•No. 7. 



Food for Cows — Wheat, 



111 



were several celebrated millers heretofore 

 rather sceptical, but who were convinced as 

 well as gratified as soon as they saw of the 

 bread made from wheat sown on the 17tli of 

 last March, when the disastrous state of the 

 winter grain was well ascertained to be gene- 

 ral througliout the country.) The good ex- 

 ample of Maj. Reybold will be extensively 

 followed in Delaware. A number of us have 

 already ordered a large supply for seeding 

 the ensuing spring. Enclosed I send you 

 some grains just received by me in a letter 

 from Mr. J. Hathaway, Rome, New York, of 

 this year's growth, and Major Reybold's crop 

 is very much like it. — It is very pretty grain 

 r— Mr. Hathaway says of it, " that it produces 

 well, and will succeed on worn and meagre 

 land — and although the season has been very 

 wet with them, and the grain not so bright 

 as usual, still it is plump and heavy, and that 

 a neighbor of his lias just threshed 35 3-4 

 bushels of wheat from 7-8 of an acre and 2 

 bushels sown. . 



To the wheat growers of Maryland and Vir- 

 ginia, and indeed of our whole middle states, 

 in part of the country, we think this grain is 

 destined to become of vital importance, and 

 that it will succeed in those states as we 

 have ascertained it will do in Delaware, I 

 have not the least doubt. Here its yield has 

 been about 30 bushels to the acre, without 

 manure, and on a tolerable soil only : — whilst 

 the winter wheat in adjoining fields, cultivat- 

 ed in the best manner, and by a good farmer, 

 has not given half that crop, in consequence of 

 the change in our winters, and the ravages 

 of Hessian fly. The loaf I send you is the 

 best essay that can be given on the subject ; 

 as it settles and establishes the fact that good 

 flour and while and light bread have been 

 made, exhibited, and eaten, for the first time 

 in this state from spring-wheat. This test, 

 has made many converts to it with us, and 

 althougii our farmers should not abandon win- 

 ter grain altogether, it is a most happy re- 

 flection for them to know that they have a se- 

 cond resource in the Italian Spring Wheat, 

 should their first crops fail. 



To the doubtful and prejudiced farmer, 

 perhaps the argument I have sent you (the 

 bread itself) will scarcely be sufficient to 

 convince him that the experiment will an- 

 swer. All we need ask of him for the pre- 

 sent is, to lay aside his preconceived notions, 

 and give it for a season or two, a fair and 

 honest trial. The improving spirit of the 

 age demands investigation into every reason- 

 able proposition, and if its principles are found 

 to be correct, an intelligent mind will soon 

 adopt them. 



1 have detained ya\i much longer on this 

 interesting subject than I had intended, but 

 as I have been highly gratified at the result 



of the experiment myself, you will excuse 

 me for having been thus prolix: — perhaps 

 much better bread made from spring wheat 

 is familiar to you — to us it is a novelty. 1 

 regret that you will not get it as fresh as it 

 was served at the dinner table, and with the 

 appliant of the fine premium butter exhibited 

 on that occasion. As some of your friends 

 might like to see the heads of this wheat, 1 

 send a few plucked from the field before they 

 were ripe and filled — they will convey, how- 

 ever, a good idea of its general character. It 

 grows tall and presents almost the rich ap- 

 pearance of a field of barley. The premium 

 list, and detailed account of our agricultural 

 and horticultural exhibitions, which took 

 place on the 4th inst, are not yet published. 

 I will send them to you for your paper as soon 

 as they are out. I am happy to inform you 

 that the proper agricultural spirit is getting 

 up in Delaware. The New Castle County 

 Society has just held its second annual cattle 

 show — Kent has organized a society, with 

 some of her most prominent citizens at its 

 head, and we doubt not now, that the good 

 example set, will be followed by Sussex, and 

 many of the adjoining counties of the Eastern 

 Shore of Maryland. Asking the aid of your 

 valuable exertions to bring this state of things 

 about, 1 remain, yours, most respectfully, 

 James W. Thomson. 



Food for Cows. 



M. Chabert, the director of the veterinary 

 school of Alford, England, had a number of 

 cows which yielded twelve gallons of milk 

 every day. In his publication on the sub- 

 ject, he observes that cows fed in the winter 

 on dry substances gives less milk than those 

 which are kept on a green diet, and also that 

 their milk loses much of its quality. He 

 published the following receipt, by the use 

 of which his cows afford him an equal quan- 

 tity and quality of milk during the winter 

 as during the summer; — Take a bushel of 

 potatoes, break them whilst raw, place them 

 in a barrel standing- up, putting in succes- 

 sively a layer of potatoes and a layer of bran, 

 and a small quantity of yest in tlie middle of 

 the mass,, which is to be left thus to ferment 

 during a whole week, and when the vinous 

 taste has pervaded the whole mixture, it is 

 then given to the cows, who eat it greedily. 



Wheat, 



Those who have not yet got in their wheat, we would 

 remind of two things. First— Uy nq means to omit put- 

 ting their seed in a soak made of brine, lime-trater, or 

 ley, — and fecoHrf/y— to plough it in fom« three or four 

 inches deep; while the first will cleanse the !;rain of alt 

 smut and destroy any eggs that may be deposited on 

 its surface, the latter will greatly tend to prevent the 

 I'rost from spewing the plants up, should the coming 

 winter prove to be one of alterations of freezings and 

 thawings, which are so disastrous to ; uiall grain. 



