VOL. I. 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



IBacS'JllE©Sri£)9 STCD^lSmiOia^J ll^^^i 



NO. 6. 



EDMUND RUFFIN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. T. "\V. "WHITE, PRINTER. 



THE IMPROVE3IENTS ON THE WESTOVER 

 FAR3I, PRODUCED BY CLOVER AND THE 

 FOUR-SHIFT ROTATION. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



TVestover, j^ugust 20, 1833. 



Dear Sir, — I have here endeavored lo answer 

 yours of July last, in tlie best manner my feeble 

 abilities will allow. You desire me to give you — 



" A full and detailed statement of my manner 

 of making wheat on clover lay : the improvement 

 thereby made at Westover; and my opinions, as 

 to what extent (on other soils,) the practice will 

 be found suitable ; and all other opinions I may 

 think proper to offer on the subject. 



You desire, too, " an expression of my opinion 

 as to the danger of injuring the productiveness of 

 soils by exposure to the sun, (as is necessary in 

 August fallows,) and whether the advantages of 

 my system can be expected on light soils, provided 

 they are made capable of producing good clover." 



And finally, you desire me " to communicate, 

 the commencement, progress and results of the 

 improvement made in Curies' Neck." 



My preparation for the wheat crop is commen- 

 ced, as soon as the previous one is disposed of; 

 usually, from the 1st, to the 15th of August. The 

 land for fallow, which is a clover lay, and in eleven 

 feet beds, is reversed with large M'Corraick, or Da- 

 vis ploughs, as deep as it can be done with three 

 or four horses. It frequently happens, that the 

 land is too hard for the ploughing to be done well 

 by one furrow. When this is the case, we are 

 obliged to trench plough, (or run one after the 

 other in the same furrow.) As our time is limited, 

 there must be none lost. And I have generally 

 found, after dry fallows, the succeeding wheat 

 crop to be much better — which is a strong induce- 

 ment for us to persevere. If the land is in order, 

 it is immediately harrowed ; but if the ploughing 

 should be done in a very dry season, the clods will 

 be too hard for the successful use of the harrow. 

 It is therelbre left until a rain, when all the har- 

 rows are started and continued, until the fallowed 

 land is harrowed over, or till the harrows have 

 caught the ploughs. If done when the land is 

 hard, which is more frequently the case at this 

 season of the year, the time and labor of the teams 

 will be thrown away, as the harrows Avill make 

 but little impression on the clods, and close but 

 few of the seams left by the plough. In such ca- 

 ses, I have found great benefit from the use of 

 a heavy roller, which facilitates greatly the opera- 

 tion of pulverizing the earth. No farther prepara- 

 tion is necessary, but repeated harrowings, until 

 the ground is gotten in such order, that the wheat 

 will be well covered by the harrows : But if the 

 season has been a wet one, the land will be filthy 

 with grass and weeds. You are then obliged to 

 re-fallow the land with small two horse ploughs, 

 or to use the double shovel plough, going merely 

 deep enough to destroy the grass and filth, and to 

 put the same beyond the reach of the harrows. At 

 tliis season, the earth is sometimes baked very 

 Vol. I.— 41 



hard by heavy rains just before seeding, and be- 

 fore much grass can spring up. In such cases I 

 recommend the double shovel, as one of the best 

 instruments I have ever used for putting in wheat 

 on fallow land. 



I have scarcely ever found it adviseable to com- 

 mence seeding wheat sooner than the 10th Octo- 

 ber, though this should be regulated by the season ; 

 if sowed earlier, it is generally injured by the fly, 

 and if the land is much infested by the partridge 

 pea, it should be postponed until we have some 

 cool weather, that the pea may vegetate; then by 

 shallow cultivation, it may be kept from injuring 

 that crop. It is a remarkable fact, that the part- 

 ridge pea only comes up in cool weather. The 

 plantation on which I live is abundantly set in this 

 grass ; yet I have never been much pestered with 

 it in my wheat crops, owing to my leaving such 

 parts as are very badly beset with it unploughed, 

 until cool weather throws up the pea; it is then 

 slightly ploughed, or repeatedly harrowed; and a 

 second crop will not make its appearance that 

 year. If, however, your re-fallow is too deep, you 

 return the seeds of the pea to the surface, or near 

 thereto, which were before too deep to vegetate; 

 and, consequently, you have returned upon you 

 that very crop you were attempting to destroy. 

 I am convinced that by pursuing this course and 

 mowing your fallow field, (or such parts of it, as 

 are very much infested with this pest,) as soon as 

 it gets into pod, it might be exterminated from 

 our fields altogether : If mowed in this state, there 

 will be no second crop of pea, and still the season 

 will not be too far advanced to have a good crop 

 of clover. 



The quantity of wheat seeded to the acre, should 

 be regulated by the time of seeding, varying from 

 4 to 6 pecks; if sown from the 10th to 25th Oct. 

 I am inclined to- think, five pecks sufficient for 

 any land that is well prepared. But if later, the 

 land will require more gram, as it will have less 

 time to come up and branch, before the weather 

 gets too cold, while more perishes in the ground. 

 As a proof of this, in the season before tlie last, 

 between the 10th and 20th of October, I seeded 

 on a field of inferior land, one bushel of purple 

 straw to the acre ; and in November thereafter, I 

 seeded 1^ bushels of the same sort of wheat, on 

 much superior land, and the wheat on the inferior 

 land was much thicker, doubly as much so, appa- 

 rently in the spring. The later the seeding, the 

 thicker it should be; and if possible, it should ne- 

 ver be later than the 6th of November. The fal- 

 low field being all ready by the 10th of October, 

 we start every thing to getting the wheat in as 

 soon as possible; the seedsman goes on, followed 

 by the harrows. The bed furrows are then open- 

 ed and straightened, where they require it by the 

 plough; then the cross furrows, (or grips,) are 

 afterwards well opened with hoes and spades; and 

 finally, the whole is chopped over by the hoe hands. 

 These operations should be carried on as much 

 together as possible, so that every night the whole 

 will be finished. If a heavy rain should catch the 



