5t) 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No 



and intend to raise a large crop every year in its puri- 

 ty, to supply all who may apply for it tor seed. 

 * ***** 



"P. S. I can sliip any seed that may be ordered 

 each week to Baltimore, if a few days are excepted 

 when navigation is interrupted by the ice." 



The grossest, and yet the most profitable fraud that 

 has been practiced, was by an Irishman named Hall, 

 who went through the country (in or about the year 

 1815,) selling patent rights (as he pretended) foradis- 

 covery of his in cultivating corn; by means of which, 

 two laborers only, without horse or plough, and on or- 

 dinary land, could make a crop of 2500 bushels of corn, 

 annually. His pl^n was to lay off a field regularly in- 

 to squares of nine feet; and one of these squares in 

 each contiguous nine, was to be manured and cultivat- 

 ed, and to bear as many stalks, and (as he promised) 

 was to yield as much product, as the whole space of 

 nine squares, if the whole had been ploughed and plant- 

 ed over equally, as in the usual .mode; and each square 

 was to be thus cropped in succession, so as to make a 

 nine-years rotation on the same field. According to 

 his reasoning, the thickly standing corn on each plant- 

 ed chequer, would be benefited by the surrounding 

 vacant eight squares; and yet these eight would be 

 resting and improving, until the turn of each came, in 

 succession, to bear the crop. This impudent impostor 

 did not even exhibit his patent right which he claimed 

 to possess — nor had he any valid testimonials of the 

 worth either of liis plan, or his character. His whole 

 means of success consisted in the enormous profits 

 which he promised. It was as if an agricultural Alad- 

 din's lamp had been offered to evevy farmer. His 

 terms too were very moderate; he asked only f 10 in 

 hand, to permit the exercise of his right; and $40 more 

 were to be paid after the first crop had been gathered, 

 and the plan found to be entirely satisfactory. It is true 

 that Hall did not make many converts; but, so far as 

 we heard of his movements, in lower Virginia, he suc- 

 ceeded in making sales to some five to ten farmers in 

 almost every county which he visited during his rapid 

 progress. With these advanced payments he was con- 

 tent; at least he never returned to ask for the much 

 larger balance remaining due. It was still more re- 

 markable, that most of the persons who paid for Hall's 

 plan, were not experimenters, but such as were called 

 "solid, practical farmers," who had been previously es- 

 chewers and despisers of all theory and book- farming; 

 and many were old men, who had never before varied 

 from the time-honored usages of their neighborhood. 

 But few of them even tried this dearly bought privi- 

 lege; for they became heartily ashamed of their bargain 

 before the planting time arrived. Those who did try 

 it, made scarcely any crop, and never repeated the 

 experiment. 



The merino sheep humb«g was of a still earlier date. 

 When the invasion and devastation of Spain by the 

 French served to break up the great merino flocks in 

 that country, and to remove the previous prohibitions 

 to the exportation of sheep of the best breeds, the op- 

 portunity was judiciously availed of to supply this 

 country with a truly valuable stock. But the high 

 prices obtained for them generated and nourished a 



1 



spirit of speculation, such as has been exhibited in 

 sundry other commodities, in various regions and times; 

 as in tulip roots in Holland — lots and lands in and about 

 Richmond, formerly — and lands and sites for future 

 towns in many parts of the \testern wilderness, recent- 

 ly. The source and the progress of all such bubbles 

 may be stated in a few words. The increased price 

 has no relation to the intrinsic value (or productive 

 use) of the commodity. But whether it be a tulip root 

 or a merino sheep — a vacant and useless lot in a city, 

 or the site of a prospective town in a marsh or a wilder- 

 ness — the process is the same. The article in question 

 rises in market price (whether by accident, by depre- 

 ciation of money caused by excessive bank issues, or 

 aome other delusion, or by the art of the holders,) say 

 50 per cent, in a few months, and is sold by A. to B. at 

 that rate of profit. C. buys of B. at a proportional ad- 

 vance, sim.pl}'' because of the rise in price which had 

 taken place, and therefore still expected to advance. 

 Probably he is not disappointed in that expectation; 

 and whether he embarked in the speculation as knave 

 or as dupe, he also makes a large profit by selling to 

 D. who is still more eager to buy, that he may not lose 

 his chance for such great profit, the regular advance 

 of which has established confidence in a still continued 

 enhancement of price. Thus the game goes on. The 

 greater and the more rapid the rise in price, the mpre 

 eager are the buyers; and every one concerned is mak- 

 ing large profits — or is made rich^ if operating on a 

 scale large enough — until the bubble of speculation 

 can be no more distended, and of course bursts; and 

 the price then is adjusted to intrinsic, instead of specu- 

 lative value. In this way, merino sheep at one time 

 sold in some cases for more than $1000 each. V.'e 

 have before touched slightly on this subject; and ex- 

 pressed the opinion that a like mania was row grow- 

 ing as to race horses, and the improved breeds of cat- 

 tle. 



Another humbug was Mr. Whitmarsh's seed of the 

 Chinese mulberry — which has been fully exposed in 

 the past volume of this journal. The circumstances 

 afford a strong exemplification of the fact, that the 

 public are better pleased to be deceived than to be un- 

 deceived; and that if both false promises and means 

 for their correction are presented to readers, that most 

 will grasp at the falsehood, and pass the truth either 

 unnoticed or unbelieved. Before any seed (real or 

 supposed) of the morus mallicaulis had been offered for 

 sale in this country, we published in this journal, and 

 upon high authority, that these seeds would not pro- 

 duce the parent kind, and therefore were not worth 

 planting. This fact we repeated, and endeavored to 

 enforce, from time to time — but without the notifica- 

 tion seeming to have the least effect in preventing er- 

 ror, or staying the frauds of sellers, or the losses of buy- 

 ers of the seed. The humbug had its course— the sell- 

 ers made their profit — and now all are content to ac- 

 knowledge the truth that might have been known as 

 well at first. 



The last prevailing humbug is spring wheat. Of the 

 value of this newly introduced, or rather re-introduced 

 old variety — for spring wheat is no novelty to well iur 

 formed agriculturists — we have before intimated our 



