764 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 12 



The common practice in the south is to plant in 

 ridges, and we take no care to protect the plant 

 ironi our scorching sun: the consequence is, that 

 in dry, hot weather, the plant is willed, and can- 

 not, therefore, properlv perform its office in prepar- 

 ing the matter to be deposited in the tuber below 

 the soil: the consequence of this is, fh.at in sum- 

 mer we eat imperfect or diseased pomtoes, and we 

 fail to keep them in winter, for the very s;mie rea- 

 son that we would liul to keep an imperfect or 

 diseased apple, or ear of corn. I have attempted 

 to avoid these consequences. Ridges are necessa- 

 ry in England and Ireland (both moist climates) 

 for purposes of drainage. Our climate, beincr hot 

 and dry, requires the opposite praclice. I plant in 

 trenches twelve or eii^hleen inches deep accordinij 

 to soil, and put stable manure at the bottom, on 

 which the potatoes are planted. The trenches 

 are then filled up with leaves, straw, shucks, &c., 

 and these covered slightly with earth, takincr care 

 m leave ihe ground highest between the^rows. 

 When the potatoes are six or eight inches hio-h, 

 the whole surface of the jrround is carefully cov- 

 eTod with leaves, leaving^ of course, the tops of 

 the stalks out. In this way, no heat of summer 

 wdts the leaves. They continue fi-esh and green. 

 Blossoms are produced in abundance, followed by 

 seed which comes to full maturity. The tubers 

 are large, dry, and of fine flavor; and being dug af- 

 ter the vines are completely dead (about The mid- 

 dle of i\ugust) are kept without any trouble all 

 wmter, either in barrels or spread on the cellar 

 floor. JVly first attempt crave me a prod.uct at the 

 rate of 300 bushels to the acre; and now, the last 

 of February, I see no difference between them and 

 the best northern potatoes, when broufrht on the 

 table. 



Mhens, Ga., Feb. 27, 1S37. 



JAMES CAMAK. 



FARMIIVG ON THE RIVANNA. 



No. II. 



To thr Editor of the F.irmers' Register. 



JJ/arc/i, 12/^,1837. 

 Your favorof the 3rd instant, reached me only a 

 few days since, and I avail myself of the first lei- 

 sure for attending to if. You do injustice both to 

 your press and to Rivanna, in ascribing his silence 

 to " discouragement, fl-om the typograpliical er- 

 rors which appeared in his essay of the January 

 number of the Register." He is too well aware 

 of the illegibility of his hand to have found fiiult 

 with your devil under any circumstances, but to 

 give him his due, more could not reasonably have 

 been expected of him in this instance. I was in- 

 deed, surprised, considering the carelessness of the 

 production and the opiinn given you, to see it in 

 print— and still more so to detect so few materia' 

 inaccuracies. True, some plural ss, articles nm\ 

 such like unimportant addenda were supplied bv 

 the printer, which might grate harshly on the taste 

 of a belles-lettres scholar;' but as my reputation a« 

 well as interest (luckily for me) rest on the plnvtrh 

 and not on the pen, these were, to my sensibilitv, 

 venial appendages. ■" 



Whilst I cannot decline your invitation to fiir- 

 ther communication, I must beg Ifave. in lieu of 



something original, to take a cursory review of 

 " Rivanna" — which his unworthiness (fives me an 

 opportuniiy of anticipatiuir any one else in doinn-; 

 if indeed, he might at all have expected sucira 

 compliment. However (rlarrinir the imperfections 

 of his system of husbaruirv, there may be some 

 young farmers at least, who are williir*; to make 

 experiment of one which is professedlv^susiained 

 by the writer's experience— and fi_^clin<r"the mite of 

 responsibility this reflection imposes, he is ]ei\ to 

 the unusual course of reviewing his own work. 

 In explaining those of its deli-,cis'which strike me 

 as most prominent, I will take them seriatim.— 

 Lest I may be misapprehended on mv views on 

 corn culture, let me say that the niould-board 

 plough is by 710 means to be recommended exclu- 

 sivcly, over substratum implements, on the con- 

 trary, that the latter are best in soils that do not 

 throw up grass and weeds /ree/i/, and particularly 

 on fhrms where labor is abundant. I am here, 

 Mr. Editor, reminded of one ol' the fypoo-raphical 

 errata alluded to— although 1 believe, that more 

 injury is often done to the corn crop by too much 

 than too_ little work, yet do not say that more tfian 

 I give might not be "'judicioushj,'''\noi injuriously) 

 bestowed. In a comparison of the above mention- 

 ed ploughs, undoubtedly, (all other circumstances 

 considered) that which turns out the manure least 

 (whether artificial or a ley) and exposes least to 

 evaporation, is preferable- but on rich land with 

 a scarciiy of labor, these evils must be endured— 

 nor is the evaporation so great as (o be much felt 

 under my sj stem of thick planting, on such land— 

 for Ihe crop very soon becomes a forest which is 

 almost impenetrable to the sun— in our climate an 

 important consideration. 



Next in order come my opinions of the time 

 and manner of sowing grass seed— and first, as to 

 clover. If I have ever known a season in wiiich 

 that grass should have been sown later than Jan- 

 uary, it was the past. Having always practised 

 sowing on a light snow, when it occurred at the 

 proper time, on account of the latter resrulatino- 

 the distribution of the seed— I availed myself of 

 such an one, on the 19th of that month. The 

 snow was carried off immediately after, by a sud- 

 den thaw which closed the pores of the earth be- 

 lore the seed had reached it— leaving them on the 

 surface exposed to a warm and misty spell of more 

 than a week. They swelled and were in a dough 

 stale, many of them sprouting. In this condition 

 (as might have been expected) they were cauijht 

 hy n hard freeze, which endangered the burstTng 

 of the swollen seed, and more certain destructioii^ 

 as I thought, of thfi sprouted ones. Notwithstand- 

 ing this combination of untoward circumstances, 

 the seed sown at that time are vegetating as well 

 as could be desired, and are, I believe, n7ore safe 

 from harm, than those sown according to weather 

 and condition of the land, from that period to the 

 present. This result, confirming an experience of 

 twenty years will not defer me from sowing here- 

 after in January, provided the field is in open con- 

 dition for the reception of seed — etvr avoidino- in 

 future (changeable as our climate has become) 

 the jeopanly ni'snotv, as a seed-bed. Clover seed 

 sown on oat land in the spring (if clean) will bury 

 themselves sufficiently, immediately alter the oafs 

 are harrowed in—W rain intervenes, I use a light 

 haiTovv. 



As regards spear grasses— if sown in firm wheat 



