TlIK AnVANTAGlCOF OBTAIKING SEED WHEAT 

 FROM COLDKU IlEGIONS. BENEFIT OF MAUL 

 AKD GYrSU3I ON SWEET POTATOES. 



To tlic Editor of ihu Fanners' Kcgister. 



Berkeley, Charles City, j/pril 5ih, 1838. 



I have thoiurlit some facts, resuliin!^ from my 

 experience as a cultivator of the earth, mi^ht be 

 acceptable to j'ou, and therefore take the Hberty ol' 

 communicatin:! tliem. The first in importance, is 

 the success which I have uniformly met with in 

 the cuUure of wheal, when good seed was pro- 

 cured from the north, or the mountains of this 

 state. When the Lawler wheat was much ap- 

 proved in the county of Fredericic, although never 

 very productive, I procured two bushels, which 

 were sown late in the season, and on a very 

 poor piece of ground — all of my good land having 

 been previously sown. The produce of the Law- 

 ler, however, was 43bushelsof as beautiful wheat 

 as I ever saw. This was used as seed, and pro- 

 duced a croj) of about 800 bushels, weighing G 1 

 lbs. 12 oz. per bushel, as reported by my friend 

 Mr. Nat. Nelson, who kindly delivered it for me 

 during my absence from home. The 3d crop 

 from the same seed was an indifferent one; and 

 the 4th utterly worthless — having been destroyed 

 by rust. A year or two afterwards, I obtained 

 from the same county of Frederick, a white plump 

 Avheaf, known there as the "skip-back;" 5 bushels 

 of this were sown on as many acres of good 

 land, being the lot below my garden. Its yield 

 was 35 bushels per acre. The subsequent crop, 

 from this as seed, was an immense one. I can- 

 not determine exactly its amount, but it was near- 

 ly all of a crop of 3600 bushels. The third crop 

 from the same wheat was an average one, but the 

 4th disappointed my expectations. I have ob- 

 tained other seed since, and the results correspond 

 with this statement, that northern or western 

 seed, when good, was to be relied on with confi- 

 dence for two seasons; afterwards, 1 think it rapid- 

 ly deteriorates. 



The first Baltimore or golden-chaO' wheat I 

 ever saw, brought into this neighborhood by 

 Williams Carter," Escj., consisted of one quart ob- 

 tained in Pennsylvania; the produce of which was, 

 according to my recollection, not less than three 

 bushels. This, for several years, was preferred to 

 all other wheats, as decidedly the most proiluctive. 

 The same gentleman was the first in this county 

 to cultivate the purple straw; and for two or three 

 years with great success. I am satisfied, from 

 these facts, and others within my knowledge, that 

 our crops of wheat would be much more certain if 

 we were to rely on the north or west for as much 

 seed wheat of which the second year's produce 

 would furnish a sufficiency of seed for a full crop. 

 For instance, I have never made less than 20 

 bushels per acre from such seed the first year, 

 and generally quite as much the second. Every 

 farmer rnay determine lor himself what quantity 

 is therelbre necessary to obtain in the first in- 

 stance, to furnish himself with a sufficiency of 

 seed for a crop. 

 Vol. VI— 17 



Another fact whicli I deem worthy of record is, 

 my success last year in the sweet potato crop. I 

 have for many years attempted sweet potatoes, to 

 oblige my little ones, but there was really no crop, 

 a few scurvy roots were all we could boast; and 

 having no idea of the product, I directed, in the 

 absence of my family, 20 hills to be dug in Octo- 

 ber lor my own use. I chanced to be present 

 when the digging commenced, and really was as- 

 tonished at the yield; the first hill producing one 

 peck, the largest of which weighed 5 pounds; and 

 I have no doubt the product, although not mea- 

 sured, was not less than 200 or 300 bushels per 

 acre. This excellent crop was owing entirely to 

 an abundant use of marl and plaster of Paris, and 

 certainly yielded the best and largest potatoes I 

 ever saw ; niany, very many of them, weighing 

 from 5 to 7 lbs. each. The soil in which they 

 grew was quite light, and inclining to sandy. 

 The seed was procured from JMr. Isaac White of 

 Richmond. Very respectfully, &c. 



Ef.nj. Harrison. 



[The opinions expressed in the foregoing commu- 

 nication, are altogether in opposition to the theory of 

 Dr. Bi-onn, which we published in the first volume of 

 this work, and to which we have several times referred 

 with approbation. The rules deducible from that 

 theory would require, that crops cultivated and mostly 

 valued for their seeds, (as all grain crops,) are im- 

 proved, or preserved in greatest perfection, by being 

 raised from seeds grown in warmer climates, or on 

 warmer and drier soils; while crops valued not for the 

 quantity of seed, but for the whole bulk of the plants, 

 in stalk and leaf, (*s grass crops) are improved in 

 bulk, though at the expense of the quantity or perfect 

 formation of the seed, by being raised from seeds 

 broight from colder and moister climates, or soils. 

 From the confidence we had placed in these views, 

 we should have considered Mr. Harrison as mistaken, 

 if he had merely judged the product of the new wheats 

 to be the greatest by the visible superior growth of 

 the stalks, or greater bulk of straw ; which might well 

 be the case (according to Dr. Bronn's theor}^) though 

 accompanied by a reduction in the quantity of grain. 

 But the products were ascertained, in these cases, by 

 actual measurement; and there can b.^ no higher au- 

 thority for facts, or correct deductions from known 

 facts, than our correspondent ; and theoretical reason- 

 ing, however plausible, must yield to facts, correctly 

 understood. At any rate, the information is interest- 

 ing, and the results well worthy of being tested by the 

 equally careful experiments of other farmeis.] 



PHOSPHORESCENT PLANTS, 



M. De St. Ililaire says that the agaricus (Voli- 

 vier) gives out a yellowish phosphorescent light 

 in the dark; and it is supposed by JM. Vallof that 

 the notices of phosphorescent plants in ancient 



