CROPS. 243 



deemed pure lunacy, it is apparent that a large increase of 

 product may be confidently looked for. One would not be sur 

 prised at a great extension of spade husbandry, since I have been 

 over a field, on one farm, of one hundred and fifty acres, thoroughly 

 trenched to the depth of eighteen inches by the spade, and where 

 the growing crops presented a promising appearance. This was 

 done in a place where, and at a time when, labor was most abun 

 dant ; the undertaking was a substantial benefaction to the poor : 

 and the cost was not more than it would have been by brute 

 labor. 



I might speak of the diseases and accidents to which this 

 crop is liable ; but this would be to compose a treatise rather than 

 a notice, and my readers will not expect it. One experiment * 

 made in the destruction of slugs upon wheat, by the application 

 of salt, is highly important. Where slugs have appeared on the 

 wheat, a farmer in Norfolk has been in the habit of sowing one 

 hundred weight of salt to the acre, which, without injury to the 

 wheat, has proved effectual to their destruction. In one case, where 

 the operation of sowing was in progress, on discovering slugs, he 

 sowed as above, and in two days they wholly disappeared. An 

 application of lime to slugs proved harmless.* I have known, 

 in New England, the application of salt mixed with manure 

 prove effectual for the destruction of wire-worms, in a cornfield. 

 Calculations respecting the amount of injury often done to the 

 wheat crops by the wire-worm, rate it at more than 60,000 per 

 year. Indeed, it may be much more than that, and is scarcely a 

 subject of calculation. Many insects affecting the grain crops 

 are considered as wire-worms, which belong to a different tribe 

 of insects ; and there are insects which prey upon other insects, 

 and thus check their destructive ravages. The reflections of 

 Mr. Curtis, an enlightened naturalist, on this subject, are so striking, 

 that I know I shall gratify my readers by their quotation. 



&quot; Let us now pause for a moment, and reflect upon the ex 

 traordinary fact, that our corn, the staff of life, is placed in the 

 power of this pygmy race ; and that, destined as man is to earn 

 his bread by the sweat of his brow, yet famine, accompanied by 

 its concomitants, disease and death, may overtake him, (notwith 

 standing his industry, and let his prospects be ever so promising,) 



* Almack s Report of the Agriculture of Norfolk. 



