Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1854-03-29


Horn out lands"
II am not mistaken, this is not the first eff
fort ut forth by the praise orihy iberality of
the Maryland Agricultural Society, to obtain
what the farming interest of the old thirteen
Sfates, in particular. much need Hand
Book or Manual. founded on practical knowledge
and long experience. (snch a work the really
practical husbandman only can suppy.) Why
has not this prize, of such high value, in whit in
terests euerybody, been coniended for 1t can
MT be, because we have no successful Renova-
tors of exhausted soil among US; nor is it that
among our working farmers, there are none Gu
pabe of communicating what they have practical
" acquired to others.
lis true, the best farmers are not always the
best scholars, nor do they care 10 appear in the
public prints at any time, but especially when
their competitors may be the most highly gifted
scholars of the land. Now at the risk of being
adiudgcd presumptuous, having devoted about
thirty-fnu years to the precise object, 1.-THE
Renovation Of Worn-o Il Land," | put in this my
humble Offering, for the Society's premium, not
however much in expectation of winning the
prizes to avail myself of the occasion to record
answers to the questions So often put to me,
to the means employed in the reclamation of my
own thoroughly worn out land, and as to myo
pnon of the various manures now in use and the
Lest mode of applying them.
To nv task them and what may say will par
fhke rather more b1 the character OF Il simple
narration or journal of my own dongs, than of
that of a Treatise derived from the doings of o.
Tiers. | will arrange my sub ect under several
appropriate heads, showing.
First, what my land was in 1919, when took
it in hand. Secondly, what it is now in I553.-
Thirdiy, by what means it has been rcsusctated
and brought to its more than pristine fertility
Fourth, sy stem of Rotati III for the guidance OF
young farmers of the most limited means, and
obs | al
ON Manures and Manuring, concluding with a
formula for compromising various manures and
the formation Of cheap composts.
In the first place then; January 1919, found
me in possession ofan in Fairfax County, Va
SO poor, as, even in that then proverbially poor
County, of which it was often said the more
Fairfax land man had, the poorer he was, to be
known and designated by the Commiss ioners
who divided the old family estate, as Poor Hill
merit The Docer. One. half of my 40 Acres was
IN virgin wood consisting of the varieties COM
mon to this section OF Virginia. The quality of
the land originally mddling, and all the
cleared portion was thoroughly exhausted by the
tobacco and corn system of our progenitors, who,
III their laudablc desire to enrich posterity left
their c ildrea fields poor indeed This so-
lated patch drawn from worn. out tobacco plan
taton of 1000 Acres, was without improvements
OF amy description there had never been even
Negro CABIN on any part OF it, II was not fenced
III, nor was there wheel barrow load of manure
| about the rcmses nor there at that day,
within my reach any of the powerful, concen-
trattd manuree now SO freey used.
No agrlcultur. st, young old, ever embarked
on more torlorn hope, than did l. when I'M
dertook Ia r,novate norm ont soil in Fairfdr.-
"lis true had small income of about 800
per pnnum. from another source, but what was
| thnt compared to my wants | had houses of
every description to build labor to hire, feed and
| ciothe farm TO stock out and out, and my own
! personal and somcwh hat extravagant wants, real
aud imaginary, to provide for. In short, | had
everything to buy and not ing to sell and what
was worst of ALL was dis couraged by old Farm
! ers, ON every side, sume of whom affirmed that
! FaliaA land could not be improved. "Plaster
would not act at ALL" and ''aS to iorer il icds a
! greater impoperisher euen than Corn and Outs"
he alternating crops of those times. Nothing
| danntcd at all this, for my case WIS somewhat
! desperate, wanderer the face of the earth
without place that | could call Home and as
already said with small income of six or seven
! hundred dollars per annum, | had to choose be-
tween spending that in boarding houses and tay-
ems, or in an endeavor to improve the bit of
land had inherited. resolved IN the latter,
and at it | went. The first decisive step taken
was to III 40 Acres of my wood land to enable
me to erect n house to live in. That left about
40 Acres of thoroughly exhausted, WORKOUT,
naked and quilted cleared land to commence on
| The agricultural condition of the neghborhood,
in which settled,wl be better understood, when
! state, that in 1920 the whole 1000 Acres of
which my 1iO Acres were part, did not yield
three tons of clean Hay per annum.
II at the commencement of my agricultural ey-
perments, wa discouraged by the example and
predictions OF those among whom my lot was
cast assure the reader, the results of the first
| few years, were by no means cheering /; but hdr-
ing PIT my hand % the plough, my faith was too
| strong To allow me to 10 TX back in despair al
| though did not always reap where sowed and
| frequently .thered not, where had scat cred
with liberal hand. Such was nv beginning in
| lSi9 The third year thereafter, cut little
clover for hay, ami had one ucrc of re claimed
swamp land well set in Timothy.
rms year erect la permanent shelter for
cattle with icf capable Of holding Is or 10 tons
Of Hay. While this building was being erected,
was the laughing. stock # the negh6olhood,a
well as of passers by on the Turnpike. The
best farmer OF the vicinity, at that day, after
careful survey OF my premises, cor house, and
hay NOR, declared, that the VIII lie County of
Fairfax would never make hay enough to fill
| them Was not this encouraging to a younp
! farmer But what is the result For twenty
years past that NOW has not been able to con-
tain one-half of AN average crop. Fields which
did not even yi' Poverty grass when | took
them IN hand, now pro luce Kentucky blue l. e.
| English Latcn Grass, spontaneously, and those
which did not return three bushels for one when
seeded with Rye, Oats, Buokwheat, &c. &c now
yield from ID to u, and "a high rs }2 bushels of
whtdt per acre, from 30 to as high as ~ bushels
| OF Oats per acre, from to II and a. high as II
barrels OF Corn per acre, and an average of IA
tons OF cured Hay, and high as 81 tons per
| Acre, at single cutting, and all other crops
usually cultivated on Market Farms, in like pro
portions besides having over six hundred frnit
| trees in full bearing of the most choica sood II