18 



Improvement of Crops hij judicious Selections. 



Vol. X. 



as Baillie Nicol Jarvie gays, "what he calls 

 comfortable." Then he looks out as keenly 

 as other men for the ways and means of get- 

 ting rich, but he must be comfortable while 

 he is doing it. Every thing must be neat 

 and tidy about him. The other, without 

 any systematic economy, is indifferent about 

 the present, and lives altogether in the hope 

 of realising a fortune in the future, when he 

 expects to live as he pleases. And when 

 that time arrives, habit has grown to be se- 

 cond nature, and as to the enjoyments of life 

 he is no better off than when he began — 

 "Always to be, but never blest." Frequent- 

 ly careless even in his personal attire, and 

 always slovenly in the arrangement of his 

 house, out-houses, gates, fences and grounds. 



With every element of prosperity a coun- 

 try could ask, we of the Southern States 

 are the most dependent on others, of any 

 people fvithin our knowledge ; and the face 

 of the land presents to a stranger the most 

 poverty-stricken aspect of any that meets 

 his eye anywhere. This is a humiliating 

 confession from a son of the soil, " one to 

 the manor born," but however disagreeable, 

 it is a truth that must be known and felt by 

 all before the evil can be obviated. We 

 scourge our lands by continuous crops of 

 cotton, without a year of rest or rotation, 

 and buy everything; while others improve 

 their lands and make everything at home 

 they can. Not to speak of wearing apparel, 

 and other like articles of necessary use, 

 everyone of which, coarse and fine, is made 

 elsewhere, and is a source of drain to the 

 industry of this section. But look on your 

 tables and see if your meat does not come 

 from Tennessee; look at your ploughs and 

 see if every mule that draws them is not 

 bought of Kentucky ; even the horses which 

 draw your carriages come from there. 



Many pursue a line of policy on this sub- 

 ject, the very reverse of their own interests, 

 from a mistaken idea of what their true in 

 terest is ; others do so from sheer inertness 

 and a want of reflection ; some from being 

 deluded by maxims applicable to particular 

 situations and necessities, and not capable 

 of general application. The Island of Malta 

 imports all its bread stuffs, and why? Be 

 cause it is a rock, and incapable from its 

 want of soil, as well as size, to raise them 

 Is that the case herel England imports 

 bread stuffs and yet prospers; and what is 

 the reason"? By her gigantic power having, 

 through a credit system of her own, made 

 herself the heart of the monetary world, 

 she can display an appearance of prosperity, 

 in despite, and not by reason, of that defi- 

 ciency, in the capacity of the realm, to pro- 

 duce provisions sufficient for its accumu- 



lated population. Some of the West India 

 Islands, and some plantations on the Missis- 

 sippi, do not raise their provisions, but the 

 reasons which may be good there, do not 

 hold here. We, to be prosperous, must 

 make bread and meat plenty and cheap. 

 Turn the question as you will, it resolves 

 itself into this. J. B. L. 



IVlacon, Ga. 



Communicated for the Cabinet. 



Improvement of Crops by judicious 

 Selection. 



By JaMes Mease, M. D., Prest. of the Philad'a. Society 

 fur Promoting Agriculture. Read Nov. 3, 1841. 



The following paragraph appeared in the 

 "Examiner," of P^rederick, Maryland, in the 

 year 1840: — 



" The Rock Wheat — Mr. Smeltzer, of the 

 Middletown valley, who was the first person 

 of this county to raise the Rock Wheat, in- 

 forms us that at the last fall he put out about 

 10 bushels of that seed, which he obtained 

 from Mr. Stonebraker of Washington county, 

 and which now gives him a return of about 

 200 bushels and a little upward — being about 

 40 bushels to the acre, and weighing abo'Ut 

 63 lbs. to the bu.shel. He is selling it very 

 fast at $2 50 per bushel, for seed, Mr. 

 Stonebraker of Washington county, from 

 the two original heads which were found in 

 a cleft of rocks, and which he obtained, 

 raised in four sowings 168 bushels, which 

 he sold at $S per bushel. As far as we 

 have heard, these 168 bushels which were 

 put out last fall, have yielded 20 bushels for 

 one sown, leaving now in the country 3,360 

 bushels of this wheat, which will no doubt 

 be principally used for seed, and which is 

 already scattered far and wide through the 

 country. Thus from two heads of wheat, 

 accidentally discovered and cultivated, what 

 immense benefits may flow." 



Mr. Smeltzer deserves the thanks of farm- 

 ers for his good sense in saving the two ori- 

 ginal heads of wheat, and for his patience 

 in continuing the propagation of the seed 

 from them. His example ought to be fol- 

 lowed upon every occasion when a thrifty 

 vegetable is observed in the garden, or the 

 field. Not a summer passes without notices 

 in the country newspapers of Pennsylvania, 

 of uncommonly prolific and large heads of 

 M heat, rye, oats, or timothy grass {Fhleum 

 Pratense) or of immense beets, turnips, 

 pumpkins, &c., and to the statement is inva- 

 riably appended the "lengthy" and luminous 

 commentary by the editor, "Beat This." 

 The wonderful article is left with him, and 

 we hear no more of it ; whereas upon every 

 such occasion the production ought to be 



