M4 



FARMERS' REGISTER— TO TOBACCO GROWERS. 



beautiful and profitable agriculture, 1 will ven- 

 ture to offer you a few thoughts on a subject which 

 is near to the interest of \is all. 



I read with peculiar satisfaction and delight the 

 article in the 7th No. of the Farmers' Register, 

 entitled " The Cultivation of Tobacco not opposed 

 to the Imi)rovenient of Land," from your intelli- 

 gent correspondent H. Meade, of Amelia, Va. 

 The article alluded to, gives a clear and concise, 

 but circumstantial narrative, of a simple agricul- 

 tural experiment, which brings us to the happiest 

 result — a result directly in conflict wilh the set- 

 tled opinion of the times; a result which, if we 

 will but imitate, may serve to arrest our country 

 in its onward march to unfruitfulness and sterility. 

 But what struck my attention more particularly, 

 was, that a man should be found bold enough to 

 attack the hoary and giant error that tiiere can be 

 no improvement on estates where tobacco is the 

 crop. The question then is tliis : must the culti- 

 vation of tobacco necessarily produce that barren 

 and wasted appearance which the tobacco region 

 of Virginia every where exhibits. To this ques- 

 tion, I answer in the negative; and shall offer a 

 few of the reasons for that opinion, and tiie method 

 of management which will ensure large and fine 

 crops of tobacco, and an increased fertility in eve- 

 ry part of a plantation. Let three scenes on every 

 estate be selected, which, in the judgment of the 

 proprietor, are the most suitable for tobacco. It 

 matters not that they be in three or more pieces, 

 so enough is selected to make three tobacco shifts 

 for his hands. Let these be brought to " tobacco 

 heart," either by the application of manure, or by 

 grassing them from the time of clearing. Upon 

 any estate where ten hands are employee!, with the 

 requisite number of teams and cattle, manure 

 enough can be raised in a year, by tolerable atten- 

 tion to the subject, to enrich thirty five thousand 

 tol)acco hills or ten acres of land. This I know to 

 be but a moderate effort. Then, at this rate, for a 

 crop of eight thousand hills to the hand, it will re- 

 quire about six years to establish the tobacco shifts 

 recommended — supposing there was no land on 

 the plantation sufficiently fertile to be thrown into 

 this rotation. When the shifts are thus establish- 

 ed, let one be cultivated in tobacco in, say 1834 — 

 seeded in wheat and clover in the fail after the crop 

 of tobacco is taken off; not grazed or trodden in 

 1835, after the wheat is cut; in the fall of 1835, 

 or spring of 1836, as experience teaches best, let 

 it be sowed in the proper manner with gypsum. 

 This will insure a luxuriant crop of clover in 

 1836 ; and be sure to keep the fact constantly in 

 view, that the clover was put there to fatten your 

 land, and not your horses, cows and hogs. Then 

 in October or November, or as soon as the land is 

 soft enough to be thoroughly ploughed, let it be 

 again sowed with gypsum, at the rate of a barrel 

 for every twenty thousand hills. If the ensuing 

 summer there be any spots in the field which are 

 yellow or unthrifty, let a little gypsum be applied 

 around the plant, and a speedy and thorough cure 

 will be effected; and so on through the successive 

 scenes. When No. 1 is in tobacco, No. 2 will be 

 in clover, and No. 3 in wheat. Here is an ar- 

 rangement by Avhioh two lots out of three are yield- 

 ing annually a valuable market crop, while the 

 third is manuring itself for the next year's crop of 

 tobacco. It may be supposed by some, that land 

 cannot be kept in tobacco heart at this rotation. 



but it is a great error. I consider that the year 

 the lot is in wheat, it gains or loses nothing mate- 

 rial, and the return of the clover is more than 

 equal to the exhaustion occasioned by the crop of 

 tobacco Here then, your tobacco scenes being 

 established, what shall be done with the immense 

 quantities of manure which is now applied to our 

 tobacco lots.' Let us contract the extent of our 

 corn fields by one third or one half, and let 

 them be manured and better cultivated, and there- 

 l)y produce as much or more than the whole, un- 

 der the usual system. Let the rest of the corn 

 field be sowed in wheat and clover, or oafs and 

 clover, as the owner may prefer, and thus put 

 upon a longer, and an improving rotation. Let 

 us establish extensive meadows, the hay from 

 which, together with our increased crops of wheat, 

 will enable us to double the qaantily of manure 

 now raised, which increased quantity will, of 

 course, increase the material, for making it in a 

 progressive ratio. When, in a few years, the great- 

 est difliculty with our planters will be, the means of 

 hauling it on their fields — and I had almost said, 

 to find a place to put it. These are not visionary 

 or groundless calculations ; for as far, as in the 

 course of my observation, this system has in part 

 been adopted, proportionable good results have en- 

 sued. May we not then indulge the hope, that 

 upon this or some other system like it, so many of 

 our barren old fields, which are now but haggard 

 and howling wildernesses, may becoms abundant 

 and smiling meadows. Our mother earth, when 

 exhausted by lavish and injudicious cultivation, 

 is like the human system wasted by disease, pos- 

 sesses a strong and natural tendency to reaction ; 

 and if this tendency is aided by kind nursing and 

 little physick. is soon restored to its wonted health 

 and vigor. The system of tillage which is now 

 |)ursued in this part of Virginia, and which has 

 liad the chief agency in reducing it to its present 

 exhausted condition is aptly described by the fiible 

 of the boy who ripped up his goose, which fable is 

 l)ut another mode of expressing folly and cupidity. 

 The owner of a fertile piece of land clears it, and 

 instead of taking a crop or two of tobacco from it, 

 and then keeping it in grass and enclosed, until 

 the proper time shall come for another golden egg, 

 cultivates it in tobacco as long as the crop will j)ay 

 for the labor of cultivation, and then it is cast by, 

 a ripjjed and worthless carcass, to bear a rapid 

 succession of corn and oats ; and when not in crop, 

 the equally desolating effectsof grazingand tramp- 

 ling. I do not advocate a system of improvement 

 which is in the remotest manner to interfere with 

 full, successful, and profitable cropping ; for I do 

 know that profitable agriculture and the improve- 

 ment of the soil, are not only perfectly harmo- 

 nious and compatable, but is in fact, the only mode 

 in which the farmer can realize much clear gains 

 from his estate. I know there are many men in 

 our country, who have amassed large sums of mo- 

 ney from planting, who have not only not improv 

 ed their lands, but who have been so entirely care- 

 less on the subject, as to almost entirely waste 

 them in the effort. But, in this case, where is the 

 profit .' One estate is reduced to poverty, and ren- 

 dered almost wortliless, whereby the means are 

 acquired to purchase another of equal value. — 

 Would a money lender think his profits were ra- 

 pidly increasing, who, instead of putting out his 

 money at six per centum, and receiving back at 



