62 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 1 



and poor, the bnlance being hilly, forms a standing 

 pasture. Thelattertract, wiih the exception of the 

 swamp, was for 8 years in 4 fields:, during which 

 time It was moderately grazed, seldom commenc- 

 ing earlier than August, on the field to be broken 

 for corn. I think the average product of both par- 

 cels might have been 4 barrels of corn, and not 

 more than 6 bushels of wheat, in the last years 

 perhaps 8 bushels. The only source of manure, 

 until 5 years past, consisted of the offal ol" the 

 corn and wheat, of which both farms shared equal- 

 ly, carried out in the crude state in the spring, 

 upon the corn land. Clover was repeatedly sown 

 upon such portions as were stiff and wet enough 

 to produce it, but generally failed, or afforded but 

 a scant cover. 



At the end of the 8 years above mentioned, I 

 was quite at a loss to decide upon the relative quan- 

 tum of miprovement in the two farms; the increase 

 of crops on either, taken as the criterion, scarcely 

 increasing it in any appreciable degree, either 

 positively or relative!}'. The succe^sflil example 

 of Col. J. Taylor, of Caroline, however, had 

 stronofly wedded me to the 4 field system, and it was 

 abandoned not without reluctance, in consequence 

 of the heterogeneous character of my land, hav- 

 ing hills, flats, and swamps interspersed; the first 

 and last of which imposed a heavy ta.^c in the 

 shape of shrubbing and ditching, when suffered to 

 lie out so long. On resorting to the 3 fields, how- 

 ever, 60 acres of my swamp was laid down in herds 

 grass and timothy, whilst the whole of it has been 

 completely reclaimed by straightening a narrow 

 crooked run, according to the method pointed out 

 in the Register, and thereby adding largely to my 

 crop, especiallv of corn, whilst that portion of the 

 hills, which had been newly cleared of a conside- 

 rable number of locusts, and whose sprouts re- 

 quired a heavy amount of labor as often as culti- 

 vated, have been laid down in highland meadow, 

 oat and orchard grass and the locust sprouts tri mmed 

 up and suffered to occupy the ground, which, in 

 groves of many thousands of considerable size, 

 they now embellish and fijrtilize — fornjing, a most 

 important adjunct to my standing pasture. One 

 of them near my house, of about 10 acres, thus 

 treated, which, in addition to the locust, was more 

 infested than any piece of ground I ever saw with 

 that pest, the sassafras, has had them entirely era- 

 dicated by grazing. A little salt occasionally 

 sprinkled upon them, has probably expedited it hv 

 attracting the cattle. To these abridgments of 

 labor heretofore required, has been added the ex- 

 punction from my cultivated area of perhaps 100 

 acres of poor land heretofore cultivated: as much 

 is [cultivated] on most farms in the neighborhood 

 without any profit. 



Additional savings have been made in the con- 

 struction of my fences, consisting for the most 

 part of a cedar watling, scarcely 18 inches high, 

 placed upon a good ditch bank, and inclined oTit- 

 wards to keep off the cattle, and in the cultivation 

 of my corn with the least possible degree of hoe 

 labor. 



The experience of more than eleven years hav- 

 ing satisfied me that little was to be ho|)ed from 

 mere rest for soils, like ours, too light for clover, 

 and aided only by the ofial li'oni its grain crops; 

 I, therefore, immediately set to work to find sub- 

 jects upon which to employ the labor saved, as 

 above staled, for its improvement. Previous to 



this, a variety of green crops had been tried as sub- 

 stitutes for clover to be turned in as manure. -Rye, 

 buckwheat, cow peas, and Indian corn (sown 

 broad cast early in June, and rolled down and 

 plouijhed in as soon as it began to wither in the 

 month of September,) have in the order in which 

 they occur, produced visible effects, but certainly 

 in no degree corresponding with what I had been 

 led to expect, particularly in regard to the peas and 

 buckwheat, li'om the statements of others; and I 

 consider tliese practices as only recommendable 

 where it is desirable to remove and plough in ma- 

 nure, to avoid waste. About 4 acres thus sown on 

 my light land, slightly manured the 1st June. 1834, 

 was rolled down, ploughed and sown in rye the 

 1st of Septendier. This was listed upon the 1st of 

 April, and corn planted, the middles remaining un- 

 broken till come time in May, or until the rye was 

 in head, when it was turned in. The corn, as 

 might have been expected, was not benefited, 

 though the crop of wheat now upon it, evidently 

 shows that the land is. I think that the corn, if 

 cut for provender, would have yielded a greater 

 bulk than any crop of hay I ever saw, and the 

 practice would prove valuable, where there is a 

 scarcity of that article. But to return Irom my 

 digression: I had seen, for the first time in my 

 lile, the effects of marl strikingly exhibited on cot- 

 ton, on the farm of Mr. F. W. Taiiafiirro, 8 miles 

 below Fredericksburg, about 10 years ago, and 

 having noticed shells occurring in their strata on 

 the bank of the river (Rappahannock) I made my 

 first essay with it upon a cotton patch of a lew 

 acres. The cotton was quite a failure: the suc- 

 ceeding crops of corn and wheat exhibited no im- 

 provement, and I gave it up in despair. The 

 clover, ^however, which was sown upon the 

 wheat, strikingly displayed its hidden virtues, 

 and satisfied me as to its value. To work I 

 went then seriously, for the first time, (6 years 

 ago,) and taking advantages of a low tide, with 

 the aid of scoops (or scrapers) and all my force of 

 hoes, succeeded before its rise in scraping oH' the 

 sand to the depth of about 18 inches, from (as I 

 judge) more than the sixteenth part of an acre, 

 thus denuding the marl for that space; and in 

 throwing up a sufficient bank, afterwards fiiced 

 with plank, to resist the tide. Two ox carts, two 

 tumbrils, and the two scoops, continued steadily at 

 work about a fortnight until we got about 10 feet 

 below the surface, tlie marl becoming richer at 

 every furrow of the plough (the only implement 

 used in my pits fi'oni that time to the present,) 

 when, to my great vexation, an infernal muskrat 

 inundated my pit, and put an end to my labors, 

 where, for want of a pump to drain it, they have 

 not been renewed. In the mean time, however, 

 the scoops, (such as are used on turnpikes, and to 

 which there is nothing equal lor the purpose,) had 

 extracted as much as the 4 carts could haul out in 

 a month, and to sufficiently marl about 40 acres, 

 at the rate of 500 bushels to the acre. With the 

 aid of a borer I have since found marl of the 

 same description in three sites on my farm, and 

 have employed all my leisure time in hauling it 

 out, though owing to frequent long absences from 

 home, and various interruptions, it has not been 

 as rigorously prosecuted as 1 could have wished, 

 the whole surfiice marled not much exceeding 100 

 acres. It is a poor blue marl, with a proportion oi 

 small shells, not exceeding, at most, 15 per cent. 



