1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



255 



character on the Pamunkey, where I derived my 

 specimen, of being peculiarly adapted to low 

 grounds, but is not otherwise considered a very 

 productive kind. I understand it is exempt from 

 the strut, as it is called in this neighborhood, to 

 which the purple straw is unfortunately so liable. 

 While on the subject of wheat permit me to 

 ask, through you, a description of the " Washing- 

 ton white wheat" of Maryland. Is it a bearded 

 wheat, resembling at maturity, while standing in 

 the field, the golden chaff? I received a barrel 

 last fall, selected with some care, in Baltimore, un- 

 der that name, which accords with the above de- 

 scription, but has turned out very indifferently, 

 • whence I infer that there may have been amis- 

 take 



[The two samples of wheat seem, both in grain and 

 head, to be precisely alike. Until receiving this sample 

 of "blue stem," and finding it a white wheat, we had 

 been deceived by that name, and supposed that it was 

 meant for the "purple straw," of which the name is 

 equally descriptive. Thus it frequently happens, from 

 the confusion in agricultural nomenclature, that a term 

 known to every body in one part of the country, is 

 either unknown, oris applied to something else, at the 

 distance of a hundred miles, or less.] 



PROSPECT OF SEASON AND CROPS. 



From all the information received, there is but little 

 doubt left of a general loss in the wheat crop of Vir- 

 ginia, of between one-half and two-thirds. In Lower 

 Virginia, we have heard of good crops no where, ex- 

 cept in the neighborhood of Williamsburg— and all 

 were not good even in that small space. The sufferers 

 in such cases are apt to be persuaded that their losses 

 are greater than afterwards may be found true — and 

 besides, we have only statements limited to particular 

 farms, or at most, particular regions of the state. But 

 our reports all came from known and highly respecta- 

 ble correspondents, and are in every case made as 

 correctly as the writers' lights have permitted. In 

 this respect, they stand on a very different footing 

 from the usual reports which appear in commercial 

 newspapers, and which often are written by dealers 

 and speculators, with the view of affecting prices for 

 their private gain. 



The crops of wheat in Pennsylvania are fine — and 

 so it is lately said of New Jersey, and at least part of 

 New York. The price in Virginia therefore cannot 

 be as high as is generally supposed. 



The corn in Lower Virginia now promises a good 

 harvest. But much of its present luxuriance is owing 

 to the recent frequent and abundant rains, which have 

 produced a degree of succulence which will be the 

 source of greater injury to the crop, should a severe 

 drought occur in August. The uncertainty of the re- 

 sult, and the risk of diminished product is not lessened, 

 but increased, by the present fine appearance of the 

 growth. 



July 29, 1835. 



Lynchburg, July 9lh, 1835. 



A terrible tempest of wind, rain and hail 

 passed over the centre of this place on the 27th of 



June, and in its range totally destroyed wheat, rye, 

 oats, corn, and garden vegetables, and broke all 

 the window glass which was exposed. Twenty- 

 five birds, mostly doves, were found dead under 

 one tree in a field near town. Much of the hail 

 was solid, and large and heavy as hens' eogs; and 

 several credible gentlemen say they saw stones 

 big as a man's fist. It was something over a mile 

 wide, and commenced in Botetourt, filly miles or 

 so west of this, and continued, I know not how 

 far down. A similar storm, reported in the En- 

 quirer, on the same day in Chesterfield, was prob- 

 ably a continuation of the same cloud. 



Abbeville, S. C, Uth July, 1835. 



The crops in this section of South Carolina, are 

 more backward than it was ever known — and 

 what I affirm of them here, may be justly predi- 

 cated of them throughout the state. Our great 

 staple, cotton, has been retarded in its growth by 

 the lingering of winter in the bosom of spring. 

 Planters commenced to commit their seed to the 

 earth at the usual Time in April, but the coldness 

 of the soil produced by a winter of unparalleled 

 rigor, and the hard chilling rains which succeeded 

 the planting, destroyed the vegetative, principle of 

 many of the seeds, and caused, what is here term- 

 ed, a "bad stand." These unpropitious circum- 

 stances, made the plants that did protrude through 

 the crust of the ground, puny and sickly; thus 

 rendering it almost indispensable to replant. The 

 reward of the planter's toil now depends much 

 upon the subsequent season, and the late arrival 

 of frost in autumn. Indian corn, which is a more 

 hardy plwt, and can endure tribulations that 

 would be death to its more tender neighbor, cot- 

 ton, exhibits a more flattering prospect, except in 

 such vicinities as have been visited by a drought 

 of long continuance. But the rains begin now to 

 descend in copious showers, and if they continue, 

 corn crops will, no doubt, yield well. The oats 

 are in general good, and have just been harvested. 

 There was an almost total failure of the wheat 

 crop. The intense cold of the winter killed it 

 almost entirely, and some of that which did sur- 

 vive, was injured by the rust. The quantity raised 

 will not near supply the demand for home con- 

 sumption. Flour is now selling from nine to ten 

 dollars the barrel. We must look to the north to 

 supply the demand. Wheat with us has proved 

 generally an uncertain crop — but I cannot avoid 

 believing, that this is owing to a very defective 

 preparation of the soil, and a want of attention to 

 the selection of proper seed — though I will not 

 venture to assert, that our southern climate is as 

 congenial to its growth as a more northern one. 



King George, July 13, 1835. 



I am just finishing my harvest — the latest with- 

 in the memory of our old men — and the most un- 

 profitable. I do not think that I shall make more 

 than one-third of an average crop. One-third of 

 my crop was a clover fallow, the product of which 

 will probably equal that of the balance, which was 

 sown upon the best of the corn land. My esti- 

 mate is, that the fallow will bring only tour for one. 

 The fly did me infinitely more mischief than the 

 excessive cold of the winter. I observe that the 

 wheat was better where the clover was plastered. 



