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FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 11 



nipp. Y(it, in England, turnips are called "an 

 amellnrating crop.^' But well it niav, when the 

 whole is fed away on the ground io sheep, which 

 impart much more tsrtility than the turnip crop 

 consurant;. In iliis case it is the sheep that ameli- 

 orate, and not the tunips; the praise, therefore, i.s 

 Diisplared. 



The reasoninfr applicable to the opinion just ad- 

 vanced, i eliall leave to others who are fonder 

 than I am of wamiering tlirouirh the terra incog- 

 nitn of" causes and efi'ects, and shall content my- 

 self with assuring you that I have met with ex- 

 perienced [)laiiters and farmers from almost everj' 

 portion of" our state, whose observations confirm 

 my own. Should it ever happen that more well 

 authenticated facts can be adduced on the oppc- 

 pite side than on my own, I will cheerfully retract, 

 or rather change my opinion. 



My experiment v.'ith spring wheat was made 

 only witji one quart. It was drilled in March 

 last, in rows twelve inches apart, and on land 

 which I conjectured would produce four or five 

 barrels of corn to the acre, This wheat was 

 worked twice with the hand-hoe, and hand-wed 

 twice; the produce was onlv seven quarts and a 

 half a pint; the weight was not ascertained. 



As this variety of wheat bids fair to take a con- 

 ppicuous stand among the a<rricultural hobbies, of 

 which I verily believe we have more than ail the 

 other classes of society put together, because we 

 never will consult and co-operate as a class, it 

 may possibly be of some use to give you the expe- 

 rience of several men of the olden tin)e, like my- 

 eelf^ I present it, however, only for the benefit of 

 those, (now reduced to a number, comparatively 

 very small,) who deem retrospection quite as fi-uit- 

 ful a souce of instruction as that derived solely 

 from your " go ahead boys,''^ who scorn ever to 

 look back fc»r Emy thing but subjects of ridicule 

 and contempt. Our raemor\' tells us of trials 

 made many years ago, with what was then called 

 *' spring wheat.'''' I wdl not be positive as to dates, 

 but believe it was before or about the time when 

 the Hessians imported (as some of our wiseacres 

 thought,) the fly which has ever since borne that 

 odious name. Those trials lasted only a few 

 years, and were discontinued for two reasons: 1st, 

 becauBe the spring wheat yielded no more than the 

 winter wheat, if as much — and secondly, becKause 

 the Bowing of it interfered two much with our 

 Virginia fashion of taking all our farming opera- 

 tions, quite *' cool and easy. " Since that time 

 we have heard little or noihing about ^^ spring 

 wheat,'''' until certain keen-scented brethren of 

 ours — (I will not say where,) have discerned, that 

 we southerners were getting all agog lor this hob- 

 by to come to life again, Pray do not imagine 

 that I say this to discourage trials; for I myself 

 mean to take a short ride on it t ext spring — if the 

 per diem-charge be not too exorbitant beyond the 

 ordinary c^at of hobby-horsical rides. My state- 

 ment i8 made eolely to moderate exlravarrant 

 hopes, which, ifdisappointed, aiv/ays do more harm 

 than good, by discourauring further experiments. 

 I do it moreover, to excite your just indignation 

 against all agriculturists who fake advantage of 

 new and untried popular notions in husbandry, 

 !o extort from the ignorant and over saiio'uine 

 of our profession, double, triple, and quadruple 

 Ihe worth of the new article which they may have 

 for sale. Sbme extra price is allowable and just; 



but, when the demand rises, as it often does, to 

 several hundred percent beyond what any disin- 

 terested person would say was foil compensation, 

 it then assumes the character ol grinding extor- 

 tion; and, what airgravates the immortality of the 

 act, extortion from the over sanL'uine or grossly 

 ignorant, upon whom every just and honorable 

 man would utterly scorn to impose — even were Jiis 

 mortality so much of the " tit for tat" kind, as to 

 permit him to take advantage — if he could — of 

 those who were striving, with might and main, to 

 take advantage ol"him. This blood-sucking prac- 

 tice of" man upon man, IS worse than that of the 

 carnivorous brute beasts; for none of the same 

 species, in their wild state, and before they are 

 indoctrinated by their lord and master, man, will 

 ever eat each other. 



With regard to the spring wheat, at present 

 under trial, in various parts of our country, a very 

 remarkable circumstance occured to some with 

 which one of my brothers was making an experi- 

 ment. He drilled it in his garden last spring 

 twelve months; but it was so injured by the fly, 

 as not to produce a single head. It survived, howe- 

 ver, the succeeding fall and winter ; grew ofj' 

 very well this last spring; and produced, in the 

 past summer, as good a crop apparently, as it 

 would have done, had it been only of this year's 

 growth. I have a statement from our brother 

 member, Mr. John Taliaferro, (M. C.) of a 

 similar circumstance occurring to him in 1820, 

 with some imported Talavera wheat, which he 

 had sown as a sjiring wheat. This proves, I 

 think, that the chief ditt'erenc^' between winter 

 and spring wheat, as regards their capacity for re- 

 sisting the Hessian fly, is, that the first encounters 

 the enemy twice, the latter only once. It proves 

 also, that some wheats — like some kinds of rye 

 and oats — may, with nearly equal propriety be 

 called spring or winter grain, according to the 

 season when you sow them. I assert this from 

 a well recollected fact, that I once saw a good 

 crop made from what was then called the Isbel 

 forward wheat, sown in February; and also from 

 the fact that the Talavera wheat which at first cost 

 S5 a bushel, was generally sown as a winter 

 grain. Several farmers now living in this neigh- 

 borhood, I dare say. can yet testify how dear they 

 paid for their Talavera — whistle. 



Before I quit the subject of wheat, permit me 

 to give you some interesting information procur- 

 ed from Georgia, through the kindness of Dr. 

 Haynes — a memher of Congress from that state. 

 Mr. Moore, a friend of his in Warren county, had 

 a ff^vv grains of wheat, which he calls the early 

 yellow wheat, sent to him in 1829, by Mr. Wm. 

 H. Foote, of Fairfax, in this state. It was care- 

 fully planted on the 20th of November, in the 

 same year; was cut the following May, and pro- 

 duced half a bushel of clean wdieat, weighing 

 seventy pounds to the bushel. From this small 

 betjining, it has spread ver}^ generally in that part 

 of Georgia, under the name ol" Moore's wheat; has 

 never weighed less than seventy pounds to the 

 bushel ; and in one instance, something over. 

 He names several farmers who have pronounced 

 it the best wdieat they ever saw, and among them 

 a Mr. Latimer, who has ground in his mill a great 

 quantity of" it, and confirms their opinion. Mr. 

 Moore adds, that it has a strong, hard straw — 

 ripens early, and ia not bo liable ae other wheats 



