FARMERS' REGISTER— SYSTEM OF FARMING. 



151 



plough out of the ground, while in descending, 

 they would plunge it so deep as to be unable to 

 pull it at all — I have been compelled to use three 

 horses abreast; which is as small a force as any 

 farmer should think of applying; notwitlistanding 

 even this mode has its objections, principally ari- 

 sing from the danger there is, that the horses when 

 turning, unless great care be taken, will cork 

 themselves. Mine have been frequently injured 

 in tliis v/ay. The plough Avhich 1 preler to all 

 others, is the bar-share, called here the Loudoun 

 bar-share, which was first introduced into this 

 neighborhood by myself. I do not mean to say, 

 that there are not other ploughs equally good, but 

 this in the end is the cheapest. For notwithstand- 

 ing it costs something more than the McCormick, 

 wliich is our next best plough, though not suffi- 

 ciently strong for three horses in our rough soil, 

 yet it will last three times as long. The bar-share 

 is now in much greater demand than any other, 

 but unfortunately for us, there are very few to be 

 had, not having any person in the county who un- 

 derstands the manner of making it. This plough 

 not only docs the best work, but does its work 

 with more ease to man and horse than any oilier 

 with which I am acquainted. 



And here, permit me to say a word in relation 

 to the question of deep or shallow ploughing, which 

 I have seen recently discussed in the Farmer. My 

 opinion, which is founded entirely upon experience, 

 is decidedly in favor of the superior utility and va- 

 lue of deep ploughing. For about twenty years, 

 I have been ploughing as deep as I could on the 

 farm where I now reside, without having in a sin- 

 gle instance injured the crop; and more than this, 

 1 have, in the mean time, restored the land from 

 the most extreme state of poverty to that of at least 

 good farming land; indeed, a great deal of it is as 

 rich as is necessary for a wheat crop. The rota- 

 tion of my crops hasbeen once in corn, and twice in 

 wheat, rye or oats in five years, giving tv.o full 

 years in five for clover, and in the mean time dres- 

 sing the land twice with plaster, (or at least roll- 

 ing all my seed of every description in plaster,) 

 with from one bushel to one and a half the acre. 

 By putting this quantity upon the clover, tlie 

 spring after it is sown, insures me a crop on al- 

 most all my land, sufficiently large to mow. Eve- 

 ry acre of my farm not under cultivation is kept 

 in clover. 



With respect to the production and the appli- 

 cation of manure, I have never pursued any uni- 

 form course, but have been frequently making 

 experiments. I was once inclined to believe, that 

 no other way was right, but to haul it out and 

 plough it under as soon as possible, not allowing 

 the sun to shine on it more than could be avoided, 

 and so strong liad been the force of habit aiid of 

 education, that I pursued this course for several 

 years, without ever supposing for a moment that 

 any other course was or could be right. But, as a 

 large portion of my land had been so completely 

 exhausted, and galled and ribbed by rains and bad 

 treatment, that to put upon it manure in its rotten 

 state would be worse than folly, I came to the con- 

 clusion, that it would be a better mode to cover all 

 its deep sores with thick plasters of unrotted straw, 

 carried directly from the machine. In order to 

 save labor and time, this straw Avas carried out as 

 a return load while engaged in threshing the wheat ; 

 for our practice in this county differs from the com- 



mon practice in many other places, especially at 

 the north, in not stacking our wheat, but in taking- 

 it directly from the field to the machine. This 

 mode has been forced upon us by the apprehension, 

 that if it Avere allowed to remain for a long time 

 unthreshed, say till the month of August, it would 

 be destroyed, or at least materiallj^ injured by the 

 weevil. But, to the point — I am fully of the opin- 

 ion, that this description of land cannot be so well 

 improved in any other way as in the one just men- 

 tioned, for by the time the coat ol straw is com- 

 pletely rotten the land will possess sufficient life 

 and strength to manufacture or produce its OAvn 

 covering. A few other experiments, which I 

 have made in regard to manure, may be worth 

 your attention. In the fall of 182S, I commenced 

 fallowing my land, and carrying out my manure 

 at the same time. The manure was spread and 

 ploughed in with my large ploughs ; but as I had 

 a considerable quantity to haul, and some distance 

 to haul it, I did not finish until some time after I 

 had sowed my crop. I made, therefore, four dif- 

 ferent experiments— a part of the manure was 

 ploughed in with the large ploughs — a part spread 

 on the broken up land and hari-owed in — a part 

 spread on the surfoce after the wheat was sowed — 

 and a part spread upon the snow, according to the 

 practice which, as 1 am told, exists in Pennsylva- 

 nia. The first experiment succeeded the best, and 

 contributed most to the permanent improvement 

 of the land — the second did not vary much in its 

 results from the_ first— the third produced the 

 greatest crop the first year — the fourth did not suc- 

 ceed at all, as it killed a great portion of the wheat. 

 In regard to such a valuable article as that of 

 manure, it may be well to remark, that very few 

 of us make more than half of what we really might 

 make; and after all, suffer a great deal of what we 

 do make to be wasted, for the want of a little care. 

 All that even our best farmers in Albemarle have 

 attempted to do, is to collect all their corn stalks 

 in some convenient place, to be used as litter for 

 the larm pen during the winter, which, together 

 w ith a few leaves from the woods, and a little re- 

 fuse from the farm, is converted into manure. This 

 is about all that we have done yet. 



Before I conclude this letter I wish to add ano- 

 ther remark, in regard to the subject of deep and 

 shallow ploughing. This seems to be the more 

 necessary, not only because public discussion is 

 now awake, but because I have a fact to commu- 

 nicate, about which I am greatly astonished that 

 so little has been said, and Avhich may afford us 

 some light. It is this — if you plough your land 

 ever so deep, so much so as to hide every particle 

 of the soil, by the next season it will have all fe- 

 turned to the surface without any subsequent deep 

 ploughing — a fact, which I do hope some of your 

 more experienced correspondents will explain for 

 me. In whatever way it may be explained, it does 

 seem to me to speak most powerfully in favor of 

 deep, instead of shallow ploughing. In my view 

 it is reduced to a certainty, that just so deep as the 

 plouo-h goes, just so deep the soil goes and no deep- 

 er. "The question then comes to this, which is 

 preferable a deep or shallow soil.^ about which there 

 can be no dispute. When I first commenced the 

 practice of deep ploughing on my farm, the people 

 who passed along the road would stop and inquire, 

 with great earnestness, whether I was not afraid 

 of ruining my land. After expressing my con- 



