570 



FARMERS' REGISTER— THREE SHIFT SYSTEM. 



stroyed by insects. He was compelled to return 

 to the three field system, since whicli time his crops 

 have improved, and the yield of the present year 

 (notwithstanding drought,) has exceeded that of 

 any former year. Another gentleman had been 

 making good corn, wheat, and barley crops, but 

 possessing more enterprise than his neighbors ge- 

 nerally, he adopted the five field system. His crops 

 of corn and small grain have retrograded. He 

 has had several crops of wheat on his fallow fields, 

 Avhich promised a most abundant harvest, and yet 

 either from insects, or storms, or some other casu- 

 alty, he has always been disappointed in the ex- 

 pected harvest ; and I doubt not, though he is un- 

 willing to admit it, that he will again return to the 

 despised three field system. This last gentleman 

 possesses all the requisite skill and industry to in- 

 sure success. Another neighbor has been culti- 

 vating his farm in four fields for several 5'ears. He 

 is a very neat manager. His lands are prepared 

 in the best manner, and his grain is remarkably 

 "well put in. For several years his small grain 

 crops increased, but latterly a great change has 

 taken place. His barley crop (his principal reli- 

 ance) has gradually dwindled until this year, from 

 the attacks of insects, &c. He may be said to have 

 sowed himself out of seed, and to have fairly aban- 

 doned the croj). I will cite you another case. A 

 farmer very near me, (a particular friend, who 

 commenced operations on a farm impoverished and 

 worn out by bad cultivation,) has lately thrown 

 his farm into four fields. He has made great exer- 

 tions to improve his land through manure, rest, 

 &c. and his success is very flattering and higidy 

 creditable. Yet 1 think he is nearly convinced 

 ihat the four field fallow system will not answer, 

 and that he will speedily abandon it. His smali 

 grain crops have never come up to their promise, 

 and the wild onion is gaining rapidly on him. 

 Judge Semple of Williamsburg, an agriculturist 

 of first rate skill and sagacity, has, through the 

 medium of your paper, renounced his preconceiv- 

 ed opinions of the four field system, and intends re- 

 tracing his steps with haste, if not with " fear and 

 trembling." Again; I know no fiirmers in Virgi- 

 nia more prosperous, or who have made more mo- 

 ney by agriculture than those on the Rappahan- 

 nock. They rely principally on Indian corn, and 

 cultivate their farms in three fields. I observe too, 

 that very few of your fallow farmers (not aided by 

 reclaimed marshes,) make more corn than answers 

 for their domestic purposes. 



The whole matter may be thus summed up. In 

 those sections of country where the fi\llow system 

 is pursued, and where the energies of the farmer 

 are directed to wheat as a primary crop, the corn 

 crop is proportionably small : and where corn is 

 the staple, the wheat crop is seldom large. As 

 wheat is made with less hoe labor than corn, it is 

 wise to rely on it in a country adapted to its 

 growth — especially too where corn would not bear 

 transportation. But on the seaboard, where the 

 markets are so accessible, and corn so certain a 

 crop, it is safest for the farmer to make it his prin- 

 cipal reliance. 



1 will now endeavor to show, and by reference 

 to my own farm alone, that the three field system 

 is not necessarily an inipoverishing one : on the 

 contrary, that under it poor land may be rendered 



The farm on which I reside was purchased by 

 my father, at about twenty shillings per acre. It 

 was for years the by-word of the neighborhood, 

 and constituted a sort of standard by which the po- 

 verty of other farms might be estimated. The 

 manager, who lives with me, engaged with my 

 father the last of the year 1813, for the year 1814. 

 He informs me that the crop of 1813, a little up- 

 wards of one hundred barrels, was sold in 1814; 

 and that in consequence of this large sale, my fa- 

 ther was obliged to purchase corn, by the fall. 

 For many years past the farm has been rapidly 

 improving, though constantly under the three field 

 system ; and the crop of corn made this year 

 from about one hundred and fifty acres, may be 

 very fairly estimated at one thousand barrels ; of 

 this, seven hundred barrels was made on a field 

 estimated at ninety acres, the other sixty having 

 been injured some years since by the passage of 

 salt water over it, during a gust tide. Every time 

 a field comes into cultivation, after yielding me a 

 crop of corn and wheat, I consider it decidedly 

 better than it was the year before. This is the re- 

 sult, I admit, of a laborious but profitable appli- 

 cation of manure; and demonstrates, that without 

 the aid of lime or marl, (the great value of which 

 I am not disposed at all to question,) a farm may, 

 by its oivn resources, be resuscitated. Every 

 thing that can be turned into manure, or can be of 

 service when applied to the land, is so applied, and 

 however unfavorable the seasons may have been, 

 my farm has for many years past always yielded a 

 respectable crop of corn. The wheat crop has 

 never been large — in no year having exceeded 

 thirteen hundred bushels. 



If I were to select a farm of moderate size in 

 the tide water section of Virginia, I would take 

 one of three fields of 150 acres each, with three or 

 four lots of forty acres, which should be sowed in 

 clover, and fallowed for wheat in rotation, and hav- 

 ing a standing pasture of moderate extent. I 

 would then jdant 150 acres in corn every year; I 

 would sow a hundred acres of the corn land in 

 wheat, and fifty in oats, which, with the forty acre 

 lot of clover fallow, would give 140 acres of land 

 in wheat, 150 in corn, and fifty in oats every year. 

 This I am convinced would be (at more profitable, 

 than if the same lands were divided into four fields, 

 two fields in wheat, and one in corn; and simply 

 because corn is so much more certain a crop with 

 us, than wheat. The fifiy acres in oafs would 

 nearly yield grain enough to feed the necessary 

 horses during the year, (a smaller number being 

 sufficient under the three field system,) and thus 

 leave a larger quantity of corn for sale. In fact, 

 after all, it is not so much the particular system 

 that is adopted, as the mode in which it is carried 

 into effect. If mine is well executed, I must re-^ 

 mark in justice to my manager's untiring indus- 

 try and excellent judgment, that he is mainly 

 entitled to the credit. 



I will at some future time, give you my whole 

 system of cultivation, especially of corn. It is 

 exceedingly simple, and so far as its correctness is 

 to be estimated by its success, has proved a happy 

 adaptation of means to a desired end. I will offer 

 no apology to you, or to the public, for presenting 

 these desultory remarks, as I am led to believe by 

 your repealed invitations to farmers generally, to 



fertile, and the owner fairly compensated for his give the results of their experience, and from the 

 labor. I character of your work itself, that any practical 



