374 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



It Avas by a rare chance that, in October last, we got a ride on horseback from 

 Upper Marlboro', in view of the beautiful and neatly and well cultivated estates 

 of the brothers Hill, and thence across Mount Pleasant Ferry to pass a night 

 with our friend James Owens, Jr., residing in the heart of rich and beautiful 

 Portland Manor., a magnificent settlement owned by men of his name and fam- 

 ily, and by the Halls, Thomases, Kents, Sec, passing, the next morning, through 

 the farms — models for neat and skillful management — of John Thomas, Doctor 

 Fenwick and Mr. Gale, on to West River, where, instead of none, as some years 

 since, tioo steamboats were ready to take produce and passengers to Baltimore. 



The opportunity was embraced to get some information about Tobacco from 

 one who ought to be something of a judge. Mr. James Owens, Jr. must be ac- 

 counted, comparatively, yet a young planter, as he dwells within the smoke of 

 his father's chimney, and who, though a septuagenarian, is yet hearty, active, spir- 

 ited, and exemplary in all his habits — ready to mount his horse for the chase, 

 but not ready to give way to younger men to open the gate for him when it 

 comes to his hand. What a blessing to have such a parent spared to us for so- 

 cial enjoyment and the benefit of their counsels and experience ! Alas ! as with 

 time, we too often take no note of such blessings but by their loss. The son, in 

 this case, has been three years a member of the Prince George's Agricultural 

 Society ; and in that time has twice borne off the first, and once the second pre- 

 mium, for the best hogshead of Tobacco of the year ! Being curious to learn the 

 weights and sales of these prize hogsheads, and something of his experience 

 and opinions generally, he could not tell the first, which showed a want of proper 

 exactness in keeping his farm register, but the price they sold for was $12 per 

 hundred in 1845, and $13 50 in 1846. That of 1846 was the one for which he 

 took the second premium. This year he took the first premium again for tobac- 

 co, not yet sold but lately valued at f 15, though if early in market would have 

 commanded $20. 



It cannot be otherwise than that something of the management and progress 

 of a plain, intelligent, upright, industrious, unpretending planter like him who is 

 the subject of these remarks should be acceptable to the readers of this Journal 

 — quite as much so, we should suppose and hope, and quite as useful as the ma- 

 neuvers of a troop of light horse, or items of the blood and carnage of a battle 

 field 2,000 miles off'— that is, if agriculturists were reared in a clear discernment 

 and appreciation of the value of a peaceful, cheap and free Government and of 

 all that most vitally concerns themselves and their posterity. In that persuasion, 

 we give the following extract from a letter received in answer to one urging a 

 plain statement of the facts it details, and that because an unfortunate, unreliable 

 memory did not enable us to repeat, as we had gathered them, from personal 

 inquiry and recollection. This statement may serve to give a general idea of 

 the capabilities of the lands of Portland Manor, of the general course of hus- 

 bandry, and the results of agricultural labor skillfully applied throughout the re- 

 gion referred to. It will be seen that Mr. Owens is setting, for the young men 

 of the State, an example which all might follow, of a young farmer commencing 

 on 190 acres of land with a very small and inefficient force, going on increasing 

 his crops and the fertility/ of his land simultaneously, until he finds it to be his 

 interest, and within his means, not only to rear his family in respectability and 

 comfort and to have a welcome and a plate for a friend, but to give $0,0 an acre 

 for 160 acres of land, hard by such land as Avould be worth $200 an acre in New 

 England or anywhere where the awl and the lapstone, and the loom and the an- 



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