Sketch of a Hasty View of the Soil and Agriculture of Part of the County of Northampton

The county of Northampton, which forms the lower part of the peninsula called the Eastern Shore of Virginia, presents a remarkable appearance of uniformity, in the level surface and general qualities of the soil, and in the mode of tillage and general management. The land has but little elevation above the water which almost surrounds it and the level of the surface is rarely changed so much as to effect tillage or labor injuriously -- and nothing deserving to be called a hill is found any where, unless the abruptly rising (though low) borders of creeks be so designated. The soil is universally sandy, and differs very little in texture or appearance, and is not more than three or four inches deep. On the bay side, below the sandy subsoil, there is generally a yellowish clay, lying from twelve to sixteen inches below the surface, and which is open enough to permit the filtrating through of rain water. Below the clay is a barren white sand. The clay is generally deficient entirely elsewhere, or is not found within several feet of the surface. The rate of fertility, though made different by nature, and still more so by the difference of treatment under tillage, is yet more uniform than any other considerable tract which I have observed. No one acre seems to have been very far below the medium grade of natural productiveness, and not many are very much above it. No land was seen which appeared half as rich as the best soils west of the Chesapeake -- and none as poor as the worst -- which are far more abundant that the rich, on both sides of the bay.

Flat and narrow as the county is (the mainland varying between two and eight miles in width,) there is a central ridge of a little more elevation, and of worse and poorer soil than the lands on the bay and the sea side. Of the two last, the lands on the bay are generally the best. But a very large proportion of all the lands lie on the bay and the Atlantic Ocean, or on the creeks and inlets. It is said, that there are very few farms in the county distant more than mile from navigable water. This is an immense advantage enjoyed by the farmers -- and another connected with it is, that every Atlantic market is open to their choice. A string of long, narrow and low islands, barely separated from each other by inlets, serve to protect the mainland from the fury of the ocean, and in the navigable sounds, between eight to twelve miles wide, keep comparatively smooth water, when the wind is producing awful effects at the distance of but a few miles. These islands are part of the chain which reaches from Florida to Delaware, and offers between it and the mainland, a safe inland navigation for stout sea vessels, which is scarcely interrupted by too shallow water, or too open sea, during the whole distance.

The waters bordering on and intersecting Northampton, are not more valuable for navigation, than for furnishing in great plenty and variety, fish and wild fowl. The greatest delicacies for the table which salt water yields, are here common and cheap and coarse fish, which are prized in our fresh waters, are here caught in such numbers, that they form a valuable resource for manure, which a few enterprising farmers have already begun to profit by using.

Though the soil is sandy, and almost universally so, it is less so than is generally reported. I saw but little land that seemed as sandy as much of the county of Surry -- and the greater portion of the soil is not more sandy than part of Lower Weyanoke in Charles City, the farm of the late Fielding Lewis, which, since being limed, is so productive under wheat, as well as in the crops more suited to light land. Yet scarcely any wheat is made in Northampton -- and from the very few trials of this crop on a small scale, it has been decided generally, (and no doubt correctly,) that the soil is quite unfit for the profitable growth of that crop. The use of lime, or other calcareous manure, would probably remove the existing obstacle to wheat culture: though even then it might not be so profitable as the crops now preferred. Wheat has been often raised with sufficient success to encourage the farmer to persevere in the culture. But he has invariably found that there was a great diminution of product when wheat was sown a second time on the same land, in its proper turn in the rotation. I have heard of a like result on the sandy land of Sussex, as ascertained by two rounds of the rotation of a very intelligent practical farmer.

The rotation of Northampton, which may be almost said to be universal, is 1st, corn -- 2nd, oats -- and so on every year as long as cultivation is continued on the same land -- and that has been known to be, on some fields, and those never manured at all, for more than sixty years. The only material variations are in the management of the land in the interval of time between reaping and stacking the oat crop, and ploughing the land in the next winter, or early part of spring, for the succeeding crop of corn. Some very few farmers permit no grazing: a greater number graze during that whole time, but not so closely but that much of the volunteer growth of vegetable matter remains to be turned into the earth by the plough. The others, and they are the far greater number, graze as closely as can be done by all their live stock. Some even believe that the closest grazing is most beneficial, and leave the fences down that their fields may be a common pasture for all the roaming stock of the neighborhood, between the removal of the oats and the beginning of preparation for corn. Ten or twelve years continuation of this latter practice, in at least one case, has not served to prove so satisfactorily, to the individual who has pursued it, the evil of the practice, as to put a stop to it. But the grazing in general, is not so close as might be supposed from the unrestrained access of each farmer's live stock, because their number is kept small by the nature of the land and mode of tillage. There is but little grazing land before the oat harvest -- and the products of live stock, as well as their numbers, are smaller than usual elsewhere. This fault in their husbandry, (as it may be considered in one respect,) perhaps has saved the fields from exhaustion.

Whoever may for the first time hear this rotation described, will be ready to pronounce it as having been devised and commenced in ignorance, and carried on in direct and manifest opposition to all the established principles of agricultural science -- and that persisting in it for any considerable
time, must always be unprofitable to the farmer, and result inevitably in the destruction of the fertility of the soil. But strange as it may appear that such a rotation should be in general use, it is still more so, that it should be maintained by the general, if not universal testimony of the inhabitants, that the production of the county, for the whole space under tillage, has not been diminished under this system -- that the exhaustion of particular farms when worst managed, has neither been rapid, or considerable, in any short term of years -- and that when attention has been paid to collecting and applying manures, and grazing has been prevented, the most enlightened farmers concur that the rotation, so aided, has been found to increase the crops regularly, and for a long term: in short, that the rotation is decidedly an improving one, when judiciously conducted; and most probably that it is better for the farmer than any other more conformable to the generally received opinions on agricultural improvement. It must be at least admitted, that many and strong facts, and those tested by long experience, are brought to sustain the superior advantages of the Eastern Shore rotation.

There is one additional feature of the tillage here, which in many cases has had much influence in aiding the benefits, or lessening the scourging tendency of the rotation. This is the growth of a plant which has great value as an improver of fertility, and which is peculiarly adapted to sandy soil, and to the succession of crops here in use. The Magothy Bay bean is a plant of the pea tribe, and the whole of that tribe seems to possess greater power than any other for acting as manure. Clovers are of the pea kind, and red clover stands at the head of the class of green manures. But though a good cover of Magothy Bay bean is probably of far less value as manure than a good cover of clover, yet the former growth in general is more valuable, because requiring no regular sowing, but very slight care for its perpetual preservation, and producing crops far more luxuriant than could possibly be obtained of clover, and perhaps of the most worthless weeds on the like sandy soils. The seeds are very hard, and slow to vegetate, and will remain sometimes for years in the soil before sprouting. This quality prevents the tillage of corn, however perfect, serving to root out, or materially thin the after growth. The spring ploughing for oats are enough ahead not to be injured by the undergrowth of beans. At this time, (July 10th,) the reaping of the oats is generally going on, or has been just finished where most forward. The undergrowth of Magothy Bay bean is from three to eight inches high, according to the condition of the land, (rarely more than six inches) and is not a material impediment to reaping and saving the oats. It is even now a beautiful growth -- but its present appearance is nothing in comparison to what will be exhibited in August, and from that time to frost, according to the descriptions given of the well covered fields, and which I can well believe from the more sparse growth which I have seen matured at home. The flowers are very abundant, and of a deep and beautiful yellow -- and continue to open for many weeks. The whole plant was well described by Bordley, as a "Lilliputian locust tree," with which it agrees in the general form of the flowers and leaves. The beans rise rapidly as soon as shelter of oats is removed, and acquire a height usually varying between one, and two and a half feet, according to the land. Even where no effort whatever is taken to preserve the succession of plants, and indeed where the tillage and grazing (under the common rotation) is such as would effectually destroy any other kind of any variety, this continues to be the most general cover of the land after the oat crop -- though, of course, a scattered and thin cover compared to what is found under more favorable circumstances. Cattle feed on this plant, and indeed find not much else in the fields, after the scattered oats have been picked up. Hogs strip off the green pods, and to the extent of their operations, destroy the seeds. When matured, the seeds are so hard that they would probably pass through the body of an animal un-injured. The plant is an annual. The leaves fall before winter, and the stalks seem so hard, that many person would on that account deem them of but little value as manure.

In the few cases where the land is not grazable at all, and even where the small number of the farmer's stock prevents much of the bean cover being taken off, it is evident that there are efficient means afforded to preserve the succession of the growths of this plant. Where several successive hoed crops, or other circumstances, have thinned the bean cover, it is easily increased by means used by those who attach proper value to this improving crop. Numerous plants spring up in the land under corn, which are generally, of course, destroyed by the ploughing of that crop. But near the plants of corn, some bean plants will grow out of the way of the plough: and as but little hand-hoe work is used, or required, the neglect of weeding, as well as the design of spreading the growth, serve in this manner to furnish numerous seeds to be added to those then buried in the earth, and which will spring the next year.

Where the land is not grazed, or even where the grazing is but slight, the Eastern Shore rotation, though nominally the same, is in truth altogether different. It then consists of a regular succession of three crops -- corn, oats, and Magothy Bay bean -- the last being a crop of manure regularly turned in to sustain the land under the two succeeding grain crops. This improved practice would take away the objection to the perpetual succession of grain crops -- and presents a rotation perhaps as conformable to sound theory, and furnishing as large a supply of food (grown on the land) for plants, as is found in the best modern practices under what are called three and four-shi[illegible] rotations. The circumstance that this three-shi[illegible] rotation has only two years' length, is decidedly in its favor. If all other things are equal, an equal proportion of the rotation is of meliorating effect, the more crops that it will furnish the better, within any certain term of years. One of the greatest causes of the superior productiveness of the farms in Flanders, is found in the frequency of secondary crops, by which two crops are obtained from the same field in one year. The great objection to such cropping in this country, is the amount of labor required at very busy seasons and that the low price of land offers no inducement for such perfect tillage. But the secondary crop of the Eastern Shore rotation requires no trouble or cost of preparation or tillage -- and there-
fore may be used to the greatest advantage where the peculiarity of soil favors the growth of the Magothy Bay bean -- and forbids (as is supposed to be the case here,) the adoption of other courses of crops, which would be incompatible with the growth of that valuable plant.

It may be asserted then, according to the foregoing views, that the mere difference of using this green crop directly as manure, or for grazing, will serve to place the usual tillage of this country under a mild and improving rotation -- or under one which, though it seems not to be ruinous here, well deserves to be so, and would be so, I think, on any other land to which my labor, or personal observation, has been directed. And why it should be otherwise here, I cannot hear or conceive a satisfactory reason, though the fact is readily admitted to be true. The reason which is generally assigned for the sandy soil here bearing up so long under the worst use of the corn and oat rotation -- and for being actually improved under its best use -- is the beneficial influence of the air, which is supposed to be loaded with salt vapor from the adjacent and almost surrounding waters of the Chesapeake and the ocean. Without discussing the truth of the fact of salt being thus continually conveyed to the soil, it seems incredible that salt in any quantity can act as an alimentary manure to grain crops, or perpetually renew the whole or any portion of the wasted fertility of soil. From time to time, persons have discovered great value in salt as a manure -- and much more frequently its use has been found of little value, when not decidedly injurious. But the most sanguine advocates for the use of salt as manure, have not supposed it to give directly food for plants, as dung does, or as being a manure which by annual repetitions can possibly continually renew the productive power of land. If this were so, surely men might copy nature's practice in this respect, and wherever the price of salt did not forbid its use, inexhaustible fertility might be produced and maintained. But I cannot think that any vapor, salt or fresh, can be serviceable to grain crops, except as furnishing additional supplies of moisture: and this effect, though highly beneficial to grass crops and grass husbandry, when considerable, is at least of very doubtful advantage to grain crops.

But I repeat that there is no question of the great power of these lands to resist exhaustion under a scourging and barbarous course of tillage -- nor of their fitness to be easily and profitably improved by the best practices already (though rarely) here in use. I do not rely for this conclusion on the experience of any one farmer, however intelligent and well qualified to judge, and however much entitled to command belief, and the utmost respect for his opinions -- nor on the state of any particular farms, long kept under either good or bad culture. I have heard many proofs of these kinds which might be adduced by others. But my cursory views and hurried inquiries having been limited to but a few days of personal observation, they were not sufficiently accurate for such detailed statements, even if that course were not forbidden by the length to which they would extend this sketch. Such details, however, from those possessing better means for observation and the collection and comparison of facts, would be highly valuable and interesting -- and it is earnestly hoped that such will be given to the public at a future time, by one or more of those better fitted by their location for the task. If I can attract attention to subjects which deserve it, and induce any others to furnish more accurate information, my end will be accomplished: and even the inaccuracies, or unintentional misrepresentations, which my very imperfect notices may perhaps exhibit, will not be regretted, if other persons should be thereby drawn forth for their correction, and to supply the more numerous deficiencies. This has been the motive of my offering such hasty and imperfect observations, and must serve as my apology for doing that which in general ought always to be avoided -- that is, writing and publishing opinions on subjects that we know very little about. But by such means, in several former cases, very valuable and interesting communications have been elicited from others, and discussions have been produced which have shed much light on agricultural practice and opinions. To similar effects, I hope these imperfect notes may be the humble instrument of impulse.

To return to general results. Very little land in Northampton, compared to the mainland of Lower Virginia, has been "turned out" of cultivation, because exhausted, to grow up in trees. And where this has been done, though of course the most impoverished land was so treated, the motive was in part to permit pine timber to grow to supply the place of that which was taken off from the small amount of woodland on the farm. Wood and timber are very scarce, and but little land is given up to even the growth of what they have, which is unfit for building purposes, and but of small value for fencing or fuel. The extensive clearing and destruction of good timber has been caused by the demand for and for cultivation, and encouraged by almost every acre of dry land being fit and profitable for the plough. I have seen scarcely any land recently "turned out:" and all which has been at any one time thrown out of cultivation -- admitting all to be on account of extreme poverty, and for the purpose of being recruited in fertility under pines -- must be inconsiderable. Therefore the continued productiveness of the county in general, cannot be materially aided by this cause. Neither is it to be attributed to the great and profitable improvements made by particular individuals, by means of using manures not derived from their own fields, whether putrescent or of a more permanent character -- for these examples have, unfortunately, been too few to have a considerable effect on the general products and profits of the county. The lands which have produced nine-tenths of all the grain in the county, and those which now produce as large a proportion, probably may embrace not one farm which has been so badly cultivated as to have been kept up by the "turning out" system -- the pine-tree-manuring it may be called -- nor one on which the owner has used lime, shells, or any manure purchased or brought from abroad. Excluding then the most exhausting and bad cultivation, and also the most improving and profitable, the remaining lands will show fairly the effects of the usual mode of tillage in this county -- and in general, they appear to be such as will be now stated.

According to the system of tillage described, there is no such thing as any field having a year of rest: every acre (except the small amount of woodland reserved for timber and fuel, and the
still smaller amount of land "turned out,") is under a crop once a year. Of course, supposing products to continue equal, there is twice the amount of cultivation, of amount of crop made, and of laboring and consuming population, as there would be if the land was at rest, and producing no crop two years in four. The people are in an uncommon and remarkable degree, (for Virginians, I grieve to say -- ) attached to the place of their nativity, and seldom think of emigrating to the far west, or even to the "Western Shore," (as they call all Virginia except their own narrow streak of land,) unless driven by the impossibility of obtaining a laborious support at home. It follows that the people are too many for the land, as it now produces, and the demand for land, both on purchase and rent, is as high as the profits of cultivation will permit -- but not higher than that point, as is abundantly proved by the permanency of such prices, as well as by other circumstances. It may be safely asserted, that the average price of land in Northampton, is three times as high as that of the average of the lands in Price George and Surry, which border James River and extend back eight miles, and for nearly all of which, marl might be used with sufficiently facility and profit -- an immense benefit of which the Eastern Shore is deprived. In all that space, embracing some of the best and some of the poorest land in Virginia, though there are a few tracts which might sell for $30 the acre, the average price would hardly exceed $5 -- and many tracts containing marl, notwithstanding the increased demand and price for such land, would sell for $3. In Northampton, there is but little land (excluding the sea islands,) under $14, and much would now sell for more than $20 -- and the average price throughout would not be less than $15. It may however be objected, that such prices cannot be founded on correct estimates of profit, and therefore are no certain evidence of value. It would be very difficult to put down such an objection to high prices, if every man tilled his own land. But the best proof is offered here in the fact, that a considerable proportion of the soil is regularly tilled by tenants, and that there is demand for all offered to be rented out, at such shares of the crops as will pay six per cent. net, on the purchase, at the high existing rates. This is sufficient proof that the landlord can afford to buy and to retain land at the present prices. And if a tenant pays too high rent, he cannot fail to make the discovery by the time a year has passed. It may be safely assumed that annual rents, in general in every country, and especially in the United States, can never remain higher than tenants can afford to pay. Poor land is here rented, and cultivated in the ordinary rotation, at never less than one-third of the grain, and also of the smaller, yet important crops of castor bean and sweet potatoes. If of a little better quality, (and yet such as appeared to me quite poor,) it will pay two-fifths of the corn, and one-third of the oats and other smaller crops. Good land, say any yielding four barrels of corn, may be readily rented to tenants for one-half the crops made. The landlord keeps the buildings in repair, and the tenant the fences. For land of apparently equal productiveness in Prince George, not half the same nominal rent can be obtained -- nor can lands be rented out at all, as a regular and continuing system, to any who will so cultivate and manage them, as not to injure their value nearly as much as the amount of rent is worth. From all that has been heard on this subject, I cannot but believe that the lands of Northampton are well worth their present prices, under their present management: and, if from so slight a glance I may presume to offer the opinion, it seems equally clear, that be retaining what is really excellent in their system, avoiding some very general errors, and adopting means for additional improvement, which are quite available and yet almost totally neglected, that the same exercise of industry and economy so directed, would advance the net profits, and of course the prices of land, to the double of the present estimates.

It is admitted that there are reasons why the Northampton lands should be worth more in proportion to their average and continued returns in the acre, than most other lands. Such reasons are presented in the almost entire absence of all waste and worthless spots, whether in ravines or hill-sides, or for want of drainage -- great ease of tillage, caused by the soil being level, dry, and light, and by its being kept always clean by annual cropping. But though these are important causes of value, they are not greater than the different advantages which other lands east of the Chesapeake possess, and which, notwithstanding, are at prices very far inferior. The cheapness and profit of marling on many poor soils, and their after fitness for wheat and clover husbandry, and the natural fertility of the best soils, seem to be at least a fair compensation for the want of other advantages peculiar to the Eastern Shore. If then the latter lands are held at fair prices, as there seems no ground to doubt, the good or improvable lands west of the bay are just as much below fair prices, as they are below the usual prices in Northampton. Why this remarkable difference should exist, is an interesting subject for inquiry, and the results would serve to throw much light on the causes of the general decline and low state of the prices and profits of landed property in Virginia. From the slight view which I have been able to take, it appears that the principal cause of the remarkable difference in the prices of lands on the Eastern Shore and in the balance if lower Virginia, is found in the difference of the modes of thinking and acting as to continued residence, and emigration. It may be said truly that the people of the Eastern Shore only, of all the inhabitants of Virginia, as a community, feel that they are at home -- that they and their children are to live and die where they were born, and have to make the best of their situation. Compared with this state of things, the population of the balance of Virginia may be considered as in a state of transition -- having future migration in prospect, either for themselves or for their children. If only one-third of the community are operated on directly by such considerations, they are enough to bring all the lands of the country to the prices and condition of their own. With so much land always offered for sale, and at almost any sacrifice, the prices of all must necessarily and continually decline. The formerly contented and industrious and successful improver of his farm, finds that it has sunk in price more than his expense incurred for its improvement and that he might have bought at a lower price the lands about to be deserted by his neighbors. Hence grows discord
[illegible] to all permanent and valuable improvements -- general and increasing discontent with their homes -- and next the willingness, and finally the expectation, of following to the west the more enterprising, or more greedy, who had gone before them. The long continued prevalence of such opinions and habits are alone enough to ruin any country: and the mere absence of this curse seems enough to maintain the superior thrift and prosperity of the county of Northampton. The opposite conditions of the two communities may be compared to the different operations of the institution of marriage when indissoluble except by death, and where the law offers and invites divorce at will. In the former state, the parties are compelled to make the best of their union, and in the latter they would as certainly make the worst of it.

From what I could gather of the opinions of farmers of this county, it was inferred that the land was naturally, as it still appears, of middle quality as to productiveness. I heard of no farm, or even a field, which was supposed by its owner as having in its best and original state, to have produced more than 30 bushels of corn to the acre -- which is certainly a very moderate crop on land peculiarly adapted to that grain. Probably in some places near the creeks, there were spots of much greater natural fertility: but all such could not have amounted to any great extent. I saw no land, other than the highly manured lots about dwellings, which now would produce 30 bushels; and not much which by its present growth promised more than 20 bushels of corn. Still I may be deceived in this respect, not only for lack of judgement, but because the grain may be greater in proportion to the general bulk of the plants, than on other soils. This is asserted of their oat crops, which appeared to my eye generally meager, and very few spots were seen where the growth was very luxuriant. Yet it is affirmed that their ordinary round stacks will yield not much short of 200 bushels -- and if of wheat, and elsewhere, they would hardly exceed 50 bushels.

The land was formerly covered with a heavy growth of excellent timber -- oaks of different kinds, hickory, &c. as well as of pine. But almost nothing is now left but pines, and those of late growth, and of course very worthless both for fuel and timber. This remaining cover of the land not brought under cultivation, gives it an appearance of having possessed but little fertility, as we involuntarily associated an unmixed growth of pines with the idea of worn out land, or a bad natural soil. But though such growth is probably found here on better soil than it would indicate elsewhere, the general if not universal disposition of this land to throw up pines is enough to prove that it is no where calcareous, and that it is much wanting in that essential quality of soil. On the other hand, the rare occurrence of land naturally very poor, and the general and remarkable durability of all, would seem to forbid the conclusion that much of the soil was of such acid quality as lands favorable to pines generally possess. There can however be no doubt but that an addition of calcareous earth is every where wanting, and on every field would give increased productiveness and value. Very little use has been yet made of this all-important means for improvement. There are no beds of fossil shells, or rather they have dip too deep to be reached by any digging yet tried -- and some few wells have been sunk to the depth of 40 feet. These beds disappear on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, by sinking gradually as we approach the south, (as stated in Dr. Ducatel's geological report,) and it may be supposed that they underlie the counties of Accomac and Northampton, thought at a still increasing depth. But though thus deprived of easy access to this the most cheap and valuable form of calcareous manure, the quantity of shell fish would furnish lime in abundance -- and there are many oyster shoals, naked at low tide, where immense quantities of shelly matter might be cheaply obtained. This if crushed would be better than if burned, as there is much putrescent matter which is destroyed by fire. The little use which has been made of quicklime (not extending beyond a few experiments) has not produced results which encouraged the repetition -- and hence has arisen the opinion that prevails unfavorable to the application of calcareous matter in general. My observations did not reach farther north than about the middle of the country -- but I heard that some gentlemen nearer to Accomac still persevered in using lime. It is not at all surprising that quick or caustic lime should be even hurtful to these lands, however much they may need mild calcareous earth. From the dry and sandy nature of the soil, and the continued tillage to which it is subjected, there can never long remain any inert or insoluble vegetable matter; and on all the vegetable matter in the soil, fit to feed plants, or rapidly becoming so, the caustic and burning action of quicklime is decidedly injurious, by decomposing and dissipating such matters. Thus the early destructive power of the lime, applied in its quick state, has here apparently overbalanced the more slow and permanent benefits which it afterwards produces as mild calcareous earth. This is one of the numerous cases in which it afterwards produces as mild calcareous earth. This is one of the numerous cases in which a want of the knowledge of the mode of operation, causes even facts to lead to false conclusions, instead of teaching truth, as they would do, if properly understood. It is of great importance to this country that a proper estimate should be made of the value of calcareous and marine alimentary manures, as there are great facilities for obtaining both, as well as great need of them on most of the soils.

Next to corn and oats the castor bean, and seed potatoes are the most important articles of culture in Northampton. There are seven oil presses in and near the little village of Eastville, and perhaps more than twice as many in the whole county. New ones are now erecting. One is to be worked by steam, for which the machinery is provided and the necessary fixtures are now constructing. This seems a singular, and I fear will prove an unprofitable application of steam power. The oil cake, or "beam pomace" as it is called, is highly valuable as rich and sure manure. It sells readily at 25 cents the bushel at the oil factories. Its effects are very great, as may be inferred from the price, but they seldom last beyond one crop, unless heavily and wastefully applied.

There is much difference of opinion as to the value of castor bean as a crop, and its effects on the soil, even among those who have most experience of this new kind of culture. One practical and judicious farmer, who is considered very successful in his business, and who had formerly obtained unusually heavy products of castor bean,
told me that he would not continue its culture for the highest price ever known. His principal objection was to its supposed exhausting quality. Others think it not more exhausting than corn -- but it requires rich land, and cannot be continued on the same, without an immediate and considerable decline in product. But though a second crop of castor bean will not do well on the same land, if immediately succeeding the first, corn will produce as well, and some think better, than on the same land if not preceded by the bean. The management of this crop is very troublesome, when the time arrives to cut the ripened clusters. If not cut immediately the outer coverings open and waste the seed -- and indeed there is no avoiding great waste in this way. The clusters ripen unsuccessively, and ten or twelve times it is necessary to cut over the field, before frost steps the labor by preventing the later beans' maturing. Some persons, who do not consider the crop as particularly exhausting to the soil, are not satisfied that they have gained by this partial departure from their old and general rotation of corn and oats. The castor bean has not been made a part of any regular plan of rotation.

The crop of sweet potatoes is here an important object, not only on account of the soil being very favorable to the growth, but because of the facility for shipping the crop to the northern cities, where good prices are always sure.

The business of grazing livestock is very limited, both in extent and in profit. There are no standing pastures of arable land, and of course, the fields cannot be grazed until after the oats have been reaped and removed. Before that time, the cattle have very scant fare in the woods, and on the firmer marshes which border parts of the sea side. But few give any land to artificial grasses, The soil certainly cannot be naturally favorable to clover: yet it is said that fine lots of this grass are made by the few who give the manure and preparation necessary for the purpose. But it may be said in general, that so far as green food is considered, the cattle have a feast from the middle of July until frost, and a famine the balance of the year. Of course, dairy products in general are very poor. Those who have no marsh pasture, or other waste land fit for grazing, and who take good care of their stock, rely entirely on their grain and offal of the corn and oat crop, not only in winter and spring, but through half the summer.

In the foregoing statements of the general results of the system of culture here practiced, I have chosen to rely more on general concurrent opinion, than on particular facts; because of the great liability of a stranger to draw false inferences from the few facts to which his observations must necessarily be limited. Nevertheless, it may be useful to add some few of even partial and defective observations of facts, which maintain the general views already presented.

When first reaching the shore, it was not so much my object to seek for uncommon though valuable improvements in farming, and the use of means not generally used or accessible, as it was to learn what was the general practice, and the good and profitable practices which might be generally adopted. My inquiries to this end led me first to the farm of Mr. James Goffigon, who has cultivated with success and profit, for more than thirty years, a farm having no facilities for improvement, except what its soil yields. It is on, and eastward of the ridge, midway between the waters of the bay and the ocean, and not touching either. The tillage has been throughout on the regular corn and oat rotation, with grazing after the oat harvest. The horses, (when not at work,) and the few cattle necessary to be kept abut the house, and the whole stock of hogs, are kept in a space of two or three acres, and are supported almost entirely on grain, and the dry offal of the previous year's crop, until after the oat harvest. The cattle which are not wanting are turned out in the spring, and go to the marsh land on the sea side. The whole stock, being kept at such disadvantage, is necessarily small, in comparison to the extent of arable land; and they live in great plenty on the pasture after the oat crop, and are unable to keep down, or destroy the succession of the general cover of the Magothy Bay bean. Much manure is made in this very long period of penning stock -- is made necessarily, it may be said, when litter is given, as is done here, from the pine woods, as well as the offal of the crops. But Mr. G. does not speak favorably of the effect of his manure -- and indeed the summer penning on fermenting litter, would seem likely to be wasteful of the fertilizing principles of the manure, and injurious to the health of the cattle. No other means of improvement, worth counting, have been used: yet the farm has not diminished in product materially, if at all, since Mr. G. has known it, and according to the report of others, is still one of the most productive in the county. But though the farm lies in part on the "ridge," and consists partly of the worst kind of soil in the county, the greater part was of the best natural soil in the interior. The field now in oats is the most distant from the homestead, and a large part of it has never received any aid from manure. Mr. G. supposed that this part would now make 20 bushels of corn and in its original and most fertile state, might have brought 30 bushels. He rents out the greater part of his land, and the poorest, for two-fifths of the corn, and one-third of the oats, castor bean, and potatoes.

Mr. G. disclaims all pretensions to the character of a good farmer, and attributes all his success to steady attention to his business. He certainly has been an excellent manager of his means: and his undoubted and long continued success, taken in connexion with the total absence of all uncommon, or foreign means for improvement, and his continued adherence to the Eastern Shore rotation serve to place in a strong point of view, the peculiar and durable good qualities of the soil, and the profit of the rotation in general.

The smaller farm of Mr. Isaac Smith, on the sea side, furnishes an example equally striking, of the ease and profit of increasing the products of an impoverished soil, by using proper means, and such means only as may be availed of by all. Mr. S. took possession of this farm in 1819. The product has been gradually increased, on the same surface, until it is now doubled. Being on the seaside, and having some firm salt marsh for pasture he has rigidly secured his fields from being grazed at any time, and thus has regularly returned to the soil all of the improving crop of Magothy Bay bean, and secured its regular return as a thick cover of the fields. In addition to this, and to the use of the manure furnished by the stock and offal
of the grain crops, Mr. S. formerly had the benefit of the pomace of castor beans which he bought to make oil for sale. But that part of his business was never extensive, and he has for some years ceased to make any oil, except from his own crop of beans, raised on the same farm. The use of this manure was not properly understood when he at first might have profited by it, and indeed, it was scarcely used at all, or thought to be worth using, except to remove an offensive nuisance. It was thrown out of the factories in bulks, and left to rot and waste -- and was used as manure most injudiciously and to great loss. It is now saved under shelter, and applied in very small quantities. Mr. S. thinks that the whole amount of this manure which he used, that was not derived from his own fields, could not have exceeded 1500 bushels of the pomace properly applied. This I mention because it is the only foreign substance which has been used to restore the lost productiveness of the farm -- and this is certainly more than counterbalanced by the oil which is every year produced on and sold from the farm. It would seem then, that whatever Mr. S. has done to improve an exhausted farm, may be done any where, by the means furnished by the land itself, and under the corn and oat rotation, provided grazing is prohibited, and due attention paid to the preservation of manures.

Mr. S. thinks that cotton seed must contain at least as much of fertilizing matter, as an equal bulk of bean pomace -- and probably much more, as the former have lost none of their oil, and the castor beans lose all that can possibly be expressed by the most powerful machinery. But the great difficulty with cotton seed, is to apply them as manure without destroying the oil which constitutes their value. Violent fermentation, to which they are commonly exposed, must produce a great chemical change, and particularly on so putrescent a substance as oil. The manure is still rich, but perhaps half its amount and value has been wasted. If applied before fermenting, the seeds sprout, and in the process of germination, the oil is certainly changed to a far less valuable substance. Mr. Smith has tried steaming his cotton seed -- and this seems not only reasonable as a means of preserving their whole value as manure, but his experiment of the effect fully confirms the supposition. I saw where the steamed seed had been applied to corn, by throwing a single handful into each place where the corn was planted, and the growth was at least double in luxuriance and in promised product. This is a valuable improvement for other parts of the country where cotton is a large crop. Steaming of seed on a large scale might be done with very little trouble or expense, the object being merely to destroy the germinating power of the seed by heat.

The valuable farm of Mr. W. L. Eyre, exhibits a high state of improvement, and of productiveness that is rare in this county -- and which he has principally produced himself, and within the few years which he has been in possession. The land, however, though much impoverished, was originally among the best, which of course gave the greater facility to profit, by the application of putrescent manures. Mr. E. has also abundant means to use calcareous and marine manures, and has availed of them to some extent, but not so much as might have been expected. It is unnecessary to speak more at length on this head, as I can refer to a communication from Mr. E., at page 731, Vol. I. of the Farmers' Register. The old oyster shoals which are there described, are found in various places on both sides of the county. They would not only supply calcareous manure, but other kinds in the salt, the mud, and the remains of putrescent vegetable, and animal matters. Another excellent use might be made of this as a material for compost heaps, in which should be placed in layers the fish which may be here caught in great abundance, and at little cost. The calcareous matter would receive, and preserve for use as manure, the products of animal decomposition, and by the chemical action prevent all waste: and it seems probably also, that by the action of the animal products on the shells, (as they certainly combine chemically,) that the shells would be made more friable, and easily reduced, when put on the land. Mr. Eyre now has fish in compost beds of earth and vegetable substances: but these substances are very inferior to calcareous matter for the purpose of absorbing and retaining the products of animal decomposition. When fish are applied directly and without preparation as manure, it is the most wasteful of all the modes in which they are used. If properly used, the abundance and cheapness of this material for manure would make it of immense value to many farmers in Northampton.

It has been already stated that the renting of land is extensively practiced in this county -- and it is still more general in Accomac, where the more minute divisions of land, (for Virginia,) the comparative scarcity of slave labor, and other existing circumstances, offer interesting subjects for inquiry and remark, which it is highly desirable should be presented to the public, by some of those who have the means. Large land-holders may, if it is desired, derive their entire income, with ease and with sufficient profit, from tenants. Though the terms of rent are only from year to year, changes are not frequent. Mr. John Eyre, of Northampton, has long had a large proportion of his lands in both these counties, in the hands of tenants. He told me that he had never denied a continuation of the possession to but one person. One held the same farm for 35 years, paying half the product as rent, and in that time increased the landlord's share from less than 40 barrels of corn, to more than 100. He did this in part by new clearings, and by using the means for manure which the location offered, and which the landlord aided in, and though not in his obligation, to his own profit as well as his tenant's. Another of his farms was held 28 years by one tenant, who then died, and was succeeded in the possession by his son. Such cases would seem to show that there is more attachment to rented land on the Eastern Shore, than is felt on our side of the Chesapeake for freehold inheritance on which the owners were born, and on which perhaps several generations of their ancestors were buried.

My conclusions as to the soil and culture of Northampton, are very different from the opinions which prevail among most of those who are equally strangers to them. It is not uncommon to hear the country spoken of as but little better than a mere sand bank, and the tillage as miserable as the soil. These of course are exaggerated expressions, and would be so admitted by those who
use them to express the contempt they really feel. It is possible that I may have erred as much on the other extreme. But my opinions are founded on reports of profits and prices, and of long continued products, and not upon the appearance of the land, or the growing crops, and still less upon any excellence of the implements or processes of tillage. The great merit seems to be, that though neither of these are such as would command admiration, or even attract notice, that all the parts are well suited to each other. If I had merely judged of the state of agriculture by what was presented to my view, and without knowing any thing else, I should have certainly formed a very unfavorable opinion of the soil, the rotation, and the profits and prospects of the cultivation.

A. GLEANER.

July 17th, 1835.