No. 1. 



King William Agricultural Society. 



13 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 King William Agricultural Society. 



Dr. Braxton, in his Address before the 

 "King William Working- Agricultural So- 

 ciety," Va., says he can bear ample testi- 

 mony to the good effects of calcareous ma- 

 nures, tliat is, of marl, lime, and green-sand ; 

 of which, he gives the preference to the 

 eocene, or green-sand formations, although 

 he acknowledges himself unable to account 

 for the superiority of its effects. " I cannot," 

 says he, " say whether the enriching princi- 

 ple is in the green-sand, per se, or in some- 

 thing connected with the deposit. Chemists 

 tell us that it is the silicate of iron and pot- 

 ash, but geology is obscure as to the origin 

 of its formation — whether it is a purely min- 

 eral, animal or vegetable substance, or whe- 

 ther it is a vegeto-animal substance, or W'he- 

 ther it is a triple compound, we cannot tell. 

 The whole subject is wrapped in obscurity, 

 and we must wait patiently upon science for 

 a development of its formation." He says 

 further, that in all judicious systems of hus- 

 bandry, the first step should be to establish 

 a good rotation of crops. Different soils and 

 different situations, of course, require very 

 different rotations. He would, however, lay 

 it down as " a safe rule, that no land ought 

 to be put in grain cultivation more than half 

 its time, that is, more than one grain crop 

 should not be taken from land in two years, 

 or two in four, or three in six years; and 

 wheat should never follow corn; corn fol- 

 lows wheat very well, and oats succeed corn 

 pretty well. But I would say, let clover fol- 

 low corn without any grain crop whatever, 

 as I believe the notion that it was necessary 

 to have small grain to shade the young clo- 

 ver, is now pretty well exploded ; as every 

 observant farmer must have noticed, that 

 wherever the fly had destroyed his wheat, 

 the clover was much better than where it 

 had been shaded and protected, as they call 

 it, by a luxuriant growth of wheat ; and that 

 when the wheat was very luxuriant, the 

 clover was generally killed." He speaks 

 highly of the increased attention paid to the 

 cultivation of artificial grasses, and particu 

 larly, to that king of the tribe, red clover ; 

 of which he thinks there is now sown in 

 King William's county, a bushel of seed for 

 every ounce that was sown but ten years 

 ago ! But still he notes it as among their 

 faults, to have too great a surface in grain, 

 and too little in grass. " All agricultural 

 histories," says the Dr., "both ancient and 

 modern, prove that in proportion as that 

 branch of husbandry has been attended to, 

 that district of country has improved, and 



the proprietors have become independent, 

 prosperous and happy." On the subject of 

 manures too, he believes they are greatly 

 deficient: they do not make as much as they 

 ought, and might; and what they do make, 

 they do not use to the best advantage. His 

 " own experience goes directly in favour of 

 top-dressing the year previous to the field 

 coming in cultivation, whether of wheat or 

 corn. But as a most judicious farmer says, 

 put it on in any, and every way you can, it 

 will all do good." 



The Address from which the above ex- 

 tracts are made, 1 find in the March number 

 of the Farmer's Register. 1 have been in- 

 terested myself in looking over it, and con- 

 cluded if this notice shall be deemed worth 

 its room in the Cabinet, it might serve to 

 stir up the farmers in this region, as well as 

 in the Old Dominion. 



One thing more, and I am done. The 

 Dr. sets red clover down as the most valu- 

 able of all grasses. One good coat of that, 

 ' I think is fully equal, if not superior, to 

 any dressing of putrescent manure we can 

 give our lands." He exhorts his brother 

 farmers to meet every returning season with 

 an increased energy and zeal in the good 

 cause; and reminds them of the good old 

 proverb, that " he who withholdeth not his 

 hand from the plough, shall not want bread." 

 He holds up the cheering hope, that by pa- 

 tient and persevering industry, and labour 

 judiciously directed, we shall experience the 

 best results — " certainly the doubling and 

 tripling of the productiveness of our farms." 



Professor Liebio, the popular writer 

 upon Agricultural Chemistry, when in Eng- 

 land, was in Yorkshire, attending agricultu- 

 ral meetings, and is said to have displayed 

 every disposition, to communicate informa- 

 tion to all who asked it. He is quite a young 

 man — 32 — and has done more than any other 

 person now living, to " make two blades of 

 grass grow where only one grew before." 

 Sir Humphrey Davy, before Liebig was 

 born, lectured on Agricultural Chemistry. 

 But the German has reduced to a practical 

 system, what was not much more than a 

 theory with Davy. At Edinburg and Aber- 

 deen, there are now established University 

 Professorships of Agriculture, as well as at 

 Oxford and Cambridge. This shows how 

 completely the public are aware of the im- 

 portance of cultivating agriculture as a sci- 

 ence. Captain Barclay has made a fortune 

 by attending to the changes of crops and 

 breeding of stock. Let others take the hint 

 and do likewise. 



