FARMERS' REGISTER--PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE. 



491 



acre, will not now bring more than four hundred 

 pounds. Under the Iiighest production, we adopt- 

 ed habits of luxury and extravagance that we find 

 it hard to part with. These habits remain — the 

 means to support them lessening every year, will 

 compel us to improve our farms, and endeavor to 

 bring them back to their original fertility. How 

 this is to be done is the question. We caiTiiot give 

 up our splendid travelling equipages — our fine 

 furniture — or ceass to build fine houses, while our 

 neighbors have them. I did hope that your Re- 

 gister would have brought us some relief, and that 

 you Avouldhave made yourself acquainted with our 

 productions, manner of cultivation, the condition 

 of our farms, and have given us the panacea to all 

 our errors in farming: and I trust that, as your 

 subscription list increases in this and other cotton 

 growing stales, you will be enabled to shed mucii 

 valuable liglit to our larmers. Wheat, which ap- 

 pears to be the staple with you, we raise but little 

 of; and that for home consumption. AVe go for 

 cotton — cotton — cotton, with a little corn. I had 

 taken up my pen merely to say that I had receiv- 

 ed your Register, and sent you the money ; and 

 find I have written you lengthily — perhaps too 

 inuch so. 



[It is not more the wish of our correspondent than our 

 own, that we may be enabled to offer information suit- 

 ed particularly to the condition of the planters of Geor- 

 gia, as well as to every other part ofthe United States, in 

 which our work finds readers. We say suited particular- 

 ly — because we hold that much valuable information suit- 

 ed to the agriculturists of Georgia, in common with all 

 others, has been alrer>dy presented, and we hope will 

 continue to be presented in every succeeding nimiberol 

 the Farmers' Register. The general principles of agri- 

 culture are every where the same. Judicious and cor- 

 rect rules for tillage of crops, preserving or increasing 

 the fertility of soils, the management of live stock, &.c. 

 whatever country or climate they may have been in- 

 tended for, will be valuable to the farmer of any other 

 and different region, provided he makes due allowance 

 for diffc^rence of circumstances: and if he does not make 

 such allowance, he may be, (and frequently is) led 

 astray, by following blindly the practice of his near 

 neighbor. 



It is only within our power to dispense light and in- 

 struction after it has been elicited from other sources : 

 and if our southern friends will permit us to draw from 

 them a little of the information which so many of them 

 can supply, they would soon see an accumulation in the 

 Farmers' Register equal to their wishes, and surpassing 

 our hopes.] 



THREE SHIFT SYSTEM OfARL IIV GLOUCES- 

 TER COUNTY. 



Gloucester County, Idih Nov. 1833. 

 # # # * Although advanced in years, I 

 have but recently commenced the occupation of 

 farming — and have just had experience enough 

 to know that it is a most complicated business, 

 and will require many years close attention to be- 

 come tolerably proficient. I have therefore every 

 thing to learn, and nothing to communicate; in- 

 deed, I have scarcely as yet had practice enough 

 to indulge at all in theory — for in my opinion, dif- 

 fering from most other occupations, practice should 



precede theory. I have never known a good far- 

 mer who commenced with books. 



I suppose it is an evidence of approaching old 

 age, that I do not consider the present generation 

 so much wiser than those wlio preceded them as 

 is generally supposed. I observe that your corres- 

 pondents entertain a different opinion, and unite in 

 abusing and denouncing the old Virginia three 

 shift system ; whereas, after some observation and 

 reflection, 1 have, with a little variation, adopted 

 it as best suited to my situation. The arrange- 

 ment I have made is this — the old division into 

 three fields remains ; about two thirds of one divi- 

 sion is cultivated in corn ; the remaining third is 

 fallowed for wheat or barley, (as best suits the 

 land.) When that shift comes into cultivation 

 again, a different part is fallowed — and when it is 

 next cultivated, the balance of the shift ; and each 

 division treated in the same waj^ ; so that in nine 

 years every part will have been fallowed, (one 

 third of each division every year,) and thereby 

 burthened with but one, instead of two crops. This 

 gives time, and affords opportunities to improve, 

 particularly the part that is left lor fallow. In 

 sowing clover seed, which you know is generally 

 done on small grain in the spring of the year, I 

 take care th.at that jiart of the field is clovered 

 which will be fallowed when the shift comes next 

 in cultivation ; and being that year in the corn field 

 it is of course not grazed, and the whole growth 

 of, clover returned to the land. 



I have under enclosure at this flirm about two 

 thousand acres. It is therefore desirable to have 

 the land in cultivation each year as compact in 

 form as possible ; this is an advantage attending 

 the system I have adopted. Our lands become 

 foul and rough very soon, abound in wire and oth- 

 er natural grasses, and throw up an immense 

 growth of weeds, requiring therefore frequent 

 cultivation to cleanse them. So far from the corn 

 crop being lessened by reserving a part ofthe shift 

 lor fallow and improvements, it has increased. The 

 great secret I think consists in perceiving the ad- 

 vantages of manure, and acting upon it, making 

 and carting out as much as possible. In this sec- 

 tion of country I am sure there is now more land 

 manured by marl, &c. in one year, than was for- 

 merly in fifty, going back ten years. I have used 

 marl to some extent for several years on a highland 

 estate in this county, and I think to great advan- 

 tage. It is to be found in almost every situation, 

 and I have no doubt is destined at some day (I hope 

 not very distant,) to regenerate the whole tidewa- 

 ter country. It is to be found in every direction 

 upon this estate, both on the hills and the low 

 grounds. In ditching the latter, we find it at the 

 bottom of most of the ditches. 



If it suited your convenience to make an occa- 

 sional tour through the eastern part of the state, I 

 think you could render essential service to the ag- 

 ricultural interest. We know very little of the 

 quality and value of the various kinds of marl to 

 be met with, and no description that we can give 

 will answer as well as an examination in person. 



IIORKCLEXDE, AND OTHER SUPPOSED MA- 

 NURES. 



Prince Edward, 2M Nov. 1833. 

 I have long tiiought that the Creator had sup- 

 plied every arable part of the earth, perhaps, with 



