1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



475 



As this county affords numerous instances of a 

 successively continued corn crop, for a lengtli of 

 time far greater than I have heard of in other pla- 

 ces, I think [ may venture to answer the interro- 

 gatory. The land in this count}', when first set- 

 tled, like the lands generally ol" lower Virginia, 

 was subjected to the culture ot tobacco. x\fter 

 the population had increased so as to require a 

 large supply of bread stuff for home consumption, 

 and the price of tobacco having declined, it be- 

 came necessary to abandon tobacco and cultivate 

 corn. 



There are in this county, small rracts of land 

 which have been in corn, year after year, as far 

 back as the recollection of our oldest inhabitants 

 extend. The same fields have been planted in 

 corn successively lor more than half a century, and 

 now at the present time, strange to tell, produce a 

 pretty good crop. These lands when new, (judg- 

 ing by the contiguous cleared lands of recent cul- 

 tivation,) produced from three to five barrels of 

 corn per acre. Now, at this day, although they 

 have been under a corn crop annually (or more 

 than fifty years, they yield from two to three bar- 

 rels to the acre, with the application of a very 

 small, meager scattering of manure ; and where a 

 tolerably liberal manuring has been given, as 

 much corn will be produced as when the land was 

 first cleared. 



These fiicts would lead to many speculations, 

 which, if I had leisure, I might be disposed to in- 

 dulge in. It is considered by all agriculturalists, 

 that vegetable matter is very essential in a soil to 

 produce any kind of crop. Here we have instan- 

 ces of land producing pretty good crops of corn 

 with no vegetable matter in the soil. It is impos- 

 sible there can be any such matter, as the corn is 

 well worked, bj' plough and hoes, and all grass 

 which may vegetate, speedily destroyed. If per- 

 chance, a little crab grass should show itself after 

 the corn is laid by, the cattle are turned in when 

 the corn is gathered, and thus that little is destroy- 

 ed ; so that, from year to year, the land is kept 

 clear and naked. Where then do the stalks get 

 their substance from'? The atmosphere!! But 

 they contain lime and gypsum. Where do they 

 come from ? There is none in the soil — as that 

 consists of simple sand and clay. I will not un- 

 dertake to solve these interrogatories, but leave 

 them for otliers to unravel. 



There is perhaps, little or no soil in any other 

 portion of"this state, which would bear such a con- 

 tinued corn crop without greater deterioration. 

 Most soils woulii, by such a course, be reduced to 

 absolute sterility. How then does it happen, that 

 this land will sustain such severe cropping ? Is it 

 the character of the soil ? Or is it the contiguity 

 to salt water ? It must, I conceive, be the former; 

 as there are lands equally under the influence of 

 the salt water, which will not sustain a corn crop 

 lor so long a period without being reduced to the 

 lowest degree of productiveness. There are with- 

 in my own observation, even in this county, lands 

 which have, by this continued cultivation of corn, 

 been reduced so low as to produce scarcely 

 any corn at all. These lands are more sandy, 

 indeed they have little or no clay in their composi- 

 tion. From these facts I am led to the conclusion, 

 that the lands which have sustained a corn crop so 



aided by a perfectly level surface, which prevents 

 their washing. 



\V5I. SHULTICE. 



3Iaihews Co., Va. 



[ Lest our silence should be construed into concur- 

 rence (as has happened heretofore,) we must express 

 dissent from some of the deductions of our correspon- 

 dent. The remarkable durability, or long continued 

 productiveness, of some of the soils of lower Virginia, 

 is a fact as certain in itself, as it is good proof of their 

 value and good chemical constitution. But however 

 strange, however unaccountable, may be their contin- 

 ued productiveness under such treatment — however 

 great the abstractions of vegetable matter, and howe- 

 ver small the returns — it is nevertheless certain that 

 some vegetable (or other putrescent) matter must still 

 remain, or that the soil would be perfectly barren. 

 The ashes of any growth on this land (as intimated 

 above) would also be found to contain lime, in ono or 

 several of its combinations : but this (if standing alone) 

 would prove that lime was in the soil — though probably 

 not there in the usual form of carbonate of lime — and 

 possibly not as either the sulphate (gypsum) or as 

 phosphate of lime. We here can merely express dis- 

 sent : for extended views on this subject, we refer to 

 the reasoning on the doctrine of neutral and acid soils, 

 as stated at length in the Essay on Calcareous Ma- 

 nures.] 



To the Editor of tlie Farmers' Register. 



Bremo, Oct. 18, 1836. 



It may be satisfactory to your intelligent and in- 

 teresting correspondent, Doct. Muse, and perhaps 

 to other inquirers on the subject, to know, that his 

 observations on the propagation of the Hessian Fly, 

 are sustained by the concurrent testimony of one 

 other practical observer. I therefore send you the 

 following extract from the American Farmer, Vol. 

 1, page 296. 



JOHN II. COCKE, sen. 



Proceedings of the Jlgricultural Society of Mbemarlc. 



Papers communicated for publication liy the Conesponding 

 Committee. 



ON HESSIAN FLY. — READ NOV. 1, 1817. 



JBrcmo, October. 1817 



Sir : — Believing the following facts to be new 

 in the natural history of the Hessian Fly, I deem 

 them worthy to be communicated to the society: 



1st. That this destructive insect deposites its 

 effiis on the blades of the wheat indiflerently, at 

 tioai half an inch to three inches from the niaia 

 stalk, or central shoot. 



2d. That they remain upon the blade, in the egg 

 slate, from 5 to 7 days at least : 



And 3d. That they are hatched into the worm 



or maggot, on the blade. 



That the egir is deposited on the leaf, or blade 

 long,^have been ena^^^^^^^^^ I ofthe wheat.'is'discoverable by close examinatioa 



composed of a happy admixture of sand and clay, I to the naked eye; but may be put out of all dispute, 



