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We have plenty of wild plums; some of them are quite good, and on account of the tough- 
ness of their skin not so liable to be stung by the curculio as the tame varieties. The hardier 
varieties or the tame plums grow finely, but the curculio stings all the fruit. 
Wild black and choke cherries are plenty, but the fine cultivated kinds are mostly failures. 
The common Morello grows well and bears sparsely. The Early Richmond grows well, but 
so far as my observation extends does not bear very profusely. 
The Isabella grape with proper care, will ripen about one year in three. One man tells 
me that by severe cutting back he succeeds in ripening them nearly every season. The 
Hartford Prolific, Concord, Diana, Northern Museadine, Delaware and some others do well. 
They should be laid down and covered in the fall with an inch or two of earth, to guard 
against injury to the fruit buds. I left a vine each of Hartford Prolific and Clinton on the 
trellis the past winter, and both are now throwing out fruit spurs, though the mercury at one 
time sunk 32 degrees below zero. 
Doolittle Black Cap, Purple Cane, Yellow Cap, and Cincinnati Red raspberries are all 
hardy and produce good crops. Brinckle’s Orange will not succeed without protection. 
Wilson’s, Russell’s Prolific, Agriculturist, and some other varieties of strawberries do well. 
It is better to cover in the winter, as the frost throws out the roots. The Triomphe de Gand 
is worthless here, being unproductive. Currants, gooseberries and tomatoes are abundant. 
WHEAT-GROWING IN THE NORTHWEST. 
A casual correspondent in Iowa, referring to the correspondence between 
Congressman Donelly and the Commissioner of Agriculture, in the monthly 
report for June, questions the conclusion of the congressman that the diminished 
yield of wheat in his State ‘is to be attributed to a degeneracy in the vitality 
of the seed more than exhaustion of fertility of the soil.’ The following 
extracts from his letter are made: 
One thing is very certain, that nothing will impoverish the richest soil and the most indus- 
trious people more certainly than devoting all their energies to the production of asingle crop, 
and sending that crop away to distant markets for sale and consumption. So far from encour- 
aging this tendency in any people, it ought to be earnestly discouraged. If the people of 
Minnesota can find no other profitable crop to plant in their soil, ‘‘ for eighteen years in suc- 
cession,” no spirit of prophecy is required to foretell what their fate will be in a very short 
space of time, comparatively. The only hope is in the intelligent, well-directed efforts of 
the people of Minnesota themselves. Rotation with other crops must be their first object. 
No soil that is at all worn can have justice done it by planting the same crop two years in 
succession. It must be rested with some other.crop—with grass, or with fallow. Unques- 
tionably, good seed is a requisite, but only one of many quite as imperatively necessary. 
We have skinned and skinned our lands, western and southern fashion, with the same result. 
Now, living in an old settled county, with railways and other conveniences bringing us 
close to the large markets, and with prices of grain that will compensate for taking intelli- 
gent pains to do differently, we must either do differently, or give up this branch of agricul- 
ture to newer virgin soils farther west, or elsewhere. We are all busily at work now at the 
former, and so far find our efforts well paid. Nothing is more certain than that it is far better 
to till but 20, or even 10 acres of land, and do it right, than to skin over 100 year after year 
in the old style. 
He thus illustrates the value of a proper seed distribution : 
About four years ago the,superscription was lost on a package of one pound ef Tappa- 
hannock wheat that was passing through our post office. After knocking about the ottice 
for some time, the postmaster gave it to a wide-awake farmer of this county. At first he 
paid but little attention to it, and sowed it broadcast, in the usual way, on a piece of land 
he had prepared for it. he product of that pound was 20 pounds of most beautiful 
grain. Though he had never raised wheat to any extent, he liked its looks so well that he 
bought a drill expressly to plant it the next year. ‘The details of his cultivation are not at 
hand, but this year, from that small beginning, he will have upwards of 1,000 bushels of as 
choice wheat as ever was seen, from 40 acres of Jand. He hus just shown a sample, which 
is better, if possible, than the original. When it is threshed we will give its weight per 
bushel, and send a sample to the department, if desired. I have advised him to advertise 
and scatter this seed widely, and not sell any of it to the mills, and that he had better not 
sow the same seed on the same land for a succession of years. He is very confident, how- 
ever, that by his division of fields and rotating to different parts of his farm, he can main- 
tain the quality, if not gain in it, for an indefinite number of years. The seed is now per- 
fectly pure, though in 40 acres he found 16 heads of rye, which he carefully cut out. If 
this had not been done, it would have injured his seed very much for future use. Too great 
