FARMERS' REGISTER— GENERAL SYSTEM OF CULTIVATION, &c. 21 



general be said to be as much as half rotted. Poles 

 are placed in different parts of the ricks ivhcn they 

 are made, and by pulling them out and feeling- 

 them, the heat of the whole mass is known. By 

 this mode of fermenting, ^re^ngtng-, (the white 

 mouldy appearance so common on manure,) is 

 avoided, and the whole rick makes good manure. 

 The cow pen litter when used alone for manure, 

 was always found very weak. Mr. L. thinks it 



E roper to heap and ferment the manure, so as to 

 reak down the texture of the coarse litter, but 

 does not approve of thorough fermentation, any 

 more than the total want of it.* 



The times of carting out the manure from the 

 ricks, do not depend so much on their age, (after 

 having been heaped fifteen or twenty days,) as 

 upon the state of the land. When carried out, 

 the heaps are dropped at 24 by 27J feet, spread and 

 ploughed under very carefully, and as soon as pos- 

 sible to avoid waste from exposure to the air. The 

 whole job had been completed but a few days be- 

 fore the day of my visit (April 19th.) The ma- 

 nure now making in the stables and littered pens, 

 will be used for turnips, after being ricked. Of 

 course the season, and the length of time will 

 cause the fermentation to be more complete. Mr. 

 L. does not approve of top dressing, though no 

 actual experiment had proved the loss incurred by 

 that practice; but supposes it may be advisable 

 when the manure is perfectly rotted. The cattle 

 will now soon leave their last littered pens for 

 moveable pens on the naked land, as is the usual 

 practice. During the summer, about five acres 

 are dunged in this manner. The land intended to 

 be manured by the summer pens, is ploughed first, 

 and as mucli as is manured in good time, is pre- 

 pared for turnips. 



The raked leaves are used only for the hog 

 pens, in which they are put so thick as to prevent 

 the hogs from rooting to the earth below. Enough 

 of this litter is used to make about 300 loads of 

 manure, the quality of which is very good. The 

 pme leaves are considered the most valuable. All 

 the hogs are confined in pens through the winter 

 and spring, until the clover is enough advanced 



* It issurprisins; what different opinions are hekl wit]i 

 regard to the most advantageous preparation and eco- 

 nomical api^lication of farm yard manure. Even within 

 the small county of Charles City, practices the most 

 opposed, arc found on the farms of several intelligent 

 gentlemen, all of whom are good farmers, and success- 

 ful improvers. The practice of Mr. Lewis is described 

 above. Mr. William Minge, of Sturgeon Point, leaves 

 all his manure vmdisturbed on the farm yard until after 

 harvest, when it is moved, jiut into large heaps, and 

 covered with earth, to remain until used the succeeding 

 spring on corn. Mr. John Sekicn, of Westover, uses 

 the whole of his farm yard manure the springit ismade, 

 for corn, without heaping to ferment. Mr. Hill Carter, 

 of Shirley, leaves his manure in the yard, thickly co- 

 vered with straw, until August and September, Avlicn 

 it is carried out and ploughed in on his follow for wheat, 

 Mr. Collier Minge, of "Walnut Grove, approves of and 

 practices top dressing on wheat. Some other differences, 

 though less striking than these, may be found in almost 

 every farmer's practice ; yet each one thinks his own 

 course the best to avoid (what all alike fear) tlie great 

 waste of the enrichixig principles of the manure. Such 

 opposite opinions and practices, show how much is lost 

 for want of free communication and discussion, and 

 that by an interchange of opinions, each individual 

 perhaps might both i-cceive and dispense instruction. 



for their grazing, when they are turned upon the 

 field of the fourth year. They are now confined, 

 and on corn ieeding. Forty hogs nearly grown, 

 in one poi at this time, are kept in thriving con- 

 dition on two bushels of corn.a day. Simblms are 

 raised for hog food, an-d considered very valuable 

 for that purpose. It is not from choice that the 

 hogs are thus kept in pens, but because if turned 

 outside of the enclosure they are often lost or 

 stolen. The cattle and sheep ha\'e some advan- 

 tage from 150 acres of land outside of the enclo- 

 sure, of which much the greater part, however, is 

 low tide marsh, irom which the cows can get very 

 little food, and the sheep none. 



Throughout the winter the cattle arc confined 

 to their pens, except during the short time required 

 to drive them to water t^v'icc a day. The fallacy 

 of the general opinion that close confinement of 

 cattle in littered pens is injurious, by making them 

 both lousy and diseased, is sufficiently exposed by 

 the good condition of the stock of Mr. L. under 

 this treatment. The injury imputed to this cause 

 is in fact, produced by a \vant of enough litter to 

 keep the cattle dry and comfortable. 



With sheep, the case is different. Though the 

 want of suitable pasture ground for them com- 

 pels Mr. L. to pen his small flock during winter, 

 they suffer from the confinement greatly; and 

 many would die, but for the succulent food fur- 

 nished them in turnips. Peas are given to them 

 also, in considerable quantities. The management 

 of sheep which Mr. L. adopts, is not such as he 

 deems profitable, or would recommend to others. 

 He considers their grazing so destructive to grass, 

 and consequently so injurious to the soil, that it 

 causes him to keep no more than will serve for the 

 suj)ply of mutton and lamb for the family. 



It being my object only to report the general 

 system of cultivation and improvement, I do not 

 enter upon the feeding of live stock, except as con- 

 nected with the making of manure. Yet there is 

 no part of the economy of Mr. Lewis's farm more 

 admirable (as is generally suj)posed) than his man- 

 ner of feeding, particularly as it regards horses 

 and mules. 



Preparation, for Corn. Low as is the Wya- 

 noke land, and with a surface seemingly shaped 

 so as not to permit much surface water to run off, 

 very little draining is any where requisite, and cul- 

 tivation with a level surface is admissible, except 

 on some of the land so lovv as to be affected by the 

 highest tides. Generally, the open texture of the 

 soil and subsoil is sufficient to pass off all super- 

 fluous water from the surface. 



Not a sjjring Ijursts out any where on the farm, 

 and there is no need for any side ditch to cut otT 

 such oozing waters as form the greatest objection 

 to our hilly lands. This absence of springs is one 

 of the great advantages possessed by the cultiva- 

 tors of soils formed like Wyanoke. But though 

 ridges and water furrows are not wanting to keep 

 tlie surface dry, the corn land intended to receive 

 the manure is always ploughed and tilled in 5^ feet 

 beds, under the belief that the manure can in that 

 manner bejiest secured in the soil, and less dis- 

 turbed and^xposed by the after tillage. Still, the 

 manure is not accumidated in the former water 

 furrow, when the beds are reversed; for care is 

 taken so to spread it, that it may be dispersed as 

 equally as possible through the Avholo width of the 

 bed. The land not recently manured is ploughed 



