438 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



Farmer. For unless the plates were executed 

 with the minutest precision and colored like na- 

 ture, a person unacquainted with botany would 

 tind it difficult sometimes to delermine to which 

 of two or three similar species his plant is to be 

 referred. Plates prepared with the requisite ac- 

 curacy would be too expensive for (general use, 

 while coarse uncolored figures would be of little 

 service. 



And I am disposed to believe that every person 

 who has interest enough in the niatierto i)urchase 

 a very costly work, would not hesitate to take the 

 trouble of collecung the known grasses in his 

 viciniiy and get them labelled properly by means 

 ol' some central herbarium lo which he can have 

 access. Alter that, his doubts are at an end. 



JVly friend. Pro!! Short, I doubt not, will very 

 willingly label plants lor Mr. Stevenson, and Dr. 

 Darlington for Mr. Skinner, i will vviih pleasure 

 perlorm that service lor you, and I presume every 

 editor of an aajriculiural paper ia the country 

 will find no difficulty in securing the aid of some 

 good botanist to give authentic names to his col- 

 lection of plants. And when this is done, each 

 botanist can report the scientific and vulgar 

 names of the grasses of his district in the agricul- 

 tural paper, which can be copied into others. 

 The knowledge of a g'od part of the country on 

 this subject can thus be gaihered up in the least 

 troublesome manner, and if necessary be subse- 

 quently condensed and arranged by some compe- 

 tent hand. 



Dr. Darlington is certainly right in the matter 

 of learning the technical names of grasses. 

 They sound uncouth to an ear accustomed only 

 to the English, but ihey make but little if any 

 heavier draught upon the memory ihan any other 

 neiv words. Farmers, I find, have learned to 

 •utter morus multicaulis with all the fluency of a 

 botanist. 



You and your Viriiinirt correspondents are very 

 familiar wiih such terms as " wire-grass,'' " hen- 

 grass," and the like, but they are sealed terms to 

 nie. I wish you would collect a specimen of 

 each of your grasses that has a name, lor me, 

 that I may gratify my curiosity about them. I 

 presume, however, irom the inierest you have 

 manifested in the elucidation of these obsfurities, 

 that you have already commenced your collection. 



1 intend to further your project by adding to 

 your collection from my own stock some speci- 

 mens from other sections of the country which 

 may not be I'ound in Virginia. Very respectfully, 

 yours, &c. M. A. Curtis. 



so many onions that (he crop was hardly saleable. 

 After the wheat was cut off, I plouirhed the land 

 and sowed peas. In the lall of 1840 the peas 

 were turned under, and wheal again sown about 

 OiMober llih. Among the peas not an onion was 

 to be seen, and I was in hopes the two ploughings 

 , (for the peas, and then to sow wheat,) had efiec- 

 itually eradicated the onions. The wheat crop 

 on this lot was again this year very good, but as 

 much mixed with onions as last year. 



Lot No. 2 was in wheat in 1S39, and produced 

 almost as much onion as wheat. In 1840 the land 

 was put in corn. The onions that fall started by 

 thousands. Early in November the land was 

 ploughed, and wheat sown on the 10th. The 

 wheat this year ia better ihan I expected, and 

 scarcely an onion to be seen in if. 



Lot No. 3, at rest iti 1839, was put in corn in 

 1840. The onions began to grow in great quan- 

 tities on this, as on lot No. 2, in the (all. When 

 ploughing it in November (or wheat, my foreman 

 remarked to me that it was useless to put that 

 piece of land in wheat, for it had never brought 

 any thing but onions. The wheat was sown on 

 November lOih. The crop this year was good, 

 and very little onion in it. 



I inter that to rid your wheat of onions in land 

 infested wiih them, you must wail, in the fall, till 

 they have started, and then plough or harrow, so 

 as to destroy the growth of young onions before 

 sowing the wheat. Whether such a course often 

 repeated will clear the land itself ol onions, or 

 whether I refer the effect to its proper cause, fur- 

 ther observation must determine, 



A Yoi'NG Farmer. 



For tlie Farmers' Register. 

 WILD ONION. 



To exterminate this vile pest from our wheat fields 

 is a great desideratum. All facts or observations 

 connected therewith cannot fail to be interesting 

 to the agricultural community. The following 

 communication i;? made, not as warranting any 

 definite conclusion, but more to draw forth any 

 further observations which others may have made. 

 In 1839 1 had three small lots very much mfested 

 with wild onions. No. 1, then in clover, not 

 grazed, was (allowed in the fall of 1839, and pro- 

 duced a fair crop of wheat in 1840, but containing 



FAILING TO GIVE LITERARY CREDITS. 



The last Boston Cultivator, after saying some- 

 thing complimentary to our journal, adds the fol- 

 lowing indirect but not the less pointed censure : 



" On looking at the June number we noticed a 

 well wniten article in it ' On hiving bees,' and 

 were making up our mind to copy it, but on 

 reading it through we discovered it to be an exact 

 copy of our own article on the subject, published 

 in the Cultivator in May last.' 



The fact of omission to credit the extract to the 

 Boston Cultivator is truly charged. The only 

 excuse is, that the omission was not designed, nor 

 did we know of its having been made until thus 

 informed. But though thus having failed, through 

 inadvertence or carelessness, to give the credit 

 due to the Cultivator, the article itself will clearly 

 show that we did not in any way assume the cre- 

 dit of its origin. It not only has none of the cus- 

 tomary marks of an original article, but further is 

 referred to in the table of contents under the head 

 of "Selections." Every editor and publisher 

 must know, even if all others do not make the 

 proper allowances, that it is next lo impossible, in 

 the hurry of business, and still more because of 

 the previous errors of other intervening publica- 



