DEAR SIR,
-- I have long owed you a letter, for which myconscience would not have let me rest in quiet but on theconsideration that the paiment would not be worth your acceptance.The debt is not merely for a letter the common traffic of every day,but for valuable ideas, which instructed me, which I have adopted, &am acting on them. I am sensible of the truth of your observationsthat the atmosphere is the great storehouse of matter for recruitingour lands, that tho' efficacious, it is slow in it's operation, andwe must therefore give them time instead of the loads of quickermanure given in other countries, that for this purpose we must availourselves of the great quantities of land we possess in proportion toour labour, and that while putting them to nurse with the atmosphere,we must protect them from the bite & tread of animals, which arenearly a counterpoise for the benefits of the atmosphere. As goodthings, as well as evil, go in a train, this relieves us from thelabor & expence of crossfences, now very sensibly felt on account ofthe scarcity & distance of timber. I am accordingly now engaged inapplying my cross fences to the repair of the outer ones andsubstituting rows of peach trees to preserve the boundaries of thefields. And though I observe your strictures on rotations of crops,yet it appears that in this I differ from you only in words. Youkeep half your lands in culture, the other half at nurse; so Ipropose to do. Your scheme indeed requires only four years & minesix; but the proportion of labour & rest is the same. My years ofrest, however, are employed, two of them in producing clover, yoursin volunteer herbage. But I still understand it to be your opinionthat clover is best where lands will produce them. Indeed I thinkthat the important improvement for which the world is indebted toYoung is the substitution of clover crops instead of unproductivefallows; & the demonstration that lands are more enriched by cloverthan by volunteer herbage or fallows; and the clover crops are highlyvaluable. That our red lands which are still in tolerable heart willproduce fine clover I know from the experience of the last year; andindeed that of my neighbors had established the fact. And fromobservations on accidental plants in the feilds which have beenconsiderably harrassed with corn, I believe that even these willproduce clover fit for soiling of animals green. I think, therefore,I can count on the success of that improver. My third year of restwill be devoted to cowpenning, & to a trial of the buckwheatdressing. A further progress in surveying my open arable lands hasshewn me that I can have 7 fields in each of my farms where Iexpected only six; consequently that I can add more to the portion ofrest & ameliorating crops. I have doubted on a question on which Iam sure you can advise me well, whether I had better give this newlyacquired year as an addition to the continuance of my clover, orthrow it with some improving crop between two of my crops of grain,as for instance between my corn & rye. I strongly incline to thelatter, because I am not satisfied that one cleansing crop in sevenyears will be sufficient; and indeed I think it important to separatemy exhausting crops by alternations of amelioraters. With this viewI think to try an experiment of what Judge Parker informs me hepractises. That is, to turn in my wheat stubble the instant thegrain is off, and sow turneps to be fed out by the sheep. Butwhether this will answer in our fields which are harrassed, I do notknow. We have been in the habit of sowing only our freshest lands inturneps, hence a presumption that wearied lands will not bring them.But Young's making turneps to be fed on by sheep the basis of hisimprovement of poor lands, affords evidence that tho they may notbring great crops, they will bring them in a sufficient degree toimprove the lands. I will try that experiment, however, this year,as well as the one of buckwheat. I have also attended to anotherimprover mentioned by you, the winter-vetch, & have taken measures toget the seed of it from England, as also of the Siberian vetch whichMillar greatly commends, & being a biennial might perhaps take theplace of clover in lands which do not suit that. The winter vetch Isuspect may be advantageously thrown in between crops, as it gives achoice to use it as green feed in the spring if fodder be run short,or to turn it in as a green-dressing. My rotation, with theseamendments, is as follows: --
- Wheat, followed the same year by turneps, to be fed on bythe sheep.
- Corn & potatoes mixed, & in autumn the vetch to be used asfodder in the spring if wanted, or to be turned in as a dressing.
- Peas or potatoes, or both according to the quality of thefield.
- Rye and clover sown on it in the spring. Wheat may besubstituted here for rye, when it shall be found that the 2'd., 3'd.,5'th., & 6'th. fields will subsist the farm.
- Clover.
- Clover, & in autumn turn it in & sow the vetch.
- Turn in the vetch in the spring, then sow buckwheat & turnthat in, having hurdled off the poorest spots for cow-penning. Inautumn sow wheat to begin the circle again.
I am for throwing the whole force of my husbandry on thewheat-field, because it is the only one which is to go to market toproduce money. Perhaps the clover may bring in something in the formof stock. The other feilds are merely for the consumption of thefarm. Melilot, mentioned by you, I never heard of. The horse bean Itried this last year. It turned out nothing. The President hastried it without success. An old English farmer of the name ofSpuryear, settled in Delaware, has tried it there with good success;but he told me it would not do without being well shaded, and I thinkhe planted it among his corn for that reason. But he acknoleged ourpea was as good an ameliorater & a more valuable pulse, as being foodfor man as well as horse. The succory is what Young calls ChicoriaIntubus. He sent some seed to the President, who gave me some, & Igave it to my neighbors to keep up till I should come home. One ofthem has cultivated it with great success, is very fond of it, andgave me some seed which I sowed last spring. Tho' the summer wasfavorable it came on slowly at first, but by autumn became large &strong. It did not seed that year, but will the next, & you shall befurnished with seed. I suspect it requires rich ground, & thenproduces a heavy crop for green feed for horses & cattle. I had poorsuccess with my potatoes last year, not having made more than 60 or70 bushels to the acre. But my neighbors having made good crops, Iam not disheartened. The first step towards the recovery of ourlands is to find substitutes for corn & bacon. I count on potatoes,clover, & sheep. The two former to feed every animal on the farmexcept my negroes, & the latter to feed them, diversified withrations of salted fish & molasses, both of them wholesome, agreeable,& cheap articles of food.
For pasture I rely on the forests by day, & soiling in theevening. Why could we not have a moveable airy cow house, to be setup in the middle of the feild which is to be dunged, & soil ourcattle in that thro' the summer as well as winter, keeping themconstantly up & well littered? This, with me, would be in the cloverfeild of the 1'st. year, because during the 2'd. year it would berotting, and would be spread on it in fallow the beginning of the3'd., but such an effort would be far above the present tyro state ofmy farming. The grosser barbarisms in culture which I have toencounter, are more than enough for all my attentions at present.The dung-yard must be my last effort but one. The last would beirrigation. It might be thought at first view, that theinterposition of these ameliorations or dressings between my cropswill be too laborious, but observe that the turneps & two dressingsof vetch do not cost a single ploughing. The turning in thewheat-stubble for the turneps is the fallow for the corn of thesucceeding year. The 1'st. sowing of vetches is on the corn (as isnow practised for wheat), and the turning it in is theflush-ploughing for the crop of potatoes & peas. The 2'd. sowing ofthe vetch is on the wheat fallow, & the turning it in is theploughing necessary for sowing the buckwheat. These threeameliorations, then, will cost but a harrowing each. On the subjectof the drilled husbandry, I think experience has established it'spreference for some plants, as the turnep, pea, bean, cabbage, corn,&c., and that of the broadcast for other plants as all the breadgrains & grasses, except perhaps lucerne & S't. foin in soils &climates very productive of weeds. In dry soils & climates thebroadcast is better for lucerne & S't. foin, as all the south ofFrance can testify.
I have imagined and executed a mould-board which may bemathematically demonstrated to be perfect, as far as perfectiondepends on mathematical principles, and one great circ*mstance init's favor is that it may be made by the most bungling carpenter, &cannot possibly vary a hair's breadth in it's form, but by grossnegligence. You have seen the musical instrument called a sticcado.Suppose all it's sticks of equal length, hold the fore-endhorizontally on the floor to receive the turf which presents itselfhorizontally, and with the right hand twist the hind-end to theperpendicular, or rather as much beyond the perpendicular as will benecessary to cast over the turf completely. This gives an idea (thonot absolutely exact) of my mould-board. It is on the principle oftwo wedges combined at right angles, the first in the direct line ofthe furrow to raise the turf gradually, the other across the furrowto turn it over gradually. For both these purposes the wedge is theinstrument of the least resistance. I will make a model of themould-board & lodge it with Col'o. Harvie in Richmond for you. Thisbrings me to my thanks for the drill plough lodged with him for me,which I now expect every hour to receive, and the price of which Ihave deposited in his hands to be called for when you please. A goodinstrument of this kind is almost the greatest desideratum inhusbandry. I am anxious to conjecture beforehand what may beexpected from the sowing turneps in jaded ground, how much from theacre, & how large they will be? Will your experience enable you togive me a probable conjecture? Also what is the produce of potatoes,& what of peas in the same kind of ground? It must now have beenseveral pages since you began to cry out `mercy.' In mercy then Iwill here finish with my affectionate remembrance to my old friend.Mr. Pendleton, & respects to your fireside, & to yourself assurancesof the sincere esteem of, dear Sir,
Your friend & serv't,
