738 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



The Hessian fly is so little understood, as to 

 have become an excuse for the loss of crops pro- 

 ceediriiT Irom bad tilla^re. Lands are tired by 

 shallow and incessant culiure, or i)y being prevent- 

 ed from invigorating themselves with vegetable 

 substances. Even the richest bottom lands are 

 subject to weariness, and sometimes are said to 

 have grown lousy, so that they will cease at length 

 to yield good corn ; and the crop has the appear- 

 ance of being infested by insects. To such causes 

 are owinii, I think, most oT the charges brought 

 against the Hessian fly. They would be removed 

 by manuring, covering the land with good clover 

 lays, and by deep ploughing, in the cultivation of 

 the maize (allow crop or of any other, according 

 to the foregoing system ; or by managing naked 

 fallows in the same way. And, moreover, a pro- 

 bability exists that the two deep plonghings, one 

 in the winter and the other early in June, recom- 

 mended by the same system, might destroy the 

 fly itself in some Ibrm, and other insects to great 

 extent. At least my experience has never fur- 

 nished me with a single instance, in which a crop 

 has sutt'ered by any insect, when the land was in 

 heart and well covered with dry vegetable matter, 

 when that matter was turned under as deep as 

 four horses in a plough could do it, when the land 

 had received a second good ploughing by two 

 horses in a plough, and when the wheat was 

 seeded on high and narrow ridges, with a clean 

 llirrovv. 



The rust, as it is called, may be better under- 

 stood, because it may be certainly produced, by a 

 due combination of heat, mois'ure, shallow plough- 

 ing, and a flat surface. By this process we shall 

 never fail of obtaining it on a siiflsoil, from which 

 the rainwater cannot escape, just as by dosing 

 a man with arsenic, we are sure of poisoninu 

 him at last. Of course we should no more pre- 

 scribe this system of agriculture to the wheat, 

 than arsenic to the man, if we do not wish to 

 poison it, although its diet, like that of a man, 

 may disagree with it occasionally, in spite of art 

 and caution. Deep ploughing, iiigh ridging, and 

 deep wide water furrows, constitute a mode of 

 culture the reverse of that which inevitably afflicts 

 wheat with the calamity called the rust, and hence 

 may soinetimes prevent, and generally diminish 

 it. The draining of the ridges and the flues, (or 

 the transmission of air through the wheat, created 

 by the deep wide furrows, will diminish the heat 

 and moisture, which appear to be the chief causes 

 of the disease ; and vigorous roots in a deep tilth 

 may add to the capacity of the plant to resist the 

 malady. 



Plastering, by an equal measure of gypsum 

 mixed with it, and moistened, has benefited wheat 

 in sundry experiments, to the conjectured extent of 

 ten per centum, when it has been free from what 

 is called the bird foot clover ; and injured it Ihrice 

 as much, when infested with that grass, owing to 

 the effect of gypsum on its growth, which is such, 

 that this species of clover among the plastered 

 wheat will be three or four (old more luxuriant, 

 than among the adjoining unplastered. But the 

 land is so considerably benefited by this plastering 

 of wheat, that in several instances, I have seen 

 intervals of ten yards wide across large fields, 

 where it was omitted for experiments, exhibiting 

 for several years afterwards a decided inferiority 

 of soil. Beeides; it produces iho highly valuable 



effects of causing the clover seed sown on the sur- 

 face of the wheat to sprout, grow and stand 

 drought better, and of doubling or trebling its crop 

 the year succeeding the wheat, either (or cutting, 

 or for the more beneficial purpose of Jailing on 

 the land. 



To preserve or improve any species of wheat, a 

 selection by hand must be annually made, wuh 

 which to commence a new stock of seed. 



SUCCULKNT CROPS. 



The trials I have made of this family have re- 

 sulted in the rejection of the whole, an individual 

 excepted, as possessing but little value, except lor 

 culinary purposes ; and the remarks 1 may niake, 

 denyiiig them lo be objects otherwise valuable, 

 are to be understood as admitting their high use- 

 ful ness as food (or man, in resjiect to his comlijrt, 

 to his health and economy. But, pumpkins ex- 

 cepted, none of them have in my experience pro- 

 duced profit, used in any other Uiode. 1 have long 

 and patiently persevered in trials of the turnip and 

 potato, according to every mode i could collect 

 Irom European books. The former are extiemely 

 precarious, sown broadcast, and extremely trou- 

 blesome, drilled, thinned, ploughed and twice 

 hand hoed ; a process necessary to obtain a tole- 

 rable chance fur a great crop. They are a food 

 so little nutritious, that some animals die confined 

 to them, none fatten without an additional lood, 

 and all eat an enormous quantity, so as seriously 

 to enhance the labor of feedinir. 'J'hey are great 

 exhausters of land, perhaps the greatest ; and so 

 lar have 1 failed m preventing this efleci, by tak- 

 ing up the turnips in the fall, ihat it was quite vi- 

 sible in lands sunilarly manured adjoining the tur- 

 nips, both in straight and crooked lines. Nor 

 have I discoveied the great benefit said to be ex- 

 perienced in Europe, of leeding the turnips on the 

 ground by sheep in Iblds removable every twenty- 

 four or fbrty-eigtil hours. 



The potato is by no means so precarious nor ex- 

 hausting a crop as the turnip, although it partici- 

 pates in no very small degree of bo!h qualities. 

 The objections to it are the great quantity of seed 

 to an acre necessary to be preserved through the 

 wmter, and used in the spring; the tediousness of 

 planting and gathering ; and the poorness of the 

 food. Before I had seen Young's experiments, I 

 had found that hogs would die on them, raw or 

 boiled, and ascribed it to the inability of the cli- 

 mate to bring them to perfection; but he proves 

 the fact in England to be the same. It is true 

 that horned catile will thrive well on a liberal al- 

 l(nvaiice of potatoes, attended plentifully with good 

 hay ; but they would thrive on the hay alone, nor 

 do my exj)eriments prove that the potato is the 

 cheapest additional Ibod. 



The pumpkin on the contrary, in several re- 

 spects, seems to me lo be preferable to it. The 

 expenses of seed, of planting and of gathering, 

 are very wide apart. The labor of cultivation is 

 nearly the same. The pumpkin crop is less un- 

 certain, and far heavier to an acre. Probably a 

 pound of pumpkin may afford less nutriment than 

 so much potato, but it is invariably healthier, and 

 seldom liiils, in combination with Indian corn, to 

 dispose all animals to fatten kindly, and to aid in 



