Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1858-11-18
agricultural, ]!

G1lttAktklnkt azas
Essay on Clearing Land Infested with
~ Sassafras and Briers.
BY Wv G1LMER.
Repeated cropping in corn, wheat, or oats
will but multiply these pests. The best
plan to eradicate them, I have found CATER
! many trials) to be moving them off in the
month of May, and subjecting the land to
close grazing. A field of mine. in 1850,
was after corn, so thickly set with sassafras
and briers, that friend remarked that it
afforded good swarth nearly all over It
was sown in wheat and grass in the spring,
and was afterwards grazed for four years
the utmost limit of its capability, the bushes
and briers were moved but once, and, to my
great delight, the entire field had not left
upon it brier or bush, except where sas-
safrass tree had been grubbed up.-Grub-
bing thickset field is very costly opera
tion, and will not cure the evil. The idea
prevails in the Valley of Virginia, that our
lands on this side Of the mountains are far
more liable to such pests than theirs. The
reason for this impression is obviously not
in the greater liability Of our lands to be so
infested, but in the different modes of treat
ing them which prevail in these localities
respectively. Their lands are set in grass
when fresh. and grazed from the year they
are cleared, by which means these pests are
kept under, whilst ours have been general
ly worked as long as they would pay, and
in many instances much longer. and not
L L..A .ll11 n. !.
were only moved to very limited extent;
lon which account the evil complained OIL has
not been checked by the remedial process I
have suggested. 5z... So. 4
Let me not, however, be misunderstood
on this subject. The moving recommend
led Iefers only to the bushes and briers. He
who has an abundant supply of corn stalks,
shucks, wheat straw, and cbaff has no need
Of hay for stock Of any kind. IF near the
market. and hay can be sold for one dollar
cash, then now it; but if at a distance from
market, and the staple crops are corn and
wheat. moao not. It is my decided opinion
|that the cutting -af a crop Of cloner-hay and
the taking away OF The seed, VIII exhaust
land as much as a crop Of corn Rich fats
will stand it, but common high land cannot.
The question may be asked, why Craze if
50 much opposed to hay making? Because
cash payments are made to the land in graz
ing it. whilst but little is returned to it when
hay is cut and fed on the farm, and nothing
when it is sold off. Again, the grazing
process proceeds slowly, and but gradually
despoils the land Gifts covering, while NOW
ing leaves it suddenly denuded and exposed
to the blazing sun. keep as fat horses
and oxen as most persons, yet I have not,
on farm peculiarly adapted to the business,
cut five tons Of hay within the space of
twenty years. Let those who have rich
moist fats institute careful experiments to
test the relative value of their production ID
corn and in hay. It will be found that the
corn will give at least fifty bushels of grain
per acre, while the rough food from that
acre will amount to at least as much in guam
tity, and be fully equal to hay so far as tits
eaten. The difference, then, in favor of the
corn crop will be the nett gain Of the amount
of grain produced, the of;al ofthe crop be-
ing fully equal in value to the production of
the same quantity of land in hay -An.er.
Farmer. @ - .as9
.