410 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



do this for at least many centuries, and perhaps thousands of years. The Chinese grow 

 no weeds, save and use everything that can possibly make manure, and apply it to the 

 land to the best advantage. Nothing is vrasted in that country. Very lew domestic 

 animals are kept, conscfjueutly they have to look to other sources for manure, and hu- 

 man excrement is mostly depended on as a fertilizer. We could learn some valua- 

 ble lessons from them in the preparation and application of m^inure. The i^rinciplo of 

 the earth-closets, now just coming into use in this country, has been in use there prob- 

 ablj' for centuries. 



Referring to bis personal observations abroad, Mr. Eichmoud tbougbt 

 tbat Belgium was the best-cultivated country in Europe. The land has 

 been tilled over a thousand years, its fertility maintained by resources 

 found at home. Its fields yield 50 bushels of wheat per acre, with other 

 crops in proportion. A great secret of the success is in the economy of 

 the manures. 



It is proposed to embrace iu as short a compass as possible statements 

 and experiments concerning some of the leading cereals, gTasses, &c., 

 distributed by the Department. Experiments of an earlier date than 

 the present year are not referred to. 



CEREALS. 



Among the varieties of grain introduced by the Department, several 

 have attained established reputations, and have steadily maintained, 

 without noticeable deterioration, the qualities which originally recom- 

 mended them. Where the value of a cereal to a section, or to the 

 country at large, is fully proved by experiments, and a.suflicient time 

 has elapsed to afford opportunity for seed-husbanding, it is left with 

 cultivators to maintain the purity and excellence of the variety by ap- 

 pliances which ought to be known to them, while the Department goes 

 forward in its purpose of instituting tests of still other improved kinds. 



During the year three varieties of barley, known as the Chevalier, 

 Saxoniau, and Probstier, have been distributed. Their merits have 

 been descanted upon in former reports, since they have been cultivated 

 and carefully experimented with for several years. There has been no 

 variation in the character of reports for the year. They may be con- 

 sidered as varieties well established. 



The Scotch rye distributed is also a variety well known and appre- 

 ciated, especially at the West. 



Established varieties of wheat are the Tappahannock, a Virginia win- 

 ter-wheat, distributed by the Department at intervals since 1862, and 

 the Arnautka, imported from Odessa, Eussia, in 1864, an early, hardy, 

 and prolific spring-wheat, distributed annually since that year. Con- 

 cerning the origin of the valuable native variety known as Tappahan- 

 nock, Mr. Thomas J. Edge, agricultural editor of the Philadelphia Age. 

 says that some time during May, 1854, Mr. Boughton, of Essex County, 

 Virginia, found in his field a bunch of wheat of such growth, as to at- 

 tract his attention. By marking it he was enabled to watch its growth 

 and progress. At harvest he found it to be a white wheat, at least 

 two weeks earlier than the surrounding red wheat. 



The Department, in 1868, introduced from England the Excelsior oat, 

 and from Sweden, in the same year, the White Schonen -or Beautiful 

 oat — varieties equaled by few and surpassed by none in the country, 

 in vigor, weight, and adaptability to different latitudes. Experiments 

 reported during the past year are no less favorable in regard to the 

 varieties of wheat and oats here indicated than heretofore ; and, indeed, 

 the increased profit and greater satisfaction incident to raising superior 



