116 



THE FARMERS CABINET. 



VOL. I. 



work efieclually, let the corn-stalks be cut 

 down by a few careful people with sharp 

 hoes, so low as never to be hi tlie way of 

 scythes at harvest; and whenever the wheat 

 will admit carts to run on it without injury, 

 let them be brouj;ijt otf and stacked near the 

 farm pens. In like manner let the people, 

 with their blankets, go every evening, or as 

 often as occasion may require, to the nearest 

 wood, and fill them with leaves for the pur- 

 poses above mentioned ; bottoming the beds 

 with corn-stalks, and covering them thick 

 with leaves. A measure of this sort will be, 

 if strictly attended to, and punctually per- 

 formed, of great utility in every point of 

 view. It will save food, make the cattle lie 

 warm and comfortable, and produce much 

 manure. The hogs also in pens must be 

 well bedded in leaves. 



Fencing. 



As stock of no kind, according to this 

 plan will be suffered to run on the arable 

 fields or clover lots, (except sheep in the day 

 on the rye fields, as has been mentioned be- 

 fore,) partition fences between the fields, 

 until they can be raised of quicks, may be 

 dispensed with. But it is of great import- 

 ance, that all the e.xterior or outer fences 

 should be substantially good ; and those also 

 which divide the common, or woodland pas- 

 ture, from the fields and clover lots, are to be 

 very respectable. 



To accomplish this desirable object in as 

 short a time as possible, and with the small- 

 est expense of timber, the post and rail 

 fence which runs from the negro quarters, or 

 rather from the corner of the lot enclosing 

 them, up to the division between fields 

 Nos. 7 and 8, may be placed on the bank 

 (which must be raised higher) running to 

 the creek. In like manner, the fence from 

 the gate, which opens into No. 2, quite down 

 to the river, along the cedar hedge row, as 

 also those rails which are between Nos. 1 

 and 2, and between Nos. 2 and 3, may all be 

 taken away, and applied to the outer fences, 

 and the fences to the lanes from the barn 

 into the woodland pasture, and from the 

 former (the barn) into No. .'3 ; for the fences 

 of all these lanes must be good, as the siock 

 must have a free and uninterrupted passage 

 along them, at all times, from the barn-yard 

 to the woodland pasture. 



All the fencing from the last mentioned 

 place, (between mo and Mr. Mason,) until it 

 join's iVlr. Lear's farm, and thence with the 

 line between him and mo, until it comes to 

 the river, will require to be substantially 

 good; at its termination on the river, de- 

 pendence must be placed in a water fence; 

 for if m^de of common rails, they would be 

 carried off by boatmen for fire-wood. The 



fences separating fields Nos. 1 and 8 from 

 the woodland pasture must also be made 

 good, to prevent depredations on the fields 

 by my own stock. 



Crops, cfc. for 1801. • 

 No. .5, is to be in corn, and to be invaria- 

 bly in that article. It is to be planted (il 

 drills are thought to be ineligible until tht 

 ground is much improved) in rows, feel 

 by 4, or 7 by 3^, the wide part open t( 

 the south. These hills are to be manured 

 as highly as the means will admit; and th( 

 corn planted every year in the middle of th( 

 rows of the preceding year; by doing which 

 and mixing the manure and earth by tin 

 plough and other workings, the whole ir 

 time will be enriched. 



The washed and gullied parts of this fiek 

 should be levelled, and as mucli improved ai 

 possible, or loft uncultivated. Although it i: 

 more broken than some of the other fields, i 

 has its advantages. 1st, It has several inleti 

 extending into it, with easy ascents there 

 from, 2dly, It is convenient to the mud u 

 the bed of the creek, whensoever (by mean: 

 of the scow) resort is had thereto, and gooi 

 landing places; and, 3dly, It is as near ti 

 the barn as any other, when a bridge am 

 causeway shall be made over the sprin/ 

 branch. To these may be added, that it i 

 more remote from squirrels than any other. 

 Nos. 6 and 7, or such part thereof as : 

 not so much washed or gullied, as to rende 

 ploughing ineligible, are to be fallowed fc.i 

 wheat. One of which, if both cannot, 

 to have the stubble ploughed in and soW'' 

 with rye, and the low and strong parts i 

 have timothy or orchard-gra.ss seeds, pe 

 haps both, in different places, sprinkled ov( 

 them, for the purpose of raising seed. 

 the rye pasture the sheep are to be fed i 

 winter and spring, and treated in all respec 

 as No. 3, in 1600. 



In the Years 1802, 1803, and so on. 



The corn ground remaining the same, tv 

 fields, in the following numbers, will be fii 

 lowed for wheat and treated in all respcc 

 as mentioned above; and if pnmkins, cyi 

 lins, turneps, peas, and such like growl 

 are found beneficial to the land, or useful ai 

 profitable for stock, ground may readily 1 

 found for them. 



These arc the great outlines of a plan, ai 

 the operations of it, for the next year, and fi 

 years to come for the river farm. The nece 

 sary arrangements, and all the preparatoi 

 measures for carrying it into effect oug 

 to be adopted witliout delay, and invariab 

 pursued. Smaller matters may, and u 

 doubtedly will, occur occasionally, but noi 

 it is persumed, that can militate against 

 niateriailv. 



