664 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



No. 11 



The best method ami criterion is a medium, 

 namely, the temperature should be, if possible, 

 regular from forty lO filty-five deg. ; the soil about 

 the plant shouid be ke[)t moderately moist, too 

 much water saturates the earth in pots and j^ener- 

 ally rots the roots; if plants are kept, too dry, the 

 roots contract and naturally become weak, and are 

 incapable afterwards of extractin<? whatever nutri- 

 ment may be applied in a free manner to nourish 

 them. The best criterion to water plants is to 

 give a little at a time, as the earih dries in ihe pot; 

 such pots as are very moist and saturated, should 

 be dried by working; up the top of the pot with a 

 fork, or other instrument. All dead and decayin<x 

 leaves should be, at all times, taken from the 

 plants as they appear: dead leaves often contain 

 many insects, therefore, should he removed. Tiie 

 plants should also be often examined, and cleansed 

 of any scaly or other insects that appear on the 

 leaves, with a spunire and warm soap sud^, made 

 from soft soap. Every opportunity should be 

 taken to admit air of a fine, mild day, and they 

 should be so placed, if possible, as to have the son 

 in the forenoon and middle part of the day. A 

 semicircular stage, with running castors, is the 

 best, which can be moved, to any part of the 

 room, at pleasure. 



At this season of the year plants are much re- 

 freshed by adding a linle fresh, rich, earth on the 

 top of the pot. 



ON THE ALLEGED CHANGE OF CLIMATE IN 

 THIS REGION. 



To ttie Editor of tlie Farmers' Register. 



January 14, 1838. 



If it is not presumptuous in a person whose sta- 

 llion and acquirements are as humble as mine, I 

 would beg leave to offer a few remarks on the 'Ad- 

 dress' of .Toseph E. Muse, President to the Dor- 

 chester (Md.J Agricultural Society, as reported in 

 the No. of the Register of the 15t"h December. 



This address cannot fail to be read with general 

 interest: the introductory remarks are beautiful, 

 and for the occasion highly appropriate; the whole 

 evinces the classic scholar, and the man of 

 science, with a tolerable spice of the practical and 

 experimental farmer. The deduction however, 

 which he has drawn from his preceding philoso- 

 phical reasoning, and when he says "'it is deduci- 

 ble from causes obviously still in operation, that a 

 comparatively short period, perhaps half a centu- 

 ry or Uttle more, will find the wheat plant flour- 

 ishing only in the most southern sections of our 

 vast empire, and another period still longer, may 

 in all possibility, cancel if from the catalogue of 

 vegetable life" is in my humble opinion liable to 

 doubt. 



That our planet has, in former periods, under- 

 gone repeated and great revolutions, the scientific 

 researches of geologists leave not a doubt: but so 

 far as their researches have yet gone, 1 believe a 

 fossil bone of the human species has not j'et been 

 discovered; from which it is natural to infer, that 

 the revolutions on the surface of our planet, have 

 all been anterior to, and probably only preparato- 

 ry to render it a fit abode for the then fliture lords 

 of creation. The more recent geological forma- 

 tions certainly display, in the organic remains, 

 many spt-cies of animals and vegetables nearly al- 



lied, or identical, with living and existing species ; 

 there are now u|)wards of fifi}^ thousand existing 

 species of plants described by botanists, and the 

 number of fossil species did not recently I believe, 

 much exceed five hundred; but though these five 

 hundred known species of fossil plants, contain 

 some of the orders of each class now existing, it 

 is certainly remarkable that none of the grasses 

 have yet been found among them, an order which 

 certainly contributes more to the comfort of man 

 than any other. That the earrh has also, since 

 the probaf)le and comparatively recent existence 

 of the Inmian species, undergone several changes 

 and modifications, cannot be doubted; some of 

 these, such as the immense depositions of alluvial 

 matter, have been of a gradual and nearly imper- 

 ceptible nature; others, however, have been vio- 

 lent and instantaneous, giving indubitable proof, 

 that the earth yet contains elements capable of 

 producing awful revolutions. That these chances 

 on the surface of the earth, may partially afiijct 

 the temperature of climates, is highly probable; 

 but I much doubt whether there is any satisf .ctory 

 evidence, that the mean temperature of our cli- 

 mates are undergoiuir a permanently gradual and 

 lowering change. Various operations on the sur- 

 face of the earth, such as fellinu;: down large tracts 

 offorest, will doubtless, locally affect the tempera- 

 ture of a climate, and thereby partially afliect the 

 production of many species of plants ; but useful 

 plants in general, when under the judicious and 

 fostering care of men, have a wonderful fhcility in 

 adapting themselves to variations of climate, and 

 the extensive regions of the earth and extreme 

 variations of climate, in which the several varie- 

 ties of wheat are cultivated, prove with what en- 

 couraging facility it adapts itself to such changes; 

 but however easily it may adapt itself to changes 

 of climate, experience has proved that it requires 

 a fit soil and good culture; and to the want of this 

 latter, rather than to the want of a suitable cli- 

 mate, with respectful deference to Dr. JVluse, I 

 should be inclined to attribute the very general 

 failure of the wheat crops of late years, in Mary- 

 land, Virginia, and other sections of the country. 

 Wheat has been cultivated on the continent of 

 Europe and the British isles, &c. in high latitudes, 

 for many centuries, or more probably as coeval 

 with the first dawnings of civilization itself; and 

 at no period of time has it been more successfully 

 or largely cultivated than at the present, and with- 

 in a comparatively recent period has its production 

 been more than doubled, in many parts, both of 

 continental Europe and Great Britain. At the time 

 of the revolution in the latter country, (1689) there 

 were only estimated to be 1 ',000,000 bushels of 

 wheat grown, being about three bushels to each 

 individual of the then population. In 1828, it was 

 estimated that there were over 100,000,000 bushels 

 of wheat grown, giving about seven bushels an- 

 nually to each of the population; and since then, I 

 believe there has been a considerably further in- 

 crease. I am well aware of the difference of cli- 

 mate that exists on the two continents in the same 

 parallel; but I do believe that the soil and cli- 

 mate of this section of country naturally is as well, 

 if not better adapted to the full developement and 

 profitable culture of that all-important staple, as is 

 in any country in Europe. If this and other sec- 

 tions of this country will not now produce wheat 

 as f!)rmerly, I would, with all due deference, say 



