28 
MR. ROBINSON S TOUR. NO. 12. 
or winter, turning under all the manure that can 
be given. In the spring, plant corn, and, at the 
last working of the corn, sow peas broadcast ; 
cut off the corn in September, plow under the 
peas, and give a top dressing of lime, at the rate 
of 35 or 40 bushels per acre, and then sow and 
harrow in 5 to 8 pecks of wheat per acre. In 
February or March, following, sow 4 quarts of 
clover seed per acre. Harvest the wheat in 
June, and sow one bushel of plaster per acre in 
August, and allow no stock to run upon the stub- 
ble. Next April, or May, sow again one bushel 
of plaster per acre, and pasture lightly during 
the summer. In August of this year, fallow for 
wheat, which is seeded in October, and the 
clover then seeds itself. For corn, the land is 
thoroughly harrowed after plowing, and then 
planted in drills, five feet apart. Sometimes a 
single stalk is left every 18 inches apart, in the 
drills ; at other plantings, two stalks of corn are 
left every 36 inches apart, in the drills. The 
corn is then cultivated with small plows, culti- 
vators, and hoes. 
Manure is used, either upon corn or wheat 
ground, on such parts as require it most. But 
after the land is brought to that state, by means 
of the valuable system of plowing, manure, and 
lime, that it will produce a good crop of clover, 
Mr. B. is sure of a good crop of wheat or corn, 
whenever required. 
Lime costs about ten cents a bushel, and is 
applied once in five years, only. It is brought 
from New York in the same vessels that come 
after corn and wheat, which were first induced 
to come up the Roanoke thus far by the influ- 
ence of the Messrs. Burgwin. This point is 
115 miles above the sound, and vessels are towed 
up by steamboats. One vessel brought up 2,100 
bushels of lime, last spring, which was unloaded 
by the hands upon H. K. Burgwin's place, in 
one day, and 6,650 bushels of corn, (186 tons,) 
put on board in three days more. The price of 
corn, on board, was 53 cents. Wheat, 95 cents. 
The Messrs. Burgwin estimate their present 
crop of wheat at 20,000 bushels, and of corn, 
last year, 26,000 bushels ; and the neighborhood 
ships from 500,000 to 600,000 bushels of corn 
a-year. The amount of H. K. Burgwin's sales, 
last year, was $222 to each field hand ; and one 
of his neighbors, below, Mr. Richard H. Smith, 
to $245 — which is better than has been done in 
cotton for many years. Mr. Smith's entire crop 
sold, was ninety-three barrels of corn, and 12,000 
pounds of seed cotton, to each hand, counting 
all in the field over fourteen years old. [A " bar- 
rel" of corn is five bushels of shelled corn.] Mr. 
H. K. Burgwin has made some pork in former 
years, but does not think it good policy to feed 
sound corn to hogs, at present prices of corn 
and pork. 
While I was at these plantations, a flood in 
the river, which rises thirty feet, spread over 
much of the bottom lands. This they are about 
to prevent by heavy embankments ; but it is a 
question with me whether it will pay cost ; for, 
notwithstanding loss of crops occasionally, these 
overflows add immense fertility to the land. 
The Messrs. B. use nine of Hussey's reapers, 
which they infinitely prefer to M'Cormick'sJ 
and Mr. T. P. B. was engaged in erecting a 
threshing machine to go by steam, similar to Mr. 
Boiling's, on James River, which he finds neces- 
sary to meet the demands of his increasing crops, 
under his, (in that region,) new system of farm- 
ing; notwithstanding the predictions of neigh- 
bors, overseers, and even negroes, that he would 
ruin his land, break up himself, and be ready to 
sell out, after trying his " new-fangled notions " 
a year or two. Besides his deep plowing, which, 
it was thought by some persons, would destroy 
the fertility of the soil, he has made a good deal 
of use of the subsoil plow ; and the amount of 
ditching which he has done is very great ; but 
his increased crops will soon pay the expense. 
His crop of corn, last year, upon 600 acres, 
averaged thirty-one bushels ; but he aims at an 
average of forty -five. The usual average, upon 
upland, will not exceed fifteen, and forty bushels 
is considered a great crop, even on the swamp 
lands upon Trent River ; so says the elder Mr. 
Burgwin. To show the enormous increase of 
manure, I will state that he hauled out, last 
year, upwards of 3,000 four-horse, or ox loads; 
this is spread broadcast and plowed in. His 
crop sold, the same year, from the labor of fifty 
hands, (besides ditching, manuring, and other 
improvements, and making all supplies of bread 
and meat, and part of the clothing for the peo- 
ple,) was 10,000 bushels of corn, at 45 cents, and 
3,000 bushels of wheat, at 90 cents. The wheat, 
last year, averaged, upon 270 acres, twelve 
bushels; and upon fifty acres of that which 
alone was limed, the average was twenty-two 
bushels — more than paying for liming in the 
first crop. 
His growing crop, when I was on the place, 
was 450 acres of wheat, 350 corn, 520 clover, 
upon which he keeps an hundred head of cattle, 
and hogs unnumbered. He had, last year, how- 
ever, 24,000 pounds of pork, which was mostly 
fatted upon "wild potatoes," peas, pumpkins, 
clover, and soft corn. The crops upon each of 
the other plantations, are upon nearly the same 
scale. 
The Messrs. Burgwin give it as their opinion, 
that a planter cannot expend money in any way, 
with such a certainty of making an hundred 
per cent, upon the expenditure, as in the pur- 
chase of lime, plaster, and clover seed. If it is 
objected that they have no facilities to obtain it, 
let them remember that these gentlemen had 
none when they commenced operations. If the 
people of the southern states desire to prevent 
the country from becoming a desert, they must 
open the navigation of streams and build rail- 
roads. Do not say " we can't ;" look at the New 
York and Erie Railroad, carried through almost 
impassable mountains, and you will then say, 
" we can, we will." Besides, if all the land upon 
the Roanoke were under such cultivation — and 
it is* all susceptible of it — as these planta- 
tions and a few others are, there would be a 
daily line of steamboats, instead of an occa- 
sional vessel finding its way up to carry off the 
produce. Mr. Burgwin, senior, told me that he 
got one cargo of lime at his place on the Trent, 
