FARMERS' REGISTER— LANDS IN CENTRAL VIRGINIA. 



885 



made, takin<^ into view time and expense, and act- 

 ing with a single eye to the improvement of the 

 land, it seems to me there cannot be much if any 

 doubt on the subject. Take the same anjount in 

 value, of clover seed and buckwheat, and of plas- 

 ter, and act with the clover as you please, it is my 

 belief, that at the end of the first year, with the 

 two crops of buckwhtaf ploug;hed in, and the plas- 

 ter, the land would produce as well, if not better, 

 than it would at the end of the second year with 

 the clover fallow. I have not tried the actual ex- 

 periment, and perhaps my conclusions from what I 

 iiave seen, are erroneous. 



Answer to 2d query. As to this query, I can 

 only give information as to the time of sowing seed 

 here. If but one crop in the year is intended, it 

 will answer to sow the latter part of June, or any 

 time in July. I have tried the dilTerent periods, 

 and have succeeded well with both. Perliaps from 

 the middle to the la^t of July would be the best 

 time here, especially if the season should be a moist 

 one. As to the quantity of seed to be sowed on an 

 acre, I think it is safe to assert, that there is no ge- 

 neral rule 071 the subject. Producers of buck- 

 wheat differ as to the amount of seed requisite to 

 the acre, and the amounts recommended vary from 

 three pecks up to two bushels per acre. I have 

 not been accurate, in ascertaining the precise quan- 

 tity of seed sown per acre on my land, but have 

 always directed not less than a bushel and a half 

 of seed per acre to be sown, believing that a 

 greater mass of vegetable matter would be pro- 

 duced by thick than by thin sowing. 



As to the time of ploughing in the crop, I prefer 

 to have it done wlien it has attained its full height, 

 having much ripe seed, but still many blossoms. 

 My own opinion is, although worth but little on 

 such a subject, thattlie best time to plough in buck- 

 wheat or field peas, is when the crop covering the 

 ground has obtained its greatest weight. I am op- 

 posed to waiting for the stalks to dry and harden. 



I have no correct information as to the quantity 

 of buckwheat which can be produced on good 

 iand per acre, in this part of the country. With- 

 out great pains, at least one third will be lost by 

 shattering. 



The 3d query I cannot answer. 



Answer to 4th query. I presume there can 

 be no doubt that a crop of buckwheat would be of 

 very ";reat advantage to the land, iftlie oat stubble 

 was ploughed in withoutdelay, and the buckwheat 

 immediately sown. There would be a luxuriant 

 mass of vegetable matter to be ploughed in, the 

 last of September, if the season should be at all la- 

 vorable ; and I should not be surprised if the in- 

 crease to the acre produced thereby, would be from 

 three to five bushels of wheat liie first crop. 



I have tried the plan of ploughing in the oat 

 stubble, immediately after the oats were cut, (or 

 the purpose of having a green crop from tlie scat- 

 tered seed, to plough under in October. Notwith- 

 standing the land had been well manured for the 

 oat crop, the succeeding crop of wheat too evident- 

 ly showed the exhausting elTects of the oats, not- 

 withstanding the green crop of oats. 



It is to be hoped the above remarks and opinions 

 will assist in eliciting from some able hand, a full 

 answer to the queries. S. 



tVindsor, Prince George co. ? 

 ^Sth January, 1834. $ 



Vol I.— 74 



03V lOIPROVEMENT OF LANDS IN THE CEN- 

 TRAL REGION OK VIRGINIA. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Sir, — It is highly gratifying to your particular 

 friends, to find tiiat your periodical has produced 

 such an impression through tlie country. It must 

 be truly gratifying to every patriot, aiid especial- 

 ly to every Virginia patriot, to find tlie whole 

 community so generally aroused on the subject of 

 improving the soil, and so generally believing that 

 something greatly valuable will soon be eifected. 



But, sir, we may fold our arms in the indulgence 

 of these joys and hopes, and all that you can pub- 

 lish will be as an idle dream, unless your readers 

 will resolve, each for himself, that practical bene- 

 fits shall result to him, from the instructions con- 

 tained in the Register. I am old enough to re- 

 member that when the great agricultural patri- 

 arch of Virginia first published his Arator, his 

 opinions were in the mouths of every body ; and I 

 was then young enough to believe confidently, that 

 all Virginia would soon be a perfect garden. 

 But what has followed.' A tew, possessing soils 

 primitively rich, have derived great advantages 

 from pursuing Col. Taylor's system: fewer still 

 have ingeniously adapted the system to poorer soils ; 

 a much smaller number, residing on lands called, 

 in the Essay on Calcareous Manures, "poor acid 

 acid soils" have, by strictly adhering to the" four 

 shift system," been able barely to keep their no- 

 ses out of water; while much the largest number, 

 even of those who made the loudest noise about 

 Col. Taylor's writings, have not obeyed a single 

 precept contained in them. Many a pert school 

 boy, is willing to sink to the dogs, if he can only 

 make the impression that he is a lad of genius, 

 and might be a clever fellow, if he wouM. I know 

 SGra€ such, and anxiously wish they would take 

 the hint. In agriculture, the older school boys, I 

 fear, are in a more hopeless condition — for they 

 pretty generally have been formed out of the 

 young ones, and have the habit of indulgence al- 

 most petrified into a natural propensity. 



Prosperity in any busin-ess must be preceded by 

 a knowledge of the obstacles to improvement and 

 success — by the arrangement of a regular plan of 

 operations, and by a fixed determination to remove 

 those obstacles, and to pursue rigidly such a plan, 

 regardless of the difficulties which may inter- 

 pose. 



The obstacles to improvements in central Virgi- 

 nia, (for which portion of our state these remarks 

 are chiefly intended,) are 1st. The impoverish- 

 ment and exhaustion of so large a part of our 

 land, and the scarcity of means ibr its resuscita- 

 tion; 2d. The almost total absence of calcai-eous 

 manures ; 3d. The extreme liability cf our cli- 

 mate to drought; 4th. The cultivation of tobac- 

 co; 5th and last, and very far from being the least, 

 the employment of slave labor. 



These heads might furnish matter for a large 

 volume, but the writer, though in the conditionof 

 Burns, when doubting whether he should write a 

 song or a sermon, hopes to confine himself to the 

 limits of one or two essays. 



1. The poverty of so large a portion of our 

 soil, might operate much to discourage in at- 

 tempts at improvement, did we not know that it 

 had once been fertile ; and the adage, that what has 

 been, may be again, is so entirely admitted by most 



