162 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



mically providing for the farming wants, meeting 

 expenses, laying in provisions, selling grain, &c. 



Having thus, at some length presented, as I con- 

 ceive, the only true test of any judicious process 

 of improving and enriching poor land, I will now 

 undertake to present, as briefly as possible, that 

 system of farming in detail which, in my opinion, 

 will most speedily attain this desirable result. Of 

 course I have regarded this improvement of land, 

 not as isolated, but as an essential part and promi- 

 nent object of farming operations, and therefore 

 necessarily dependent for its greatest success, upon 

 the most skilful management of the whole farming 

 operations. Thus, for example, whilst the collection 

 and application of manures — mineral or putrescent, 

 in some shape or modification, are the great means 

 with which to improve land ; yet bad rotation of 

 crops, bad ploughing, bad management in the use- 

 less and unprofitable consumption of labor, &c, 

 that might otherwise have been employed in the 

 collection and application of manures, are all means 

 calculated to retard and lessen the extent of any 

 extensive effort at improvement. 



The remarks, therefore, which I propose making, 

 will be embraced under the following heads, to 

 wit: 1, team and hands; 2, rotation of crops; 3, 

 ploughing; 4, crops; and 5, manures. 



TEAM AND HANDS. 



As these together constitute the great power 

 with which the whole farming process is carried 

 on, it is needless to say, that every necessary at- 

 tention should be given to keep each in good health 

 and working condition. Bad feeding, want of pro- 

 per attention, or overwork, which will cause team 

 and hands to come short of this standard, is sim- 

 ply miserable management. A farmer's orders 

 or rules should always be just, equitable and plain, 

 and made known to each servant. Nothing tends 

 so much to insubordination and confusion on a 

 farm, as a departure from this fundamental rule. 

 Firmness, then, in enforcing these rules or orders, 

 will always make industrious and orderly servants, 

 which, with good feeding, clothing and house- 

 room, as already suggested, will not only preserve 

 their value, but give a most surprising general in- 

 crease of labor that may be directed to the profita- 

 ble improvement of the farm. I would further 

 state, that my experience teaches me that uniform 

 hours for feeding teams and laborers contribute 

 surprisingly to their good keeping, whilst the neg- 

 lect of this rule, and overtasking their powers any 

 one day, generally causes a greater injury and sub- 

 sequent loss of labor, than any supposed temporary 

 gain by such pressure. 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 



Common experience, wherever the five-field sys- 

 tem has been followed, with perhaps few excep- 

 tions, concurs in the opinion that it is best for the 

 improving and enriching of poor land. The rota- 

 tion with each field is, 1st year corn, with peas 

 sowed for fallow; 2nd year, wheat; 3rd, clover and 

 clover fallow; 4th, wheat; 5th, pasture; and next 

 year beginning the round again with corn. The 

 six-field rotation, however, is regarded by Mr. 

 Ruffin, than whom there is no higher authority, as 

 yet better than the five. This rotation is, for each 

 field, as I understand it : 1st year, corn ; 2nd year, 

 peas and pea fallow; 3rd, wheat; 4th, clover and 

 clover fallow; 5th, wheat; and 6th, pasture. I 

 have no doubt this tends to a rapid improvement 

 of land, and may be better for this purpose than 

 the five-field rotation ; but with all proper deference 



to the high source from whence this opinion comes, 

 I cannot resist the impression that there is an un- 

 necessary narrowing of the cropping surface, whilst 

 by sowing peas in the corn field, under the five- 

 field rotation, when laying by corn, the extra 

 ploughing necessary under the six-field system, 

 for putting in peas, will thus be unnecessary. 



I would, therefore, as I follow this (the five-field) 

 system myself, recommend its adoption on all wheat 

 or clay lands, and on what may be termed medium 

 soils, as calculated rapidly to improve, and thus 

 increase their productions. This system of rota- 

 tion seems as perfect in theory, as it appe'ars in 

 practice, guarding against the over-cropping and 

 hard grazing of the old three-field system on the 

 one hand, and the extreme non-grazing or four-field 

 rotation, of Col. John Taylor on the other. Steril- 

 ity was the product of the first, and trash and in- 

 sects the result of the last. The five-field rotation, 

 however, remedies each difficulty. The land is 

 grazed one year in five, which destroys all insects 

 and packs the land. Two green crops, one pea and 

 the other clover, are given for the improvement of 

 the land and support of the two wheat crops, 

 whilst for the corn crop there should be a dressing 

 of lime or marl, thus making a return to the land 

 for each crop taken off, besides the other dressings 

 of putrescent manures of which I shall speak here- 

 after. 



PLOUGHING. 



No operation in farming is so important as this. 

 It is the very foundation of all successful crop- 

 ping and profitable improvement of land. If badly 

 executed, the farming labors will be increased 

 throughout the year, the manuring will fall short 

 of its full effects, the beneficial atmospheric influ- 

 ence on the ploughed surface will be lessened, and 

 the crops greatly diminished. The best ploughmen 

 should therefore always be at the plough-handle 

 in the breaking up or fallowing of land. The 

 ploughs and team should be adapted to the land 

 and its condition when ploughed. , Common sense 

 will generally furnish, in such cases, the best di- 

 rections. Care should be taken, however, to plough 

 sufficiently deep, with each slice well turned over, 

 and laid close up against that of the last furrow ; 

 and in all cases where there is much vegetable 

 matter, the ox chain should be used to enable the 

 plough successfully to turn it under. 



CROPS. 



It is astonishing to observe how much unneces- 

 sary labor, which might be applied to the enrich- 

 ing of land, is generally expended in the old and 

 usual process of making crops — especially the corn 

 crop. It originates, first, in the erroneous applica- 

 tion of hand labor instead of horse-power, with pro- 

 per implements to do the work, involving a loss of 

 labor which, if properly applied, with adequate 

 team, would work twice or three times the usual 

 cropping surface. And in the next place, in disre- 

 garding the application of the different hands to 

 such work only as may be adapted to their respec- 

 tive degrees of skill and power. Thus, for exam- 

 ple, in putting a man to do what a boy or girl 

 could do as well, or where skill is needed, as, for 

 instance, in the scattering of lime, to keep a set of 

 careless boys and girls at this operation, whilst the 

 most skilful part of the force is kept at some light 

 shrubbing or the like. If the limits of this essay 

 permitted, I might go on to illustrate the effect of 

 these errors in each particular cropping process, 

 and show, particularly in the making of corn, that 



