NEW ENGLAIV© PARMER. 



PUBLISHED BY GEO. C. BARRETT, NO. 32, NORTH MARKET STREET, (at the Agricultural Warehouse.)— T. G. FESSENDEN, EDI'lOR. 



VOL. XI. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JUNE 26, 1833. 



NO. 50. 



From the Northern Farmer. 

 CULiTTJRE OP -WHEAT. 



While New England is, to so very great an 

 extent, dependent on the southern and western 

 states for lier su[iplics of flour, any inc)uirics whicli 

 might rcsuh in the discovery of the causes, which 

 have rendered either the soil or climate of so con- 

 siderable a section of the country unfavorable to 

 the culture of wheat, could not be uninteresting 

 to our farmers. That a great change has taken 

 place ill this part of the country in relation to the 

 culture of \\heat, there can he no douht. Forty 

 years ago, when our lands were comparatively 

 new, wheat was a certain and profitable crop. 

 The same lands which then produced abundantly, 

 cannot by any mode of culture now in practice, 

 be made, in ordinary seasons, to produce enoug-h 

 of this gram to defray the expenses of cultivation. 

 But are we therefore to conclude, that our lands 

 have, by this comparatively short period of culti 

 vation, become exhausted of that principle which 

 forms the proper food of this plant, when the lands 

 of Europe, which have been in a state of cultiva- 

 tion, probably for more than eighteen hundred 

 years, still produce wheat in abundance ? Or, arc 

 we to attribute the general failure of this crop to 

 the ravages of the insect tribes? or to the want of 

 that skill in the culture of this plant, which seens 

 to be abundantly possessed by the English hus- 

 bandman, provided success be considered as evi- 

 dence of skill .' Whatever may he the cause which 

 has produced this influence, it is certain that thel 

 effect exists. 



Doctor Dwight, president of Yale college, a 

 gentleman possessing habits of the closest obser- 

 vation, and with great powers of discrimination, 

 after having travelled much ic New England and 

 the state of New York, previous to the year 1822, 

 found the farmers at that time laboring under the 

 same discouragements in relation to the culture of 

 wheat, which now prevail, though, perhaps, not 

 to so great an extent. As the result of his iuves- 

 tigation at that period, he says: 



"The reason why the lauds in New England, 

 ■which formerly yielded wheat, surely and plenti- 

 fully, suffer at the present time such injuries from 

 the blast, as in a great measure to discourage far- 

 mers from attempting to cultivate it, has been 

 anxiously and extensively sought for, but not it is 

 believed, satisfactorily discovered. From my own 

 observations and inquiries, I have been induced to 

 attribute this evil to the efficacy of animal manure. 

 This subject has been already mentioned in my 

 observations on the county of Worcester: it shall 

 now be resumed. 



" The manner in which wheat is generally 

 blasted in New England, appears to me very evi- 

 dently to be this. During the months of June and 

 July, when the kernels of wheat in the difforent 

 climates of New England, are in the milk, the 

 vegetation is far more rapid than in most coun- 

 tries of Europe. Whenever the season at this 

 period is both moist and hot, the rapidity becomes 

 extreme. The vegetable juice, ascending then in 

 too great quantities, and with a new celerity, moves 

 with difficulty through the vessels of the stock, 

 regularly lessening towards tba neck, and at that 

 time so tender as to be easily ruptured, bursts 



them in various places, particularly at the neck, 

 and flows out upon the surfaBe of the stem 

 When it first exudes, it is very sweet to the taste ; 

 and has hence been commonly supposed to be the 

 residuum of a particular kind of dew, called by 

 the farmer honey-dew. Had any farmer recol- 

 lected, what he cannot fail to find, where he finds 

 a honey-dew, that it never appears on any thing 

 beside living vegetables, and that, if it were a dew, 

 it must be found equally on every other substance 

 exposed to the atmosphere, he would certainly 

 liaive determined, that it was merely the sweet 

 juice of the vegetable itself. When this juice has 

 pervaded the stalk, it soon becomes sour in the 

 sunbeains ; then so acrid, as to corrode the stalk, 

 and finally a rust, (as it is commonly called,) of a 

 browu hue, and an ofliensive smell. 



" Animal manure beyond any other, accelerates 

 vegetation. Wheat, nurtured by this manure, 

 grows with so much rapidity, and with so slender 

 a stalk, that, in the agricultm-al language of this 

 country, it lodges not unfrequently (i. e. falls under 

 the pressure of wind or rain) by its own weight, 

 and never recovers its original position. This 

 dangerous process is peculiarly advanced by the 

 use of this manure ; and the rapidity of vegeta- 

 tion, otherwise too great, is by this substance ren- 

 dered still greater. Hence all fields, where this 

 manure is employed, are peculiarly exposed to 

 blast. For a few years after lands are dressed 

 with it, the evil is so evident to the eye of com- 

 inon observation, as to be not unfrequently be- 

 ^eved to exist by some farmers, and suspected by 

 others. Were every season hot, and wet during 

 tMs period, it would, I doubt not, have long since 

 b^en generally realized and acknowledged. But 

 aSin some seasons these months are cool and dry, 

 ail(l those fields which have been dressed with 

 thjs manure, then yield wheat successfully ; and 

 as in the most unfavorable season, lands dressed 

 in a diftercnt manner, are also subjected to the 

 blast ; the question has, hitherto, failed of any an- 

 swer, which has been generally satisfactory. 



"The reasons which have induced me to adopt 

 the opinion here alleged, are principally the fol- 

 lowing : 



" 1. All the lands in this country, which were 

 nflt too wet, originally yielded wheat easily, surely, 

 and so far as they were rich, abundantly. The 

 inhabitants of Northampton, for many years paid 

 tbeir public tax in wheat, and this wheat grew on 

 the very lands, where for a long period it has been 

 supposed to be so uncertain an object of culture, 

 as to be scarcely worth the attempt, i. e. on inter- 

 vals. 



"2. New lands yield wheat perfectly well in 

 most parts of this country at the present time. 

 Some farmers believe, that there is such a change 

 wrought by time, either in the climate or in the 

 soil, independently of the proper effects of culture, 

 tliat the blast is to be attributed to this change. 

 Although this is a mere supposition, supported by 

 no evidence, it has still had its weight. But it is 

 entirely refuted by the fact, mentioned under this 

 head. Lands in the same circumstances yield 

 wheat as abundantly at the present time, as at any 

 former period. It deserves to be remarked, that 

 all the intervals along the Connecticut have fur- 



nished sure crops of this grain for a considerable 

 lime after they first began to be cultivated. 



" 3. Lands dressed with ashes, now furnish 

 fiTie crops of wheat, which is rarely or never blasted. • 

 The only reason why the crops on new lands are 

 so safe from the blast, is that they are covered 

 with vegetable mould, another name for vegetable 

 manure, and so long as the efiicacy of this manure 

 lasts, are dressed with no other. It is the univer- 

 sal tendency of this mould to produce great crops; 

 but it produces them by a gradual antl moderate 

 vegetation. Ashes, which are the same manure 

 in another form, produce the same effiict in ex- 

 actly the same manner. Accordingly, although 

 the crop of wheat, yielded by grounds dressed 

 with ashes, is abundant, yet the stalk is firm, and 

 strong; much stronger, but much shorter than 

 that produced by animal manure, and equally safe 

 from lodging and blasting, as that which grows on 

 vegetable mould. 



" It ought to be observed, that in grounds where 

 the vegetable mould is very deep and abundant, 

 wheat grows so rapidly as to be universally blasted. 

 That this efliect is solely derived from the redun- 

 dance of this jnauure is certain, because the same 

 lands after the cultivation of a iew years yield 

 wheat perfectly well. 



" 4. In various instances, which have fallen 

 within my knowledge, wheat sown after clover 

 has been perfectly free from any injury by the 

 blast ; and that on intervals, and other lands most 

 liable to this injury. Here vegetable manure hag 

 been employed in another form ; yet the same 

 effect has been produced. 



" 5. Lands, dressed with gypsum, have been 

 equally favorable to wheat. This good effect has, 

 however, been commonly produced through the 

 medium of clover ; the gy[)sum having been first 

 employed for the production of this plant, and the 

 wheat having been sown after the clover had been 

 ploughed in. 



" 6. Fields manured with the white fish, have 

 yielded wheat universally in great abundance, and 

 with almost absolute certainty. This is indeed 

 animal manure also ; but very different from that, 

 which I have intended by this phrase above ; viz. 

 that of stable and barn yard. The white fish is a 

 species of herring, very fat and oily, and remark- 

 ably favorable to vegetation of every kind, which 

 is the object either of agriculture or horticulture. 

 I have mentioned this fact, that the evil com- 

 plained of, has its origin neither in the soil, nor in 

 the climate, but in the particular mode of cultiva- 

 tion, which I have mentioned as its proper cause. 



" 7. The lands in Pennsylvania, which yield 

 plentiful crops of wheat, are regularly dressed with 

 lime, or gypsum ; and neither here, nor in those 

 old settlements in the state of New York, where 

 this grain is least exposed to the blast, are cattle 

 very numerous. Of course, the kind of manure 

 which I suppose to be noxious to this plant can- 

 not abound in these countries. I am informed 

 also, that where this manure is used, it is generally 

 mixed witli other substances in a compost ; and 

 converted, either paitly, or wholly, into mould, 

 before it is employed as a dressing. It ought also 

 to be observed, that a great part of the wheat 

 lauds in these countries are clay ; and that the 



