No. 12. 



Ploughs and Plovghing. — Blight. 



373 



which is most deserving the public appro- 

 bation ; and thus too, would be given ^n 

 opportunity to show the vast difference which 

 there is between good and bad ploughing- — 

 a business of more importance than almost 

 any one can imagine — for to this first of ope- 

 rations is to be attributed, I have no doubt, 

 much of the uncertainty and discrepancy 

 ■which we observe in the accounts of the 

 management of crops, even from the com- 

 mencement of their cultivation. I dare say 

 we have good ploughmen among us, but 1 

 have an idea that in this operation we are 

 more deficient than in any other of our field 

 labours ; and should the committee thinlc 

 proper to offer a premium for the best plough- 

 ing, I would suggest the propriety of con- 

 fining it to the quality, and not to the quunlily, 

 of work completed within a given time. In 

 other countries it may be well to encourage 

 the quick step, but here, I am mistaken if 

 almost all our labours in the field are not too 

 hastily performed, little regard being paid to 

 the manner, if it be only done quickly ; but 

 in none of our operations is such haste to be 

 deprecated as in that of ploughing — the 

 foundation of all good and all bad husbandry. 

 I am led to the subject at this time by see- 

 ing in the papers that the Philadelphia Agri- 

 cultural Society, or rather a committee ap- 

 pointed by them, intend to report on the 

 merits of Prouty's plough, which has, I be- 

 lieve, been tried and approved by them. 

 Now, there is a plough known by the name 

 of Ruggles, and sold at the Store No. 398 

 in Market Street, Philadelphia, which is so 

 like the one known as Prouty's, an<l is spoken 

 of so highly by the maker and vender, that 

 I think it would be well if their merits could 

 be tested, side by side, by actual experiment, 

 that so a correct estimate might be formed, 

 under the sanction of the Agricultural So- 

 ciety, for the satisfaction of the agricultural 

 community. I observe that the peculiar 

 feature of both these ploughs is precisely 

 the same — known by the term centre draft; 

 and it would be curious to ascertain whether 

 the patent right of one has not been infringed 

 by the other. I understand the inventors of 

 both desire nothing more than a fair oppor- 

 tunity to judge by experiment the real merits 

 of their inventions. Other ploughs there are, 

 claiming the title of the best, and the com- 

 mittee would have it in their power to add 

 much to the interest of the day of exhibition, 

 •and confer an obligation on their numerous 

 agricultural friends, by granting premiums 

 for ploughs and ploughing. J. E. C. 



There is something within us, when we 

 hear the truth, that says yes to it, however 

 disagreeable it might be. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Blight. 



Sir, — Tn the last number of the Cabinet, 

 article " Rust or black Blight in Wheat," it 

 is said, " where is the farmer or shepherd 

 who does not know that flesh-flies will not 

 deposit their eggs on a healthy part of a 

 sheep, or if they do, that they will not pro- 

 duce maggots." Now, we may observe an 

 exemplification of this law of nature in those 

 linden trees in Arch Street, Philadelphia, 

 (so lately preyed upon by millions of cater- 

 pillars, but which have so suddenly recovered 

 their foliage, the vermin having been cleared 

 away by a genial shower and change of 

 temperature ;) there we find the white moths * 

 busily depositing their eggs in the bark of 

 those trees that are diseased, but not in the 

 healthy ones. And yet, it does not follow 

 that these individual trees will again be in- 

 fected the next year with the same disease, 

 and again be covered with caterpillars ; else 

 they ought always to be so affected, for there 

 are the seeds of the animaculaj already de- 

 posited — it depends, however, on the state 

 of the atmosphere the next year, whether 

 they will then be brought into existence; 

 and I cannot but point to those trees of the 

 same description growing in Chesnut Street, 

 opposite the State House, which I observed, 

 the last time I visited the city, to be free 

 from blight, although they suffered so much 

 the last year by this disease ; their present 

 state of security has been gained, I have no 

 doubt, by the change of soil about their roots, 

 which manuring was given them last year, 

 and by which they have been so strengthen- 

 ed as to be enabled to throw off the atmo- 

 spherical attack, which prostrated those in 

 Arch Street. 



In the number of the Cabinet for May, 

 article Blight, there is a passage so illus- 

 trative of this view of the subject, that I 

 must quote it : I consider the theory there 

 advocated, althouffh before new to me, true 

 to the spirit, simplifying and rendering this 

 process of nature so clearly evident, that it 

 demands our very serious attention and ex- 

 amination : it would indeed appear that the 

 effect has been mistaken for the cause. Speak- 

 ing of the blight in wheat, the author says — 

 " the disease, originally caused by atmo- 

 spheric affection, depends entirely on the 

 subsequent state of the weather for its in- 

 crease, decrease, or annihilation ; nor are the 

 seeds of the supposed parasite of the small- 

 est future consequence, since we invariably 

 find that, whether the vegetation of the suc- 

 ceeding year shall be blighted or not, depends 



* Are we quite sure that these white moths were 

 produced by the caterpillars? who saw these caterpil- 

 lars ia their cry salts state ? J. D. 



