478 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



experiment 1 This, if it ever had been properly 

 made, would have eeiiled for ever, vvheiher it 

 benefits or injures corn to cut the roots, sinre 

 cut they will be, more or less, by every mode ol 

 culture which has ever yet been tried. If the 

 portion of land on which fewest roots had been 

 cut produced the most corn, and that portion 

 yielded the least where the rooi-cuitinn; had been 

 greatest, then surely the first mode of culture 

 would be preferred by every body, but the ob- 

 stinate (bols who have no belter reason for any 

 thine; they do, than that they have always done 

 the same. 



With respect to iJie cheat or chess controversy, 

 I am almost afraid to open my lips, for most of our 

 brethren who maintain that cheat is the produce 

 of wheal, seem to have worked themselves up 

 into such a choleric and bellicose humor on the 

 subject, against us who maintain the negative in 

 this matter, that it is quite a perilous thinijto offer 

 any argument in support of our opinions. I 

 will iherelbre content myself with only askins a 

 few simple questions. Is it among the unknow- 

 able, things of this world to ascertain the trudi 

 in regard to this controversy ? If it is, why should 

 anoiher word be ever s^id, or written about it? 

 I/' it is jjoi, can anyone ohliae me so far as to 

 name a single experiment, among all which have 

 been so called and stated as proofs that wheat 

 will turn to cheat, which is noi most palpably de- 

 fective in several essential particulars'? I can 

 tj-nly say that I have never seen even a solitary 

 one, but that which was made in 1833 by Messrs. 

 Thomas and William J. Cocke and yourself. 

 This is to be Ibund in the first volume of your 

 Register, on the 83d and 84ih pages ; and to my 

 mind is most conclusive proof, that il^r wheat to 

 produce cheat, is quite as great an impossitiiliiy 

 as for " thorns to yield grapes," or for thistles to 

 produce fi js. i will liirther ask, if any experi- 

 nteiit maile wiih less particularity and accuracy 

 than the one just, relerred to, ouurht to be regard- 

 ed, even in liie sliL'hlest deirree, ns contributing 

 towards seitlincr this much and lonu aiiitated con- 

 troversy, or indeed, should be emitted to a place 

 in any of our agricultural paper? 1 None, I ihink, 

 who really desire to come at the truth in this 

 matter could reasonably object to the editors of 

 these papers recjuiring equal or even orreater ac- 

 curacy and minuteness in the experiments which 

 they may be required to report lor either of the 

 parlies concerned. If the zeal of those who 

 maintain the affirmative in this controversy, be 

 not sufficient when stimulated by the hope of vic- 

 tory, to impel them to take the troiifile of making 

 such experiments as have just been euL'izested, 

 1 would beg leave hereby to call their attention 

 to your pledge — made a lew months ngo, to pav 

 one hundred dollars — not " in rags," but in good 

 lawful money, to any one who can prove by 

 similar experiments, well authenticated in all their 

 particulars, thai he has succeeded in converting 

 wheat into cheat. 



I could mention several other subjects upon 

 which much difference of opinion has been ex- 

 pressed, lor many years past, and which still oc- 

 casionally appear in our agricultural papers. Serv- 

 ing no other purpose than to show the great 

 disproportion in number between the multitude 

 vvho prefer writing out and publishing their con- 

 jectures on these topics, and the few who choose 



the less easy, but more troublesome road of ac- 

 curate experiments to solve their doubts. But 

 until this be generally done in res^jard to all mat- 

 ters which can be settled by the experimental 

 process, the readers of our agrictiltural journals 

 (good as I admit most of ihem to l)e) will have 

 to pay for much that affords them little, if any 

 satislactory inlijrmalion. If ^-action, action, 

 action," be esseniial to (brm the finf-hed orator, I 

 would say that — experiments,- experiments, accu- 

 rate experiments are equally, nay, more import- 

 ant, to lorm the coiTiplete fiirmer. I remain, dear 

 sir, youis very sincerely, 



James M. Garnett. 



THE CANKER-WORM. 



From the Albany Cultivator. 



Newport, Feb. 28, 1793. 

 Hon. Justin Ely, esq. — I was the last even- 

 ing favored with yours of the 14th inst. "It is 

 with real pleasure I communicaie to you, sir, the 

 inlbrmatinn I have had of the efficacy of quick- 

 silver in destroyinir the canker-worm, so destruc- 

 tive to our apple trees. Haviui? been infbrined 

 of an instance in which the trial had a complete 

 effect, I was induced to examine into the facts 

 personally. I wailed upon the gentleman who 

 had declared the success of his experiment : — A 

 Mr. McCurrle, a gentleman who owns and im- 

 proves a good tariii on iliis island, — a man of 

 good obsprvaiion, an excellent farmer, and on 

 whose credit the uimost reliance may be had. 

 He had several orchards, but the one the experi- 

 ment was made in was an old orchard of very 

 large trees. Nine trees, the most central in the 

 orchard, he bored with a spike gimlet about lour 

 or five leet from ihe groimd, an inch and a half 

 or two iiudies into the tree, rather slanting the bor- 

 ing d«wri wards. He procured an ounce ol" quick- 

 silver from an apothecary — half an ounce he in- 

 seried into one of the trees, a fiuarier of an ounce 

 he inserted into three trees in equal quantities, 

 and the other (]uarter o'' an ounce as equally as 

 he could, he divided into five othfr trees. He 

 then plugged up the holes light. This was done, 

 I think, in December. Some weeks alter, lie 

 lookout the pluas, and found the quicksilver in 

 the same state he had put it in. He again plug- 

 ged up the holes, and some time after the sap of 

 the trees had begun to ascend, he again took out 

 ihe plujrs and Ibund the quicksilver was gone, 

 leaving behind something like the slime of a snail. 

 The worms came as they had done the year be- 

 fore, and totally destroyed all the verdure, &c., of 

 all the trees except those nine, which were in as 

 irood order as ever they had been, and yielded 

 their common pleniy of apples, about one hun- 

 dred bushels. The boughs of some of the nine 

 trees interlayed, and were interwoven with the 

 branches of the other trees ; and he said the fruit 

 upon them was equally good, while the branches 

 of the other trees so interwoven amongst them, 

 appeared as though ihey had been fired. The 

 trees with the leqst quantity of quicksilver were 

 equally protected or preserved, as the one which 

 had hall an ounce. He inserted the quicksilver 

 with a quill open at one end and the side of it cui 



