1851. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
307 
cipal grain crop. Oats are largely raised, but this year, 
owing to an unexampled drouth, will produce little more 
than half a crop, except where guanoed. Wheat is ex¬ 
cellent. Cotton is raised by most planters sufficient for 
home consumption. But little hay is raised, though 
there might be any amount. No pains are taken to 
make manure. The pastures are old fields and woods. 
Sheep are seldom fed summer or winter; but a few tur- 
neps, or the like, would probably not injure them, and 
they can be raised in any amount. The soil is generally 
a few inches sand; sub-soil clay. No land retains ma¬ 
nure better , or shows a more lasting effect from it. The 
usual team for plowing is one horse or mule, the plow 
going to the depth of about three inches. The lands 
may be one-third in natural growth—oak, hickory, pine, 
poplar, &c.; one-third in cultivation; balance turned 
out and grown up, in many instances, with a heavy 
growth of pine—the second growth is invariably pine— 
many trees two feet through. Many farmers, however, 
are improving their lands by aid of lime, guano, deep 
plowing, clovering, &c. 
For fruits, we have every variety—apples, peaches, 
plums, quinces, cherries of every variety, grapes, figs, 
&c. Of the smaller fruits, we have whortleberries, the 
bushes of some of which grow 15 feet high, black ber¬ 
ries nearly as high. Strawberries and cherries ripen in 
May; apples, from June to March; peaches, July to 
September; melons at the same time. For apples, the 
Albemarle Pippin is unsurpassed. You have no pippin 
at the north like it. It keeps late in spring.* Schools 
are scarce; churches generally convenient—Methodists, 
Baptists, and Presbyterians. 
Many inquire whether it is not considered disreputa¬ 
ble for a white man to labor. It is almost too foolish a 
question to answer; but I will say it is not, nor for a 
woman to labor. I know many places where the tim¬ 
ber would more than pay for the land, and I will say, I 
know of no lands on which a flock of sheep would not 
more than pay double interest. Ewes drop their lambs 
early in January or December, consequently are early in 
market, and can be sent by steamers to New-York or Phi- 
ladelphia, in 36 hours. 
I would recommend, as a general thing, no individual 
farmers to purchase singly, but to buy several planta¬ 
tions, and settle 40 or 60 families in the neighborhood. 
If any one chooses to write me at Proctor’s Creek, Ches- 
terfied county, I will answer, if I can find time. S. 
Clarke, Jr. 
P. S. I would say that I have received several com¬ 
munications, saying that land warrants,—purporting to 
be issued from the land office in Richmond, authorizing 
the surveyors of different counties to locate such war¬ 
rants on any unappropried lands belonging to the state, 
—are offered by agents at one dollar per acre. It is not 
a swindle, exactly, but if any one wants such warrants, 
I will furnish such for $20 per 100 acres. The state owns 
large quantities of lands in Western Virginia, and it is 
very possible valuable locations may be found. Editors 
generally, might confer a favor by cautioning the public 
against paying any large amount for such warrants. 
* We received some specimens of this apple a few years since, 
and thought it remarkably fine. Eds. 
American Plows in the Great Exhibition. 
Exhibition Buildings, \ 
Hyde Park, July 21st, 1851. j 
Eds. Cultivator —After a vast deal of trouble, we 
have succeeded in having the foreign plows tried. On 
Saturday last we had the trial at Hounslow, about ten 
miles from the town. This was once the celebrated Houns¬ 
low Heath, where robberies were so common that no 
man dare pass over it without guard and arms—and with 
these he often was despoiled of his money, and frequent¬ 
ly forfeited his life also. Nowit is occupied by farmers, 
gardeners, and village residents, and is a place of attrac¬ 
tion. To this place, from the town, it is one continuous 
succession of market gardens, and although the soil is 
naturally light, yet, by superior manuring, and cultiva¬ 
tion, it produces a great number of crops in the season, 
and pays rents from $40 to $100 per acre, I am told. 
The ground selected for the trial of plows was on a 
clover ley, only one year old, and as it was very dry, the 
soil clay, mixed somewhat with gravel, it was difficult 
to turn a fair furrow. The depth required was six in¬ 
ches, the width nine inches. We had entered. Ameri¬ 
can, French, Bohemian, Belgian, Austrian, Dutch from 
Holland, Canadian, and the three English plows which 
took the prizes here in April last, and Ransom’s plow, 
which we had at our trial in June, 1850. We were to 
have had them tested by the Dynamometer, which w r e 
insisted upon as a part of the trial, but to which the 
English judges demurred, as they do not pretend to try 
their plows by any test of draught. A very heavy rain, 
however, falling just as we had finished trying the plows, 
we were unable to test them with the Dynamometer, and 
have agreed to try those to which medals have been 
awarded, with the English prize plows, on Thursday 
next. We have a newly invented Dynamometer from 
France, by which the test is to be made. I am unable 
to give you a description of it, but will, after trial, en¬ 
deavor to give you some idea of it. An English Dyna¬ 
mometer, working in oil, was upon the ground, which is 
a new one, and I think will work well. 
We commenced the trial of plows under all the disad¬ 
vantages of taking them out of the exhibition without 
the opportunity of scouring off the paint, with an Eng¬ 
lish plowman most of the time, who had never held an 
American plow, and with all the prejudice on the part 
of most persons present, that you can imagine. When we 
brought up the first plow of ours for trial, Starbuck’s 
No. 6, I heard from a number of Englishmen around— 
u that plow can’t do it, it will break,” and expressions 
like that,—but when the horses started, and the plow 
went through, and on its return, when the English plow- 
man said it held easy, and the horses showed that their 
work was light, the tide suddenly ebbed. We were not 
able to adjust Starbuck’s plow to turn nine inches wide 
—-ten inches was the least we could do with it. We tried 
Prouty’s No. 40, next, and that we adjusted perfectly 
to the rules, and when we had finished with that, the 
matter was settled that American plows could do the 
work. While we were trying them, an English gentle¬ 
men living adjoining the land we were plowing, who had 
seen me as soon as I arrived on the ground, asked the 
privilege of trying our plows with one horse, and took one 
of the plows to try it. I had one of Starbuck’s No. 2, 
