Farming and Manures of the Eastern Shore of Virginia

Eyreville, Northampton, March 22, 1834.

In compliance with your request, in the first number of your valuable Register, "that your friends and patrons should communicate such facts as were in their possession, calculated to advance our agricultural condition," I have undertaken it, although, I fear, I shall add but little to the furthering the object. I am a young farmer, and have had but few years experience: but those few years have convinced me, that industry and a proper attention to manuring, will work wonders in our heretofore abused and neglected lands. On my return from school, in Pennsylvania, where I had seen the mode of farming pursued by the industrious Germans of that state, I was struck with the poverty of my own county, and the miserably negligent mode pursued by our farmers, on the most grateful soil in the world -- for you will find land here under cultivation, yielding a tolerable crop of oats and corn, which land has been in cultivation, for nearly a century, without the slightest aid from is possessors, subject to all the abuses possible, and deriving aid solely from the saline atmosphere, which is the great preserver of our lands. Being fully sensible of the necessity of doing something to improve the condition of my own farm, I determined to alter the mode of cultivation heretofore pursued, to attend particularly to manuring, and to cultivate less land. The practice here, as in many other counties of Virginia, is to divide our arable lands into two equal parts, the one of corn, the other for oats, alternating every year, leaving a small portion of land for a standing pasture, and that too poor to produce either corn, oats or grass, depending upon our (turned out) oat fields for summer pasturage, and our corn fields, after the crop is gathered, for winter pasturage, thereby keeping our lands under constant contribution. The farm I live on, has rather more upland pasture, (that is, worn-out cornfields,) and a great deal more marsh pasture, than most of the farms of the county possess; but with even this advantage, I found it impossible, from my stock and horses, to raise more manure, with the strictest attention to it, than would manure more than twelve or fourteen acres of land, together with my garden and small truck patches, such as of sweet potatoes, pumpkins and the like. I therefore set about looking over my land for other means to supply the deficiency. I found around the margin of the creek, (for you must know my farm is surrounded on three sides by Cherrystone Creek,) a vast number of little ravines, or sinks, formed by the tides, into which a great deposite of sea weed, grass, the decomposed leaves of trees, and the washing of the land, have accumulated. This I carted out in great quantities, together with the salt marsh turf, from which I derived great advantage, almost doubling my crop thereby. Soon after trying this, I met with a copy of Hales' Husbandry, in which he speaks of sea shells and their spawn as a manure. Our creek abounding in oysters, and having an innumerable a quantity of oyster beds, or "rocks," I was determined to try some; and to my great satisfaction, I found the very thing I desired, within one hundred yards of one of my fields, which at low water, is entirely bare -- about fifty feet wide and eight hundred yards long, (and how deep I am unable to say,) composed of decayed oysters, clams, and other shell fish with the decayed spawn, together with a great deposite of sea drift, and of course, salt. The size of the largest piece of shell, did not exceed that of a fifty cent piece. The top of the rock, to the depth of an inch and a half was of but little value, being subject to the action of the tide: but immediately under that, was a bed of the richest manure I ever saw. Being unprepared for my good luck, I could not take much advantage of it, and of course, could not make a trial of it, to any great extent. I managed, however, to get up about forty cart loads, (hauled by a single mule,) which I spread upon a measured acre of land, and found it answered my most sanguine expectations. The corn looked as well, and bore as well, as corn in the same lot on land highly manured from the stable and hog pen. This year it is in oats, and even at this early period, they have a much finer color, than those adjoining; my friends, however, say, it was not a fair trial, as the land previous to the dressing, was in fine condition; but the addition no doubt has improved it. This year, I have gone more fully into a trial of it, being better prepared with lighters, and other implements, and have manured about eight acres at the same rate on as poor land as any in the state, along side a piece, originally the same, under a heavy dressing of farm-pen and stable manure, at the rates of one hundred and eighty loads per acre, and have left on the other side, a small piece, without any dressing at all. The result of my experiment you shall have, when it is fully tested. There are thousands of these "rocks" or beds in the creek, though none whose shells have so completely gone to pieces as this one; but they would, no doubt, be as useful for manure, by being mashed or broken, or even spread on the land as they come from the river, as a great deal of mud and salt adhere to them.

I fear you might think from the commencement of my letter, that all our farmers pursue the same negligent course of farming, which is not the case; many of our farmers, have turned their attention to the improvement of their farms, and are using every means, to add to their limited stock of manure; and you would be astonished to see the returns from our lands, (which appear to be almost sand) -- for the little labor and attention bestowed. And I firmly believe, there is no land in this, or in any other state, that yields so fair a return for the labor bestowed: for the soil is light and easy to cultivate, and where a little manure and proper attention have been bestowed, the crops are surprising.

W. S. EYRE.

[The oyster beds or shoals, described above, can scarcely fail to prove a valuable and important fund of manure, to many who are situated in like manner with Mr. Eyre. But it may not be useless to warn him, and others, that his experiment, which is in progress, is a very unfair, or imperfect test, of the value of the calcareous part of his manure, which is probably the most valuable part. The sea-weed, the remains of putrescent animal matter, and the rich mud, (probably containing much vegetable matter,) as they all furnish food for plants, will (like dung) best show effects on the poorest soil. But the broken shells alone, would be enabled to give but little evidence of their peculiar and great power
as a manure, on so barren a soil: and their principal early use, when thus applied together with putrescent matters, will be to preserve the latter to the soil. This fixing or preserving power of calcareous manure, is highly important: but its effects are not such as can be properly estimated in the first, or perhaps in the second crop. Calcareous manures economise and accumulate fertility -- putrescent manures spend all they possess -- unless, there is calcareous matter already in the soil, to prevent the entire waste.]