THE SOUTHEKN PLANTEK. 



371 



tilizing influence of the atmosphere and greatly 

 diminishing or entirely destroying the absorbing 

 powers of the land. 



Humus, that substance or principle, which agri- 

 cultural chemists tell us, is so indispensably neces- 

 sary in the constitution of productive soils and 

 the vigorous growth of plants, is nothing more 

 than the residuum of solid vegetable and animal 

 substances, reduced by decomposition to a pabulum 

 fitted to, and capable of, being taken up by the 1 

 roots of growing plants through the agency of the 

 atmosphere and water. Many plants are almost 

 self-sustaining, deriving most of their growth and 

 support from the atmosphere, while others, by their 

 long tap-roots, strike deep into the subsoil and 

 draw a large portion of their nutrition from depths 

 beyond the reach of other plants. Thus a well 

 clothed verdant field, untrodden and ungrazed, is 

 by the appointment of Providence, silently selecting 

 from the great storehouse of nature, food adapted to 

 the growth and maturity of vegetation, by the death 

 and decomposition, of which more fertilizing mat- 

 ter is returned to the land on which grew, than by 

 its production, was taken from it. Grass and grain 

 are the two great sources of national independence 

 and individual wealth. No nation was ever long 

 independent, happy and free, who neglected the one 

 or despised the other. They are inseparably united 

 by an all-wise Providence, and folly marks the con- 

 duct of those who would dissolve their union. 

 Tillage exhausts the fertility of soils. Grass, indi- 

 rectly, but certainly, restores it. The beneficial 

 effects of inorganic or mineral manures are greatly 

 increased by being turned in with large quantities 

 of organic or vegetable matter. A field thus hea- 

 vily covered with vegetation will bear a much 

 larger application of lime or marl than if naked, 

 and I doubt not but that every person present has 

 witnessed and is ready to admit the same results 

 from the application of guano and other putrescent 

 manures, under like circumstances. I have heard 

 the idea advanced, that stock were productive la- 

 borers, bringing home and depositing, at night, the 

 fruits of their daily toil. This may be true, if my 

 stock graze my neighbors' lands, but certainly false 

 if they graze my own. If it is good economy to 

 haul dead vegetable matter to our farm-pens and 

 on our arable lands with the view of improving 

 their productiveness, it is surely very injudicious 

 to graze off the growing vegetation, absorbing as 

 it does from the atmosphere through its leaves and 

 bringing up by its roots from the subsoil fertilizing- 

 materials, which, by its decomposition, would be 

 returned to the land on which it was grown. Clo- 

 ver, lucern, peas, buckwheat and many other mem- 

 bers of the vegetable kingdom, deriving their prin- 

 cipal support from the atmosphere and the subsoil 

 and clay, costs the farmer nothing but space on 

 which to grow, and protection from depredation of 

 the tooth and hoof. 



In conformity with these views it is my inten- 

 tion immediately to divide my farm into four shifts 

 of one hundred acres each, and from each of these 

 fields to set apart twenty acres for tobacco lots, all 

 to be enclosed by a strong, substantial ring fence. 

 Dividing fences will be dispensed with, in view of 

 economizing labor and timber, and of guarding at 

 the same time against injurious grazing. I shall 

 then have eighty acres, or 278,724 hills in corn, 

 planted five feet by two and a half; and twenty 

 acres, or 80,000 hills, in tobacco, the usual distance. 

 It is my intention to enclose a part of my farm for 

 a standing pasture and rigidly to exclude all stock 



from the arable land through the first rotation' 

 Every appliance within the means of the farmer 

 should be used to improve each field for corn and 

 tobacco. Particular attention should be paid to 

 farm-pen and compost manures, together with a 

 liberal outlay in lime, plaster, bone-dust and guano, 

 as on these mainly depends the success of the sys- 

 tem. Every portion of the field in small grain 

 should be seeded in clover or such other cultivated 

 grasses as may be adapted to the varying quality 

 of the land, until the entire farm is set in grass. 

 Ten efficient hands and six working horses are 

 thought sufficient to cultivate the foregoing crops 

 well and leave ample time for the improvement of 

 the farm and for other minor incidental duties and 

 labors. 



The tobacco lots should be made rich enough to 

 produce a crop averaging a pound for every four 

 hills, or 20,000 lbs., and the corn shifts raised to 

 that state of fertility that will insure an abundant 

 supply of grain and provender for the use of the 

 farm. The four-field rotation is preferred to the 

 three, as being less scourging, and for other reasons 

 as stated above; and to the five-shift rotation, be- 

 cause requiring less land and labor to carry it into 

 successful operation. It is also less exhausting 

 than the five-field system, with an intermediate 

 fallow crop, and it is believed will more speedily 

 resuscitate our exhausted lands. It will not reduce 

 the area of of our cultivated fields to the same ex- 

 tent as the five-field rotation will do before we have 

 by partial improvement enabled the fields thus re- 

 duced in size to meet the wants of the farmer by 

 their increased productiveness. 



I will here suggest a probable improvement on 

 the foregoing, which is to add another twenty acre 

 lot for tobacco, which will enable the farmer to 

 fallow to that extent for wheat, or it may be used 

 for truck patches or seeded to oats, as the circum- 

 stances of the farm may require. Oats, however, 

 are a crop of but little value, and are only allowa- 

 ble, because our lands will not, in their present 

 condition, supply an abundant crop of corn and 

 provender for the use of the farm. 



By strict attention to the above system there can 

 be but little doubt that at the expiration of the 

 rotation, the yearly production of the farm will 

 have increased from fifteen to twenty per cent, 

 with a good prospect of progressive improvement 

 for all time to come. 



I am aware, sir, that my opinions on the subject 

 of stock are in conflict with the opinions of a ma- 

 jority of the Club. I will, however, take this oc- 

 casion to say that in the present condition of mid- 

 dle Virginia, with exhausted fields and barren com- 

 mons, stock raising, beyond the absolute wants and 

 comforts of the family, is incompatible with the 

 improvement of our lands, and to that extent is 

 unprofitable to the farmer; for he who improves 

 his stock at the expense of his land, is most as- 

 suredly sacrificing the greater to the lesser interest; 

 and he who grazes his arable land to improve his 

 stock, may please his eye and gratify his taste, but 

 will impoverish his farm and lighten his purse. 

 The farmer who enriches a field and incurs the ex- 

 pense of seeding it to clover or other grasses, and 

 grazes hard by his stock, is guilty of as great folly, 

 in my judgment, as an overseer I once knew who 

 covered his tobacco lot with wheat straw, and then 

 burnt it off for the sake of the ashes ; he impove- 

 rishes an entire field to manure a few cow-pens. 



Ths wise man has said " there is a time for all 

 things," true; but the time for middle Virginia to 



