578 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 10 



220 lbs. butter, at 25 cents, 55 00 



400 gallons milk, at 25 cents, 100 00 

 ashes, hen-iioiise, larni, pen and 



stable manure, 200 00 



Birth or 3 slaves, at ^100 each, 300> 00 

 24 young hogs, tor pork, in 1836, at 



$X 24 00 



9 young sheen, at -tjl 75, 14 00 



3 calves, at i^S, 9 00 



Negroes' Credits. 



7i bbls. corn, at ^o, -937 50 



Blade fodder, top fodder and 



shucks, 3 50 



150 head cabbage, at 6 cents, 9 00 



6 doz. cucinnbers, at 25 cents, 1 50 



6 doz. symlins, at 25 cents, 1 50 



3 bushels potatoes, at Ijjlj 3 00 



1 do. onions, 1 00 

 100 melons, at 12^- cents, 12 50 



Red pepper, gouber peas, and 



grass nuts, 2 50 



Pumpkins and broom-corn, 2 50 



4 bushels walnuts, 2 00 

 Trapping 3 doz. hares, at 12^ 



cents, " 4 50 



6 white oak baskets, 3 00 



Making and mending shoes for 

 neighbors slaves, 5 00 



2 bbls. percimmon beer, at 124 



cents per gallon, " 9 00 



6 foot-mats, at 37^ cents, 2 25—100 25 



©3,500 31 



Some of the above credits are guessed at, and 

 the prices also, but they are not far from a correct 

 estimate. It may be said, that I have credited the 

 farm with many articles necessary for its support: 

 be it so — my object in making this communication, 

 is to give a full and fair statement of every thing 

 made, grown or manufactured, without taking 

 into account the expenses incurred, and given to 

 the public for what it is worth. It may, perhaps, 

 rouse and stimulate those who cultivate poor 

 farms to more active exertion; for 1 do contend, 

 that industrious, enterprising agriculturalists on 

 old farms in eastern Virginia, will do better for 

 themselves, their families, and the community in 

 general, by remaining at home and improving 

 their lands, than they couk) possibly do by emi- 

 grating to the south-west, and incurring the ex- 

 pense of clearing the forest, opening and improv- 

 ing fiirms, planting orchards, building houses, and 

 forming new acquaintances and friends. This, 

 however, is seldom regarded, we have but few 

 Virginians at this time that \oye home ; they see 

 a great opening before them, extending beyond Vir- 

 ginia to the Rocky Mountains, and they are anx- 

 ious to be atnong the first to fill it up. 



You, sir, have done much tor the Old Dominion, 

 and much remains for you to do. 1 feel disposed 

 to call loudly on all the Agricultural Societies of 

 Virginia, and the literary and enlightened part of 

 the state, to give some assistance to your labori- 

 ous undertaking. We are about forming a club 

 of some 12 or 15 gentlemen, whose duty it shall 

 be to furnish an agricultural communication fi)r 

 the " Farmers' Register" every month, or oflener, 

 it we find it convenient; and, we Jiope, genllemen 



from other counties will come to the same deter- 

 mination, and fill up the Register with useful agri- 

 cultural matter. I wish that I was an industrious 

 fi:U-mer, instead of a lazy M. D. I should take 

 great pleasure in writing and sending on agricul- 

 tural commimicationsfbrthe "Farmers' Register," 

 but I have been too negligent in my profession, 

 and have ploughed the old farm up and dovvu-hill 

 so long, that its soil has followed the plough fur- 

 row, branches and creeks, until it has in all proba- 

 bility reached the Atlantic, leaving me in my 52nd 

 year, to renovate the sub-soil, and instead of writ- 

 ing in my parlour for j^our periodical, have still to 

 labor hard to make up for mis-spent tinje. 



Give me leave to say, that the literary and ag- 

 licultural departments of the "Farmers' Regis- 

 ter," require some attention; there is still room 

 for improvement. __The editorial department, [ 

 think, very good — but the literary department par- 

 ticularly, does not blaze forth with such scintilla- 

 tions as miijht have been expected from such re- 

 sources. I do not wish you to understand by this 

 remark, that j'ou have not done your duty ably 

 and fiiuthfully ; but w^here is * * * * — and * * * * 

 es(]uires — the Hon. * * * * — the Hon. * * * — 

 Judires * * *— * * * — * * * and * * * M.D. and a 

 hundred other literary gentlemen in Virginia? I 

 wish to see the "Farmers' Register" Travelling 

 fiu- beyond the agricultural limits of Virginia, and 

 in order to do this, you must give it more sail and 

 ballast. A gallant streamer bearing the horn of 

 plenty, filled with the agricultural products of our 

 highly ftivored land, should be seen waving on its 

 mast, with you sir, a thirty-six pounder on its 

 deck, to fire the grand salute. It is an excellent 

 farming repository, containing many valuable agri- 

 cultural disquisitions, and nothing is now required, 

 but to enlist the services of the literary sons of the 

 Old Dominion, in order to extend its influence, not 

 only throughout the Urdted States, but the whole 

 civilized world, and "make two ears of corn, or 

 two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground 

 where only one grew before." galek. 



[The foregoing estimate of products we think much 

 too high — but shall not offer corrections. 



The initials which our correspondent had given 

 above, of sundry distinguished Hterary gentlemen 

 of Virginia, we have chosen to leave out, but will 

 answer his inquiry with regard to them. The first 

 mentioned, is a true, friend and efficient aid to the 

 Farmers' Register — often a contributor to its pages, 

 (though less often than would be desirable,) but is to 

 be generally condemned (like our present corres- 

 pondent, Galen,) for using fictitious signatures, and 

 thereby lessening the value of all communications of 

 matters of fact, or of opiiuon resting on experience of 

 other facts. One other, only, of the distinguished gen- 

 tlemen designated above, is a subscriber to tliis journal, 

 who has punctually paid his money for it, but has 

 never furnished any other aid. As to the others — 

 among them there is not one who subscribes for, 

 writes for, or (so far as we know,) reads the Register, 

 or cares whether it stands or falls. A very few of the 

 distinguished men of Virginia have been contributors, 

 and most valued contributors to this journal — but to 

 not one who was deeply engaged in party politics, or 

 holding political or judicial office, has this journal 



