186 



FARMERS' REGISTER— PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE. 



I myself feel the want of particular details upon 

 this subject, from the running of the first corn fur- 

 row to the housing of the product. 



May I also suggest the benefit of a Price Cur- 

 rent ? It is convenient for reference hereafter, if 

 not immediate use. 



We had supposed that a monthly price current would 

 be of little vakie to our subscribers, and therefore made 

 no arrangement for the purpose: but if it is desired, 

 there will be no objection on our part. 



We recommend to the attention of our readers, the 

 request of our correspondent, to be informed as to the 

 best mode of cultivating corn. So many different and 

 conflicting opinions and practices prevail, that old and 

 experienced, as well as " young farmers," would be be- 

 nefitted by the exhibition of views on this important 

 subject. 



July 14, 1833. 



CHEAP FARMING. 



I have been much gratified by the receipt and 

 perusal of your first No. of the Farmers' Register. 



I wish your paper may have the effect of pro- 

 ducing some amendment in our farming ; and that 

 you inay be remunerated for your labor, and good 

 intentions. I am greatly fearful howevei= of your 

 success in both respects. 



We Virginia farmers, (I mean such as I am, who 

 are at least four fifths of the v/holc,) require to have 

 some plan devised, by which, Avithout much labor 

 and with ?io expense, we may improve our lands, 

 and that speedily, or we will remove to the west- 

 ern forests, and encounter all the labor and priva- 

 tions attending a new settlement. We have no 

 notion of submitting to the tardy and laborious 

 systems of your real farmer. We go for a kind 

 of slight of hand or no work plan — or we are off. 



Our general course of operations has been, to 

 cultivate our lands in corn one year, and rest them 

 in wheat the next ; and so on, until they are pre- 

 pared for a good crop of old field pines — the best 

 crop by the way, since the introduction of steam 

 boats, of the whole. 



A piece of land, thus highly improved, I got pos- 

 session of some years ago; but instead of waiting 

 patiently for the pine crop, I determined I would 

 cultivate it every year in corn, until I got it rich; 

 and this too without manure, although I lived near 

 a town where any quantity might have been had ; 

 but I scorned all snch foreign aid. 



I prepared the land early, and having procured 

 some buckAvheat, I mixed it with oats, and sowed 

 them in March or April. In due time, I planted 

 my corn in drills, say eight feet apart. I ran a 

 single coulter deep on each side : hoed and thinned 

 the corn ; and, in due course, turned a slice to it, 

 and gave it another dressing with the hoes. I took 

 no more than was absolutely necessary for the 

 corn, from the oats and buckwheat, until it became 

 proper to break the middlings, and lay by the 

 corn. By this time the oats were so matured that 

 the seed would vegetate. I preceded the plough 

 by coultering deep with a single coulter, so as to 

 pulverize the middlings, and then turned them 

 with their coat of oats and buckwheat on the corn, 

 drawing the dirt over the straw with hoes, so as 

 to cover it up pretty well. The corn was a sorry 

 crop, but the ground was well co.vered with young 

 oats. These I turned in in the fall, and proceeded 

 in like manner, the next year ; with this differ- 



ence, that I had no buckwheat to mix with my 

 oats. This was a bad look out : but as it required 

 some little foresight and management to avoid this 

 mishap, it was beyond me. 



I had heard of the cliinch-bug, but had never 

 seen it : and knew not its great fondness for oats. 

 My last ploughing, instead of destroying, saved 

 it even the trouble of travelling to the corn : It 

 had nothing to do but to " arise, slay, and eat." 



Being thus rudely and unexpectedly assailed in 

 my grand experiment, I had nothing left but to sow 

 the land down in rye, which I had tried, without 

 success, before I began my experiment. From 

 what cause it proceeded you know better than I 

 do, but so it is, I have rarely seen a heavier crop 

 of rye than I obtained from this sowing. 



I sold the land soon after, and so ends that ex- 

 periment. 



I have lately purchased another tract, improved 

 to the pine crop state also — insomuch, that a crop 

 of rye on part of a field where I purchased, was 

 too mean to be cut, and I ran a harrow over it so as 

 to prostrate it. I observed that even this slight 

 cover produced such a change in the appearance 

 of the ground that I determined last fall to make 

 another experiment, if such it may be called. 



After taking off a crop of wheat, preceded by 

 one of corn, as usual, and after pasturing the land 

 with stock of every kind, as imprudently as any 

 experimentalist could require, in testing a plan to 

 counteract bad management ; and after all my other 

 crops were sowed, I harrowed half a bushel of rye 

 to the acre, not in, but on land thus beat hard by 

 the hoof. 



It formed no part of my plan to have preceded 

 this operation by deep coultering. That would 

 have been too much like your laborious farming. 



Plaster would cost money as well as time to 

 sow it, and that also was entirely out of my line. 



In this situation the field was left to shift for it- 

 self, except that I kept every thing off it until the 

 rye Avas ripe. The crop proved better than, under 

 such circumstances, could be expected. 



The field Avas also well covered Avith white and 

 red clover, and Avhat Ave call ribAvort or narrow 

 plantain, (I don't knoAv its botanical name ;) but if 

 it is good for any thing, it must be an excellent grass 

 for bad farmers, for it Avill groAv in any place and 

 on any kind of land. 



I intended to have prostrated the rye by run- 

 ning a harrow over it, (for I have no roller,) but 

 hoAv can it be expected I would take so much 

 time and trouble.'' It Avould have covered the 

 ground much better, it is true, and no doubt 

 Avould have added greatly to its improvement ; 

 but I never have time to do any thing, however 

 proper, that can possibly be avoided — and so I have 

 contented myself Avith turning in my hogs first, 

 and finally my cattle, horses, and every thing, to 

 eat and tread it doAvn, intending this fall and win- 

 ter to turn in this cover of straw and grass, and 

 plant corn next year. 



The adjoining field, noAv in Avheat, I Avill treat 

 in the same Avay this fall, and prepare it for corn, 

 to take its course the year after next ; and as these 

 fields are better adapted to corn than Avheat, I 

 mean to cultivate them afterAvards, alternately, in 

 corn, harroAving rye in after the corn is cut off, 

 Avith some clover and timothy seed, (if I can mus- 

 ter energy and cash enough,) so as to have as heavy 

 a cover as possible to tread, pasture down, and 



