AST ADDRESS, &C. Xi 



The consequences of the weather I have noticed were 

 such as might be expected. The crops of Indian corn and 

 of grass were very short. It is calculated that not above 

 one third of the usual produce of an acre has been obtained 

 from either, in the state of Pennsylvania or even in the 

 warm soil of the sandy parts of New Jersey. In the vici- 

 nity of Philadelphia however, I have observed, that upon 

 w 1! manured lots, the produce was quite as good as usual. 

 In some parts of Maryland, and in the northern and eastern 

 States the corn failed entirely. "Wheat barley and oats 

 have been as productive as common, except where the 

 first named grain was much injured by its old enemy the 

 insect, absurdly called Hessian-fly: — another proof that a 

 cold winter has no influence in destroying that pest. Buck- 

 wheat, always a precarious crop, was severely injured. Oats 

 were generally much better than common, and as this fact 

 offers a useful deduction, I deem it proper particularly to 

 notice it. It is well known, that in the United States 

 oats seldom attain that degree of size and plumpness which 

 are observed in that grain in Britain,* owing to the rapidity 

 with which the heads fill, and the lateness of the season 

 at which they are sown. But the cool season just passed* 

 by causing the slow growth of that plant, permitted 

 the filling of the heads, and their maturity to progress 

 simultaneously, thus doing away the injurious effects, 

 which, but for the season, would have as usual follow- 

 ed the late day at which they were sown. The con- 

 clusion I draw from these faots is, that we are taught 



* This remark applies in particular to oats, long naturalized in our coun- 

 try. But it does not apply to the fine oats that was imported from En- 

 gland within a few years, and sown in the vicinity of Philadelphia, by the 

 late Mr. McMahon, who shewed that in five years, it suffered no diminution 

 in quality; and samples are now in the cabinet of the Agricultural Society 

 which would do credit to the markets of London, Dublin or Edinburgh. 



