FARMERS' REGISTER— THE FOUR SHIFT SYSTEM. 



133 



very heavy crop of straw. The oats made on forty 

 acres of the corn land the preceding year. 



P] Rust on wheat again — the oats as before, 

 and for the three next years on part of the corn 

 land of the previous years. 



[••] Including some inferior grain got from the 

 screenings, the crop of wheat measured 5400 bush- 

 els. 



[^] Rust again very destructive to the wheat. 



Another change was made in 1826, and will con- 

 tinue through the remainder of the table, viz : the 

 corn crops were altogether derived from the re- 

 claimed swamp, then brought into cultivation, (as 

 described in my previous communication,) and 

 oats occupied the whole of the field before used (or 

 corn, and thereafter was the only spring crop of the 

 rotation on highland, with a single exception in 

 1831. I will here remark that having a corn mill on 

 the estate, which yielded enough toll corn to feed 

 the laborers and raise the hogs, and the oats be- 

 ing more than sufficient to feed the horses and other 

 stock, the corn became all (or very nearly all) a sale 

 crop. Besides the crop stated in the table, we ge- 

 nerally made enough cotton to clothe the negroes, 

 and pork to feed them, all of which had been pur- 

 chased under the former three shift rotation. 



REMARKS. 



P] This was the greatest oat year ever known 

 in our country. We threshed and measured only 

 half the shocks, which made three thousand busli- 

 els, and the remainder, estimated at the same, was 

 cut up and fed away in the straw. 



['] Ploughed in tifly acres of oats to ameliorate 

 the land, having a large supply of the j)reccding 

 year's crop on hand still. The effect produced by 

 ploughing in the oats, did not justify the repetition. 



['^i Some oats cut up for feeding this year and 

 the next, are not included in the quantity stated 

 for those years. 



P] Limed fifty acres fallowed land with five 

 hundred casks of stone lime — the effect very con- 

 siderable on the wheat. 



['"] Two hundred barrels of this crop of corn 

 were from twenty five acres of the oat field, which 

 is the only exception to the general practice of corn 

 being excluded from the highland. 



["] Three hundred and twenty five acres in 

 wheat, instead of two hundred as before, by an 

 addition from the land before kept for pasture. 



In the flill of 1831, the standing pasture (two 

 hundred and fifty acres,) was divided into four 

 ecjual parts, and one of tlicm added to each of the 

 four fields, so as to increase the size of each to one 

 hundred and sixty two and a half acres. This year 

 (1833,) I have purchased tw^o hundred acres lor a 



standing pasture, to make my system complete : 

 and tlie next winter, shall clear twenty five acres 

 more to add to my cultivated fields, which (with 

 the twenty five acres in lots kept for grazing,) will 

 make seven hundred acres for cultivation, and two 

 hundred for pasture, exclusive of the reclaimed 

 land. I now expect to begin to reap the full be- 

 nefit of my system of cultivation. The first four 

 hundred acres may be considered as permanently 

 improved, and the recent addition from the former 

 pasture in a fair way of improvement, (as it is v.ell 

 taken with clover,) and the whole crops ought 

 now to increase every year. 



Since 1825, we have mowed very little clover, as 

 the cultivation and other labors of the reclaimed 

 swamp, have left but little time for hay-making. 

 Consequently, nearly all the clover has been plough- 

 ed in to improve the soil. 



In addition to the results above stated, I will 

 now give my reasons for thinking the four shift 

 system the best for our James river lands. 



In tlie first place, one of the objects of the Vir- 

 ginia farmer should be to make as much as possi- 

 ble for each hand employed, as labor is m.uch 

 dearer than land in this country, and he cannot 

 make a full profit to the hand without cultivating 

 a tolerably large surface, which the four shift sys- 

 tem enables him to do. 



Secondly, no farmer can improve his land or 

 keep up its fertility, without a great deal of ma- 

 nure, and that manure cannot be made M'ithout a 

 great deal of offal, of which to make it. The four 

 shilts, with the standing pasture, give him more 

 offal than any other system. The standing pasture 

 supports stock enough through the summer, with- 

 out grazing his clover fields, to convert his offal 

 into manure during winter ; and it is all impor- 

 tant in this system not to graze your clover fields 

 which are to be fallowed, so as to have a heavy 

 clover lay to turn under, to restore the land after 

 the three successive grain crops, as well as to make 

 a good crop of \\ heat the ensuing year. 



In the third place, it is my opinion tliat the more 

 frequently you plough up your land, provided you 

 turn under manure, or a good lay of some kind, (cle- 

 ver is the best,) the faster you improve it; and there 

 is no system in which you can make so much ma- 

 nure, or so often turn under the clover lay as in this. 



While on the subject of manures, I will digress 

 a little to mention some few experin\ents I have 

 made; and will first state that it is of very little 

 consequence (in my opinion) how j'ou use your 

 manure, provided you really do use it. The great 

 art is to make it, and that in large quantities. It 

 is like money . any one can spend it, but few can 

 (or rather will) make it, in any quantity. 



In the spring of 1828, I made the following ex- 

 periment. My farm-pen manure, (which I gene- 

 rally apply by ploughing in with the clover fallow 

 in the fall, just before sowing wheat,) was divided 

 into four parts, one of which was hauled out early 

 in April, and ploughed in — a second part was 

 hauled out, and used as a fop-dressing on the clo- 

 ver, which was backward, and unpromising — a 

 third was hauled out and left in heaps, (each heap 

 a wagon load,) and well covered with earth until 

 the fall, and then ploughed in just before sowing 

 wheat ; and the fourth was left in the fiirm yard, 

 as usual with me, until the fall, and then hauled 

 out, and ploughed in, just before sowing wheat. 

 The top dressing produced the best wheat — that 



