, as one of the greatest delusions or 

 errors into which a farmer can fall. I imagine it 

 would astonish you, could you visit us, to see what 

 immense landholders are here; many owning from 

 500 to 2000 acres, worth variously from S'O to $60 

 per acre. Indeed, almost everything goes by acres. 

 And the showing the immense landed estates owned 

 by sucii and such gentlemen, is a thing to which no 

 small importance is attached. 



The soils of our country consist of several kinds. 

 I shall notice them briefly, according to their quali- 

 ty, beginning with the best first. 



No. 1, Is a clay, red soil: two kinds of rock dis- 

 tinguish it, namely: a blue stone which we call iron 

 rock, owing to its being so very hard, and when 

 broken much resembles a piece of newly broken cast 

 iron. The sub-soil contains the other, which is a 

 very soft shelly green rock, and which the plow ea- 

 sily perforates, and when thrown up on the surface 

 dissolves, and becomes the finest soil, as it pulveris- 

 es immediately. A Geologist informed me that it 

 was of itself, a good manure. Now the soil which 

 I have just described, I consider the finest in the 

 United States. 



No. 2, Is the lime stone soil, is naturally richer, 

 but will not stand a drought, or produce on an aver- 

 age with the other. The red slate is an inferior soil, 

 and is the last. 



Our manner of farming; wheat is our staple. We 

 turn over a coat of clover in August; we plow but 

 once; early in September; we harrow the land and 

 lay it off into lands; about the 'J5th we commence 

 sowing, and sow until the 10th of October. Corn 

 is a heavy crop with us. We gencrallv turn over 

 an old sod, and the stubble of our wheat fallow for 

 corn; plow in March and April, plant in April and 



May. In the fall we sow our corn ground down in 

 wheat; by tlie by, I would just reina-k hnre, that 

 some farmers sow from 400 to 1000 bushrls of wheat. 

 From what I can learr, our manner of cidtivatirg 

 corn is different from yours. So soon asourco;n 

 is large enough to harrow, we commence with a 

 stout, two horse harrow, or with a one horse harruw 

 and go twice in a row; we thin it, and then coin- 

 mcDce with a shovel plow, and two shovellings gen- 

 erally makes it as clear and as mellow as a garden. 

 We drop the plaster dry in the hill on the corn when 

 we plant it, and then plai-ter around the roots when 

 the corn is knee high. If we were to take the pains, 

 and go to the expense that the people in the North 

 do, from what I can see in your Agricultural papers, 

 I do not know what would be our yield, but :t cer- 

 tainly would be great. Our average crop on our 

 number one soil, is from 8 to 10 barrels per acre, (5 

 bushels to the barrel) one hand can cultivate from 

 15 to 20 acres, if he have assistance in planting. I 

 consider it far the cheapest food for cattle, hogs, or 

 horses: infinitely cheaper than roots, and this is the 

 opinion of all northerners who live among us. 



If time would permit, I cnnld give you a lengthy 

 long n irration on the subject of our cnpping, but I 

 promised to say somcth'ng in relation to extensive 

 land-holders, and its bad influences upon our country. 

 I should like to tell of our advantages over you in 

 wool growing; tlie great necessity there exists here 

 for northern capitalists starting large manuf,icturing 

 establishments; our fine water powf^r; the fine cli- 

 iTiate; our splendid soil and many (.ther things, but 

 all these I must omit, until I see what reception this 

 meets. 



Rich men here buy up all the valuable land they 

 can, the result is, to drive ofT our most industrious 

 and hard working young men to other States, where 

 they invest their small means in low priced hinds, by 

 which operation, the county and state lose innnense- 

 Iv, both in physical and moral power. But this is 

 not the only bad feature in this matter. I hold the 

 doctrine that a man ought, if he would consult his 

 interest or his happiness, never to own more land 

 than he can cultivate in the best manner. Let the 

 land holders in this county sell their lands off^ re- 

 taining only 100 or 150 acres. The result would be 

 that we should have several thousands of independ- 

 ent landholders more than we now have; the land 

 would be twice as well cultivated as it now is, it 

 would be worth much more per acre, the wealth of 

 the State would be doubled, the independence of the 

 people would be increased, and ail kinds of stock 

 would be improved. This county would be the gar- 

 den spot of the world. But there is a species of 

 land mania licre, that sweeps every thing before it. 

 I have known tenants and day laborers here, accumu- 

 late a few thousand dollars, lay the money out in 

 land at $50 per acre, as soon as they, by economy, 

 can raise a few hundred or thousand more, immedi- 

 ately invest it in land, at 50 or 60 dollars per acre. 

 In old age, you would see these same men tottering 

 off to land sales, and be land buyers to the last, and 

 die in nn old log dwidling, Avithout a good barn or 

 stable, or fence on their whole estate. In the absence 

 of all these improvements, in imagination, I turn my 

 thoughts to the north, (although I have never had 

 the pleasure of dwelling there,) and behold the beau- 

 tiful dwellings of the farmer, the large and commo- 

 dious barns, the cattle sheds the sheep sheds, the 

 yjiggeries, the poultry houses, and every thing that 

 can make man and beast comfortable, and that too 



