EHE EMIGRANT'S HAND-BOOK. 887 



It may be remarked, too, that the crops on the continent 

 are far more precarious than those of the United States; 

 and hence the continental Governments find it necessary, 

 and are careful to reserve large granaries, to guard 

 against such a misfortune as a failure of the usual har- 

 vest. Exportation thence is also forbidden in certain 

 cases, but in the United States no such prohibition exists. 



While, therefore, we may look with confidence to ad- 

 vantages in our favor in the British market, we must re- 

 member that we have to compete against almost unpaid 

 labor, and cannot expect a great profit on our culture, 

 unless the very cheapest mode of production is studied. 

 Labor (as we have before remarked,) must doubtless fall 

 very considerably in agricultural districts, or else farmers 

 and planters cannot hire. 



TO PREVENT SMUT IN WHEAT. 



On the 2nd of April, 1742, I prepared, says a sensible 

 writer, eight bushels of wheat for seed, as follows : A 

 brine was made strong enough to bear up an egg, and in 

 quantity sufficient to wash a bushel at once. The wheat 

 was put into th" ine, and everything that would swim 

 skimmed ofT and thrown away. It was then taken out, 

 and a sufficient quantity of lime sifted on to it to make it 

 dry. It was allowed to remain in this state in a box until 

 the 6th, by which time some of it had begun to sprout, 

 when it was sown. On the night of the 6th it began to 

 rain, and continued to rain all the next day, and the birds 

 were so thick upon the wheat that 1 feared I should bft 

 obliged to sow it over ; consequently I dragged it in while 

 it was raining on the 7th. The ground was very wet in 

 consequence of the water that had fallen since the wheat 

 was sown, and some of my neighbors prophesied that I 

 would have a large crop of smut, saying that smut was 



