THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



75 



Meanwhile, we assure the tobacco planters 

 of the South and of the West, that the 

 administration are anxiously bent on pro- 

 moting their interests, by' pressing the in- 

 troduction of their staples into the ports 

 of Europe on the most advantageous 

 terms that can possibly be obtained." 



For the Southern Planter. 



SYSTEM OF VALLEY FARMING. 



Mr. Editor, — As the system of farming 

 generally recommended by the writers for 

 your paper, is not exactly the one which 

 we follow in the Valley of Virginia, I 

 have thought it might not be amiss, or 

 unacceptable to you to learn something 

 of our mode of cultivation in this part of 

 the State, and although I am, compara- 

 tively speaking, but a novice in the busi- 

 ness, and have many neighbors who are 

 abler and much better qualified, both as 

 writers and farmers, than myself, to give 

 you information on this subject, yet as I 

 have looked in vain, in your paper, for 

 some years past for something from them, 

 I. have determined, in default of a better, 

 to give you my system and some of the 

 results. 



My plantation consists of . about 550 

 acres, of which about 165 acres are in 

 wood, the balance is divided into seven 

 fifty acre fields, and a lot around ray house 

 of 35 acres for a timothy meadow, or- 

 chard, yard, garden, &c. 



I cultivate every year one field (fifty 

 acres) in corn, and three (150 acres) in 

 small grain, principally wheat. 1 sow 

 every year 100 acres in clover, and use 

 plaster of Paris freely. Thus, you will 

 perceive, that my fields are cultivated once 

 in seven years in corn, three years in se- 

 ven in small grain, and lie out, in clover, 

 three years out of seven. Every fall I 

 have one two year old clover field, and one 

 one year old clover field to fallow for wheat, 

 and the corn field of that year for wheat, 

 or wheat and oats. The one year old 

 fallow field, and the corn field are sowed 

 in clover, the next spring, and the corn 

 crop always succeeds the wheat on the 



two year old clover field. I endeavor al- 

 ways to let one crop of clover fall on the 

 land in seven years. I have followed this 

 system as nearly as I could for the last 

 five years, and think I can see an evident 

 improvement in my land. At all events, 

 the average of my crops has increased. 



I work on my farm six good hands, 

 men, (I have no women working out,) 

 one of whom is my blacksmith and rough 

 carpenter. At some seasons I hire addi- 

 tional labor, for instance, during harvest 

 and while threshing wheat. 



We can cultivate our land in this coun- 

 try with a smaller force of hands than 

 you can in the lower part of the State, 

 though we use more horses, and dispense 

 entirely with the hoe. I plough up my 

 corn land in the spring without bedding 

 it — harrow it down, lay it off three and 

 a half feet each way, with the shovel 

 plough, harrow the corn in, and if I can 

 give it three ploughings, with the large 

 shovel plough, two of two furrows in a 

 row, and one of three furrows in a row, 

 in an ordinary season I can be pretty sure 

 of a good crop, without having a hoe in 

 the field. 



I measured my corn the past year on 

 forty five acres of my corn field, and 

 housed 482 barrels, the balance I fed 

 away without measuring. My crop of 

 wheat was about 1,900 bushels, although 

 our wheat in this county was much in- 

 jured, both in quality and quantity, by the 

 wet weather in June and July, mine only 

 weighed 56 pounds to the bushel, and 

 when the wheat in our county weighs 

 under 58 to the bushel, the millers, here, 

 double the deficit to sixty ; that is I had 

 to give 64 pounds for every bushel that 

 | weighed 56 instead of 60 pounds, as they 

 I purchase by weight, and not by the sam- 

 j pie, as they do in Richmond — so that I 

 j lost one-fifteenth between the measure 

 I and the weight. The amount I have 

 ! stated above was by weight. I will also 

 ' state that I killed the past year seventy- 

 five hogs, which averaged about one hun- 

 I dred and seventy-five pounds. 



I have been induced to give you the 

 above by a piece in your last number, 

 ! headed "Communications;" and also en- 



