2W EMCJL.ANB FARMER. 



PUBLISHED BY GEO. C. BARRETT, NO. 52, NORTH MARKET STREET, (at the Agricultural Warehouse.)— T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR 



vol. xu. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULY 17, 1833. 



NO. 1. 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 ON THE FAILURE OP WHEAT CROPS IN 

 SEW EXGLAXD. 



Mr. Editor, No one can peruse the writings 

 of Dr. Dwight, on any subject, without pleasure 

 and profit. Vet his pen may have erred, when 

 writing upon subjects upon which he was not 

 practically conversant; and the errors, as well as 

 the virtues of great men, have an imposing influ- 

 ence on society. The same motive, that of doing 

 good to others, which prompted the Doctor to sug- 

 gest the cause of the failure of the wheat crop, in 

 modern times, in New England, induces me to 

 call in question the correctness of his theory. 



Doctor Dwight ascribes the failure of the wheat 

 crop to the deleterious influence of animal manure 

 or stable and yard dung, which induces plethora 

 in the plant, or an excess of sap in the culm or 

 stock, and which, not finding a ready passage in 

 warm and damp weather, ruptures the sap vessels, 

 flows out upon the surface, becomes acrid, cor- 

 rodes the straw, induces rust, and finally blasts the 

 grain. His reasons for this belief are, that lands 

 which produced wheat formerly, as Northampton 

 flats, will not produce it now; that new lands 

 yield wheat perfectly well in most parts of the 



The true cause, I suspect, of the uncertainty of 

 the wheat crop in New England, is a want of the 

 specific food of the plant — in the soil. New Eng- 

 land, with trifling exceptions, is a primitive forma- 

 tion, deficient in some of the elements of wheat, 

 particularly nitrogen. New lands may afford these 

 elements for a time, from the animal matters which 

 centuries have accumulated upon their surface. 

 The atmosphere, it is true, contains nitrogen, one 

 of the properties of animal matter; but philoso- 

 phers deny that plants, generally, possess the 

 [lower of abstracting it for their wants. There 

 are districts in New York, New Jersey, &c. which 

 will not yield good wheat. There are plants pe- 

 culiar to the primitive formation, which can never 

 he made to thrive well in transition or secon- 

 dary formations, and vice versa. The lime, the 

 ashes, and the white fish, the application of which 

 to the soil the Doctor thinks has induced good 

 wheat crops, may contain the specific pabulum of 

 that grain. Bones, horns, slaughter-bouse manure 

 and the urine of animals also contain it ; but I 

 question if it is to be found in the ordinary con- 

 tents of the cattle yard, in the ordinary mode of 

 management. 



Not being myself located on a primitive forma- 

 tion, I have not the opportunity of testing the cor- 

 rectness of my hypothesis by practice ; but the 

 question may be readily solved by any farmer in 



country at the present time ; and that lands dres: 



ed with gypsum, lime, ashes or fish, yet prodi: e New England, who will apply any of the manures 



good crops. Either, then, dung is the cause* ' ' have enumerated, us containing the specific food 



blast, or the ashes, fish and lime, afford to the 



wheat a necessary pabulum, which the soil did 



not before contain. The Doctor adopted the first 



opinion, I think erroneously. 



That he has accurately described a cause of rust 

 1 readily believe ; but I do not know, nor can I 

 think, that the blasted wheat crop is always, or 

 common!;/, marked with this disease ; or that a 

 failure happens only when the soil has been re- 

 cently dressed with animal manure. The bad 

 effects of a heavy dressing of dung, especially when 

 applied to wheat grounds in an unfermented state, 

 by causing a too luxuriant growth of straw, and 

 inducing rust, are well known to the wheat farmer; 

 and hence it is a general practice with them, either 

 to apply the long manure to the previous crop, as 

 corn or potatoes, or to apply it after it has under- 

 gone the fermenting process. The wheat crop, I 

 am confident, is not prejudiced by a moderate 

 dressing of dung under either of these modifica- 

 tions. Again, if animal manure is the cause of 

 the failure of the wheat crop, why does its appli- 

 cation not produce a similar effect in the wheat 

 districts of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, 

 Virginia, &c. where these manures are as exten- 

 sively used as they are in New England ? Like 

 causes produce like effects, and if dung is delete- 

 rious to the wheat crop in New England, it must 

 be equally deleterious in the adjoining state of 

 New York. And yet we have heard no complaint 

 of this kind from the latter state. Doctor D. speaks 

 of the Pennsylvania practice of using lime ; yet 

 according to Dr. Darlington, who resides in the 

 liming district, this mineral is there applied to 

 grass and com, and seldom if ever to the wheat 

 crop. [See proceedings of N. York State Ag. Soc. 

 1833, pp. 28, 30.] 



After a proper number of shoots had put forth, 

 and the fruit had attained the size of a bird shot, 

 the vine was cut oft' beyond the third eye from 

 the fruit ; from one of these eyes another shoct 

 was allowed to spring, which soon produced fruit; 

 the branch was then cut as at first : a third put 

 out and also produced fruit. Each of these suc- 

 cessive crops was as large or nearly so, as the 

 first; and the fruit matured before frost." See 

 likewise Mr. Fosdick's Observations on Horticul- 

 ture, New England Farmer, vol. x. p. 323, 330. 



of u heat, to a part of a field, and sowing the whole 

 field with this grain. g. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 PRUNING GRAPE VINES. 



To the Editor of the N. E. Farmer, 



Sir, In perusing the writers on the cultivation 

 of the grape, I find that no one has prescribed any 

 particular mode of culture for the native vine. I 

 should hope that amongst your numerous patrons 

 some one can give an accurate account of the best 

 mode of culture — especially as to the pruning of 

 them, if they are pruned as the foreign grape, yearly. 

 This is what I wish to know: and this informa- 

 tion, or any other on the same subject, will much 

 oblige A Friend to Horticulture. 



Caltskill, July 4, 1833. 



By the Editor. Mr. S. Vose, of Macon, (Geo.) 

 in a letter to the Editor of the N. E. Fanner, ob- 

 serves, " I am much inclined to believe that nearly 

 every foreign kind [of grape] will in a few years 

 be abandoned, unless cultivated for variety or cu- 

 riosity. The natives are much the most thrifty, 

 produce the largest quantity of fruit, and are least 

 liable to rot. The kinds most easily cultivated, 

 and preferred, are the Catawba and Bland's Ma- 

 deira. The Isabella, though with us liable to some 

 objections, produces very abundantly in favorable 

 seasons ; the Warrenton grape succeeds better 

 than any other foreign variety. All these kinds 

 produce a very considerable crop the third season 

 after planting. In a vineyard of that age, last 

 season, / saw three distinct crops on nearly every 

 vine, which appeared to We entirely the result of a 

 proper system of pruning, which was as follows: 

 — At the winter pruning the vines were cut quite 

 low, generally 12 or 15 inches from the ground. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 PROTECTING TREES AGAINST MOLES, &c. 



Mr. Fesse.xden, Will you, or some of your 

 correspondents,, have the goodness to inform the 

 public if some iJind of a wash may not be applied to 

 trees, so as to | rotect them from those little quad- 

 rupeds usually ' ., ■ I .Moles or Field Mice. Many 

 plans have be Hujgcsted, and many experiments 

 tried, to prevent the ravages of the cankerworm ; 

 but it is a fact which we are called to witness 

 every spring, t tat these troublesome animals are 

 much more dei ructive to fruit trees than the can- 

 kerworm. An ritleman who is in possession 

 of any cheap and effectual remedy, will confer a 

 favor by communicating it to the pi;i..ic. 



Yours tru.y, G. H. D. 



Hampton Fail,-, July 8, 1833. 



By the Editor. There are two methods of pre- 

 serving fruit, trees against the ravages of moles ar 1 

 mice. 'J., u,;- is to destroy the anin 

 other to protect the trees, &c. against their depreda- 

 tions. With regard to destroying them, the fol- 

 lowing among other recipes have been recom- 

 mended. 



" Take one quart of oat meal, four drops of oil 

 rhodium, one grain of musk, two nuts of nux vom- 

 ica powdered. Mix the whole together, and place 

 it where the rats frequent, and continue to do so 

 while they eat it, and it is said it will soon destroy 

 them." 



Another recipe, still more simple, we have 

 heard recommended ; but have not tried it. Take 

 equal quantities of unslacked lime and powdered 

 oat meal ; mix them by stirring, without adding 

 any liquid, and place a small quantity in anyplace 

 infected by rats, mice, or moles. The vermin will 

 swallow the preparation, become thirsty, and the 

 water which they drink will cause the lime to 

 swell and thus destroy them. 



A mode of preserving young trees against be- 

 ing injurec! by lats ' raDbits » &e - would doubtless 

 answer against moles : it is somewhat trouble- 

 some, but may answer when nothing better occurs. 

 Take any quantity of tar, and six or seven times 

 as much grease, stirring them well together. With 

 this composition brush the stems of young trees as 

 high as the vermin can reach, and it will prevent 

 their being barked. Mice frequently destroy trees 

 in nurseries by gnawing oft' the bark beneath the 

 surface of the snow. An application of the kind 

 above mentioned, just before winter sets in, will, 

 no doubt, prevent their depredations. Another 

 method is to tread down the snow when it has recent- 

 ly fallen around the stems of trees, which prevents 

 the access of the spoilers to the trees near the sur- 

 face of the ground, where they do the mischief. 



