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FARMERS' REGISTER— AGRICULTURE— PUBLIC WORKS. 



cation of manure, especially if the auxiliaries of clo- 

 ver and plaster be added, will insure a rapid im- 

 provement of the land, while it is yielding a good 

 profit upon the capital and labor, independent of the 

 comforts of living, derived from good stock. If all 

 available means of raising manure were judiciously 

 used, and composts and the tine manure applied to 

 the thinnest parts of the fields as a top dressing on 

 wheat, or to be harrowed in with the wheat, there 

 would be little complaint about clover not taking 

 on our fields. The summer's sun, in droughts espe- 

 cially, kills the young clover that springs feebly on 

 poor land, while a very moderate top dressing gives 

 the young i)lant such vigor by the time the wheat 

 is taken off, that a severe drought will Jiot kill it. 

 I have never failed to obtain as good a stand of clo- 

 ver as the quantity of seed sown entitled me to ex- 

 pect, when sown on poor land, if a moderate top 

 dressing had been given to the wheat or oats, upon 

 which the clover seed were sown in the spring. It 

 is true, that my clover has not been thick enough 

 to crowd out all weeds or thistle, as I am inclined 

 to think it would do, if twelve pounds of seed, in- 

 stead of eight, had been sown. Arthur Young re- 

 commends a gallon and a half, or twelve pounds, for 

 England, and less would hardly be proper for our 

 dryer climate, but for the expense of the seed. — 

 The advantages of thick sowing will be found to 

 exist in the suppression of weeds on the land, by 

 which the seed will be easier gathered, and in 

 greater purity, with a rich cover to be fallowed in, 

 equal to a manuring with 25 cart loads of stable 

 manure — the raising, carting, and spreading of 

 which, c.innot be estimated at a cost of less than 

 five dollars per acre. Hence, it would seem, that 

 by means of clovering, the cheapest mode of im- 

 proving a country is afforded, where clover is con- 

 genial to the soil and climate, or rather, the soil and 

 climate congenial to it, as is fortunately the case, 

 in different degrees, with the greater part of Vir- 

 ginia. In districts peculiarly congenial, rapid im- 

 provement has been made, and is still making; and 

 the growing resort to marl and lime, will extend 

 this system to the tide water country, which^ with- 

 out lime or marl, is rather too light and sandy, in 

 general, for clover to succeed well; and on its light- 

 est and most sandy regions, the pea, alternated with 

 corn and oats perhaps, will, even with marl an.d 

 lime, be found preferable to wheat with clover — so 

 unsuitable for either of these is a sandy light soil. 



As a means of increasing the quantity of manure 

 for improving our lands, there are many subjects 

 which are generally overlooked, that, with a por- 

 tion of well employed labor, would treble the quan- 

 tity. Woods leaves and litter, rotten trees, scour- 

 ings of ditches, and low grounds ditch banks, formed 

 into composts heaps, with marl, or lime and ashes, 

 vegetable additions, and rubbish generally from ne- 

 gro quarters — these all combined, with the ma- 

 nure V. ell preserved and applied to the land, with 

 the clover and plaster system on all lands except 

 the sandy, and the pea and corn system on naviga- 

 ble water, would in a few years give a new face to 

 our worn out country. 



Having marl in great abundance upon my farm 

 on the Rappahannock, though deeply seated below 

 the surface, and vast quantities of rich vegetable 

 mould, and rich banks on my meadow ditches, from 

 the experiment made, I am confident that it will be 

 the most profitable employment that two or three 

 hands could be placed at, with an ox cart, or tum- 



bril and two good mules, to raise and carry out 

 marl, and form compost by the year, separate and 

 distinct from the crop hands. Experience will 

 prove, that if a reliance upon the crop-team and 

 liands, for improvement by this means, is the only 

 hope, there will be little done. The overseer, if 

 you have one, (and my professional calls take me 

 so much from home that I am obliged to employ 

 one,) will never find time for this kind of work, in 

 which he takes no interest; and whether you pitch 

 a crop with a view to having it done, or not, you 

 will hnd the same result: little or nothing can be 

 done. He will let the standard of labor fall to the 

 crop's demand for it, regardless of the manuring 

 claims. This has been the case with me for seve- 

 ral years, and I am certain will continue to be the 

 case forever, unless a distinct force be detached for 

 the sole object of manuring. 



Before closing these desultory observations, I 

 cannot refrain from remarking, that we in V^ir- 

 ginia pay too little attention to planting, or turning 

 out, and trimming up, in our fields and along our 

 inclosures, valuable trees, either for fruit or tim- 

 ber. Such as the persimmon, black and honey 

 locust, cedar, &c. many of which, except in severe 

 droughts, draw but little from tlie crop, while they 

 furnish shade and fruit for stock, and the most valu- 

 able timber. The locust thrives well, and is of 

 rapid growth on many soils, as well as the walnut 

 and the persimmon upon all. Trimmed so as to 

 have long bodies, they draw but little, and are ex- 

 ceedingly valuable. In Germany, we are informed 

 by tra\ellers, the highways are shaded for whole 

 days' travel with walnut. These rows of trees 

 break the fury of winds, and preserve crops from 

 prostration. There is no subject of rural economy 

 more neglected in Virginia than this. This may 

 be accounted for by the woody character of our 

 country, where, for ages to come, a resort to plant- 

 ing, except for fruit ornament, shelter or shade, 

 will hardly be necessary. The reservation of tim- 

 ber and fuel, Avill, for a century, occu})y the place 

 of planting for that purjiose, which, for want of 

 such reservations, forms, in some old settled coun- 

 tries, a subject of great interest. 



In conclusion, 1 may be permitted to address a 

 few reflections to our society upon subjects, which, 

 though not directly connected with the object of our 

 institution, yet, having a great influence upon the 

 welfare of our portion of the state, especially as 

 slave holders, may not be considered inappropriate. 



The burthen which, by our revenue laws, is 

 thrown upon our slave jjroperty, is disproportion- 

 ate, in comparison with that of any other; while it 

 is further mulcted with Ihe whole burden of sup- 

 porting the poor, and nearly all of the county levy 

 for municipal administration. Thus, the principal 

 labor of eastern Virginia is trebly taxed under our 

 state government; and the eastern section of the 

 state, by its vast excess of slaves over the western, 

 is most unequally burdened. In our present con- 

 dition, with this inequality bearing upon us, and 

 the restrictive tarifT grinding us, nothing but rigid 

 parsimony in our indulgences, with marked econo- 

 my, and untiring perseverance and industry, can 

 sustain us in the slightly advancing position which 

 we now occupy. This position is barely maintained 

 with our present moderate state taxes; but if hea- 

 vier burdens be superadded, have we not cause to 

 fear that they will prove to be like the last pound 

 that crushed the camel's back? 



