WHEAT ITS DISEASES, &C. IGl 



ever comes well authenticated. Some years ago I read an essay which emanated 

 from the Society of Useful Knowk'dsre in England, by a Mr. Hayward, in which 

 it was slated that to sow wheat ol the preceding year was an elTectual prevent- 

 ive of smut. Not long since, conversing with an old Bay-side farmer, he remarked 

 incidentally that he had no opinion of steeps curing smut. There was but one 

 way in his opinion — sowing wheat two years old. "Have you ever tried it ? " 

 said I. " Yes, and I had no smut." This is the only case that has come to my 

 knowledge of its trial in this country. This man never peeped into an agricul- 

 tural journal in his life ; and, if I were to propose to him a subscription to Tiik 

 Farmers' Library, he would set me down as demented. Important facts in 

 Agriculture are often obtained from humble sources, and such a fact as the above 

 is worthy of being recorded. Attention to details is indispensable in all farming 

 operations — success largely depends upon it. I will not trouble you with my 

 simple process, having already occupied too mucii space. 



For the honor of our Shore, I will trespass a moment longer. A member of 

 our Board recently spent a night with a venerable man — Gen. Potter, of Caroline 

 — now far declined in the vale of life. In the course of conversation the General 

 said to him that, many years ago, the British Government appointed an agent to 

 visit the various wheat-growing regions of the earth, to examine their relative 

 merits. The aforesaid agent was at his house, and remarked to him that, after 

 traveling over Europe and the United States, he had come to the conclusion that 

 the best wheat he had ever seen grew on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. This 

 was, doubtless, in those days when the old Virginia white wheat produced such 

 beautiful and abundant crops. And must we now be reduced to the necessity ot 

 growing the dark, thick-skinned Mediterranean, to be certain of living ? What 



a calamity ! Most respectfully, yours, THE FARMER OF OTWELL. 



1^* Seeing that, in the culture of wheat, early maturity is a desideratum, there would 

 appear to be no doubt of the importance of obtaining seed-wheat of the best quality from as 

 far north as possible ; and this might easily be doue by fanners uniting to engage or import 

 it, through the agency of mercantile houses trading with the north of Europe. 



No fact is better known than the rapid growth of all plants in high latitudes. Even in our 

 northernmost States, and in Canada, the bm^t of spring, the splendor of summer, and the 

 maturity and incipient decay of autumn, follow each other with a swiftness scarcely credi- 

 ble. It is f;\rther observ'ed by the same English writer on this subject (and is not the obser 

 vation equally applicable to our own countrj' ? ) that 



"The com [grain] sown to-day is in a very few weeks ready for the sickle ; and tlie higher the 

 latitude where it can be made to grow, the shorter is the period it requires for its growth and 

 ripening. Corn which has been grown in the extreme north, when used as seed in a southenj 

 country, gives its first produce more speedily, ripening in a much shorter time, although at a sec- 

 ond sowing it loses this quality. This fact has been recognized, and is acted upon pretty exten- 

 sively in this country, it being commonly recommended to obtain seed from colder situations than 

 those in which it is intended to be sown. In Sweden, corn is annually brought for seed from 

 Torneo (in the north of the gulf of Bothnia, and almost within the arctic circle), and sown in lauds 

 so much exposed that the sowing time is thrown so late that corn, excepting from seed thus ob- 

 tained, has no time to ripen. Districts formerly, on this account, utterly barren, are thus rendered 

 fruitful." 



It would be very ea.sy to obtain seed-wheat from Canada, at least, or from Maine, if not 

 from northern Europe. 



On the principle here advanced, the Irish import their flax-seed from Riga. Vegetables, 

 as well as animals, acquire habits suited to the cUmates where they are raised ; which habits 

 are transmissible for some years after emigration, but are sooner or later lost, in conformity 

 with that law of Nature under wliich the cUmate v^-ill ultimately change all anini;il and vege- 

 table productions, and coerce tliem to conform to its superior force. Even on the human sys- 

 tem, the author of Vestiges of Creation remarks that 



" the style of living is ascertained to have a powerful effect in modifying the human figure in tlie 

 coarse of generations, and this even in its osseous structure." 



Has nobody obserN'ed that the cliildren of poor people, who lead a precarious life, subsisting 

 on fish and oysters jmd clams, in pincy wood, along creek shores, have generally dead-look- 

 ing, wliite hair ? 



The Cuba tobacco loses its peculiar fragrance, more and more, on being transplanted to a 

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