58 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



to the cotton-fields of the West ; yet, I understand there is no perceptible dimin- 

 ution in their crops. At " Wye," I heard not long since, that the extensive wheat- 

 fields presented the same cheering prospect of an abundant harvest as in the most 

 palmy days of the late Gov. Lloyd. At " Mount Airy " an average crop has been 

 made, and the corn was never more promising. 



Your various correspondents will have informed you of the harvests south of 

 the Susquehanna. A friend in King George county, Virginia, writes me : 



" To our surprise, we discover no rust in our wheat, and it seems to be maturing well. — 

 The crop will, however, be curtailed l)y the scab, or blight. ^ The degree of injury caimot be 

 estiinated with even tolerable accuracy, but it can be hardly less than one-fourth. As far aa 

 I am informed the disease is general. It is the same whicli produced such desti'uctiou in the 

 years 1835-36. I have heard ofmst prevailing to a consideiable extent in some partd of the 

 county. It is liard to cninjireliend wliy it is not universal, after the recent bad weather. — 

 Perhaps the cool weather was not favoiable to its extension." 



In my own wheat upon my Nanjemoy plantation, I had but little rust or scab, 

 and that among the most indifferent spots, in basins, and the last sowing on the 

 inferior land. Having had about 500 acres in wheat, it will exceed my average 

 product per acre on the same land. 1 find the advantage of early sowing : this 1 

 was enabled to do by the fly and rust-proof wheat I have raised now for three 

 years. It came originally, as I learn, from Chili, and was obtained by our friend 

 Hon. John Taliaferro from Hon. Dr. Naudain, Ex. U. S. Senator from Delaware. 

 We call it the Taliaferro wheat. Mine was sown from the 17th to the last of 

 September : it has fully sustained its reputation under my observation. 



There has been a general failure in the wheat as far as I can understand along 

 the Piedmont country, through the fertile lands of Loudoun and Faurjuier, as far as 

 the James River, owing chiefly to the scab. Farther south the wheat has sprouted ; 

 and to an extraordinary degree on the plantation of Hon. George McDuffie, in 

 South Carolina. 



My overseer on my canebrake plantation in Alabama writes me : 



" The cotton crop is two or tlu-ee weeks later than last year. We have but few blooms 

 yet : last year there was plenty. We have had a gi-eat deal of rain and fi-eshets that were 

 upon and over a great deal of cotton, whicli injured it veiy much. We have had ahail-stomi 

 that cut the cotton. The prospect looks duU for a good cfitton crop, unless we have a late 

 fall. The cotton looks bad all through tliis neighborhood, and I am told it is the case 

 throughout." 



Such is the report from the most productive cotton region in our country. Our 

 trans-Atlantic friends are unwilling to credit such reports, until they learn their 

 reality by the failure of the general crop, when their incredulity is punished by 

 having to give an advanced price for our staple. No part of our country is more 

 flourishing at this moment than the cotton region referred to ; and the hope is in- 

 dulged that the time is not far distant, when a railroad now in progress, east of 

 the Alabama river, will penetrate it, on its way to the Mississippi, and i)erhaps 

 at no very remote period, to the Pacific, somewhere bordering if not through Cal- 

 ifornia — the object, as I believe, of 



Yours, faitlifuUy, BENJ. OGLE TAYLOE. 



[How little is it given us to foresee many of the heaviest calamities that await us ! In one short week 

 after the preceding reached us, from a pen to which we have been so often and so much indebted, it was 

 the writer's irreparable misfortune to lose tlie partner of his bosom and of his paternal cares— a lady en- 

 dowed with all the most attractive and endearing qualities of her sex. Surely never were the halls of so- 

 cial refinement and domestic liappiness more suddenly and sadly turned into a liouse of mourning ! 



Ed. Farm. Lib.] 



IMPORTED SAXON SHEEP.— Four Saxon bticks and four ewes liave just annved at 

 tliis port, in the ship Atlaiiti(- from lireincti. These superli animals wcri< selected from the 

 celebrated Electoral Hocks in Saxony, hy .loHN A. TAtNTKll, Es(i. of ilartllird. Ooliu. one of 

 the best judges of shec]) and wool in this country. lie was assisted in his ilioici? by Baron 

 DE Spreck, director of the flock. These are by iar the largest and best formed Saxon sheep 

 we ever saw. Their fh^eces are nanarkably fine and evtn, and will shear very heavy. 

 They were purchased for Mr. Samukt. C. Scovillk, of Siilisbury, Conn, for the improve- 

 ment of his present large flock of native Saxons. We consider this iiiipoitaiioii a very im- 

 portant one to the country. [N. V. .Journal of Commerce. 

 (154) 



