210 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 4 



vantage derived from my management oCthe trial, 

 which shall be as fair as I can possibly make it. 

 But to proceed with my explanations. When I 

 read your excellent article on agricultural hobbies 

 and humbugs, of which 1 think precisely as you 

 do, it seemed to me that j-ou had gone so far in 

 denouncing and ridiculing them, "as probably to 

 discourage all experiments made to ascertain the 

 comparative superiority of the different varieties of 

 plants of the same species. I therelbre deemed it 

 important to our cause, at least to endeavor to 

 qualify, in some degree, your general denuncia- 

 tion, and to prove, as /ar as I could, not only that 

 all plants heretofore tried, migiit be greatly im- 

 proved in almost every respect, by the careful se- 

 lection of their seed, but that there was so great a 

 natural difference in productiveness between the 

 different varieties of the same species, as to make 

 it a matter ofgreat importance to ascertain how far 

 that difference might be augmented. If you, my 

 good friend, are right, none but the over-sancruine 

 will ever make experiments of any kind on this 

 highly interesting subject. But should the doc- 

 trme /maintain be right, although hundreds and 

 thousands of hobbies be mounted and broken 

 down in the pursuit, ye^ should a few only prove 

 sound, they may amply remunerate both their 

 riders and the public, for all the losses from the 

 hobby-horsical experiments that fail. 



It has been said that great inventors seldom 

 become rich ; but may not that enthusiasm which 

 is so essential to success in prosecuting useful in- 

 ventions, and which is the only quality strong 

 enough to combat the ridicule always directed 

 against every thing new, be incompatible with 

 such a degree of economv as would enable them 

 to accumulate wealth? Such, I am persuaded, is 

 the fact ; and that the money-making and saving 

 talent is quite a difierent sort of thing from ihcTt 

 which has so eminently distinguished the most 

 remarkable inventors among mankind : so diffe- 

 rent indeed, as never to be found in the same" in- 

 dividual. The hobby of the one is movey—moiuy 

 —money, for its own dear sake ; the hobbv of the 

 other, something that will hand down his name to 

 the latest posterity, as entitled to rank among the 

 benefactors of mankind. His passion is social, 

 philanthropic, coextensive with the wants of his 

 species ; the passion oHhe other, begins and ends 

 in self— self— self If any crreat inventor has ever 

 grown rich, I have never seen nor heard of him. 

 But if this be true, some portion of what may be 

 called the hobby -horsical organ, (if the craniolo- 

 gists will pardon my infrinsing their right to 

 christen all the imaginary divisions and subdivi- 

 sions of our skulls,) althoucrh too often injurious to 

 the individuals whose noddles are bumpified by it, 

 is quite as beneficial, upon the whole, to the gene- 

 ral interests of agriculture, as it can t)e to the Gene- 

 ral interests of any other class whatever. I^rgo, 

 hobby-horses and hobby-horse-riders, are very 

 useful things in a general point of view, although 

 many of both may be often rendered worthless— 

 the riders too much galled to ride any more, and 

 the horses become utterly good for nothing by 

 splints, spavins, ring-bone, and foundering, %oth 

 in the legs and chest. The latter kind of fo'under- 

 ing, if by chest be meant the money-chest, is so ut- 

 terly ruinous to our class, that tlie lear of it too 

 often deters all the half-way experimenters from 

 attempting any thing, while it furnishes the 



" good-enov.ghs''^ with an everlasting pretext for 

 attempting nothing. 



The two positions I have sought to establish, 

 which I understand you deny, are, first, that alt 

 plants heretofore cultivated, in any kind of soil or 

 climate, wheiein they will apparently flourish, are 

 improvable, to a great degree, simply by regard- 

 ing, in the selection of seed, the circumstances 

 which you appear to think of little or no import- 

 ance. Secondly — that atnong the varieties of the 

 same species of plants, there is naturally a great 

 difference in productiveness, which an all-bounte- 

 ous Creator has enabled man to make still greater 

 by judicious selection and culture. The universal 

 practice of those who save seed either to sell, or 

 solely lor their own use, would seem to sanction 

 my first position, although I admit there are many 

 exceptions to the old saving, that " lohat every one 

 says must be true.'''' But there is something more 

 than mere practice in favor of this position. We 

 have the testimony oi'very many credible persons, 

 that they have much increased their crops, espe- 

 cially of corn, by always selecting their seed from 

 stalks of the same variety which produced the 

 greatest number of ears. Three of these individu- 

 als I know personally, and a fourth, Mr. Joseph 

 Cowper of New .Tersey, is known by reputation to 

 all the reading agriculturists of the United States. 

 Now, these persons did not state it as mere matter 

 of opinion, but of actual experience during several 

 years' experiments ; and I have been willing to 

 believe them ; not only because my own experi- 

 ence confirms theirs, but because they ask no mo- 

 ney for their disclosures on the subject ; and that 

 being the case, could have had no possible motive 

 for humbugging their fellow-citizens. 



My second position has in its favor, not only 

 the testimony of many such men as your intelli- 

 gent correspondent, Mr. Carmichaelof St. Mary's, 

 Maryland, but ocular demonstration for all who 

 are willing to sacrifice their hobbies of opinion to 

 visual evidence. For instance, no man can look 

 through an apple-orchard in full bearing, without 

 being forcibly struck with the very great difl^erence 

 m productiveness between the difierent varieties 

 of apple, amounting often to nearly double. A 

 similar difference may be noticed among several 

 varieties of other fruits and vegetables, all going 

 to prove that there is so great a natural superi- 

 ority in productiveness among them, as to render 

 it a matter of very great importance to those who 

 cultivate them, either for use or sale, that they 

 should choose among the grains, at least, only 

 those varieties which produce most. To ascer- 

 tain this, as I before remarked, is richly worth the 

 breaking down of ten times as many hobbies, as 

 the most fanciful and sanguine of all our hobby- 

 horsical brethren put together have ever taken 

 into training, from the days of Trismegistus to the 

 present time. If I am right in my estimate of our 

 state character, hobby-horsical planters and farm- 

 ers are nearly as scarce with us as hen's teeth. 

 The passion which makes such equestrians, is not 

 among the besetting sins of the ancient dominion 

 folks. 7'hey answer much better John Randolph's 

 graphic description of them, who compared them 

 to terrapins that would never move, after drawing 

 their heads within their shells, until they felt the 

 fire on their backs. In most matters, but especial- 

 ly in all that relate to husbandry, we want, not 

 the check-rein, but the spur and the lash ; not seda- 



