1S38] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



819 



best agricultural paper we have ever IkhI, and 

 likely to be of infinite advantage, though the pro- 

 gress will he slow. The taste has to be created 

 with that class with whom it will be most useful. 



The crops of corn in this state are remarUably 

 fine, and may be said to be made. The cotton 

 crop was worse ten days ago than I have ever seen 

 it at the same lime. Many places lor 50 acres 

 together there were not 50 stalks in the bald or 

 open prairies, and the light sandy lands. The crop 

 has been replanted, and the young cotton shows 

 very prettily, and the weather has so far been 

 very suitable for it ; and with a cool fall the young 

 cotton may make a '^ crop, and the old cotton 

 more. The month of May was very cold, the 

 thermometer on the 24th was at 40° ; and as the 

 cause was a general one, I think it a fair inference 

 that the crops Jiave every where been injured. 

 There is no calculation to be relied on as to the 

 probable crop for the year at this time of it ; as it 

 depends so much on the season from this time on. 



Since writing the foregoing I have received a 

 letter from Arkansas. The month of May was 

 cold and rainy, and the crops were very unpro- 

 misino:. 



Baltimore. April 16, 1838. 



* * * Your article on " hobbies and humbugs," 

 it seems to me, is rather severe, and calculated ra- 

 ther to depress the spirit of enterprise than encour- 

 age it. It we are to have no new thing, till it 

 has been sufficiently tried to prove that it is not a 

 hobby nor a humbug, we might as well give up 

 improvement for the time. * * * 



I differ with you on some of the " hobbies and 

 humbugs," I perfectly agree with you on some 

 others. The Baden corn, for example, is an old 

 worthless pony, that has been turned out to die of 

 old age three or four times within forty years past; 

 (I don't wish you to suppose that I have been an 

 observer of these things myself for forty years, 

 as I am not old enough for that — ) and it seems 

 that even old age won't kill it, or if it does, that it 

 won't stay killed. 



Lynchburg, July 11th, 1838. 

 Our harvest is not yet completed. All accounts, 

 until very recently, have concurred in representing 

 the wheat crop as a very superior one. Hence, 

 on a visit to the country ten days ago, I was much 

 disappointed ; I saw very little that was prime, 

 and much that was inferior, and some not worth 

 cutting. Early sowing in good ground, well pre- 

 pared, looks well, a good deal of it, and some, 

 very well, but on examination, the head, a third 

 or a half, has three grains in a mesh, then two, 

 with four or five at top with one, and some entire 

 skips. And I am not certain that any of the grain 

 is superior. Such is the best. There is still a 

 large quantity of thin corn-ground seeded, unpro- 

 fitable as it is. This is all interior, and a good 

 deal worthless. The crop is all late, but some is 

 much later than the rest, as usual. Nearly all of 

 this, including northern exposures, is sorry. J 

 should say, that, in quantity, the crop is vastly 



short of the general estimate, and that a large 

 portion is of inlerior quality. It is proper, hovve- 

 v(!r, to say that my observations are confined to a 

 limited region, li'om this place to the Hkie Rid're 

 the north side of JJedlbrd, 20 odd miles. 



Rye, of which the quantity sown is much di- 

 minished, is better than lor several years. Oats, 

 moderate; on thin land, not good as common. Corn 

 backward, and more missing than usual but a fa- 

 vorable season may yet make a good crop. Some 

 tobacco land has been planted in corn, for want of 

 plants, and from that circumstance and a scarcity 

 of planting seasons, the prospect is unpromising. 



Elizabeth City Co. Va., July 20, 



Our wheat crop was generally good. More 

 wheat has been made this year in our county than 

 was ever grown before in any two. The crop of 

 corn though backward, promises a fair yield. 



Things have much improved here since your 

 visit to Back river, (in 1836) and land is growing 

 daily more valuable. We are cleaning up and 

 manuring in every direction ; and without design- 

 ing to flatter you, I am free to confess that much 

 of this improvement is owfng to the influence of 

 your valuable paper. 



I was much pleased with your description of 

 Gloucester, and felt more than ordinary interest in 

 your remarks, because they applied with peculiar 

 force to my own neighborhood. Your theory 

 about wide beds is certainly true. I know from 

 experience that 11 feet beds suffer from wet much 

 less than 5 feet ones. At any rate I will try it 

 this fall, and will let you know the result. 



[From the letter of a brother editor.] 



Pray how do your subscribers pay? Ours are 

 horribly remiss. 



[We may answer that our subscribers are 

 " Like Jeremiah's figs, 

 The good, are very good, indeed — 

 The bad, too bad for pigs."] 



THE WHEAT CROP. 



The wheat harvest has been finished, and without 

 much loss from bad weather in general, though many 

 crops on the lower James river suffered severely from 

 a hurricane which tore down shocks, and scattered the 

 sheaves, wherever its power reached. In that region 

 the crops are found to be less productive in grain than 

 in straw ; and the yield will there be less, by perhaps 

 one-fourth, than was counted on in our last report, 

 made during harvest. Similar disappointment has 

 been found elsewhere, as stated in a foregoing extract. 

 Still the general crop will be a large one. From many 

 other parts of the country, there is yet no abatement 

 stated of the first anticipations of great product. 



