122 [Assembly 



most of lier sister counties, and only half the population of many 

 of them. This shows what Dutchess county is for the products 

 of the soil, and especially that valuable crop, Indian corn, and 

 whether her intelligent, industrious population understand the 

 cultivation of it. 



Solon Robinson said, that, upon the subject of Indian corn, 

 he would make a few remarks upon the manner of cultivating 

 that crop in the South. In all of the slave States, the little one 

 horse shovel plow is in common use. This plow is made of a 

 piece of thin iron, like a pointed shovel, say nine inches across, 

 which is fastened to the standard under the beam, and the whole 

 is so light, that I have often seen a negro girl of 14 or 15 years 

 old, mount her mule, and take her plow on her shoulder or before 

 her, to ride to the field. With these tools the ground is scratched 

 over and corn planted and tended by the same implement. As 

 the subsoil is hard, the roots only spread through the loose earth 

 on the surfac3, and the after plowing serves to tear them to pieces. 

 In lower Virginia, it is common to throw the land all into beds 

 about a foot high, five feet apart; and plant one stalk in a place, 

 from two to four feet apart. The crop is 10 to 20 bushels. One 

 of the largest planters on the Roanoke, cultivates about 3,000 

 acres in corn. His land is very rich and subject to overflows. 

 He does not manure, and burns his stalks and cobs to get rid of 

 them. The yield averages perhaps thirty bushels. In the same 

 vicinity the Messrs. Burgwin have brought the average yield of 

 their land from seven to thirty bushels, principally by deep plow- 

 ing. They plant rows five feet apart and stalks one to two feet 

 apart. Uplands in that vicinity, plowed by one horse and the 

 little shovel plows, produce five to ten bushels to the acre. It is 

 planted about the 20th of April, 4 by 4^^ feet, one stalk in a hill 

 without manure. On tlie bottom lands of James River the aver- 

 age yield may be about 25 bushels. On the Sandy Point estates, 

 where the land is a true loam, and plowed with a three mule 

 team, and planted about the 25th of April, 5| feet between rows, 

 and 1| between stalks, the yield is thirty-five bushels average. 

 The seed is covered with a harrow and the crop tended with a 

 shovel plow. The annual crop is 500 acres. Gen. Peyton, above 

 Richmond, took an old plantation and renovated it by deep 



