Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1848-07-20
A GRICU LII r A l..
From the American Farmer.
A VISIT TO COL. CAPRON'S.

liar to agricultural readers throughout the
country as the names of their immediate
neighbors,-for although he has not gained
a reputation in the battlefield, amidst blood
and carnage-amidst the groans OF the
wounded and the dying-alihough he has
won no laurels at the price OF mothers,
a sisters, or a widows tears, he has earn
ed those which are the richer and the more
priceless, because they were achieved nthe
peaceful pursuits of the farmer-because
they were gained in meritorlous and sue
cesslul efforts to improve lands which had
been deprived of every vesllge OF fertility,
and which had been consigned to that cheer
less fa,e,-old fields-the lot of thousands
and tens Of thousands of acres of the once
fruitful soils of Mary land, as well as those
of the other old States Of our Union. We
have thus alluded to Col. C. with the view
of introducing TO our patrons. the result of
the observations which we made of his farm
and farming, during a visit which we paid
him on ,he 18th ultimo. Some two years
since we were called to the Laurel factory
on business, and then hoped to have had an
opportunity of examining the improvements
which he had made on his farm, but, as he
was absent, our observation was confined to
the very superficial view which we could
obtain from the road on OR way homeward.
We then, however had the pleasure to real
ize the fact, the gratifying fact, that Col. c.
had carried on his Improvements with vi
;gorous hand, with judicious and enligh.
'ened head,-for we saw luXurient crops
growing, where, only few years before,
barren clays and those emblems of poor
soils-the sedge and poverty grssses-ruled
the ascendant. heseevidences of improve
ment, together with the admirable and able
papers published in our journal, during last
year, by Coke. "on the renovation OF worn-
out lands," warmed in US the desire to 90
and see for ourself what he had done, and
glad are we that we obeyed the warnings of
our heart, for the eight hours which we
spent in the examination Of the Colonei's
farm, we shall ever rank as amongst the
most happy ones of our life; for indepen-
dent of the kind and hospitable reception
which we met with, all that we saw around
US, gave the pleasing assurance that there
were no lands in our native State, that could
not be restored to fertility by proper
course of improvements and hence, the
necessity had ceased TO exist, for its people
to leave their native hills and dales TO go in
search of distant and more fertile lands, as
those at home were susceptible Of being rem
ova,ed at cost less in amount than would
be required TO establish them with new
homes in the land of strangers. The farm
of Col. Capron consists of some fifteen hun-
elred acreS-seuen hundred are arabic lands,
nearly six hundred of which, when he came
in possession few years since, were &C.
hausted old fields, which, by course of
improvident culture, had been deprived of
their every element of fertility, as thousands
who have travelled between Baltimore and
Washington will bear US witness. When
he took the Moderation of those fields in
hand, they presented so hopeless prospec,
that no one less enterprising than he-less
imbued with the feeling of passionate devo-
ton to the pursuits Of agrculture-would
have undertaken task at once so unpromis-
ing and SO herculean. But taking, as he did
comprehensive view of the difficulties which
surrounded him, feeling an abiding conf
tlence in the truth of the theory which
he had formed, and animated by the same
indomitable energy-the same unfinching
courage, which, had he been at Cerro Cor
do, would have enabled him to have been
in the van of those who carried those heights,
he proceeded in the execution Of the glori-
Gus undertaking, and success-triumphan
success - has crowned his efforts, = his
fields stand forth, in bold relief, 10 attest the
skilfulness of the hand by which they have
been rescued from poverty. abject poverty,
and brought to condition of more than
virgin frui,fulness. In fields, where seven
years ago five bushels of wheat to the acre
could not have been grown, we beheld 40
acres of wheat overlapping the altitude of
the fence, and standing erect, and SO thickly
set on the ground, that every square inch
could claim its stalk as its own occupant
and if our judgment is not at fault, the aue-
rage yield must reach IS or 40 bushels to
the acre, unless some disaster may have in
,ervened calculated to lessen its product be-
fore it shall have been harvested. In one of
The fields, we are very certain that there are
portions that will yield SO bushels to the
acre. We arrive at these conclusions not
in an over sanguine spirit, but as the result
of sober and chastened judgment.
Two days before our visit, the Colonel
had cut his most forward field of grass, con-
sisting of clover and orchard grass, which it
was estimated would yield 2 tons to the
acre, and we doubt not, for the stu5bies
Showed that they had borne burdens of no
ordinary volume and weight. We examin-
ed the hay as it was hauled into the barn.
and are free to say, that we have never seen
any which had been better cured-it was
perfectly green in colour, and fragrent as
she rose, with the leaves all adhereing to the
stalks of the clover-in the curing the Col
pursues the plan, which we have so often
recommended, of cooking the grass as soon
as wilted.-in slowing it away. he salts il