1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



S3 



Produce of 50,000 lbs. brown 



sutrarat 6 7-10 cents $3380 00 



Sale of 36,000 lbs. 1st quality at 



$0 15 $8400 



Sale of 14,000 2iid quality at 



10 1400 9800 



Profit, $34-20 00 



Should this notice be favorably received, I ha\e 

 at your disposal a lew particulars respecting the 

 cultivation of beets. 



I am respectfully, sir, 



your most obd't serv't, 



max' IV ISNARD, 



French Vice Consul for i3osfon. 



Fertile Farmers' Register. 

 THE CORN CROP THK GREATEST I.ANDKILLER. 



Wardsfork, Char let ic Co. 



The great waste of soil which appears in Vir- 

 ginia and other places, where corn and tobacco 

 have been cultivated, has been universally charged 

 to the latter. I am entirely willing that it should 

 bear its just proportion of blame, fori have no par- 

 tiality for the weed; but then "let the devil have his 

 due.'" The Indian corn crop which has received 

 comparatively but ftiw of the curses of the fi-jends 

 of improvement, in my opinion has produced by 

 far the greatest destruction of soil. For this opi- 

 nion, I beg leave to offer the following reasons. 



In the first place, the corn crop calls into action 

 a much greater proportion of land. What a vast 

 surface it takes in (he present exhausted state of 

 the country to sustain this crop ! What mvriads 

 of acres are annually in action, and thousands of 

 expensive teams are put in motion, for the same 

 purpose! I will here observe, by the way, that 

 1 was glad to see a writer in the Register, who 

 signs W., is teaching how to do with less of this 

 land-destroying article. Tobacco is much more 

 modest in its demands, and a smaller space being 

 sufficient for it, of course its ravages on soil have 

 not been as great. 



Secondly — there is some little intrinsic differ- 

 ence in favor of the tobacco crop, and more in fa- 

 vor of the v?heat crop than either. Land for corn is 

 held longer in requisition than for tobacco, and of 

 course gets more of the washing rains — and to 

 do the corn crop justice, requires more ploughing, 

 which subjects the soil to greater hazard. These 

 repeated ploughings, which is the life of the corn, 

 is the death of the land. 



Thirdly — in the present wasted condition of our 

 soil, it requires such a quantity of ground for a corn 

 crop, that a number of chaled spots are em- 

 braced every year, which are most rapidly hasten- 

 ing into galleys; for the poorer the spot, the easier 

 it is killed. And the constant practice of bringing 

 these galled places into cultivation, has exposed 

 thousands of acres annually to the ravages of de- 

 structive rains and frost. It is this rubbing and 

 scratching over those raw places, of our fields after 

 worthless nubbings, that has given all that blood- 

 chilling appearance of agricultural cruelty which 

 has so marred the face of this once lovely State. 

 Tobacco has slayed its thousands, but corn its 

 tens of thousands. The practice of^ tendino- corn 



Vol. IV— 5 



year after year, on the same field, without resting, 

 with the most relentless rigor of cultivation, has 

 o-iven to the once pleasant face of the land the 

 ghastly grin of exhaustion and disease; and this 

 iinfilial conduct of their sons, if persisted in, will 

 bring down the gray hairs of the mother State 

 with sorrow to the grave. Some attempts have 

 been made to prevent the great annual loss of soil 

 in cultivation, by hill-side ditches and horizontal 

 ploughing; and it is true, that these have effected 

 something in this way; but there come rains every 

 year, which "make a joke" of these contrivances, 

 and to the great mortification of the friends of im- 

 provement, the soil is seen taking its old course to 

 the ocean, as obstinately as if obeyinffone of the 

 fixed laws of nature, which, in fact, is the case. 

 This levelling the broken surface of hilly fields by 

 horizontal ploughing is in reality so contrary to 

 nature, that I am not surprised to hee her giving 

 marked indications of her displeasure by sending 

 those waterspouts now and then, which leave thou- 

 sands of breaks and furrows in the beds through 

 which the water has dashed, giving the hill-sidea 

 the appearance of havingwept bitterly. I noticed 

 last summer, aftera lashing rain, one of those sad 

 spectacles — a corn field in tears — (if I may be al- 

 lowed the phrase) it being one of those remarkable 

 instances in which Dame Nature is seen weeping 

 over her own deeds of destruction — the hill-side 

 ditches had given way on all sides the corn beds, 

 those ropes of sand, had snapped in ten thousand 

 places — galls and galleys opened on all sides, and 

 as for the poor soil, it was gone to its long home. 

 1 really felt, the force of the injunction, "weep with 

 those that weep," and mingled my best sympa- 

 thies, both with nature and the good genius of im- 

 provement. My fancy became a little busy, while 

 I looked over this scene of" destruction, which soon 

 presented to my mind's eye such a horrid picture 

 of gulle}'s, galls, and broken trenches, that I be- 

 gan to think seriously of Red River. And truly, 

 but for the efforts that are now making through 

 agricultural papers and societies, I solemnly be- 

 lieve we should realize all that the mostlively'ima- 

 gination can anticipate on this subject. But to re- 

 turn — I think it impossible, by any contrivance, to 

 prevent our hilly lands, this side of the mountains, 

 from washing, at least to that degree which will 

 prevent their improvement much, if any. Make 

 a dam across the bottom which conveys the wa- 

 ter from a corn field well ploughed and trenched, 

 and one will be amazed at the quantity of wash- 

 ing which will be caught in one season. I have 

 set such land traps, not only for my own runaway 

 soil, but also for my neighbor's — though having 

 caught his, I never sent it back. 



Well I What is to be done? Why, let us tend 

 less corn, and more wheat and clover, and confine 

 the cultivation of corn to the more level portions of 

 our estates, and, according to W. make less serve; to 

 raise grass, orchards, wheat and such things, on 

 .our more broken lands, that require but little 

 ploughing, and expose the soil to but little hazard. 

 This arrangement could be made conveniently on 

 many plantations, more especially if we were to 

 re!}' less upon a corn crop fJ^r the support of horses. 

 [f we go on tending our hilly lands in corn, I verily 

 believe our latest agricultural history will tell the 

 same melancholy tale that it does now — that thia 

 is a land of galleys. 



I. R. 



