44 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



time when the indigenous wheat begins to be most 

 susceptible to the disease. Several experiments of this 

 sort have already been attended with good success. 

 With the maize-crop this method would not be of such 

 advantage, for the reason that seed from the more 

 northern regions developes more rapidly indeed, but 

 produces smaller and lighter grain. 



This summer the wheat harvest in Jersey turned out 

 very moderately. There had been too little rain in the 

 fall, and the winter was too mild and open. The farmer 

 is well pleased, therefore, if his winter wheat, towards 

 the end of December or in January, is covered with 

 snow and thus protected against rain and frost, by 

 which (when snow fails) the tender, exposed sprouts 

 are killed or are pushed out of the freezing ground. 

 Here as in the other middle provinces almost no spring 

 wheat is sown, but that is not the case more to the 

 south and more to the north, as for example in Caro- 

 lina and in Massachusetts. Winter grain does not 

 thrive in the southern provinces, because of the warmth 

 of the autumn, the mildness of the winter, and the lack 

 of snow, which very seldom falls ; the young sprouts 

 therefore grow faster, and a frosty winter night often 

 kills off entirely the soft, exposed seed. What with ex- 

 treme cold and early winters, spring wheat also does 

 better in the colder provinces.* It is the custom here 

 to call a bushel of wheat 60 pd. English weight ; for 

 each pound more or less, a penny, Pensylvan. Current, 

 is added or subtracted in the price. The average price 



* People here and there on Long Island have begun to sow 

 spring wheat, since winter wheat has often failed on account 

 of the uneven winter temperature. 



