manure is annually applied to land intended for this crop. Tobacco is grown upon fresh land, manured lots, and upon land improved by the use of clover and plaster. Some planters in this and the adjoining counties have used guano with success in the production of this staple. I have sown guano at the rate of 200 pounds per acre upon tobacco land, and ploughed in the guano with two-horse ploughs; and I have also used this manure in the hill for tobacco; but the effect upon the crop disappointed me, and was far less beneficial than the effect produced by guano upon my wheat land. The average product of tobacco in this county may be estimated at 700 pounds per acre. I know of no new process of culture. This crop requires a greater amount of labor than any other; and, if the planters were dependent upon the labor of hirelings, very little, if any, tobacco would be made in Virginia. The attention and labor requisite for the production of this staple preclude the planters from making many improvements, which would contribute not less to the value than to the embellishment of their estates. not wish to be understood as maintaining that the agricultural improvements of our country are incompatible with the cultivation of tobacco; but I am confident that our progress in improvement would be much more rapid if the planters generally would reduce the amount of this crop. If they would plant not more than half the usual number of hills, more labor and time could be devoted to other useful purposes. Agriculturists are, however, reluctant to abandon habits to which their ancestors, as well as themselves, have been accustomed. With them, change is a slow and gradual process. Unlike some of the political empirics of the present day, they do not always regard innovation and improvement, alteration and reform, as synonymous terms. I do Manures. We have no marl or lime, and we rely mainly upon the manure obtained from our stables and farm-pens. Into the latter we haul our corn stalks, and feed with straw, shocks, &c. The cattle eat what they want, and trample the remainder under their feet. Occasionally, during the fall and winter, leaves are hauled from the forest and put into the stables and farm-pens. In the spring the stable manure is hauled out, and, being spread, is then ploughed under. The well rotted portion of the farm-pen manure is used in the same manner. The coarse and undecomposed part of the farm-pen manure is used in the spring for top-dressing clover, or is allowed to remain until the fall, and is then hauled out and ploughed under for the benefit of the wheat crop. Many planters sow plaster upon their manure before it is ploughed under. The abundance of land within the limits of our vast confederacy, the low price at which land is sold by the government and by individuals, the sparseness of population, the high price of labor, and the want of capital, have all tended to retard the agricultural improvement of the United States. The influences of these peculiar circumstances have been great, and they have not ceased to operate. Notwithstanding the rapid increase of population, the price of labor continues high. It cannot now be prof. itably employed in the cultivation of poor land; and this obvious truth has attracted attention and excited thought. The importance of enriching the soil is acknowledged, and more than ever appreciated. It is also gratifying to know that agriculture is no longer regarded as undeserving the notice of the educated and intelligent. Some years ago agricultural books and papers were derided and denounced; but that day has passed. Works on agriculture are now bought and studied, and agricultural papers are in demand. When men seek to acquire scientific knowledge-when they evince a desire to profit by the suggestions and experience of others, as well as their own-no apprehension of a retrograde movement need be indulged. And if the planter should not be able to travel along the path of improvement pari passu with the farmer, each should zealously strive, within his own sphere of action, to augment the national wealth, as well as to impart elevation and dignity to his pursuit. Respectfully, yours, Hon. THOMAS EWBANK. R. T. HUBARD. BUCKINGHAM COUNTY, VIRGINIA, SIR: In responding to your Circular, I commence with your first : article Wheat-which in this part of the State is secondary to the tobacco crop-the latter being more certain and less subject to disastrous seasons; yet there is generally a full seeding. The crop of the present year, owing to a very favorable season and the use of guano, which we have harvested, is perhaps the largest and most perfect ever made in the State, some lands yielding 30 bushels to the acre and weighing 65 pounds to the bushel. I feel inclined to state the average in this middle region of Virginia, from the head of tide-water to the mountains, at 15 bushels per acre. I estimated an acre, seeded with wheat in good style, harvested, and put up in hand stacks, worth $6. For hauling in, threshing, and winnowing, the offal of straw, chaff, and tail-ends, is abundant pay. Our varieties are early purple straw; stands up well; small grain and red; New York white flint, white, beardless, and beautiful grain, late. White and red May, (so called,) with forward weak stalk, apt to fall. Old yellow lammas the first wheat seeded in Virginia; red, beardless, and very productive; difficult to obtain pure. Mediterranean, black as rye, suits poor land. Upon good it will tumble, and a tremendous beard. Zimmerman, smooth head, good grain, recently introduced. from the continent, is much liked. Every kiud has its favorites, and all are liable to fail in disastrous seasons. I prefer the early ripe purple straw, it being more exempt from rust and mildew, and not liable to tumble, and the Polish or blue stem, some of which I obtained from a neighbor, exclusive of my Patent Office little stock, of which I shall treat in this letter. The Hessian fly, of late years, is scarcely dreaded. The improvement of our lands, and better tillage, with a little later seeding, has lessened their damage greatly. But a new enemy has appeared, called the "joint-worm;" as yet I am thankful that it is unknown to me. Here I will remark that I received from your honorable predecessor (Mr. Burke) three kinds of wheat, about a half pint of each, under the name of red straw, Chinese, and Polish. The first, the red straw, has a smooth tapered head, red, lean, small grain, unproductive; the earliest ripe I ever seeded; yet I do not appreciate it. The Chinese is a lofty, strong-stalked bearded wheat, white grain, large heads, 6 to 7 inches long. I have strong objections to bearded wheat; touch a beard, and the mesh opens and the grain is lost; besides, the chaff is not fit for food, and the straw is generally harsher and not as good for stock as smoothheaded wheat straw. Upon upland plantations, off water-courses, where there is less fog and dews, I think the Chinese wheat would probably succeed well. The last, the Polish wheat, I consider acclimated and very productive. I have increased the half pint to 8 bushels in 3 years, which is now drilled in good land and in good style. It is beardless, white, and a very large grain, with strong stalk. I see, by the last Reports of the Patent Office, that it is very favorably spoken of in New England, under the names of Polish and blue-stem; here, in Virginia, it is called Polish or Woodfin. By comparison, I am satisfied that it is the same wheat, and that it emanated from the Patent Office. I consider it a valuable acquisition to the country, and that the Patent Office is fairly entitled to the credit of its introduction. From the 15th of May to the 27th of July we labored under excessive drought; the entire fall of rain was only 3 inches. The average of the thermometer, in a cool room in May, was 75°; in June, 78°; July, 80°. With drought and heat, the oat crop was rendered unusually short; also the corn crop, a plant requiring more moisture than any other, and is now selling from 60 to 80 cents per bushel, according to the drought in different sections. The kind of corn most preferred is a flinty white gourd seed. Guano (Peruvian) is getting into pretty general use, and the results are favorable where judiciously applied. I will give my own experience. In 1849 I purchased two tons, and applied it to wheat, oats, corn, and tobacco. It was sown broadcast and ploughed in about six inches, seeded in wheat; the guano was 100, 150, and 200 pounds to the acre, and staked off. The difference in each was according to quantity of guano-the 200 pounds decidedly the best; and I judge, with a view both to profit and economy in its use, that that is about the right quantity. I estimated that acre to have yielded 25 per cent. more grain, and 10 per cent. more straw, by comparison with adjoining wheat not guanoed. The effect under oats equally good. It was applied to corn, by dropping into the furrow as much as could be taken up with the thumb and two fore-fingers, and earth drawn over it with the foot, and the dropper's track made upon it as a guide to drop the corn. It was applied much in the same manner for tobacco. The augmented yield was very obvious, but not as great as upon the wheat and oats. Perhaps the quantity applied by the thumb and fingers was not sufficient. To ascertain most certainly the great benefit of guano, apply it upon very poor land, where but little more than the seed of wheat or oats would be expected, and the yield would be surprising. Many persons assert that it will insure a good stand of young clover; but if drought occurs, and a hot sun prevails after harvest, I will warrant that much of the clover will perish, unless a dressing of plaster is given. In the fall of 1850 I purchased ten tons of guano, ploughed it under, as before stated, using about 200 pounds to the acre, and seeded wheat, leaving occasionally beds not guanoed. Verily, the eye said the guanoed wheat would yield double. The last spring I prepared a lot for tobacco of old corn land that had been in cultivation more than a century, and never a pound of manure put upon it-tended in corn the previous year; the product I estimated at 20 bushels per acre. The ground, when prepared, was checked in squares three feet four inches; a table-spoonful of guano was scattered upon the check; the hilling close up, to prevent the escape of the ammonia; the hills were cut off about four inches above, and planted in May. The drought prevented the plants taking root or bringing the guano into solution. There was no growth whatever till the 27th of July, when we had rain; the growth was then, in a week, wonderful; the plants obtained a fine size. A second drought occurred in September and October, which protracted the ripening, and the plants faded and assumed a yellow hue. This induced the opinion that guano is a great stimulant, and not a durable manure. It is too costly for general use by small farmers-indeed for the wealthy-when they have heavy transportations to pay. humbly believe that an article of such vast importance to the world should be regulated by commercial treaty by the different governments. Most certainly it ought not to be under the control of a company of capitalists, to exact their own price. I recommend renewed efforts to convert everything animal, mineral, and vegetable upon the farm into manure: such as cornstalks, wheat straw, chaff, oak leaves, pine tags, (which are richer than oak leaves,) ashes, and bog soil; and, with proper efforts, much more can be done than has been done. For any deficiency, we must rely upon the great auxiliaries-clover and plaster. By thus managing, we can renovate our exhausted grain fields, and avoid the necessity of selling the bones of our fathers and removing to the fertile lands of the Mississippi valley. As to breaking oxen, I rope them around their horns, yoke them forthwith, tying their tails together very securely, lest they carry their hinder parts out of line, and risk breaking their necks; put an old yoke to the tongue, another in the lead, the young yoke in the centre. Should one prove sulky and lie down, do not whip nor ring the tail; release him from the yoke, and cord a fore and hind leg together; leave him just as he lies. After a while the sulk will pass off, if he has not been beaten, when he will struggle to rise, but cannot, which alarms him. After much struggling, loosen the cord, but make no effort to force him up; it is best that he chooses his own time. Yoke him again the next day. It is seldom they sulk and lie down when they are not beaten. The former mode of breaking was to tie them to a tree or post 4 or 5 days, to make them gentle; the reverse was the result. Their great efforts to obtain their liberty made their heads very sore, rendering them fretful, more intractable, and often vicious. I am decidedly of opinion that it is good economy to feed corn in the form of meal to horses, mules, and oxen-more especially to old animals that masticate corn imperfectly. I believe that 3 quarts of meal impart as much nutrition as 4 quarts of corn-the former to be well mixed with chaffed hay, straw, corn-shocks, chaff, &c. Pork hogs ought to be fed upon meal made into dough, kneading it with a weak ley made of hickory ashes salt and cayenne-pepper added often; it is a condiment they are very fond of, and aids their fattening. If cooked, no doubt it would be better. I think a hog that has attained his full growth, should be regularly fed three times a day in this manner, upon a floored pen, good, clear, running water, with a good bed, and never to be disturbed when asleep-never even to be fed. With a plenty of pumpkins, cymblings, turnips, and roots of every kind, at every time of feeding, the stomach being fitted for distention, he might be made to gain 8 pounds of flesh upon the consumption of 100 pounds weight of corn.* The best beef is a poor ox made very fat, or a speyed heifer. To fatten an ox, I would feed on dry meal, with as much wheat bran, dry, also, as would, at any feed, fill his stomach to distention; bleed him once a week, which I know is very beneficial, with the use of the currycomb; and with this treatment, he cannot gain like the hog. I would judge 5 pounds to the consumption of 100 pounds of corn. I know not the difference, if any, as to the fattening properties of the Durhams, Devons, Herefords, or other improved breeds. I know I can fatten a Devon upon less food than a Durham, which is a larger animal; and I suppose food is required in proportion to bulk. In reply to your Circular of the last year, I was very lengthy upon the subjects of curing bacon and tobacco, which appear in your last Report; to which I beg leave now to refer. All which is respectfully submitted. Yours, most obediently, To the COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS. CHAS. YANCEY. VARIETY SHADE, BUCKINGHAM, DEAR SIR: I have been so much pressed with business engagements that I have not had a leisure moment before this to reply to the Circular from the Patent Office, of August 16, 1850. Before I proceed to answer such queries, in the Circular referred to, as I am conversant with, permit me to remark that, whilst I am extensively engaged in agriculture, perhaps to as great an extent as any one in the county, and have given as much, if not more, personal attention to the subject, it has been my misfortune, from some cause or other, to have received but a single copy (that of 1848) of that valuable document, the "Patent Office Report. This valuable document should, in my opinion, be printed, and sentwithout stint throughout the broad extent of the Union, and thus become a medium of interchange of opinions among the agriculturists of the country. Wheat. I have been engaged in farming since the year 1824. I have cultivated almost every variety known or used in the country. The varie [*One hundred pounds of cornmeal ought to produce 25 pounds of pork, instead of 8 pounds; and the like weight fed to a growing steer, or healthy ox, should yield 20 pounds of flesh. Five pounds of corn should never return less than one pound of flesh in meat making. Three and a half pounds of meal gave Mr. Ellsworth, former Commissioner of Patents, a pound of pork. (See Patent Office Report for 1847, page 535.) One hundred and five pounds of meal increased the live weight of two pigs 34 pounds 2 ounces in 15 days. See, also, reports in this volume, passim.] |