No. 200] 117 



the old salt from your meat or fish casks, if you have it. The old 

 salt is most readily dissolved. Put in one, two, or three bushels of 

 your seed wheat, mix well with the brine, skim off all the chess, foul 

 seeds, &c. which rise to the top. The brine should cover the seed 

 wheat three inches deep. Stir up the wheat occasionally with a stick ; 

 let the wheat be in the brine three or four Jiours ; then draw off the 

 brine and lay the wheat on an inclined surface, that the brine may all 

 run ofi'; then to each bushel of wheat add three or four quarts of air 

 slaked lime, and then rake and shovel the wheat, so that every grain 

 becomes coated with lime, and the grains separated from each other 

 as much as possible. If you have no lime, use unleached ashes. 

 You must measure the wheat before you prepare it. You will find it 

 diflficult to hold in your hand as much of the prepared wheat as is ne- 

 cessary, owing to its increased bulk. It is therefore better to sow 

 twice and at right angles. That is, after the first sowing, sow again 

 across the first sowing. You will thus have it more even, and will 

 sow sufficient seed, which is rarely the case. When you have pre- 

 pared your land well, then use plenty oj good seed — a virtue rarely 

 practiced in this part of the vjorld ! The object of all this prepara- 

 tion is to destroy all the smutt, (which it does,) and all the eggs of 

 insects. The salt and lime also act as stimulating manures to the 

 grain, and greatly invigorate it in the early stage of its growth. 



Northampton, Jan. 15, 1846. 

 T. B. Wakeman, Esq.: 



While perusing the paper which yon sent me, I was reminded of 

 some facts connected with the settlement of the town of Springfield, 

 about the year 1636, under William Pyncheon, with whom came my 

 ancestor Rowland Stebbins. The first settlers had lands set apart for 

 them. The Stebbins family, among other things, had assigned to 

 them an alluvial tract on Connecticut river, called Three-corner Mea- 

 dow ; this being annually enriched by the overflow of the river, requi- 

 red no manure to yield twenty bushels of corn an acre, and proportion- 

 ably of rye. This meadow was plowed by running the furrows east 

 and west. Another meadow adjoining was of same quality. A divi- 

 sion of the meadows took place, and one piece being narrow, it be- 

 came necessary to change the direction of the plowing from north and 

 south to east and west. After ibis change the land did not, for twen- 

 ty years, possess the same ability to give good crops, although dress 



