1857.] Close Breeding. 511 



or Euredo Foctida, might be of service. I have been a wheat grower 

 for thirty- six years. About thirty-five years ago, a friend, Jno S. 

 Carwell, Esq., of Newberry, gave to me the following recipe : 



" For every five bushels of wheat take one pound blue stone, dis- 

 solve it in as much water as will fully cover the wheat, place it in 

 the liquid in the evening, let it remain during the night, take it out, 

 and after draining a short time, sow." 



Enough ought to be thus prepared each evening for the next day's 

 sowing. I have tried this method for thirty-five years, and have 

 never found smut, except one year in a very small parcel, then I had 

 neglected the use of Blue Stone. It has not only prevented smut 

 but it has also destroyed cockle. I have for several years sowed one 

 hundred bushels of wheat each season, and hence my experience 

 may be implicitly relied upon. 



This little matter is given to your very excellent work, in the 

 hope that it may benefit your readers in the great grain growing 

 State of Ohio, where I have many friends and relatives. 



Yours truly, John Belton O'Neal. 



CLOSE BKEEDINa. 



There has long been a controversy among men on the subject of 

 close breeding, some contending that it is very injurious, others that 

 it is not seriously objectionable. By close breeding is meant, breed- 

 ing by animals of near affinity of blood. It is contended by the 

 objectors to close breeding, that fowls, sheep, hogs, and cattle that 

 are bred for a long series of years in the same flocks, without the 

 addition of any alien blood from other flocks or breeds, surely degen- 

 erate and become less useful. And this is given to account for the 

 unserviceable fowls, the gaunt hogs, the weakly sheep and scrawny 

 cattle that are so frequently found on old farms, and among old- 

 style farmers. Those who see no objections to close breeding cite 

 many examples of it to sustain their views, such as Flying Childers, 

 a horse of unrivaled beauty and speed, known to have been closely 

 bred ; the Darby Game fowl, bred at Knowley Park for several hun- 

 dred years without change from the blood of the original stock ; the 

 pair of wild geese brought by Col. Jaques, of Sommerville, Miss., 



