THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



283 



In the south the weather may be favorable, 

 when heavy rains occurring after our harvest 

 may injure the northern crop : and on the other 

 hand rains destructive with u?, m;iy be too early 

 to cause any dMrnage 10 the north. Wet wea- 

 ther about the 15ih June would be seriously in- 

 jurious in this latitude. Five hundred miles 

 north of us the same weather might be beneficial. 



I have known incessant and great rains up to 

 the lOih June, succeeded by fine crops of wheat. 



The ijB^ within the ten days immediately 

 pre'-edir^fharvest are the most injurious. 



Someiunes a promising crop is within a lew j 

 hours of being ready lor the scythe, when the 

 rust spreads over the whole of it, diminishing ilie 

 product by one-half or even more. 



From this uncertainty of our climate, no cal- 

 culation can be made of the wheal crop till we 

 are (airly engaged in harvest. 



The Ibllowing is an extract from a memoran- 

 dum kept (or the last fourteen years, twenty miles 

 north of Richmond. 



1828. Began to cut wheat on 9th June. Early 

 or May wheat. 



1829. June 22d, late wheat. 



1830. June loth, wiih a few reapers, with all 

 hands on (he 18th. 



1831. June 20th, do. do. 21st. 



1832. June 23d. 



1833. June 14lh with a (ew reapers, with all 

 hands on the 17ih. 



1834. June 20lh, do. do. 23d. 



1835. June 26th. 



1836. June2Sih. 



1837. June 24ih with a few reapers, with all 

 hands on the 26ih. 



1838. June 25th. 



1839. June 19th with a few reapers, with all 

 hands on the 21sf. 



1840. June 12ih. do. do. 15th. 



1841. June 23d. 



The crop every year after 1828, was exclusive- 

 ly of late wheat, as purple straw, turkey wheat or 

 lawler wheat. The May wheats are generally 

 ten days earlier than the late. The extremes of 

 the time of beginning harvest, (excepting the 

 May wheat in 1828,) are in 1840 the 12ih June, 

 and 1836 the 28ih, making an interval of sixteen 

 days. Tfie crop of 1840 was not a good one, 

 that of 1836 was wretched, and in this year there 

 was a general failure throughout the United 

 Slates. The crops of 1832 and 1838 were the 

 best of tlie series. We usually count on finishing 

 harvest by the 4th July. 



I hope other agricultural papers will furnish 

 similar statements, and if none oi" their correspon- 

 dents can go 80 far back, let us have at least the 

 dates of the harvest lor the present year. 



Your readers would be pleased to know par- 

 ticularly when the harvest begins in North Ca- 

 rolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, 

 Michigan, Ohio and Missouri. W. 



May 29th, 1842. 



We ask attention to this suggestion, and aid 

 to the proposed measure. We will furnish our 

 mite of practical experience thereto, very soon. 

 —Ed. F. R. 



ADDRESS BKFORE THE CAYUGA COUNTY AGRI- 

 CULTL'RAT, SOCIETY, AT AUBURN, N. Y., 

 FEBRUARY 1, 1842. 



By David Thomas. 



Geologists inform us that soils were chiefly de- 

 rived from the wear and tear — the disintegration 

 and decomposition of solid rocks. In some tracts 

 of country, the soil is nearly identical with the 

 rock that immediately underlays if, or partakes 

 laro-ely of its nature ; but such occurrences are 

 rare in this county. So extremely active was 

 the d'luse that swept over and rounded our 

 highest hills, that many a .square league of stony 

 strata was en'irely buried by materials that 

 drifted from other parts of the country, and 

 which have no resemblance to the rocks they 

 cover. 



Favorably for the southern parts of our coun- 

 ty, that deluge came from the north, sweeping 

 over a limestone region, and depositing, in its 

 course over our barren state, the rich collecdon 

 it had made. And here let us stop to consider: 

 if that flood had come in an opposite direction, 

 bringing along the unproductive detritus of the 

 mountains, instead of our fertile fields, and 

 flocks and herds, we might have witnessed no- 

 thing more inviting than scrub oak plains, and a 

 lew wandering deer. 



Like other floods, however, its deposites were 

 irregular, as its velocity was increased or re- 

 tarded — as it whirled into eddies, or rushed on- 

 ward in its course. Pure clay, indeed, can scarce- 

 ly be found in this (ormation ; but all the varieties 

 of loam, whether clayey, sandy or gravelly, 

 occur ; and some deep beds of both sand and 

 gravel, are so pure as not to discolor the water 

 into which they are thrown. 



Such instances however are rare ; and the 

 grinding and mixing of so many instances by 

 that deluge, have been eminently beneficial to 

 our farms. No soil is fertile, says Humphry 

 Davy, " that contains as much as 19 parts out 

 of 20, of any one material or constituent." On 

 the contrary, soils that contain mixtures of 

 many things, are generally very fertile, — provid- 

 ed that clay, lime, and sand, form a large share 

 of the mass. When you see, therefore, old mor- 

 tar, the sweepings of the smith shop, or leached 

 ashes thrown into the highway, you may safely 

 conclude that the owner is greatly in want of 

 instruction. These are excellent manures, and 

 permanent in their efl'ects. 



Perhaps some would ask, why are different 

 things necessary to constitute a fertile soil 7 Al- 

 low me to answer in the language of Dr. Jack- 

 son's Geological Report on Rhode Island ; 

 " Chemical science arranges all bodies as electro- 

 positive, or electro-negative. The electro-positive 

 are always the alkaline or basic substances, 

 while the acids are always electro-negative when 

 brought in contact with matters of the positive 

 class. If a soil is wholly positive or negative 

 in its nature, it fails to be fertile ; and when one 

 power greatly predominates over the other, it is 

 not in its most favored condition. Silex is re- 

 garded as an acid, and alumina, lime, magnesia, 

 iron, and the alkalies, are its opposites." 



According to this view, the soil may be con- 

 sidered as a vast galvanic battery. "It is ren- 



