580 



FARMERS' REGISTER— BLUE GRASS, &c. 



and roots that may be in it, as hard burning evi 

 dently makes the land produce veo-etation slowly, 

 ■which will also be the case, if the land is wet, 

 when it is burnt with a strong fire. 



I come now to the preparation of the land, for 

 setting out the plants, which depends on such a 

 variety of circumstances, that I hardly know where 

 to begin. That is, whether the land is new or old, 

 clean, or covered with vegetation. I would say 

 however, that the two grand essentials in prepara- 

 tion, is to make your land rich, and plough it until 

 it is well pulverized, and then put it up into large 

 hills, three feet apart each way, being careful to 

 break the step of every row, so that the rows will 

 run every direction. This is designed to give 

 every plant the advantage of the sun, in ripening; 

 whereas otherwise, the bottom leaves of the plants 

 would be shaded by the plants immediately oppo- 

 site. 



This may be thought by some, cultivating too 

 close: but experience has taught me, that more 

 tobacco in weight, and of finer quality, can be 

 made at this distance, on rich land, than any other. 

 Enlarge the distance, and you increase the size 

 and coarseness of the plant ; vice versa, reduce the 

 distance to tliree feet, and you diminish the size, 

 and increase the silkiness and closeness of texture, 

 with little or no diminution of weight. In order 

 to cultivate tobacco profitably and judiciously, it 

 is as necessary to have shifts, as it is for corn. I 

 would say then, lay off your tobacco land into three 

 shifts, to be kept rich with clover and herdsgrass: 

 or if you have not land enougli for three shifts, 

 divide it into two, and keep them up by sowing on 

 oats or buckwheat, and ploughing it in, as soon as 

 the crop comes to maturity. The three shift sys- 

 tem, is however, decided!)' preferable to the two 

 For instance, you may get a wheat crop after the 

 tobacco, and you may either sow on your grass, or 

 clover seed, with the wheat, or wait and sow it on 

 the stubble, immediately after cutting off the 

 wheat, which I believe is best, as the seed is not 

 liable to be killed by the frosts, or choked by the 

 wheat. They come up quick, grow off well, and 

 will be thicker and forwarder, than if sown with 

 the wheat. Again, upon the two shift plan, you 

 must be at the expense of ploughing the shift, 

 sowing on oats or buckwheat, and then turning it 

 under when ripe. This however is much better, 

 and cheaper, than the common mode of manuring, 

 as vegetable manure makes tobacco of finer quali- 

 ty than any other substance whatever. If either 

 of the above plans are adopted, however, the 

 planter can apply all his manure, to his corn or 

 wheat crop, and thus he will make larger and bet- 

 ter crops of every description, and at the same 

 time, improve all his lands. I cultivate three 

 shifts in tobacco, and f()ur in corn ; and find since I 

 ado{)ted that system, my lands have improved, be- 

 yond iriy most sanguine expectations. Your land 

 then being prepared as before described, and your 

 plants having attained sufficient size, draw them, 

 when the ground is quite moist, and set theiji out, 

 in the hills, and every thing necessary, preparatory 

 to the cultivation of the crop, will have been com- 

 pleted. 



G. 



Wardsfork, Charlotte, 1 

 Jan. 28th, 1834. < 



For the Farmers' Register. 

 BLUE GRASS. 



Of all the j)ests that wheat land is subject to, 

 blue grass is the worst; and I believe the only 

 remedy heretofore discovered, is to cultivate the 

 land in a hoe crop, such as corn, &c.; and even then, 

 it requires a very dry summer, and extra working 

 of such hoe crop, to be at all successful. And after 

 all it is sure to return to the land in a few j'ears, so 

 as to rofluire a repetition of the hoe crop every 

 now and then. 



I this summer made an experiment without a 

 hoe crop, v/hich proved successful with a field of 

 blue grass, as completely set, as it could possibly 

 be. I intended to make one experiment, and made 

 another unintentionally. 



My object at first was to give the land an En- 

 glish fallow ; that was, to jjlough the land up in 

 the spring, and keep it well cultivated throughout 

 the summer with the double shovel ploughs, with 

 the view of killing the blue grass. I should have 

 preferred to have made a crop of corn upon it, but 

 I could not spare the labor ; so I thought I would 

 substitute this mode, as requiring much less lahor. 



I ploughed up the land with large three-horse 

 ploughs, between the 10th of May and the 10th of 

 June, intending to commence with the double 

 shovels, as soon as the blue grass began to grow, 

 and to continue to use them, as required, through- 

 out the summer: but I never had time to double 

 shovel it at all, and I thought my experiment was 

 thrown away. However, during the months of 

 June and July, (May and June, having been ex- 

 cessively wet,) a heavy crop of crop grass put up, 

 and although the blue grass had begun to grow a 

 little, the crop grass got the better of it, and main- 

 tained the advantage during August and Septem- 

 ber, two of the driest months ever known ; and at 

 last destroyed the blue grass, and gave me the 

 cleanest field for wheat this fall, I have had for 

 several years. 



This result may have been owing to the pecu- 

 liar season, but it was couipletely successful. The 

 season was an unusual one ; during the months of 

 May and June, it was eternally raining, and from 

 about the 2d of July, until October, we had no 

 rain at all, and this may have produced the effect. 

 Possibly, in another season, it might not have the 

 same effect; but I cannot help thinking, or at least 

 hoping, there was something in ploughing up the 

 land just before the season for the crop grass to 

 begin to grow, and that it might prove successful 

 generally ; for the crop grass is very powerful in 

 smothering any thing it grows with, where it is 

 allowed to take place. At all events, I shall give 

 this experiment another trial next summer, and 

 will then communicate the result to you, and my 

 only object for mentioning it now, is, the hope that 

 some other person may be induced to make a simi- 

 lar experiment, as several experiments are always 

 more satisfactory than one. h. c; 



November 1, 1833. 



[The result of this chance-made experiment is at 

 least interesting, and may lead to profitable practice, if 

 the remarkable growth of gi-ass was not owing (as our 

 correspondent supposes) to the peculiarity of the sea- 

 son. The crop gnss takes its name from growing gene- 

 rally in land under tillage, and it will not grow, in any 

 quantity, except where the plough has been used in Uie 



