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THE FAilMERS' REGISTER. 



Vol. IV. 



NOVEMBER, 1836 



No. 7. 



ED3IUND RUFFIN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 



ON THE IMPROVEMEXT OF TOBACCO LANDS 

 BY CLOVER. 



Addressed to tlm Charlotte Agricultural Societv, at its 

 Annual Meeting, ticld the 17th Aui^ust, 1S36, by 

 Anderson C. Morton — and ordered to be pub- 

 lished in the Farmers' Register. 



• The 22d article o( our constitution, makes it the 

 duty of each member to make a communication at 

 the annual meetincj, on some agricultural subject. 

 More in obedience to this requisition, than from 

 the hope of affording any thing valuable in itself, 

 or acceptable to the meeting, hav^e I prepared a 

 sketch, which, if not deserving commendation on 

 any other account, shall at any rate claim the cre- 

 dit of brevity. 



It is said that every man has his hobby, and 

 that hobby is apt to be indulged in, at the expense 

 of every thing else : but this thing of riding one's 

 hobby, has not unfrequently led to results very 

 important to the world. Now I shall present to 

 the Society, a subject which I have more than 

 once urged, and which, I believe, will go far to re- 

 store the exhausted soil of our country. It is the 

 cultivation of the grasses, clover included ; not 

 the mere seeding, but that earnest, persevering, 

 skilful cultivation, which will insure success. Too 

 many of our planters, hearing ol' the success of 

 those who have resorted to the cultivation of the 

 grasses, have gone heedlessly to the expense ol 

 buying seeds and sowing them on lands actually 

 too poor to grow them ; and instead of seeing 

 their lands thus enriched, and reaping rich har- 

 vests, only reap disappointment. If this were not 

 a very common error, it would be useless to ex- 

 pose it : indeed, so conmion is it, that it is strange 

 it does not correct itself. It shows thai grass is 

 looked upon by some, as the panacea by which 

 every disease of old mother earth is at once to be 

 healed, and by which her most barren spots are to 

 be made to bear abundant crops. There is an in- 

 fatuation in the minds of some people on this 

 subject, that seems scarcely to invade them in re- 

 lation to any other belonging to agriculture. We 

 should think very strangely of the man who should 

 select his poorest spots lor raising tobacco plants : 

 yet it requires just as much manure to prepare the 

 soil for the production ot' a heavy crop of grass, as 

 ol" tobacco. Grass is, beyond all question, one of 

 the most powerful agents in promotinar the im- 

 provement of, and in preserving our land.s, that 

 has ever been employed ; but like every other 

 agent, it must be rightly applied. Judging from 

 actual experiment, I am led to conclude that land 

 made rich enough to produce a heavy crop of to- 

 bacco and wheat, will produce heavy crops of 

 grass, and that such land may be cultivated on the 

 three-shift system : say, one crop of tobacco, one 

 of wheat, and one of clover, ad infinitum, without 

 deterioration, if not with a gradual improvement. 

 Indeed, I think I am warranted by my experience, 

 in saying that such lands, if naturally adapted to 

 the growth of tobacco, wheat, and clover, will, on 

 this system, rapidly improve, even without the aid 



Vol. IV— 49 



of plaster; and with its aid, would no doubt con- 

 tinue to advance until it reached the very highest 

 point of fertility. The best tobacco on my plan- 

 tation at this time, is on land that has never been 

 manured, and has been cultivated for nine years on 

 this plan, and it is the most promising crop that 

 has ever grown on the land since it has boon re- 

 tluced from the forest state ; and one heavy crop 

 of grass has been mowed from it within that time, 

 though, when ploughed last spring, it was thickly 

 coated with the last years' growth. It has been 

 my object, for years past, to get all my tobacco land 

 under this system. That object was nearly com- 

 j)leted last year. Nine fortieths of my crop v^-ag 

 on land that had been put in grass, and after los- 

 ing two or three hogsheads by the frost, I still se- 

 cured a much finer crop than I ever made before. 

 This year, my object had been fully carried intoef- 

 liict, had I not sold my land ; and 1 should hereaf- 

 ter have been able, through the aid of clover and 

 grass, to have carried on the tobacco culture with- 

 out applying one siuixle particle of manure to it. 

 And judging from my observation and experience 

 of the past, I doubt not, that in ten years 

 more, by applying the manure to the corn land, 

 ray crops would have been doubled. And in thus 

 adding to my resources fi^r tobacco, I have also, 

 in the same pro|iortion, improved my crops of 

 wheat. Had I remained on the land anotheryear, 

 the whole of the crop of wheat would have been 

 on tobacco land, and every part of the land now in 

 tobacco, seeded in wheat ; and still land enough 

 in arass, which comes in rotation next year, lor the 

 whole crop of tobacco. 



In recommending this system, I feel the utmost 

 confidence, ha\ing given it such a test as proves 

 to me, most conclusively, that when lands are. 

 adapted to grass and clover, and made rich enough 

 to produce heavy crops, they may be not only 

 kept up for tobacco, but improve yearly. And 

 the same system, if pursued in regard to the corn 

 land, would give precisely the same results. 



In this system, there is nothing fanciful. It ia 

 based on common sense principles; it is simple, easy 

 of application, adds nothing to the labor of the 

 planter, and goes hand in hand with the cultiva- 

 tion of tobacco. But in order to carry it fully into 

 etfect, we must have, what is not uncommon in 

 this countr}', ample space for standing pasture : we 

 must vary our scene of manuring every year, and 

 what we do manure, must be made rich. When 

 there is land to clear, it comes happily to the aid 

 of this system, as no land ought to be cleared for 

 tobacco, that is not sufficiently fertile to be kept 

 up by it; nor need any land be expected to be 

 made rich by sowing grass, when it is too poor to 

 produce it. I would not discourage any attempt 

 to raise grass, but only urge that, to raise it suc- 

 cessfully, you must give it the means of growing. 

 You might as well expect to make your stock 

 thrive without food, as grass grow, when the soil 

 is too poor to prntluce it. But feed your soil with 

 manure, cover it with grass, and you may calcu- 

 late, certainly, on its paying you well for your la- 

 bor. 



