The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-02-06

Correspondence of the Richmond Dispatch.
Increased Area Seeded 10 Wheat
Agriculture the InOat 0iatable
Pursuit Necessity OF Improving
The Sasi-Carabiiiiy of Yielding
Large Crops, e.c.
PETERSBURG, February 5, 1868.
AS the result of such inquiries as
have been able to make, the crop Of
wheat seeded last fall considerably ex-
ceeds the one Of the preceding year. The
number Of large crops is greater, and a
good many farmers, for The first timo since
the war, put a few acres in cultivation for
the purpose of raising seed and bread for
another year. 1t will, however, take
several years, under the depressing cir.
cumstancos now existing, before we can
hope to gather such splendid crops as
were reaped seven or eight years ago.
Perhaps it may not be in this generation,
for the farming interest is at lower ebb
now than it ever was before.
But what can people turn their atten-
ton to with q prospect Of better profits
than agriculture affords? Nearly all the
fruits of the earth are bringing good
prices: it requires only the diligent hand
Of man, under the blessing of Heaven, to
grow them with success. No farmer ought
to be satisfied with less than fifteen or
twenty bushels of wheat to the acre, while
twenty-five or thirty should be the amount
aimed at. To attain this requires careful
preparation and the outstanding Of all the
resources of the farm. Lime and ashes
form the basis Of all successful culture,
and either win answer in the absence Of
the other. Ashes furnish the mineral in
gradients entering into the composition of
plants, while lime acts on the organic
matter contained in the soil, and fits it for
their use. Bones also, being originally
derived from the soil, are very valuable.
All these leave something for future crops;
and under an ameliorating system the fer
tility of the land may not only be main
tanned, but Increased. would suggest to
small farmers who do their own work to
begin by making few acres rich every
year, according to their resources, and
keeping them so. This has been the
practice of tobacco planters from time
immemorial with their tobacco lots.
1t only requires little varying to suit
change Of crops, and to be indefinitely
though gradually extended. Icould refer
to the example of several farmers who
have pursued this course-only with more
abundant, means than most persons now
possess-whose lands yielded from twenty
five to thirty-fve bushels OF wheat per
acre, followed by luxuriant crops of clo-
yer. But what they did on more ex.
tended scale it is perfectly competent for
every farmer Of industrious habits to do
on limited scale; while under the odd
Sc cultivation will
become less productive every year. Farm
ers cannot too soon learn the fact that a
radical change of system is now abSo-
lutely necessary. A few acres we'll titled
will be found much more profitable than
the cultivation of extensive fields afford
ing only a meagre return.
The most thrifty class Of agriculturists
at the present time are the tobacco plant
ers; and it is because they make fine
crops on small area. II the same mode
OF culture, varied according to circum-
stances, was applied to the grain crops it
could not fail TO be remunerative. with
this additional advantage, that it would be
far less exhaustiug.
After the close Of the war, one of the
most painful results to my mind was the
necessity that the large landholders would
probably be obliged to divide their planta-
tions into small farms, and thereafter sink
to the general levei0f the agricultural
community. II was thought b. some that
this might be avoided by the introduction
of the English tenant system, either by the
freedmen as. tenants, or by bringing over
families of Scotch or English peasantry.
ALI such schemes have, however, proved