Sheep. This county is well adapted to the raising of sheep. The expense of their growing is but a trifle, in comparison to that of any other stock. They thrive well on our hills; and it is generally conceded that the wool will pay all yearly expenses in their raising, thus giving all the increase of the flock as a net profit. One hundred good ewes, if properly managed, will yield yearly, at least, the same amount of lambs. The bucks ought not to be permitted to run with the flock before the last of October or first of November; then the lambs would come about the first of April, when there would be plenty of grass for the ewes to subsist upon without much feeding, and little or no loss of lambs from cold weather and other casualties connected therewith. I am satisfied that, if our farmers and sheep-growers would adopt the above plan, they would save annually two-thirds of the lambs that perish from cold and exposure consequent upon coming in mid-winter. Wool brings here from 25 to 35 cents per pound. The average amount of the fleece is about 2 pounds. Sheep bring from $1 to $1 50 per head, when sold to the drovers; if slaughtered here, they bring from $2 to $3 per head. Tobacco. The staple product of the county is destined to be tobacco. The plant thrives well here, and our soil seems to be peculiarly adapted to its culture. In the past year it has been tried in all parts of the county with very favorable results. I think that the average yield per acre may be set down at 1,000 pounds. Some of the best fresh land will yield from 1,500 to 2,000 pounds per acre. The average price per 100 pounds is $5-it often brings $70 per hogshead; so that an acre of ground will give $50, on an average, and often $75 to a $100. There is nothing that our farmers can cultivate that will yield the same amount of money per acre. Wheat will produce, on an average, $8; corn not more than $10; and oats not over $6 per acre; yet it takes very little more labor to cultivate an acre of tobacco than an acre of corn, and the value of the former is so much greater than the latter, that I think all our farmers who hold tobacco lands stand much in their own light if they do not pay more attention to the culture of tobacco. There is scarcely a farmer in the county that cannot raise from two to six acres of tobacco and not miss his time from his other crops. In order to insure good crops, it is very necessary to set the plants out as early in the season as possible. The mode of curing here is by sun-drying. Care should be taken, in housing, not to hang too close, as several of our farmers here had their crops severely damaged by the tobacco heating from being hung too close. Our farmers heretofore have paid but little attention to agricultural pursuits, as it is not profitable to produce more than they can consume. Their attention has mostly been turned toward the lumber business, of which a great amount has been done in this county. But timber is failing, and the people will have to turn their attention to agricultural pursuits. I should like to see many of your Reports circulated in this County. If the Department have any valuable or new variety of tobacco seed, or grass seed, I would thankfully receive it and distribute it to such of our farmers as would give it a fair trial. The Brazilian, Persian, pear-tree, and Cuban tobacco would be thankfully received, as I believe we have none of these varieties. I am, very respectfully, yours, &c., Hon. THOMAS EWBANK, J. W. HOFF, M. D. Commissioner of Patents. 307 NEAR JERUSALEM P. O., SOUTHAMPTON Co., VA., SIR: The Circular sent out from your Office in quest of agricultural information has been forwarded to me by General Millson, the representative in Congress from this district, probably with the expectation that I could answer some few of the inquiries therein contained. Could I but contribute the smallest mite in furtherance of the valuable object of your Reports, it should not be withheld. But, although the day of improvement has dawned upon us, yet for a goodly time to come we must borrow light from others, scarcely hoping to reflect a ray in return. So far as your inquiries relate to the productions of this county, they have, for the most part, been heretofore answered, and of course a repetition is not desired. Guano. In reply to your special inquiry as to the use of guano, and the increase of production resulting therefrom, I can only give an account of the two experiments in connexion with the last crop of wheat. They were both satisfactory, according with many already published to the world. Mr. Alfred Ricks, one of our most particular and attentive farmers, made an application of 200 pounds of guano per acre to 7 acres of land; 4 of which were good corn land, producing 25 bushels to the acre; the remaining 3 so nearly sterile that they could not produce more than 5 bushels of corn to the acre; the whole, being a light soil, approximating to sandy, was unsuited to wheat culture; and a strip 26 feet in width was left, for comparison, in the centre of the good land, without any guano, and the product was scarcely sufficient to pay for harvesting. The aggregate production of the seven acres was 76 bushels, weighing 64 pounds to the bushel at the mill. There was but a shade of difference in the wheat on the poorest and best land, and the guano should be credited with nearly the whole crop. As far as seen, the best land produced so poorly that it was scarcely worth housing, and the poorest certainly would not have produced wheat at all. A still more successful experiment was made by Dr. Carr Bowers, who has a great deal of system in all he does, and is probably making greater effort to improve his land than any other person in the county: 220 pounds of guano per acre were applied to 4 acres, accurately surveyed; the land being previously fallowed, the wheat and guano were harrowed in together, and gave a product of 113 bushels, or 25% per acre. In consequence of the wheat being badly lodged, there was much waste. It is believed that, could the crop have been neatly saved, it would have been little short of 30 bushels to the acre. I will here remark that this plat of land was naturally much better capacitated for the production of wheat than that on which Mr. Ricks experimented, being a gray soil, with considerable mixture of clay; and, without the dressing of guano, would have produced 10 bushels to the acre. sowed his guano, and turned it in 6 or 7 inches deep, and harrowed in I omitted to say that Mr. Ricks first the wheat. The several experiments made in this vicinity, in connexion with the corn or maize crop, have been attended with varied results. One of our successful farmers informed me that, from the application of about half a ton to a part of his last crop, there was not the slightest apparent benefit. The application was made, as usual in this section, in the hill, covering it with a portion of earth to prevent it from coming in immediate contact with the grain. The expediency of its purchase, and application to summer crops in this thirsty climate, is questioned by many. In the present state of opinion, much more could probably be done by fixing attention on means of resuscitation-within reach of nearly every tiller of the earth-such as the offal from the crops made, the collection of leaves from the forest, including the mould from lands reserved for timber, combined with the rich deposit to be found in many of our swamps and ravines. These means alone, if properly applied, would, in ten years, double the poorest of the whole cultivated area of this part of the State. But nothing of importance, by way of improvement, can be accomplished without reform in two particulars-a cessation from the cultivation of lands that evidently do not pay for tillage, and an abandonment of the cotton crop, which should be left to the far South and Southwest. Without looking to the future, I hold it to be perfectly demonstrable that, even as to present profit, corn is a better crop for us. It is generally conceded that land with us, which will bring 600 pounds of seed cotton, or 150 pounds of picked, will produce twenty-five bushels of corn to the acre, and that the labor required to cultivate 1 acre in cotton will cultivate 1 acre in corn. The fodder, shucks, &c., will pay for harvesting the corn, whereas it will cost at least 15 per cent. of the cotton crop to secure it after it is made. Corn, for the last ten years, has with us been worth 50 cents per bushel. During the same period, cotton has not been worth $10 per hundred; but place it at that figure, and we have $18 50 for corn, against $15 for cotton; minus 15 per cent. for securing the latter. The most usual objection to the corn crop is difficulty of transportation. This applies with little force to a large part of Southampton. The city of Norfolk is our principal market, and we have two navigable rivers in the county, and a railroad sweeping twenty miles of its southern borders. Were it otherwise, we have an alternative. Pork.-Corn is easily coverted into pork. In the Report of 1849–250, it is stated that Mr. Ellsworth succeeded in making 1 pound of pork to 3 pounds of corn; but that most farmers estimate it to take 5 to make 1. Ĭ will be still more liberal than that, and even then show that corn and pork are better than cotton. With us it is usually supposed that 10 bushels of corn will raise and fatten 100 pounds of pork, and I will add 10 per cent. for casualties. Our white corn will average 53 pounds to the bushel; it will, therefore, be 583 pounds of corn, or eleven bushels, to each hundred pounds of pork. Where cotton is estimated at 10 cents per pound, pork should be placed at 5 cents per pound; and, according to the foregoing estimate of the product of labor, we have 340 pounds of pork at 5 cents per pound, against 150 pounds of cotton at 10 cents, without making any deduction for picking out the cotton. Be this as it may, I know of little improvement where the marketable crop has been cotton, it requiring every effort to keep up the cotton land, while the rest of the farm is undergoing annual deterioration. Most respectfully, yours, Hon. THOMAS EWBANK, J. D. MASSENBURG. Com nissioner of Patents SIR: I observe in my letter, published in the Patent Office Report for 1850-'51, that a mistake occurred, which I do not think I made. The words, "and curing what I have left," should be omitted, for I cure the whole plant with the priming leaves on it, and strip them off as lugs when I strip the plant, which is a very easy process. It would require much time and labor to cure the priming leaves separately. The cultivation of tobacco, and its preparation for market, require many tedious processes, and none should be added that can possibly be avoided. I will observe, further, that my remarks applied to manufacturing, and not to stripping or stemming tobacco. Indian Corn.-The most important crop of the United States is unquestionably maize, or Indian corn. The southern and western farmers rely upon it as the main staff or support of their families. It is the most certain and abundant of the cereals, and its place cannot be supplied by any other. He who can improve the varieties, or in any way increase the product, will do infinitely more than he who makes two blades of grass grow where only one grew before. Within my recollection, great improvements have been made in the culture of Indian corn, chiefly by deep ploughing and thick planting. Thirty or forty years ago, the ordinary plan adopted here was to plough the land very shallow; then to lay it off at right angles, up hill and down, in straight rows, five feet apart, when it was intended to leave two stalks in a hill, and four feet distance, on poor land, to leave one stalk. The land, after planting, was ploughed each way four, five, or six times, before it was laid by, and 15 or 20 bushels per acre was considered a good crop. This mode of tillage impoverished the land, which was generally washed into gullies by the rains, and then turned out to grow up in old-field pines and broom-sedge. On the ridges and hills of corn-rows made forty years ago can now be seen piny thickets, in which the trees are now large enough to make good rails or poles for a log-house. Yet this land is not exhausted, but improved, by the pine, and, when cleared up, will produce better, or as good crops, as it did in its virgin state. My plan of cultivating corn, though perhaps not as good as many other farmers', is better, I am sure, than that of some. I think I can produce as good crops with as little labor as most others. Men are slow to learn; they require line upon line, and precept upon precept, before they become willing to quit the old and beaten track their fathers followed. Many valuable practical essays have been published and widely circulated on the culture of corn, which have made little or no impression on the great mass of farmers. I will detail my plan, which takes but little labor, and generally produces a good crop. If it benefit one farmer, or improve his practice, I shall consider myself amply paid: I fallow the land as deep as I can, beginning in the foulest land as soon as I can, after seeding wheat is over, and so continue, in the good weather through the winter, leaving the cleanest land for the last. Just before the planting season, (April,) I get as much manure as I can of all kinds, and spread or sprinkle it over the poorer parts of the field; then harrow well, and lay off the rows for planting, four and a half feet apart, horizontally on hill lands; then drop three grains of corn, from 2 to 21 feet apart, (using plaster on the land,) and cover it with the hoe. A good corn-planter is more expeditious, but not better, as some think. After the corn comes up, I drop half a spoonful of plaster on each hill. I then run the cultivator over the crop, followed by hoe hands to replant, and weed only the foul spots. After this is done, I run the plough next to the corn, two furrows in each row, throwing the earth to the corn, which is now large enough to be thinned and weeded. I leave two stalks in a hill, except on very poor land, where I leave only one. Although I plant only 3 grains in a hill, I get as good a stand as my neighbors, who put in from 6 to 12 grains. If birds, insects, &c., attack a hill of a dozen stalks, they generally destroy all. I graze the land intended for corn during the previous fall to destroy the worms, and generally succeed. After the corn is thinned and hoed, and as soon as the weeds and grass begin to show themselves, I plough out the row; and this I find, in some years, to be sufficient cultivation. At other times, the grass grows faster and I find it necessary to run the cultivator through, which is an ample "lying by." Now, this is a small amount of labor, but it has succeeded well for a number of years past, producing a heavy crop for the quality of the land. I have a very coarse kind of corn, which I have named giant corn. It is a good variety for rich lands, but can be made as well as any kind on poor land. The original variety was introduced here by the late Governor Barbour. The ear is very long. I have seen them very freqently from 12 to 14 inches; and one of my neighbors told me he had raised an ear 18 inches long. The grain is white flint, heavy, and makes superior bread. I have mixed it with the gourd-seed variety, making a shorter but larger ear. I have sent you some for distribution. I sowed the wheat you sent to me on its reception, (1st December;) too late, I fear, to succeed this year. I should be pleased to get a package of spring seeds. Bacon hams.-For many years I have been a curer of bacon hams for market. Much has been said and written on the best method of curing hams; and yet I have never seen a strictly prime ham cured anywhere else than in Virginia, between tide water and the Blue Ridge mountain. The far-famed Smithfield ham is greatly inferior to the hams of many curers in this section. I have tried many and various plans-nearly all that I have ever seen recommended. I have tried the various brines, sugar, molasses, peppers, &c.; but have satisfied myself that the plan I have settled upon makes as good or better bacon than any of them. I take the hams of young, thrifty, and fat hogs-weighing from 100 to 175 pounds each-after they are properly cut out in a rounded form; and I sprinkle the under surface of each with a spoonful of powdered saltpetre; then I cover it thickly with a mixture-of Liverpool salt two-thirds, and ground alum salt one-third, and pack them in boxes, with the leg inclining downwards to let the salt penetrate through it. I object to brines, as giving the ham an earthy or bad flavor. After they have laid in salt 4 or 5 weeks, I hang them up in a smokehouse, sometimes ashing them previously with hickory ashes, and commence smoking them every day with the ordinary chips of oak, hickory, &c., from the wood pile; taking care to so smother the fire as to make a great smoke with little heat. This is continued from 4 to 6 weeks, or until the bacon gets very dry and well cured, and of a dark color externally. |