744 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 12 



To hauling to granary — a day's labor, 30 



To thrashing or treading out 25 bushels of 



wheat — three days' labor, 90 



To carriage of 25 bushels of wheat fifty 



miles, 6 00 



$7 95 



Cr. 



By sale of twenty-five bushels of wheat 



at one dollar per bushel, 25 00 



Nett profit, if cost of teams were . 



included, $17 05 



Thus it will be seen, that, notwithstanding the 

 much greater amounts of labor bestowed upon the 

 cultivation and securing the crop of an acre in to- 

 bacco, than that bestowed on an acre in whpaf; 

 yet the nett profit of each is about the same. The 

 greater profit of the wheat crop will more niani- 

 liistly appear, when it is recollected tbat a laborer 

 can cultivate, perhaps, filteen or twenty times as 

 many acres in wheat as in tobacco. In the above 

 estimate, the board of the laborer was inadver- 

 tently omitted, which would reduce the profit of 

 the acre in wiieat nearly a dollar. 

 An acre of land of sutEcient fertility to produce a 

 thousand pounds of tobacco, will yield ten bar- 

 rels of corn, which, valued at three dollars per 

 barrel, amounts to ^30 00 



Fodder estimated at three dollars, 3 00 



Shucks and tops at three dollars, 3 00 



$.36 00 



Expense (f cultivation. 



To one day's fallowing, 



To one day's ploughing for planting. 



To one day's labor in planting, 



To one day's ploughing at the time of 



Aveeding, 

 To one day's work in weeding, 

 To one day's work in hilling. 

 To one day's work in ploughinir, 

 To one day's work in second hilling. 

 To two days' work in securing fodder, 

 To one day's work in securing tops. 

 To five cart loads of corn, pulled and 



hauled to crib, two d.iys' labor. 

 To shucking out ten barrels of corn, and 



cribbing the same, two days' labor. 



To board of laborer. 



The estimated value of corn, fodder, &c. 



per acre, 

 Expenses, &c.. 



^00 30 

 30 

 30 



30 



30 

 30 

 30 

 30 

 60 

 30 



60 



60 



The nett profit, 



830 00 



In the lust estimate there is no charge flir car- 

 riage to market. The corn is valued at the neigh- 

 borhood price, and is generally delivered at the 

 crib of the seller. 1 have long entertained the opi- 

 nion, that if the farmers in the tobacco district had 

 always a sure market fi)r their corn at a conveni- 

 ent distance, it would be a much more profitable 

 crop than either wheat or tobacco. Hut since a 

 good manager cein always raise one hundred 



pounds of pork with less than a barrel and half of 

 corn, hog raising at four dollars and a half and 

 five dollars per hundred, is a more lucrative busi- 

 ness than tobacco at six dollars. Let, then, our 

 planters greatly curtail, if not entirely dispense 

 with, the tobacco crop; and raise wheat, corn, oats 

 and hogs. Let them, in fine, like our calcidating 

 brethren of a colder clime, raise every thinff that 

 is adapted to our soil which yields some profit, and 

 tends permanently to improve the soil. Tobacco 

 has ceased to be a profitable crop in Virginia. It 

 answers well as a pioneering crop to prepare a 

 forest country for a farming one. But to cultivate 

 large crops oftobacco on plantations impoverished 

 by hard cultivation, is making the smallest ima- 

 ginable annual profit, at an annual loss of capital 

 of ten times the amount of gain. A tobacco 

 plantation naturally deteriorates in value when to- 

 bacco is the prominent crop cultivated; a larm ge- 

 nerally improves. When grain crops then can be 

 made at equal annual profit with a tobacco crop, 

 a farm is more profitable than a tobacco plantation. 

 What, then, must be the f()lly of cultivating to- 

 bacco when the products in grain of the same plan- 

 tation greatly exceed in annual value the tobacco 

 crop? I have never believed that the tobacco 

 crop is peculiarly an exhauster: like most large 

 leaf plants, it draws most of its nourishment from 

 the atmosphere: but its impoverishing efii^cts arise 

 li'om the tact that it monopolizes, during every 

 portion of the year, most of the labor of the farm. 

 It prevents, for the most part, attention to putres- 

 cent manures, without a regular application of 

 which all fiu'ms, in the absence of mineral manures, 

 must deteriorate. It should also be remarked that 

 no part of the tobacco plant, except a meager por- 

 tion of the stalk, returns to the land. The tiiend 

 of humanity cannot desist from mentioning ano- 

 ther objection to tobacco cultivation. 1 allude to 

 the hard lot of those who arc employed in cultivat- 

 ing it. When we take into consideration the at- 

 tention that it requires, the night labor that is ne- 

 cessarily employed on it, and the uncommon pliy- 

 sical exertion that many pans of its management 

 call lor, we must admit with Jefferson, that it is a 

 scene of continual wretciiedness. 



E. 



For tlie Fiirmer's Register. 

 THE WILD GOOSE. 



yJlbemarle, 27th Feb. 1837. 



No callinir affords better opportunities for the 

 study of natural history, than that ol" the liirmer, 

 except that of the naturalist himsclf^indeed the 

 sometimes casual and hasty observations of the 

 latter, lead liini into errors which it is in the power 

 of the ibrmer to correct: exempli gratia — Gold- 

 smith makes the legs of the wild goose, safiion 

 — those of the tame, brown; the reverse is true. 

 But I hes pardon: it was not my purpose to take 

 the field ol" controversy with the natnralist; but in 

 the humble calling of a farmer, to found u|)on the 

 consanguinity of the two professions, my right to 

 fill a paragraph of the Register with the statement 

 of a fact or two which I think will be new to most 

 of its readers, to wit. A very worthy li-iend and 

 neighbor of mine has succeeded in inducing a flock 

 of wild geese to feed in his yard, and to receive 



