THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



91 



and upon it, or some other system similar to it, 

 depends, as your Committee verily believe, the 

 restoration of Virginia to her former wealth and 

 prosperity. He raises the greatest possible quan- 

 tity of manure, makes the land as far as he goes 

 thoroughly rich, and shifts the scene every year. 

 He thinks that in three or four years he will in 

 this way have gone over the whole of his high 

 land, with the exception of the small portion 

 appropriated to standing pasture. His rotation 

 on the manured land, is tobacco, wheat, clover, 

 grazing and then summer fallow, varying slight- 

 ly, according to circumstances. 



Mr. R. has occupied the estate on which he 

 lives only seven or eight years. When he pur- 

 chased it, it presented by no means an improved 

 appearance. His predecessor, an excellent Vir- 

 ginia gentleman, managed it as most of our 

 large river estates are generally managed, and 

 with very much the same results ; but in the 

 few years that Mr. R. has owned it, its appear- 

 ance has been much improved, and its produc- 

 tiveness greatly increased. Most of our river 

 planters, accustomed to think that their lands 

 are sufficiently fertile, forget that such lands pay 

 for every effort at improvement, in proportion as 

 they are rich and they neglect the great busi- 

 ness of raising and applying manures. Mr. R. 

 knows too much about the calculation of interest 

 to have lost sight of the fact, that the applica- 

 tion of manures to such soils cannot fail to be 

 a good investment. A fair proportion of the 

 estate under consideration, is river bottom, and 

 Mr. R. has wisely drawn from this source the 

 rich and abundant materials (wheat straw, corn 

 stalks, and other offal of the crops,) with which 

 he has so rapidly improved his uplands, and the 

 Committee do not hazard much in the opinion, 

 that at no distant period he will have it in his 

 power to render back to the bottoms, from the 

 high land, the loam which he has exacted from 

 them, with compound interest. 



Mr. R. had his ox teams employed in carrying 

 out wheat straw to the land which is to be the 

 scene of his manuring operations the ensuing 

 year, and he was heaping it on with an unspar- 

 ing hand. He has top dressed a good deal of 

 his wheat this fall with stable manure. He 

 has also in hand an experiment with peas, sowed 

 in June and July and fallowed in as a prepara- 

 tion for wheat on common corn land, {land of 

 medium fertility?) and up to this time (16th De- 

 cember, 1843,) the wheat has a fine, rich, vigor- 

 ous appearance, fully equal to that sowed on his 

 highly manured lots. 



The Committee cannot too highly commend 

 Mr. R.'s neatness and skill in the cultivation of 

 his estate. The river banks are cultivated al- 

 most to the water's edge. The ditch banks are 

 levelled and cultivated neatly. The river bot- 

 tom is laid off in forty feet beds, the furrows 

 serving as complete drains. There are no head 



lands, hedge rows, thickets, brier patches, or 

 other waste places, to offend the eye, but instead 

 of these, (and they are but too common in our 

 Virginia farms,) every spot yields its full pro- 

 portion of the growing crop. 



Mr. R.'s entire estate is in a high state of im- 

 provement. The uplands are well protected 

 with hill-side trenches, and both high and low 

 lands effectually drained. A considerable part 

 of the bottom land has only been in his posses- 

 sion a few days, and when he shall have applied 

 his wonted skill to that, the whole will exhibit 

 a scene of improvement that your Committee 

 believe will not be excelled, if equalled, by any 

 estate within the limits of their acquaintance. 



The Committee regret that they have not 

 received a statement of the crop made by Mr. 

 R. last year, which was promised, should it be 

 received in time it will be annexed to this report. 

 Should, however, Mr. R.'s engagements prevent 

 his furnishing such statement, the Committee 

 will say that his crops have kept pace with his 

 improvements, and that he has given a practical 

 refutation to an error too common in our coun- 

 try, "That improving farmers generally reap 

 the smallest profits." 



The Committee regret, also, that they have 

 not space to give Mr. R.'s plans of cultivation 

 and improvement, as well as his opinions, more in 

 detail, but they have not had time and leisure to 

 confer with him freely on these subjects. There is 

 one opinion, however, entertained by him, which 

 the Committee think ought to address itself with 

 great force, not only to the Club but to the whole 

 public, and that is, " that one of the greatest 

 difficulties in the way of extensive improvement 

 is, deficiency of teams." 



The Committee hope to be excused for occu- 

 pying so much time in giving this mere outline 

 of Mr. R.'s management. 



A. C. Morton, 

 H. S. Jeffries. 



INDUSTRY. 



The following anecdote may give encourage- 

 ment to the industrious : 



Not long ago a country gentleman had an 

 estate of £200" a year, which he kept in his 

 own hands until he found himself so much in 

 debt, that to satisfy his creditors he was obliged 

 to sell the half and let the remainder to a farmer 

 for twenty years. Towards the expiration of 

 the lease, the farmer coming one day to pay his 

 rent, asked the gentleman whether he would 

 sell his farm. 14 Why, will you buy it ?" said 

 the gentleman. "If you will part with it, and 

 we can agree," replied the farmer. " That is 

 exceeding!}' strange," said the gentleman, "pray 

 tell me how it happens that, while I could not 

 live upon twice as much land, for which I pay 

 no rent, you are regularly paying me a hundred 



