126 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 



ing with which we are so justly charged. In that happy con 

 dition of Connecticut agriculture in which every acre in this 

 State shall either support its cow or produce its equivalent in 

 value for animal or human food, successful root culture must 

 exercise an important part. 



SIXTEENTH DAY. FEB. 18, 1860. 



Hear what old Mr. LEVI BARTLETT, of New Hampshire, said 

 yesterday in opening his farmer-like lecture on the cultivation 

 of winter wheat in New England : " It may be asked why one 

 so conscious of oratorical defects, should attempt speaking at 

 all, especially in such a convocation as this. I can only answer 

 in the words of the wily old Roman, that I am a plain, blunt 

 man, who loves the cause ; and therefore am I come to speak, 

 but most of all to hear, in this assembly. And if forty years 

 of study of the principles of agriculture, and full twenty devoted 

 to practice, with an enthusiasm which time has not abated, 

 give me any claim on your attention, then I trust to your gi-n- 

 erosity to excuse the manner for the sake of the matter." Con 

 sidering that the matter was of an eminently practical charac 

 ter, and that friend Bartlett's quaint jokes kept the convention 

 in a roar, his apology was scarcely needed. 



Mr. Bartlett said that from his earliest recollection down to 

 1852, spring wheat was the only kind raised in New Hamp 

 shire. In fact, he never saw a field of winter wheat until he 

 was fifty years of age. Spring wheat had, in general, been 

 pretty successfully grown on all land that would produce corn, 

 until the appearance of the midge, some quarter of a century 

 ago. The ravages of this pernicious insect were so great, es 

 pecially on valley farms, that the culture of wheat was in great 

 part abandoned, so that a large part of our farmers, as well as 

 those of all other professions, depended upon Western and 

 Southern flour for their wh eaten bread ; and as there was 



