394 



FARMERS' REGISTER— FARMING, &c. IN LOWER VIRGINIA. 



has the advantage of beiniz; more tenacious of life 

 and of bein^ able to multij)ly both by transplant- 

 ing and by its suckers. It grows, says that excel- 

 lent agriculturist, in Daourie, at the extremity of 

 Siberia, near Chinese Tartary, in a mountainous 

 country. 



Such are the most important details into which 

 we may enter, and which ought not to be over- 

 looked when the business is to pronounce on the 

 character and worth of a plant, from which so many 

 thousands of men and beasts draw their suste- 

 nance, and which is accompanied by many objec- 

 tions, as well as by considerable advantages.. 



GLEAMXGS IN NATURAL HISTORY. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



I recollect about a year ago, to have read with 

 great pleasure, as well as, I trust, considera- 

 ble improvement, a little work entitled " JVhite^s 

 Natural History of Selborne ;" and have recently 

 met with another production of the same kind, 

 styled " Gleanings in Natural History ,xoithhints 

 for an jlngUr , by Edward Jesse, Esq." from which 

 I have also derived so much gratification, that 

 Avith your permission, I will venture to recom- 

 mend them to the notice of your readers as strik- 

 ing instances of how much may be done by a little 

 trouble and system towards increasing the general 

 stock of knowledge, and thus becoming beneflic- 

 tors to mankind. If such a habit as the above au- 

 thors pursued, I mean a habit " of paying attention 

 to the districts in lohich they reside, and publishing 

 their thoughts respecting the objects that surround 

 them," were followed up by our country residents 

 generally, incalculable good would ensue ; and we 

 should, in that case, seldom again hear the com- 

 plaint that has so repeatedly come across my ear, 

 that rural life in Virginia is a life of extreme dull- 

 ness and wearisome monotony. You too, Mr. Edi- 

 tor, would undoubtedly find the adoption of such 

 a plan by our agriculturists of no small aid to you 

 in the important work you are now so ably engaged 

 in. 



I send you Jesse's book, in order that you may 

 examine it for yourself, and if you see fit, give an 

 extract therefrom, as a further means of drawing 

 attention to the work. Both together cost about a 

 dollar and a half only. S. 



[We tlmnk our correspondent for liis .snggestions, 

 and hope that our publication may be benefitted by 

 them, not only by such selections as he recommends, but 

 by similar original matter, which many of our readers 

 can aid in furnishing. Both the authors referred to, and 

 also our countryman Godman, in his Rambles of a Na- 

 turalist, have proved that such details of the habits of 

 the most common animals, presented m a familiar style 

 and unpretending manner, excite a degree of interest in 

 the reader, which would not be produced by the most 

 studied and ambitious literary work. Nor would such 

 studies and notices secve merely to give pleasure to the 

 readers of an agricultural journal. There are but few 

 -if any of the numerous small animals which people our 

 earth and air, -which are not more or less either injuri- 

 ous or friendly to the farmer's labors : and yet without 

 some knowledge of iheir habits, we can neither repel 

 the evils that some inflict, nor profit by the service that 



others offer — and indeed, from ignorance we often mis- 

 take our friends for our enemies. It is probably not an 

 exaggerated estimate, to suppose that a want of know- 

 ledge of the habits of some one hurtful insect, and of 

 such other animals as would if permitted have destroy- 

 ed it for food, may have cost the farmers of the United 

 States many thousands of dollars.] 



SOME REMARKS ON FARMING AND GRAZING 

 IN LOWER VIRGINIA. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Having recently landed in this country, a num- 

 ber of your valuable Register was put into my 

 hands, and as its pages are destined for the recep- 

 tion of any thing tending to promote agricultural 

 improvement, if the following remarks collected 

 during a short and hasty tour through a part of the 

 country in this neighborhood, be considered of any 

 importance, they are at your service, as they may 

 throw out a useful hint or two for the benefit of 

 planters in general. 



Along the greater part of my tour, I was par- 

 ticularly surprised at the almost universal and lux- 

 urious growth of weeds on all pasture fields, or 

 fields in grass ; and my surprise was not lessened 

 to find that the system of agriculture adopted in 

 this part of the country favored such a growth of 

 weeds, it being considered highly advantageous to 

 the soil ; and under that impression they are al- 

 lowed to increase and flourish unmolested until the 

 ground is again about to be broken up for a corn 

 crop, when they are cut down and burned. I am 

 very far from considering such a system as being 

 otherwise than highly detrimental and exhausting 

 to a soil. Such a luxuriant growth of weeds as 

 generally grow on the low lands of Gloucester 

 county and similar soils, must have an exhausting 

 tendency, and the benefit which they are supposed 

 to impart by preventing the heat of the sun from 

 causing too great an evaporation, is much more 

 than counterbalanced by the quantity of vegeta- 

 ble food extracted from the soil in their growth ; 

 and as they are allowed to grow, ripen and die 

 every year, a very small portion if any of such ve- 

 getable food again returns to the soil. In highly 

 improved districts of country in England, Scot- 

 land, and also in the States, it is the care of every 

 farmer to clear his farm as much as possible from 

 such weeds. The method usually adopted is to 

 cut these weeds previous to their ripening or get- 

 ting into seed, collecting them into heaps, when 

 they soon form an excellent manure, and are again 

 applied to the soil with benefit ; allow weeds to 

 grow along the ience lines of a farm, and it is im- 

 possible to keep a farm free from them, as winged 

 seeds are easily carried by the w ind, and soon co- 

 ver hundreds of acres. Cattle in such pastures 

 must suffer severely from the number of flies har- 

 bored in such thickets: and in such fields as I have 

 seen, it was difficult for cows and other bestial at 

 pasture to get to the clover and other grasses of 

 shorter growth. It is a complaint among farmers 

 here that it is impossible to get their lands so well 

 prepared for the reception of wheat and other grain 

 crops as they could wish, from the quantity of 

 roots contained in the soil. Let them adopt the 

 simple mode of cutting these weeds before getting 

 to seed, and in a few years, with careful manage- 



