,174 MONTULY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



PROFESSOR OF AGRICULTURE FOR YALE COLLEGE. 



Among the most auspicious signs for the cause of Agriculture is the appoint- 

 ment, recently, of J. P. Norton, Esq. to an Agricultural Professorship in Yale 

 College, Connecticut. 



Mr. I^orton had the fine spirit and good sense to go, some years since, to Edin- 

 burgh, the head-quarters of chemical science as applied to Agriculture, and has 

 there had the advantage of pursuing the study under the ablest teachers, as well 

 in the field as in the laboratory ; and we shall be mistaken in the tokens of an im- 

 proving public taste, if his class at College be not as numerous as he can do jus- 

 lice to. But we should suppose he would be demanded, if to be had, for the 

 Smithsonian Institute, at Washington. 



There must be a beginning to everything ; and we apprehend the beginning 

 is now, when Agriculture will no longer lag in the rear of other pursuits, either 

 m public opinion or in the fostering care of the Governments, of the States, if 

 not of the Union. Is there any good reason why the people should be taxed for 

 educating two or three hundred every year, and to whom life commissions and 

 good pay are to be given, to strengthen our arms for wa?-, and yet not give one 

 dollar to teach (without afterward giving them commissions and pay for life) 

 and qualify men to go teaching surveying, and mapping, and the art of road- 

 making and bridge-building, and chemistry, and mineralogy, and botany, and 

 natural history, and all applications of the arts to industrial pursuits, which 

 would promote a better knowledge of Agriculture, manufactures and commerce ? 



If the people had sense and self-respect enough to compel their Representa- 

 tives to expend one-fourth as much for the dissemination of useful knoidedge 

 and the perfection of the industrial arts as they now expend every year on war 

 and warlike objects, the time would soon arrive when all wanton promoters of 

 War would be dreaded and doomed as so many mad dogs. 



UNCERTAINTY OF THE WHEAT CROP. 



"Berries of Wheat." — We hope neither this expression, nor miy cockncj-ism, may 

 grow into use among our agricultural writers. Blackbemes and whortlebemes, iuiJ even 

 bt>rries of grapes — but not hemes of wheat. Is it not enough to say, tlie grahi of the wheat 

 is smootli, or I'ound, or red, or white ? 

 Extract of a Letter, dated " Taibot County, Md. 17th Sept. 1846. 



" I don't know what to do niyst;lf ; I Ir.ive never known so much uncertaint\- mimifested 

 by fanners in mv life — ^l)y men," too, liaving nmch practical experience. Since I wTote you 

 Ihave ascertained the jiroduct of my Klus.i Blue S/cm Wheal. I procured 10 buslieLs of 

 seed; it was seeded on fair, good land, and yielded just 3-i bushels, three titnes tln-()u>,'h the 

 fan. Another fartner sihmIccI .'J bu.shels on well-prepared fallow, al)out the middle of Sep- 

 leinbi^r, and got but lOh : it was desUoyed by tly. (ien. T., on ihi! odier hand, made a 

 fine cr()p of this wheat' the seed obtained from tlie same source. Of tlie several viu-ietie« 

 alluded to as having been seeded by a young farmer near me, the Kloss was the best, and 

 the famed China, or Hardware, good for nothing. Again, another f;u-mer, who had Mediter- 

 ranean, Kloss anil llersluiy aU growing in the same held, infonned me reeeullv tiial the latter 

 had proved the most ])roduclive. And yet another, who had the roli.sli, which is a beauti- 

 ful wliitc wheat, and llershey growing in the same held, the latter vyas so white <uul tine 

 that he mixed it with the other, and expected to get the maximum price for the best family 

 Hour ; and T. have no doid)t that he will, from tl»e rei)resenlalion of .-.everal to me who luve 

 eeen it. Tlius you see the great uncertiiiuty of the wheat crop with us, :uul the necessity 

 of throwing out all the light which can be shed upcu the s'>l).iert." 

 (3WiJ 



