Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1878-09-25
farm AND FIRESIDE'
FROM Ex-Governor WM.SM,TH, OF

FAUQUIER Co., VA:
have your postals requesting lie to
furnish you my views as TO the prepare
ton for wheat crop-quantity Of. seed
per acre, &c. regret to say that l
have not been very well, which, with
the hot weather and the pressure of my
other duties, has occasiened me to de-
lay my reply until it is now toe late to
furnish such an one as you would like, or
l should desire to have published.
Undoubtedly we have had the wettest
and mildest year, so far, within my
recollection, the consequence Of which
is the rankest and most neXious growth
ofvegetaticn, 1 have ever known. The
daisy or ex-eye, the blue, the Canada,
and legacy Of the war, and several
others Of the family of thistles, the
dock, the plant or plantain. the mullen,
and to some extent the enion, crowd
upon the nutritious grasses, and render
thorough and successive cultivation
absolutely essential, as this, with un-
renting vigilance, furnish the only
hope of DISCRIMINATING these pests.
AS our lands IN this section of the
State, and l presume in all her borders,
will rapidly sod themselves if kept clear
of bushes and briers with the brier
scythe, it is fortunate that the NEST ap-
proved rotation Of crops, that of Penn
sylvania, also furnishes the most sue
cessful war upon the noxious veSetatisn
to which have referred. Lut us then
suppose that the farm is divided into
seven fields and as many lots surround
ing the farm buildings-all in sod. No.
l, in sod, is broken UP in the winter for
corn, ditched, aud drained, and
thoroughly enclosed. This, except one
o. the lots, say Of five acres, for truck
patch and his garden, will be all the
cultivation fer the first year, the farmer
having his hands full in enclosing his
,rhole farm with an exterior fence to
keep in his own and to keep out his
neighbours stock and put in proper
order his farm-yard and other buildings
it being a fundamental rule in good
management that a place Should be
provided for every thing, aud that every
thing should be kept in place. In the
meantime the corn crop is made and
carefully and thoroughly secured, even
to shuck, and the Geld is again plowed
and cleaned. as convenient, during the
fall and winter for cats in the spring
Field No. ., in sod, during the same
period, undergoes the same treatment
as No. l, and is put to corn during the
ensuing spring. The farmer will still
find his hands full in fitting up, and
when his oat crop begins to ripen, I'M
less he has been smart and active, will
hardly find himself ready for it. But
the crop is secured; and this field, No.
!, once in corn and once IN oats, is now
TO be prepared for wheat. Now, al
though this field has been repeatedly
plowed for two successive years. and
should be quite friable, and the farmer
has about three months in which to get
repay for this important crop, yet he
will find that it Will require ali his ac-
tiylty and industry to be in time. The
field should be flushed with two-or
three-horse plow, followed by two
horse plow in the same furrow. Thus
prepared, the seed-bed would be a mass
Of pulverized dirt of some ten inches in
depth and equal to some SIX TO ten
thousand tons per acre, which would
absorb nearly every rain that fell, and
which, when in excess fits capacity to
do so, would descend to the hard pan
and percOlate or find its way to the
open bitches Of the farm, unable by
reason Of the superintendent mass to
accumulate in sufficient volume to wash
the land, while it would so efectually
drain the surface soil as certainly to
protect the growing crop frSm drowning
spewing or freezing out. 1t will not
escape observation, that the four inches
Of dirt turnedup by the second plow
will not reach the surface, and that the
heavy harrow, which should follow the
blowing, will distribute the surface soil
only thrown up by the first pillow. Now,
the manure, in the form of digested
compost, should follow and be carefully |
distributed over the whole feld,and then |
turned under some two or three inches |
with a three-nould-board gang plew.
a field thus prepared is, for the first
time, a real seed-bed and ready for the !
crop for which it is intended. A bushel |
Of wheatper acre, .Own with the drill |
with one hundred pounds of dissolved |
bone, is ample. From such seeding
and preparation,a crop of thirty bushels
per acre may be confidently expected
a fine stand Of clever assured from the
seeding Of the following spring, while
last and not least, the noxiOus pests,
before referred to, will be brought under
the farmers control. Nor Is this all;
for when the seeding is thus done.
the whole must be packed away by
the heavy five section iron roller
the loose stone being by the same
operation removed, so as TO save the
machines frsm injury in gathering
future crops. Of course the farmer
will deposit such rocks on the exterior
lines Of the field or at the washed banks
OF his permanent water bitches and rip
rap them, so as to prevent further in
jury. / think it more than probable it
mill 10 oo;1 tlot e,,ob a =. ]