1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



375 



ly covered 1200 acres: and several in Prince 

 George and Surry cover from 300, to upwards ol' 

 400 acres each. In addition, these very large 

 ponds are worth but little as water power — and in 

 the opinion of even the owners, must do much 

 more harm than good. But tiie little benefit of 

 each pond goes to one person, and the sickness is 

 generally divided among his family and many 

 others. 'J'he land Ibrmiiigthe bottom of the pond 

 also generally does not belong to him v.dio has the 

 legal rigiit to keep it worthless by its being cover- 

 ed by water; and therelbre he has no interest in 

 laying land dry, that would revert to the posses- 

 sion of others. This is one of the most stupid and 

 worst parts of our legal policy. 



The Wardsfork lands are the slopes and hill- 

 sides which lie adjacent, and descend towards that 

 .stream. There is very little extent of lowground 

 on that stream — and the good land and good farm- 

 ing ot" Wardslork, both of which are deservedly' 

 celebrated, are to be Ibimd on this generally steep 

 and broken surface. The soil is mostly of red 

 clay loam of moderate tenacity, and though of 

 paler color, and oi" interior quality, these lands are 

 much like those of the South SVest Mountains. 

 The surtiice of the Wardsfork lands is even more 

 steep and broken. The soil was originally fertile, 

 and when greatly imjjoverished and galled, as 

 nearly the whole body has been, may be brought 

 back to a productive state by means comparative- 

 ly easy. Gypsum on clover greatlj^ aids this par- 

 ticular course of improvement, and is very benefi- 

 cial on all these lands, on corn and tobacco, but 

 (as elsewhere) especially on clover. The dear- 

 ness of this manure, caused by its long transporta- 

 tion, offers at present the greatest obstacle to the 

 profitable improvement of the lands. 



The distance fi-om market, and the great ex- 

 pense of transportation, causes tobacco, here as in 

 all the adjacent country, to be the almost sole crop 

 for sale. This culture, requiring the richest land, 

 is not thrown in the same rotation with corn, which 

 is made on the poorer parts of every farm. The ro- 

 tation of the tobacco land, usual on the best man- 

 aged farms, is, 1. Tobacco, 2. Wheat, S. and 4. 

 Clover not grazed, or mowed — or, at most, but to a 

 small extent. The other is 1. Clover, 2. Oats, 

 3 and 4. Clover. Sometimes there is one j'ear 

 less of clover, thus making either of the above a 

 three, instead of a four-shift rotation. JMr. Wat- 

 kins, who has had four shifts both for his tobacco 

 and corn rotations, is going to have only three for 

 the corn, in future, as he thinks that giving the 

 benefit of gypsum regularly, will amply compen- 

 sate for reducing the manuring by clover to half 

 the amount, heretolbre given on his highly 

 improved and well cultivated farm. He has 

 proved by long experience, (in one field as long as 

 30 years,) that by using gypsum on clover every 

 year, and leaving al! the clover to improve the 

 land, that it will continue to get richer under the 

 above four-shift rotation, without any other ma- 

 nure whatever. His tobacco on the piece so treat- 

 ed for 30 years is always the best of his generally 

 very fine crops: and the present grade of" produc- 

 tiveness of this piece, he is certain, is above that 

 with which the soil was originally endowed by na- 

 ture, and which had been greatly reduced by culti- 

 vation, before his course of treatment was begun. 

 He has also found this very important result — 

 that the gypsum, though repeated so often, and 



for so many years, has not ceased to be operative; 

 nor is it known, that its later effects are lessened, 

 I hope that the details of this very interesting part 

 of IMr. Watkins' management will be given by 

 him for publication, and therefore I will say no 

 more. 



The practice of suckering corn has been aban- 

 doned for two years by boUi J\Ir. Thomas E. 

 Watkins and by JMr. Uichard I. Gaines, upon 

 the grounds presented in a communication to the 

 Farmers' Register, at p. G85 vol. 1. Both of these 

 gentlemen are perliictly satisfied that they gain 

 both in grain and forage by omitting this usual 

 and troublesome part of corn culture. Mr. Wat- 

 kins thinks that not more than one-fifth of all his 

 suckers fail to produce ears ; and the ears which 

 ihey bring are generally perfect in form, and sim- 

 ilar to those on the main stalks. I had supposed 

 that they would be mostly produced on the tops, 

 and be such imperi(?ct ears as late suckers (left 

 by neglect) often show. 



[ saw a piece of low-ground (on Ward's Fork) 

 belonging to, and reclaimed by John F. Ed- 

 munds in so perfect a manner, that it was admit- 

 ted to be by the gentleman who pointed it out, the 

 most productive land known. But the crop of 

 corn now on it is very much below what the soil 

 is capable of producing, owing to the unprece- 

 dented floods which have this year damaged that, 

 and ruined the crops of other low-lands less ju- 

 diciously managed and secured. 



With all my confiilence in the several gentle- 

 men with whom I conversed, it would have been 

 dilTicult to believe that neariy all the lands on 

 Ward's Fork, including the richest, (except J. F. 

 Edmunds' farm, which he cleared himself, and 

 has never lost its virgin fijrtilit}',) was at some 

 former time, not only worn to poverty, but so 

 washed as to exhibit numerous galls every where. 

 It is difficult to imagine such a state of things, 

 where the aspect is now so diflerent. But I saw 

 some land the culture of which had continued to be 

 as careless and exhausting as all had been formerly, 

 and of which the soil and surfiice were similar to 

 the best lands ; and here the poverty, and array of 

 galls, were fully equal to any thing I had heard of 

 on the other lands, and such as I would have expect- 

 ed in my own poorer country, wherever the sur- 

 fiice is much broken, and the ttirming bad. 



The removing the worms li'om the growing to- 

 bacco is a very troublesome job, and to which there 

 is no end so long as the plant continues to grow. 

 The fly lays eggs by thousands, which hatch 

 speedily, and the worms begin to devour the leaves 

 as soon as they escape li-om the shell, and when 

 so small as to be observed with difficulty. Of 

 course their destruction requires continual atten- 

 tion, and the handling and examination of every 

 leaf in the field. The parent fly is large, and may 

 be easily killed in numbers, as it is attracted by 

 the stinking flowers of the Jamestown weed, and 

 of gourd vines. If a i'uvf only of these baits were 

 permitted to stand on a farm, at one place only, 

 and the tobacco flies were there watched for at twi- 

 light, when they come abroad, they might be ea- 

 sily knocked down with paddles by litde boys. This 

 is often done, more for amusement than for its use; 

 but not as a regular and general procedure, which 

 alone can make it effectual. Every female fly 

 destroyed, may prevent the having to kill some 

 hundreds, or perhaps some thousands of its pro- 



