FARMERS' REGISTER— SHIRLEY FARM. 



107 



hay is made, because not needed for food since the 

 marsh was reclaimed. No leaves are used, be- 

 cause there are none sufficiently accessible and 

 abundant. No roots or succulent crops (to any ex- 

 tent) are used for feeding either lean cattle or beeves; 

 it being supposed that an acre of land in corn will 

 produce more aliment, than the same land and 

 labor can bring in ruta baga, or mangel wurt- 

 zel, &c. 



The winter cow -yard is now being prepared with 

 enclosure and sheds to receive the cattle. They have 

 not yet been moved from the summer pens, but 

 will be as soon as the yard is littered. It is made 

 every year in the field on which the manure is to 

 be applied the succeeding autumn. Dry sheds, 

 made of long rived slabs, stretch along the whole 

 north side of the yard, and partly along the ad- 

 joining east and west sides. The straw and other 

 food is placed in different parts of the yard, in 

 racks formed of fence-rails crossed over a low ho- 

 rizontal pole : and tliese racks v/hen full, form addi- 

 tional shelters for the cattle fi-om wind and driving- 

 rains. The cattle never leave the pen except to be 

 watered, and that not more than twice a day — and in 

 the coldest weather, only once, which is thought 

 sufficient, if done about 1 o'clock. The stock 

 have never appeared to suffer injury from this long- 

 confinement. In the spring, when the necessity for 

 feeding has ceased, and the cattle are moved to the 

 naked summer pens, the manure as it lies in the 

 winter yard is usually about two feet thick, and is 

 left in that compact state until September, being 

 sheltered from the sun by a thick coat of straw. — 

 It is carried out and spread just ahead of the 

 ploughs that are turning in the clover lay for 

 wheat. The harrowing that immediately follows 

 the ploughs closes the seams, and less loss is sus- 

 tained, (as Mr. C. thinks,) or more profit gained 

 from the manure, than could be by other more 

 usual modes of management. The manure is suf- 

 ficiently, though not completely rotted, without the 

 trouble of moving and heaping it to ferment in the 

 spring; and the fermentation must be slow and 

 gentle, from the compressed state of the mass. 



The unusual extent annually manured by Mr. 

 C. and the unquestionable general and great in- 

 crease of fertility which he has thus produced, are 

 alone sufficient to command much respect for his 

 opinions as to the proper application of manure. — 

 Still, others are ascertain thai there is great loss in 

 not using the manure for a spring crop to precede 

 wheat, as well as from its being left exposed with 

 so broad a surface in the pen through the summer, 

 and in the earth after ploughing under, in Septem- 

 ber. Its being buried beneath a good furi'ow- 

 slice, while the temperature of the earth is so high, 

 without excluding air or moisture, must serve (in 

 my opinion,) to excite a new fermentation, and 

 cause a great loss of products, as tliere would be 

 no growing plants to absorb tliem. 



Reclaimed Marshes. The diked tide swamp of 

 Shirley is so beautiful a piece of the most fertile 

 land, and is kept in such perfect good order, that 

 whenever I have seen it, my first feeling of admi- 

 ration has almost compelled me for a time to yield 

 all my objections to such improvements ; and in en- 

 joying the view of the beauty and fertility thus 

 created by enterprize and industry, to forget my 

 conviction of its transient value, and certain fu- 

 ture end. This piece, of eighty-five acres, was co- 

 vered by the thick gro^wth of ash and gum, which 



is common on fresh water marshes of an elevation 

 above ordinary tides. It has now been diked and 

 drained seven years. If I may judge the soil by 

 examinations of my own lands of like appearance, 

 and of the embanked salt marsh of Hog Island, 

 this contains fifty per cent, of its weight (when 

 perfectly dried for examination,) of vegetable mat- 

 ter, destructible by fire, and consequently by pu- 

 ti-e faction, when exposed to the air, and the alter- 

 nations of wet and dry weather. But this vegeta- 

 ble part of the soil (composed of rotten roots, &c.) 

 which is found at all known depths, is so porous 

 and spongy, and so light when dried, that for it to 

 form one half of the weight, it must constitute 

 nine tenths of the bulk of the soil. My knowing 

 these facts of the composition of our marsh soils, 

 was enough to convince me that whenever drained 

 and cultivated, they would as certainly roi away, as 

 would a large dung-hill if left standing for a num- 

 ber of years. The careful and excellent manage- 

 ment of the Shirley swamp, will cause it to present 

 the strongest confirmation of my opinion. Most of 

 the embanked marshes on James River have, from 

 neglect, been returned vuider the dominion of the 

 tides so soon, that the cause I have mentioned was 

 not permitted to be seen operating alone. In every 

 such case, the final failure of the embankment has 

 been attributed to some extraordinary high tide, 

 or to the cutting through the bank by muskrats, 

 or to the water penetrating under and " blowing 

 up" the flood-gates or trunks. Here, there has 

 been no neglect. Disasters have occurred indeed, 

 of such magnitude and frequency, that there are 

 not many persons who would not have abandoned 

 the improvement in despair. But, whatever da- 

 mage has been sustained, was speedily repaired — 

 and the land has every successive year yielded a 

 crop of corn, the best of which was more than fifty 

 bushels the acre, and tiie whole making a general 

 average of thirty five bushels of sound corn for ev- 

 ery year and through every disaster and loss. The 

 level of the land within the dike appeared to my 

 eye, (and confirmed by Mr. Carter's opinion,) to 

 be already eighteen inches lower than that with- 

 out, which was still subject to the tides. The bank 

 ^vas orighially six feet high. Every winter since 

 it was built, a foot of additional earth has been laid 

 on the bank, which was not enough to counterba- 

 lance the loss of the ensuing summer : for after all 

 these additions (which are exclusive of the repairs 

 of extensive breaches made by hi^h tides,) the 

 bank is now lov/er than at first. But what is most im- 

 portant in the matter, the clear profit from the crops 

 has already greatly overpaid the whole expense of 

 making and preserving the embankment: and there- 

 fore the usual loss attending such improvements 

 will be avoided — unless the proprietor should too 

 long endeavor to defend his work from its inevita- 

 ble end, the water resuming possession of the 

 whole space. Though I am no advocate for the 

 embankment of our tide marshes (compared with 

 other improvements,) yet if such works are un- 

 dertaken, it is of the utmost importance that they 

 should be well executed : and all who are unable 

 to resist this most besetting temptation of tide- 

 v/atcr proprietors, will do well to practice the same 

 liberal expense of labor, the care and watchful- 

 ness, and the perseverance through difficulties and 

 disasters, that have concurred to secure the success 

 and profit of the embankment and cultivation of 

 the Shirley swamp. 



