THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



89 



If it were not that our intelligent and highly 

 esteeaied correspondent had so much mistaken 

 our remarks, at page 17 of this volume, we should 

 deem it sufficient to refer to those remarks for our 

 defence against his charges. It is strange indeed 

 that we may not dare to denounce humbuggeryj 

 even where every inleiligent and candid observer 

 will admit it exists, without being deemed an 

 opposer and enemy of the really valuable improve- 

 ment on which the humbug is built. We have re- 

 peatedly, and especially in our remarks in ques- 

 tion, admitted our belief in the Berlcshire hog 

 being a valuable breed, and of course its in- 

 troduction and diffusion being an important bene- 

 fit to agriculture; and so far aa our interest is 

 now connected with practical agriculture, we 

 have acted on that belief, by beginning to raise 

 Berkshires, though thereby supplanting another 

 previously very highly prized breed. Neverthe- 

 less, this favorable opinion is not incompatible 

 with efhother, to wit, that this breed of hogs has 

 been praised and puffed much more than it de- 

 serves, and to subserve the self-interested views 

 of salesmen ; that there has been a deal of puff- 

 ing, falsehood, and deception, for this same end, 

 and that too practised by some of the most noted 

 breeders and salesmen ; and, in short, that there 

 has been so much humbuggery practised in this 

 respect, by those salesmen, that they, while 

 filling their pockets at the expense of their dupes, 

 have almost stifled the truth, and hid the real value 

 of the breed, by the overlayings of falsehood. We 

 know how much mankind dislike to be made to 

 know that they are cheated ; and that he who 

 cheats them will always fare better in their opi- 

 nion than he who endeavors to expose the cheat. 

 But while we expect, and are resigned to ihe 

 fate of getting '' more kicks than coppers," or 

 more curses than thanks, for our attempts to ex- 

 pose humbug, it is inconceivable to us how such 

 a man as Mr. Turner can so far misconstrue our 

 course and its object, and consider us as; opposing 

 true improvements of stock, or improvements of 

 any branch of agriculture, because we oppose, 

 and try (vainly) to expose, those who are per- 

 petually using such real or alleged improvements 

 to make dupes, and obtain ill-gotten gain for them- 

 selves. When we have to seek for the true be- 

 nefactors of agriculture, it will not be among the 

 Bements and the Lossings, any moie than the 

 1 horburns, the Physicks, the Princes and the 

 Morrises. 



Absence from home, when the letter of Mr. Tur- 

 ner was put in type, prevented these remarks being 

 placed at the close of his communication, as would 

 have been more appropriate.— Ed. F. K 

 Vol. X.-12 



THE ADAPTATION OF PARTICULAR WHEATS 

 TO PARTICULAR LOCALITIES. — PATENT MA- 

 CHINES. 



For the Farmers' Register. 



In a late number of the Register, Mr, Carter 

 suggested the benefit to be derived from the 

 change of seed wheat. On a former occasion, I 

 endeavored to draw attention to this subject, and 

 finding that it has now attracted some notice, I 

 shall give an account of the wheat most success- 

 fully grown here. From my early recollection 

 till the year 1798, when the Hessian fly first made 

 its appearance in this district of country, the white 

 Wasfiington was the general crop, lis destruc- 

 tive ravages induced many farmers to try other va- 

 rieties ; but it was soon found that this pestilent 

 insect made little distinction. The late Col. Ed- 

 ward Hays, of Talbot, who was much devoted to 

 agriculture, and fond of experiments, for some 

 years abandoned the growth of Washington 

 wheat : he afterwards got seed of me ; and said, 

 at a later period, he had tried many varieties, but 

 had (bund none so valuable, and productive, as the 

 Washington wheat. The grain is white, and 

 makes the best family flour; the straw is soft, and 

 both horses and cattle prefer it to any other 

 wheat straw. It only grows well in salt-water 

 districts. If carried into the interior it degenerates, 

 loses its color, and becomes chaffy. For the last 

 fifty years to which my recollection runs, this has 

 been the principal crop on the farm where I now 

 reside, till last year. About six years age, sup- 

 posing that changing seed with a neighbor might 

 be beneficial, I got a few bushels of the same sort 

 of wheat. Though he was ignorant of it, his 

 wheat contained a small portion of smut, which 

 soon infected all my white wheats; and alter 

 some fruitless attempts to clean it, I was under the 

 necessity of abandoning its growth. Some of my 

 neighbors, who have suffered in the same way, 

 are now raising seed picked by hand, and as soon 

 as I get pure seed, I shall sow it again. I have 

 supposed this wheat would suit on some of the 

 salt-water districts in Virginia. About thirty 

 years ago, a wheat was introduced here, and is 

 known by the name of the red chaff beard, I ap- 

 prehend the same mentioned by Mr. Carter. It 

 seems adapted to a variety of soils, and is more 

 generally grocvn in this county than any other. 

 It ripens early, though sown late ; and suffers 

 less by the firost, especially on low, wet grounds. 

 For these properties, it has been part of my crop 

 for many years, though it sells at a much inferior 

 price in the Baltimore market. When my white 

 wheat was infected with smut, though this was 

 thrashed by the same machine, cleaned with the 

 same fan, and stored in the same granary, it did 

 not contract the disease. An experienced farmer, 

 .0 whom I mentioned this circumstance, informed 

 me that his white and red wheat had been equally 

 infected. 



A farmer always incurs risk by changing seed. 

 When I abandoned the growth of Washington 

 wheat, I purchased white flint from a gentleman 

 in the neighborhood, who got the seed from New 

 York in 1836, and had grown it exclusively on 

 his farm. He had no suspicion of smut ; but upon 

 careful examination, I found it to contain a small 

 portion, and declined sowing it. I then procured 

 Penneylvania white wheat, which han been lately 



