12(3 



FARMERS' REGISTER— AMERICAN LOCUST. 



lamb by her side. She sheared 7 lbs. of wool "in 

 the dirt." 



BAUI.EY CROrS IN C.LOUCESTER — CATERPIL- 

 LARS WHEAT. 



Gloucester.) June 14i//, 1834. 



* * * * I am very well throiip;h with my 

 barley harvest, and decidedly the heaviest crop 

 I have ever made, or has been on the estate for 

 many years. The wet weather in the spring (or 

 something else) destroyed, as I lioped when I last 

 wrote you, the caterpillar: I have not seCn one 

 amongst the small grain this sununcr. I thuik not- 

 withstanding the prospect for wheat appears to be 

 very good, there cannot be a heavy crop in our 

 section of country: the wet weather in the spring 

 must have injured it, and the scab was generally 

 ai)i)earing when I Icfi: the county about a week 

 since. Barley was the staple of Gloucester untii 

 within a few years: the crop so generally fiiiled 

 tiiat it was nearly abandoned last year. 



PARTRIDGE PEA. 



Dorchester^ Md. June Vlth, 1834. 



* * * * When I spoke of the 

 \vild onion, I might have added another pest iji a 

 juirt of my grounds: — it is, I think, what is called 

 the ''partridge, pea;" but the ground being ex- 

 tremely rich, it runs up as a vine, and drags down 

 and destroys my wheat. I have lately cut about 

 two acres of my rankest wheat, so matted with 

 this vine, that, togetJier, they will make me 

 nothing but hay, and tlie horses and cattle are 

 very fond of it. But it is a costly food — such fine 

 wheat — and how shall I eradicate the vine ? 



[We refer our correspondent and others who suffer 

 from this weed to page lOG of vol. I., for what are be- 

 lieved to be the best means to prevent such losses.] 



* * * * It is the only way in which I can 

 aid your establishment, in the success of which, I 

 i'eel much interested, as the best mode of drawing 

 the attention of our young men to the subject ol 

 agriculture, thereby alfording constant and uselui 

 employment, — the great secret and source of hu- 

 man happiness. Few of us can remain idle vir- 

 tuously. I think if St. Pard himself lived in the 

 present day, he would consider idleness, rather 

 than money, the root of all evil. God ibrbid that 

 I should consider property as adding one particle 

 to the character of an individual, — it only serves to 

 make him more contemptible, in my estimation, if 

 his conduct is not correct, — but generally speaking, 

 in our country, where it is so easily acquired, if 

 you show me a man destitute of property, I will 

 show you one who has done nothing lor the ben- 

 efit of his fellow men, and over whom society has 

 no control. 



REMARKABLE HABITS OF THE ABIERICAN 

 LOCUST. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Sir — In a note appended to an article in the 

 last nund^-r of the Farmers'" Register, extracted 

 ii-om tlic Germantown Telegraph, you remark 

 that, "there is too much of the marvellous in tlie 

 i-egularly returning visits of our locusts lor the 



statement to be altogether credited." So far fi'om 

 its behig marvellous, I have never before heard 

 it questioned. I have witnessed three regular re- 

 turns of the locusts at the distance of seventeen 

 years ftom each otherj viz: in 1792, 1S09, and 

 1826. Their appearance in thope years Avas fore- 

 told by the old people long before it actually 

 occurred: It is very certain that they do not 

 make their appearance in all parts of the Uiiited 

 States in the same year, but at any given place 

 I am very confident that it will found to be regularly 

 at intervals of seventeen years. I think you will 

 be able to find some old persons in Prince George 

 who crtn remove your doubts on this subject. I 

 have frequently heard it asserted that well-diggers 

 had found them ascending at considerable depths 

 below the surface of the earth, in the years prece- 

 ding their regular return. 



Respectfully j-our ob't. serv't. 



F. II. 



Louisa, 2lst June, 1834. 



[Before receiving the foregoing interesting state- 

 ment we had been convinced by the force of the facts 

 reported from various quarters, that the regular periodi- 

 cal returns of the locusts were no less true than 

 strange. According to the predictions published, they 

 have appeared in vast numbers this summer in various 

 parts of the United States. But though abundant 

 both to the north and south of us, none have appeared 

 in this county, nor (as it is said) any v.'here in lower 

 Virginia. It is an additional wonder tha^ their visits 

 should be at different times in different places, and yet 

 in each, at i-egular periods of seventeen years.] 



ON THE PROBABILITY OF THE REVERSION OF 

 AVHEAT INTO GRASS. 



By Mr. William Blackadder, Glammis. 

 From the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, [Dec. 183.3.J 



When I was at the Trinity Muir market of 

 Brechin in June last, Mr^ David Scott, of New- 

 ton, near iVrbroath, came to me, and inquired if 

 ever I had heard ^Hhat if the smut balls of wheat 

 were sown, they would vegetateV and, on answer- 

 ing in the negative, Mr. Scott stated, that Mr, 

 Strachan and Mr. Bell, farmers near Montrose, 

 had sown them for some years, a.nd the balls had 

 always sprung, but had never advanced to matu- 

 rity until this season, when some had actually 

 flowered, and appeared to be a grass; and that he 

 had requested a specimen to be brought to the 

 market for my inspection. 



Just at this period of the conversation Sir. Bell 

 made his appearance, and produced a specimen, 

 which I recognised to be a species of JSrome; and 

 on questioning Mr. Bell minutely as to the mode of 

 its production from smutted wheat, 1 was satisfied 

 that little, if' any, doubt could be entertaiaed of 

 the fact. The discovery that smut balls vegetated 

 was first made by Mr. Strachan, and then ex- 

 periments were tried by Mr. Bell; that the ex- 

 periments had been continued for years; but the 

 balls having been usually sown in spring, they 

 had never had time to flower. Last year, howe- 

 ver, they were sown in the autumnal wheat seed- 

 firne, y)art of which flowered this season, of which 

 the one produced was a specimen. 

 On my return home, I compared the specimen 



