No. 1. 



Seed-Wlieat — Botts in Horses. 



43 



the comparatively late sown and weakly 

 crops, while those the latest sown, have es- 

 caped in a great measure ; the evil, a change- 

 able state of atmosphere, having generally 

 passed away before they had made their ap- 

 pearance ; just as is often the case that an 

 orchard which, in consequence of a cold ex- 

 posure, comes latest into blossom, is preserved 

 from the effects of a blighting atmosphere, 

 which prostrates the hopes of the year in 

 situations more favourable to early blossom- 

 ing. And I knew a remarkable instance of 

 the truth of this theory, in the case of a 

 friend, whose peach-orchard, in an exposed 

 situation on a late soil, escaped the effects of 

 a frost, which fell on the trees below him 

 while in bloom, and, by reason of this circum- 

 stance, he reaped a harvest of fruit of the 

 value of $1400, while his neighbours had not 

 a peach with which to bless themselves." 



P. B. 



New Jersey. 



Seed-Wheat. 



More than one hundred and fifty varieties 

 of wheat have been ascertained ; but the car- 

 dinal distinctions are few, and may be sum- 

 med up into the flint, or thin-skinned, the 

 bearded, and the bald kinds. These seem to 

 be original distinctions, but the matter of 

 one kind ripening before another, is probably 

 tlie effect of selection and cultivation : spring- 

 wheat may be changed into winter grain, and 

 vice versa, by careful selection ; and how 

 much may be done in this way, is illustrated 

 by an experiment made by the Rev. Dr. Free- 

 man, in Dorchester, who, some years since, 

 with great care in selecting the earliest ripe 

 for planting, actually forwarded the ripening 

 of the common case-knife garden bean, and 

 obtained his crop twenty-seven days less than 

 the season required for its maturity, when he 

 began his experiments. 



In respect to the selection of seed-wheat, 

 nothing can be worse than the habits of our 

 farmers, in general, although two, in Hawley, 

 Franklin County, have set the laudable ex- 

 ample of selecting the best heads, and plant- 

 ing these by themselves, and have at length 

 obtained a very superior seed, in sufficient 

 abundance for sale. Wheat differs in its sea- 

 son of ripening, in the length of its ears, in 

 the hardiness of the plants, in liability to dis- 

 ease, to the attacks of insects, in amount of 

 yield, and especially in the quantity and qua- 

 lity of flour : in all these respects there are 

 cardinal differences, which materially affect 

 the value of the crop, and they can be ascer- 

 tained only by careful trial. In most cases, 

 seeds are very much mixed, and it would be 

 worth a great deal of pains to obtain a pure 

 crop ; but this can only be done by a patient 

 and careful selection, and the cultivation of 



selected varieties, under such circumstances 

 that they cannot mix in the time of flowering. 

 Nothing is more emphatically to be con- 

 demned than the planting of imperfect or 

 blighted seed-wheat; a frightful deterioration 

 in the crop must be the consequence ; the 

 blighted wheat may grow, but it will give an 

 inferior yield; the plant will come up feebly, 

 for, in its first germination, it is nourished by 

 the milk placed by nature in the seed, for its 

 early sustenance, until it rises to the surface 

 and extends its coronal roots in search of 

 food ; and, if the seed be imperfect, it can 

 yield this first and indispensable nourishment 

 only in a very imperfect degree : experiments 

 in relation to this matter have shown, that no 

 practice can be worse than that of planting 

 imperfect seed. The great rule in relation 

 to animals holds perfect in its application to 

 vegetables ; if you desire to breed the best 

 races, you must breed only from the best ani- 

 mals ; defects and imperfections have always 

 a great tendency to propagate themselvesy 

 and are alioays, in a greater or less degree, 

 transmitted. — Professor Colman. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Botts in Horses. 



Sir, — In Youatt's late work, we are given 

 to understand there is no cure for the botts in 

 horses ; he says, " the bott cannot be removed 

 by medicine, because they are not in that 

 part of the stomach to which medicine is 

 usually conveyed, and if they were, their 

 mouths are too deeply buried in the mucous 

 coat of the stomach, for any medicine that 

 can be safely administered, to affect them ;" 

 and many, who peruse that valuable work, 

 will be inclined to believe it, upon the evi- 

 dence there shown. Now, I have no doubt 

 that these creatures will continue to exist for 

 a long time, when immersed in a corrosive 

 liquid, (as he has shown) which, if it were to 

 come into contact with the internal coat of 

 the stomach of the horse, would be the ine- 

 vitable cause of his death ; but I am fully 

 prepared to believe, it is possible that some 

 other mode, far less injurious to the horse, 

 might be discovered, to remove the cause of 

 the disorder, which produces the disease, for 

 I believe that the bott is the effect, and not 

 the primary cause, which might arise from 

 acidity of tlie stomach, producing indigestion 

 and putricity — ^just as is the case when sheep, 

 feeding on wet and unhealthy pastures, will 

 be found to be affected by the rot, with their 

 livers perforated by animals called flukes, 

 which cause the deaths of thousands; the 

 disease having, no doubt, been engendered by 

 the putrid food in the stomach ; the only cure 

 or palliative being a timely removal to a lime- 

 stone pasture, and a free use of salt. 



