\^ AeniciLTunAi/ musec'M 



Rtmarks hy the Conductor of the farmtr'a Ttj'agazhie'. 



With much respnct for our worthy frJond, Mr. T, S* 

 B. w'lose sentiments on Astriculturc rarely iliiTer from 

 tliose uniformly maintained in this work, ue are m 6\i' 

 iy bound to notice one or two passages in the above 

 interesting' and valuable communication ; thinkitig, that 

 when making them, his wonted consideration was 

 asleep, and of course that our good friend had neglect- 

 ed to estimate the bearings and consequences of what 

 he stated. In the first place we must allude to his com- 

 ments on what we lately urged, respecting the causes 

 of the calamity which affected the wheat crops of last 

 eeason. That unfortunate calamity we always viewed 

 as produced by atmospherica,! influence ; and in particu- 

 lar, we considered putrid etlluvia, or pestilential vapour, 

 as the chief, though not the only agent of the mischief so 

 v^idely and extensively sustained. It must be confessed 

 that we do not observe any thing advanced by Mr. T. 

 S. S. much calculated to produce a change of our senti- 

 ments. He, indeed, men(ions another agent of mis- 

 chief, namely, electrical fluid ; and on this point we are 

 atone with him, because the air when filled with electric 

 fluid is never in a healthy state, but when an excess of 

 nutriment is assigned as a cause of failure, we feel an 

 jnclination to shake our head and crave leave to remind 

 our good friend, that the period was arrived when the 

 growth of the parent plant had ceased, and that the 

 young and tender grain needed only mild and kindly 

 iveather, to maturate and bring it to perfection. With- 

 out reflecting upon these things, our good friend ar- 

 gues the point as if wheat plants were capable of 

 growing forever; else, why does he assign excess of 

 food to the roots and fibres, as the cause of mortality \o 

 the grain deposited in the cups of the ear; which is 

 neither more nor less than saying that the crop was 

 killed by a surfeit. Again he supposes if excessive 

 heat, surrounded by excessive moisture, produced 

 pestilential vapour, that other grains could not have es- 

 caped That other grains suffered as weH ;^s wiicat^ \<i 



