78 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



deferred, because it is to be supposed that no choice is left to the farmer, for this 

 year : hence we need now only allude to the fact, so well known, that while 

 some lands are much more productive than others in the yield of Indian corn, to- 

 bacco, cotton, rice and other crops, they fall infinitely below these others in wheat. 

 As to the different varieties of wheat, each farmer must be left to his choice, 

 and little can be said beyond what every one knows, to guide him in his selec- 

 tion. For ourselves, we are the less disposed to indicate any particular one ab- 

 solutely, seeing how liable all varieties are to be affected and changed by change 

 of soil and locality, even from the eastern to the western shore of the Chesa- 

 peake Bay. Oh ! that we could speak on this and other points illustrative of 

 wheat husbandry, with the pen and the experience of our friend the Farmer of 



In our country, the wheat which possesses the highest character for the excel- 

 lence of its family flour, is the lohiLe wheat of the eastern shore of Maryland, 

 perhaps, particularly that of Talbot County, and that which comes to the cele- 

 brated Richmond mills, from the shores of the James River below them. In the 

 iState of Nevir-York, General Harmon has gained deserved and enviable celebrity 

 by his persevering attention to this and other important branches of his country's 

 industry. 



But admitting this liability in wheat to change of character by simple transla- 

 tion to situations and soils less congenial to the perfect development of its most 

 valuable properties, yet how easy for the farmer to recur again and again, even 

 from year to year, to the district and the grower who produces for him a kind 

 which on trial even for a single season he finds will well reward the trouble and 

 expense of thus procuring it? Ay, and should not even the reputation of sending 

 a crop of superior quality to his market be its own sufficient inducement and re- 

 ward for a right minded, honorably ambitious young farmer ? How much more 

 compatible with the public welfare would be that sort of ambition ! How much 

 wiser in a people and government to stimulate, and encourage, and succor it, 

 than to bestow all honors and applause on those who figure in the foreground of 

 enterprises that consume the substance of the people, and that, while they beget 

 individual misery and national hatreds, must be recorded in the blood of our fel- 

 low creatures ! 



In reference to the soil and the choice of seed, we may aptly quote again Rev. 

 W. L. Rham, who dwells on the importance of making a good selection, saying, 



" Some fai-mers like to change llieir seed often ; others sow the produro of theii- own land 

 continually, Jtnd both seem persuaded tliat tlieir own j'lan is the best. 'J'he fact is, tliat it is 

 not always the finest wheat that nudvcs tlie best seed, but it depends on the nature uf the 

 soil on which it grew. Some soils are renowned, lar and wide, for producing good seed, and 

 it is well known that this seed degenerates in other soils, so that tlie original soil is resorted 

 to for fi-esh seed. Many places have been no'.'d for this pecidiarity, and among ihem we 

 may mention the parish of Burwell in Camb'idgeshire. The wheat wliicli gi-ows there is 

 mostly sold for seed, at a piicc considerably at. ve the average." 



At the' hazard of protracting this a -.icle to an unreasonahlt length, we must 

 yet copy from the author just referred to what seems worthy of attention on this 

 point : 



" It has been asserted of late, iuid we have no reason to doubt the assertion, that the vari- 

 ous noted seed-wheats, when analyze<l, are found t<i contain the ditVerent elements of which 

 they are composed in ntnirly the siurie proportion, especially tlie stiurh and gluten. For 

 bread, that which contains most gluten is preferred, as we obsen-ed before ; but to produce 

 a perfect vegetation, there should be no excess of this subsUiiice, nor auy deficiency. The 

 seed also should have come to perfect maturily. 'I'his lust is usually ol>taiiied by beating 

 tlie sheaves over a block of wood or a cask, without untying them, by which nieaus the 

 ripest needs lull out. The proportiou between the starch and glutcu is eaaily ascertained by 

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