166 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



ably hardy and prolific. It is planted late in 

 autumn, and stands the winters ol" France and 

 England, and might be experimented on, as a 

 winter crop, when nothing else can be cultivated 

 with us, and it would not interfere with the crop of 

 the Ibllowing spring. The Heliogoland bean — 

 purple held bean — and Alexandrian field bean, are 

 also varieties which the agriculturists ol' England 

 and France recommended to me as probably well 

 adapted to winter culture in our southern climate. 



The turnip crop is considered as the most valua- 

 ble in England lor feeding cattle. These diff'erent 

 productions, however, require to be noticed under 

 separate heads. I will endeavor to return to the 

 subject in a future number. 



2nd year. Wheat — the varieties are yearly 

 increasing. At present, the kinds cultivated almost 

 universally in the higher grounds and lighter 

 soils of Scotland, are the golden drop and blood red. 

 The skins are thicker than in most other varieties 

 and they yield more bran. These varieties would, 

 I think, answer well on our elevated mountainous 

 regions. The average crop is said to be about 

 fifty bushels to the acre. In the Lothians — the 

 Carse of Sterling, and in the low rich soils of Eng- 

 land — in Denmark — and the alluvial soils of 

 Germany, 1 remarked that the varieties called 

 Uxbridge and Hunter's wheat, were most culti- 

 vated, and considered most productive. The 

 yield is (ioui filly to sixty bushels per English acre 

 — the average weight per bushel is from 62 to 63 

 lbs. — the finest, 65 lbs. The Mengoswell's wheat 

 is a variety of Hunter's and is cultivated on the 

 Carse of Gowrie as a superior grain. Three new 

 varieties have been very recently introduced. The 

 Whitlington wheat from the south of England — 

 the Chevalier wheat from France — and the Hick- 

 lings — the latter is white in straw, but yellow in 

 sample. Rye is not cultivated. Grass seeds are 

 sown in the fields of wheat in the month of April. 

 These are red clover (Trifolium pralcnse) and 

 rye grass (^Lollum pereuHe and Jlalkuin.') Calves 

 and sheep are allowed, in autumn and winter, to 

 feed on the young grass. 



3d year. This is a grass crop — usually a heavy 

 one. It is sometimes cut twice, but usually only 

 once a year, and serves as pasturage in the fall. 



4th year — A crop of barley or oats is now raised. 

 This is once more succeeded by a itdlow crop. In 

 this manner crops succeed each other by fours in 

 good lands, or where the soil is inliirior, another 

 year is added for grass and pasturage — atibrding a 

 wheat crop only once in four or five years, but 

 producing in the mean time, other articles equally 

 valuable to the farmer. 



(To be continued.) 



VALUK OF BIRDS. 



From tlie Farmer's Montlily \ isitor. 

 Mr. Hill, — I was much pleased, that in your 

 first volume of the Visitor, you took so much inter- 

 est in the preservation of the small birds. Without 

 their aid in destroying the innumerable insects that 

 prey upon the products of the larmer, agriculture 

 in a It3w years would have to be abandoned. The 

 rapidity with which many kinds of insects are 

 j)roduced is almost beyond conception, and were it 

 not for the check put to it by insectivorous birdSj it 



would be in vain to sow or cultivate the soil. And 

 many think it doubtful policy, in giving a bounty 

 lor the desiruction of crows and foxes. 



The crow, it is true, sometimes plucks up the 

 newly planted corn ; but where he pulls up one 

 blade of corn, he probably pulls up a hundred of 

 the large white worm. So of the fox, he carries off 

 a few lambs, and sometimes a stray goose, but his 

 principal food in the summer season is tlie large 

 white worm, beetle, bugs, mice, moles, &c., which 

 probably more than compensate tor the few lambs 

 they take. 



Could the exact amount of damage done by 

 insects to the various crops of grass, grains and 

 fruits, in a single county, lor one year, be ascer- 

 tained, it would be astonishing. Two years ago 

 last season many fields that produced a good crop 

 of hay the year before were almost barren : scarcely 

 a blade ol grass was left on many square rods, and 

 the roots were so completely cut an inch or two be- 

 neath the surface, by the large white worm, that 

 the turf n)ight be rolled up like a carpet. 



Sometimes whole fields of corn are nearly de- 

 stroyed by the grub, or (he wire worm : orchards 

 are defoliated by the canker worm or caterpillar ; 

 and fields of most promising wheat are destroyed 

 by the wheat fly or weevil. 

 ' The natural history of the various kinds of inju- 

 rious insects is not sufficiently studied. No doubt 

 nearly every kind might have its file or history 

 traced through all its various chajnges, habits, food, 

 &c., and probably ways and means discovered to 

 greatly lessen their numbers and check their rav- 

 ages. 



In a late number of the New England Farmer 

 the editor says, "We as yet know of but one effec- 

 tual remedy against the canker worm — that is, the 

 encouragement of the birds. In our code of penal 

 justice, killing a small bird should be placed next 

 to killing a child. We were assured the last sum- 

 mer, that at the beautifully cultivated district in the 

 south part of West Cambridge, abounding in fruit, 

 they were entirely free from canker worms, while 

 in Old Cambridge the orchards suffered severely. 

 The great security which they found was in the 

 encouragement and preservation of the birds. A 

 gunner in West Cambridge would be in as much 

 danger as an aboliiionist in South Carolina." 



February 12, 1840. L. B. 



EFFECTS OF E3IA1VCIPATION IN JAMAICA. 



An intelligent resident in Jamaica, recently in- 

 formed us that the results of the emancipation bill 

 ultimately would be, the expulsion or retirement of 

 all the white population of the island, already so 

 disproportioned to that of the colored classes ; and 

 that, at no great distance from the present time, it 

 would come to be a St. Domingo. Had the eman- 

 cipation or apprenticeship system been left to the 

 white colonists themselves, or had their disparity 

 in numbers with the colored population not been 

 so great, no doubt is entertained that the legisla- 

 tion of the British parliament at London would 

 have been nullified in Jamaica; but, as the case 

 stood, acquiescence was only the necessary act 

 that could Itill whh quieting efiect on crushed re- 

 bellion. No new demonstrations in favor of equal- 

 ity between the colored and white population have 



