354 



Avarice. — Fly-proof Wheat. 



Vol. IV. 



old-fashioned mode of cropping-, and the ef- 

 fect has been to increase the value of the 

 land in three years Jive hundred per cent. 

 The Cabinet is taken, and read with much 

 attention hy some of the farmers in this 

 neighbourhood, and any thinor that may be 

 found in its pages against the use of lime, 

 emanating from practical farmers in the 

 neighbourhood of Philadelphia, would un- 

 questionably have much weight with the 

 farmers here; but, judging from what I 

 saw when travelling through a part of Penn- 

 sylvania a few years ago, I am induced to 

 think that the use of lime is not held in as 

 high estimation in Bucks county (Morrisville 

 I think is in Bucks county) as it is in some 

 of the neighbouring counties. I recollect 

 when travelling through a part of Philadel- 

 phia county, with a farmer of that county 

 who had used lime to a great extent upon 

 his farm — and I think I never saw a farm 

 more highly improved ; but, to my utter 

 astonishment, in the course of our ride 

 through this highly cultivated region, we 

 suddenly came upon an old sedge field! how 

 is this, said I, how came one of my country- 

 men here 1 " Oh," said my fellow traveller, 

 " don't be alarmed, we are in Buclcs county 

 now, we passed the line about half a mile 

 back." 



An Old Field Marylander. 

 April 30, 1840. 



Avarice. 



The reader may remember the dreadful 

 famine which I left hanging over Egypt. 

 Emin, on this occasion, was one of the pro- 

 vident, for during the years of plenty he 

 had laid by for those of want; but, like the 

 ant, he cared not to share his savings with 

 the idle; and although his granaries groaned 

 under their loads of grain, he saw, unmoved, 

 the thousands of wretches who every day 

 perished with hunger under their very walls ; 

 and when the bodies of the sufferers choked 

 up the very entrances to his storehouses, he 

 still refused to unbar their surly gates, until 

 the grain had reached the exorbitant price 

 fixed by his avarice. This it at last attained ; 

 and now, exulting at the thoughts of the 

 millions he should make in a few hours, 

 Emin took his keys and opened his vaults! 

 But oh, horror ! oh dismay ! instead of the 

 mountains of golden wheat he had accumu- 

 lated, he only beheld heaps of nauseous rot- 

 tenness! an avenging worm had penetrated 

 into the abodes fortified against famished 

 man ! a grub had fattened upon the food 

 withheld from the starving wretch ! and 

 while the clamour of despair resounded 

 without, a loathsome insect within had in 

 silence achieved the work of justice; it had 



wrought Emin's punishment in darkness, 

 while his crimes shone in tbe light of heaven ! 

 At the dire spectacle, he uttered not a word 

 — he only for a few moments contemplated 

 the infected mass with the fixed eye of des- 

 pair, then fell flat on his face upon the putrid 

 heap — God had smitten him I On raising his 

 prostrate body, life had fled, and like his 

 corn, his frame was become a mass of cor- 

 ruption. Memoirs of a Greek. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Fly-proof Wheat. 



Sir, — At page 60 of the Cabinet for Sep- 

 tember last, there is a very particular ac- 

 count of a crop of Mediterranean wheat, 

 which escaped the ravages of the fly, and 

 yielded at harvest forty-one bushels per 

 acre, millers' weight. It was found to be a 

 hardier winter plant than the red chaff" beard- 

 ed wheat which grew by its side, of more 

 rapid growth, and was harvested a week 

 earlier. 



Now, on a late visit to Chester county, 

 where the ravages of the fly are tremendous 

 the present year, I saw many instances of 

 the most perfect security exhibited in this 

 peculiar species of wheat, although it had 

 been sown in the same fields, and by the 

 side of the other varieties common to the 

 country, which have been totally destroyed 

 by this scourge. I also noticed that the 

 Mediterranean wheat is uniformly more early 

 in coming into ear, and promises a harvest 

 ten days earlier than any other wheat crop in 

 the country ; and in no instance did I wit- 

 ness the diff"erence greater or more strikingly 

 defined, than in a field of wheat belonging 

 to Dr. Darlington, of West Chester, where 

 a portion only is of the Mediterranean spe- 

 cies, the remainder being of another variety. 

 Would Dr. Darlington oblige us by endors- 

 ino- the truth of this statement; and would 

 others who have had experience of the value 

 of this fly-proof wheat, add their testimony 

 thereunto] R. W. 



Juno 4, 1840. 



And will our correspondent, J. Jenkins, 

 of West Whiteland, oblige us with an ac- 

 count of his wheat crop of the present season ; 

 it was his intention to seed entirely with 

 the Mediterranean species — did he do so 1 — 

 Editor. 



It is one of the first maxims in farming to 

 beo-in by removing all weeds, before any at- 

 tempts are made to mond the soil ; otherwise, 

 manure, instead of being advantageous, only 

 serves to multiply those spongy plants which 

 suck all nourishment from the crop. 



