Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1867-07-01
Farming Interests in Virginia. >

10 the Editor of the AtGcdn(trtd G0Eette:
Please publish in the Gazette the following
from late number of the Petersburg Index,
which to say the least ofitis ''re1y suggestive,
as the phrase is. Ittouches on the subjects of
steam farming, dividing lands into ''smal
FARMS" &C., about which many people, who
will have yet much to learn. AGRlcoLA
We have been reading Mechi's "How to
FARM Proftably.' It electrified us on the
subject Of steam culture. Is it possible that
while we have been at war, and in trouble, the
world has been moving on from horse to steam
labor, in ploughing and other field tillage?
The suhjoined sentence or two will show
that steam ploIghs are beginning 10 be COM
pared and taken for granted, like patterns OF
mowers and reapers, and that they have
passed the stage when any body can think OF
their introduction as anything but nh tah ac-
con,ph:
December 81, 1860.
.Geutlemen I very willingly send you
nv views and opinions upon the steam cul-
tivator [ have now worked my
apparatus for three seasons, and having done
nnwards of two thousand acres OF land with
it, am in a position to speak with some
confidence as to its success : My
larm, belonging to the Duke of Bedford,
contains about $40 acres of arabic and $50
acres of grass land | formerly worked fifteen
or sixteen horses, but since [ have got my
steam cutivator, | have managed with seven
or eight, and have always been much more
forward with my work than when dependent
upon my horses. Indeed, | would be very
sorry to farm this strong, hilly land without
steam power. ;"
The present season proving SO excessively
wet has prevented me doing as much work as
I should have done, still [ am very much
forwarder with my work than l could have
been with fifteen horses to keep, whether @ aDle It
to work or not have seventy-hve acres OF
wheat looking remarkably WE'LL some of which
would certainly not have been sown had l not
had the steam cultiyatpr.
"In Mr.. Drury' letter | notice be says that
he finds setting down to large piece IS mis-
take, T think it is mistake to set down to
small pieces. I have one field of thirty-six
acres which work up without going Into the
field at all. I put the engine and wlndlass In
an adjoining field, and finish headlands and al!
without shifting either engine or wlndlass. |
have another field of fifty acres, 10 which l
have dug a pond at one end, aud l set the
engine aid wind!ass against the pond, aud cu-
tiyate the whole without shifting or requiring a
horse to fetch water. | sometimes dam up
drain or ditch. and obtain water 10 that way !,
for, in wet5season. water cartlng Is great
nuisance. [ have increased the length OF my
ropes to enable me to do these large neldS. l
eypect it would take more power, but don
Gud it makes much difference to my engine
which is one of Clayton & Shuttleworth eight
horse double cylinder. am sure
the expense of keeping the whole IN repair IS
,,,,ob tho rapalrS or q steam
threshing machine
81 don't think much will be done In letting
ont steam cultivators, as the expense and trou-
BILE of haulage is SO much greater than with
steam threshing machines. / speak from ex-
neriepce, as I have let out both, but have
Given over letting out my steam cultlVator-
Indeed I have ninety days work year for 1t
on my own farm.
II am, gentlemen,
'Yours truly,
CIVILIAN PIKE.
"Messrs. j. & E. Howard, Bedford.
This certainly looks like work, and as though
horse. .draught for ploughing were decidedly olo
fogy. .hot n.
body of East Virginia planters was Is the llnes1
body of yeomanry in the world We lterany
believe it. England has such men perhaEs
sunerior So has Lombardy. So has Belgium.
So has every State. But such body we
mean bv that, such an occupying Of the whole
land by intelligent whites; such filling OF all
the corners of society with men so courteous
and high. toned, we know nowhere else IN all
this habitable globe.
Now, what a pity such a landed population
should fade from the earth
There are but two ways to prevent IL:
First the tenant system. A nan carves out
farm of 1870 acres around his door, and holds
it as homestead, and farms it to SUIT HIM
self, with the best labor he can get, and makes
it his permanent residence. If skilled 10 thlss,
he will make. after little, on this 1aTm' al, |
he made upon his tract. Then gradually ana
With infinite patience, and with more reference
to his children than himself, he surveys on
pleasant farms Of like size upon all AIS pati'-
monial acres, and, without going into deot,
seeks out working tenants-lnduces tnen %
settle these new places gives them the very
LONGEST iease-asks them the very lowestrents--
binds them to the most remedial and improv-
inc course. and thus finds himself. as lite wears
on, a sort Of English owner of farms, In the
midst of a permanent and improving tbody O.
his tenants.
This is one plan, but then the mischief Is
that few men have patience for this. Men
arc impatient for wealth, and crowd into our
crowded cities. Tue great ma jorlty in cities
break. All permanent citizens families event
ually fade out and disappear and become ex
tinct. Cities are great morass, where both
the means and the people that support them
eventually go under, and thus what cities car
supply ot chance to live is not the thing tha
will preserve our landed people. -
Still, small farms are doomed. No one cal
read the above letter without seeing that agrl
culture, like spinning, must become monop
oily; that is, it must pass into the category O
single capitalists and many laborers. Small
farms will continue, like little mills or ole
wives spinning treades But the $4,000
steam tools must be owned by capitalists, ant
like commodores from the quarter deck, me,
must command large surfaces Of labor.