THE FARMER'S REGISTER. 



617 



will now be presented for consideration, and which 

 haa been entirely created and is maintained by 

 legislation, and which may be generally removed 

 or greatly mitigated, to the advantage olall parlies 

 concerned, merely by different legislation. The 

 great political sin which continues the- nuisances 

 of unhealthy swamps is one ol the legislative 

 omission merely. But the sliil grea'er evil, healih 

 destroying mill-ponds, which will be next present- 

 ed, is a Bin ol legislative commission in all respects. 



NOTES ON THE SANDY POINT ESTATE. NO. VI. 



To Ihe Editor of tlie Farmers' Register. 



" p; Sandy Point, Nov. 26, 1842. 

 In my last communication to the Register a 

 statement was made ot the quantities of wheat 

 sown on this estate in fall ol 1841. Throughout the 

 remarkably mild winter which (bllowed, Uiis crop 

 maintained a very promising appearance until the 

 last week in March, when a succession Of frosts 

 lor five or six nights caused it to assume a very 

 yellow appearance, with the tops of the leaves ol 

 the larger proportion of it entirely ki led. By the 

 8ih of April i's appearance was greatly improved ; 

 on the lOi h, Hessian fly was first observed amongst 

 the earliest sown wheat, and on portions of that 

 sown in November on corn ground; and by the 

 19th, the wheat on fallow land, sown between the 

 Ist and 10th of October, exhibited evident symp- 

 toms of injury from this pest; by the first of 

 May the portion of the crop was reduced in con- 

 sequence fully one-half^ All the other portions of 

 the crop had by this time improved most-gratify- 

 ingly. And this appearance was fijily and im- 

 provingly maintained throughout the residue ol 

 its growth ; on the 30th of May amongst the 

 small portion of rock wheat sown, smut was 

 very general, as also indications of rust. I may 

 add here that the result of the small experiment 

 made here of this variety of wheat was a failure. 

 On the 3d of June, spots of rust were observa- 

 ble throughout much of the crop; and by the 

 8th had extended over almost the entire breadth 

 of white turkey wheat. Amongst the purple 

 straw variety, its progress was much fslower, 

 though of sufficient extent to cause considerable 

 and just alarm. One lot of 20 acres of this variety 

 of wheat, sown after corn, having a heavj' growt.h, 

 was entirely ruined. This disease once in a wheat 

 crop, no limits can be set to its learlul ravages, 

 nor any estimate formed as to the probable result 

 of a crop into which it has entered, until subjected 

 to measurement. It was hoped here that as this 

 disease did not generally attack the crop until it 

 had been nearly matured, that the injury would 

 have been slight, the result however was the 

 reverse; its progress after the commencement of 

 harvest was rapid, and it did appear to me that 

 the grain was even injured after being shocked. 

 Reaping was begun on the 16ih and finished on 

 the 2Sili of June, and proved to be a most un- 

 propitious season for harvest operations. During 

 the entire time occupied, only three days occurred 

 in which rain did not fall. Rust made frightful 

 progress, and from the difficulty in getting the 

 wheat dried, the entire loss of a' large portion of 

 Vol. X.-65 



the crop was oftener than once anticipated, the 

 labor of harvesting was greatly increased, and 

 much time unavoidably lost. Tiie aclua I time 

 engaged in reaping amounted to only 6^- daya 

 out of' the 13 during- which harvest operations 

 were protracted. In clibrls to save the wheat, much 

 of it was rather premaiureiy put into shock ; the 

 consequence was a very large proportion of these 

 had again to be pulled down, slieaves untied, and 

 the wheat spread out. In many instances this 

 pulling down and re-opening had to be repealed at 

 a heavy expense of labor and vexatious loss of 

 time ; nor was the whole considered in a sale con- 

 dition until the 14th of July, during which time 

 daily exaiTiinations had to be made and shocks 

 pulled down. A great many of these became 

 mouldy, straw much injured, and the grain also 

 doubtless nothing benefited. The entire number 

 of shocks amounted to 0942, Thrashing of the 

 crop was begun on the 25th of July, and finished 

 on the 9th of September; during which period 

 much rain again fell — the cause not only of much 

 loss of lirne, but ol" injury to the wheat from 

 sprouting in the shock. In this respect, however, 

 ihe io33 sustained was much less than from the 

 urifavorable condition of the weather, generally, 

 there was reason to have anticipated. 



From what has been stated above it is almost 

 superfluous lor me to say that the results of the 

 entire crop were any thing but satisfactory, being 

 under, rather than over, tv/o-thirds of what, from 

 the. generally good growth of straw, and at one 

 time promising appearance of the greater portion 

 of the crop, might have been reasonably expected. 

 Deliveries of the. grain have not yet been com- 

 pleted, nor the exact quantities ascertained. The 

 yield of the purple straw variety will average 

 about eight bushels lor one bushel sown ; that 

 from the whiie turkey little if any above lour lor 

 one. Thuuglv the purple straw variety suffered 

 much from rust, it suffered little in comparison to 

 that of the while turkey, v/hich was alao the first 

 to be .so affected, though of a less dense and heavy 

 growth, the same results have been experienced 

 for the past two or three years. The sowing of 

 that variety is for the present at least abandoned. 

 Of the wheat (pur|)le straw) sown on oat and pea 

 fallovv,'side by side, on soil .of equal quality, that 

 on pea fallow yielded, as nearly as could be judged 

 by the eye, not less than one-fourth more than that 

 sown on the oat fallow, and was also a much 

 plumper and heavier lookingr grain. On the oat 

 fallow, in the beginning of May, nearly every 

 plant of wheat was found to be atiected by Hes- 

 sian fly, while on the pea fallow scarcely any 

 could be detected, though only divided by a fur- 

 row. Rust a!so prevailed more on the oat than 

 the .pea jallow, though the growth of straw was 

 much thejieavie*t on the latter. I mention the 

 facts, but cannot attempt to assign any reason 

 ■why (he one epecies of fi+liow should be affected to 

 a greater exten', both by Hessian fly and rust, than 

 the other. Clover was sown on portions of both 

 these fallows on which mar! had been applied 

 previous to sowing the wheat. So far as could be 

 observed, the seed tnade an equally good start 

 on both ; but, when the wheat was reaped, the 

 stand of clover on the oat fallow was greatly supe- 

 rior to that on the pea ; by the end of July that 

 on the pea fallow fiad much improved, and waa 

 apparently in every respeci equal to that on the 



