183G.] 



F A R -M E R S ' R i: G I S T E R . 



loathe this food. Suit provision is sFii.l to be the 

 best diet for a laboring man— but if he is con- 

 stantly kept on it, without a plentil'ul supply of 

 bread, he will sicken and die. If our winters were 

 as long as they are to the nortii, with an abun- 

 dance ol' our provender, (corn-ca|-s and wheat 

 straw.) I doubt whether our cattle would get 

 through them. The late V^ illiam Cobbett recom- 

 mended sirongh^, ruta baga for cattle; but his ag- 

 ricultural statements were so exaggerated, and all 

 his notions so strange and unsettled, that I could 

 give them no confidence. Last year, Ibr the first 

 time, I grew a small (luantily; my milch cows 

 eat it with avidity, and indicate, both by their m.ilk 

 and appearance, an improved condition. One 

 acre well improved and cultivated, will produce 

 ii-om three to five hundred bushels, equal to ten 

 tons. For the future, I shall endeavor to grow as 

 much ruta baga as will serve for a change of food 

 from the middle of February till my cattle find 

 more palatable sustenance in my clover fields. 



I greatly desire to see the tide of emigration to 

 the west arrested. Large sources of improve- 

 ment have been recently opened in our countiy, 

 and more are still from da}' to day disclosed. 

 Men of industry, v.'ith a moderate capital, might 

 make a more eligible location here, than in the 

 far west. It is true that richer lands can be pur- 

 chased on the frontier at a cheaper rate — but when 

 building, clearing, and inclosing come to be ad- 

 ded, I do not doubt, tliat an old exhausted farm 

 can be purchased, marled, and brought to a point 

 of profitable jiroduct for less money. I ofier as 

 proofi a farm now held in Kent county by Cap- 

 tain Vickers of Baltimore. This gentleman hav- 

 ino: acquired an independent iortune by trade, 

 Avith a laudable attachment for his native soil, pur- 

 chased the farm on which his lather had lived: the 

 scene of his early sports and joys. It came into 

 his hands exhausied and impoverislied He has 

 improved it in an expensive way by ashes and 

 other manures fiom Baltimore, and I understand 

 it affords him a clear profit of twelve per cent, on 

 ■ the whole cost — yielding fi'om twenty-five to 

 thirty bushels of wheat to the acre. We have 

 thousands of acres on 'the Eastern Shore, which 

 do not now repay more than the expenses of cul- 

 tivation, which, with the resources of our own 

 lands, might be brought to a point ol" profitable 

 proiiuct. Our insulated situation invites few per- 

 sons from abroad. We sometimes see a gentle- 

 man merchant, or his collecting agent, on the pub- 

 lic road, which passes through the peninsula, 

 fi-om north to south, on our worst lands; and the 

 bird's-eye view of our Professor Ducatel was not 

 calculated to enlighten on this subject — I do not 

 mean to disparage our Professor — I have no doubt 

 he is a good chemist. He was in pursuit of marl, 

 and prosecuted his search with diligence; but his 

 anterior hubiis and pursuits did not greatly qualify 

 him to judge ol' the capabilities of our country. 

 A few years ago I travelled in the stage with the 

 late senator Johnson of Louisania, and we con- 

 versed about agriculture. He made particular in- 

 quiries as to the product of our lands and the ex- 

 pense of cultivation. I told him that a well im- 

 proved farm on the Eastern Shore would produce 

 twenty bnshels of wheat and forty of Indian 

 corn to the acre, and made a rough estimate ol 

 the expense of^ cultivation. He said the gross 

 product of their cotton and sugar plantations were 



greater, but when the difference of expense of 

 cultivation was estimated, and our fticilities for 

 market, that such a farm as I described, was as 

 profitable as the lands in his country. I was 

 much struck with the admission. I had seen a 

 paper drawn up by him on the tariff, in which he 

 attempted to reconcile Virginia and Maryland to 

 the n-icasure, by the value of our slaves in the 

 southern market. The sale of our slaves in the 

 south, stands as a reproach both to our morals nnd 

 airriculture— and if time should arrive when Ma- 

 ryland (one of the good old thirteen) shall_ settle 

 down as a sinve bn^eder for the new state of Lou- 

 isania, I shall be prepared for emigration. 



# « * * * # * * 



For tl'.c Farmers' Register. 



GRASS ALONE INADEQUATE FOR IMPROVING 

 LAND. I3IPOHTANCE OF MANURE. 



Chnrlotie County, } 

 I2lh March, 1836. $ 



The attention of agriculturists, in this section,^ 

 has not been sufficiently turned to the subject of 

 raisino- manure, in order to the improvement of the 

 soil. ^There has, perhaps, been sufficient atten- 

 tion bestowed, and confidence placed, at least by 

 some planters, in artificial and other grasses — and 

 many of us have lost time and money in search- 

 ing for substitutes, when none were to be found — ■ 

 and relying on other sources for improvement, than 

 the main dependence, which is the manure of 

 stock and farm yard. 



Manurinij by stock, and that raised by collect- 

 ino; vegetable matter in our farm yards, are the 

 only real sources of permanent improvement, to 

 anv jrreat extent, within the reach of the planters 

 of this district. In vain shall we calculate or hope 

 for improvement, either in soil or purse, unless we 

 turn our attention more particularly to this subject. 

 Unless diligence, perseverance and strict economy 

 are observed in this department, our hopes of im- 

 provement will prove vain and fallacious. 



Grasses uns^razed, will serve to keep the soil to- 

 gether; but alone and unaided, they are extreme- 

 ly limited fis a source of improvement, and should 

 not be relied on. They are all-important assis- 

 tants, but separately considered, they will not per- 

 ceptibly improve our land. If they improve at all, 

 it is so slow that I have not been able to discover 

 it. I have a field which has been well set with 

 clover for eighteen or twenty years, and there has 

 been no perceptible increase in the production. 

 I consider grasses alone insufficient, and not to be 

 relied on as a source of improvement. Plaster in 

 this region, costs too much to use it in large quan- 

 tities, and we are destitute of marl. What, then, 

 are the principal resources of the planter or farmer 

 for improvement? We answer, unhesitatingly, 

 putrescent manures. Without proper attention to 

 this subject, all hope of improvement will prove 

 visionar}' — we would, therefore, warn the inexpe- 

 rienced not to rely on grasses alnnc — not by any 

 means to neglect the more important considerarion 

 of collecting and increasing the manure heap. 



Many sources for raising manure, are entirely 

 neglected by the planters of this vicinage. The 

 considerable amount of manure, which, with a 

 small dea;ree of attention mifjht he raised from 



