THE FARMERS' CABINET, 

 AMERICAN HERD-BOOK, 



DEVOTED TO 



AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



" The Froduelions of the Earth will always be ipi proportion to the culture bestowed upon it." 



Vol. v.— No. 2.] 



9th mo. (September,) 15th, 1840. 



[Whole No. «8. 



KIMBER & SHARPLESS, 



PROPRIETORS AND PUBLISHERS, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 



PHILADELPHIA. 

 Price one dollar per year, — For conditions see last page. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Wheat-Sowing. 



Sir, — -^s the time of wheat-sowing is ad- 

 vancinar, and while the growers of that crop 

 are suffering under the injuries inflicted dur- 

 ing the present season, by blight in ail its 

 different varieties, I would desire to address 

 a few words to those of our friends who would 

 be willing to hear and to reflect upon the 

 subject, in the hope that some means might 

 be devised by which to escape such ravages 

 for the future, or, at least, to guard as much 

 as possible against effects which, however va- 

 riously the cause has been accounted for, have 

 never been miscalculated or misunderstood. 



That there has been a woful falling away 

 of hopes in regard to the wheat and rye-crops 

 of the present year, is admitted, especially 

 on warm and light soils, where the prospect, 

 even until after the opening of the spring, 

 betokened better things; nay, at that season, 

 " the crops never looked better," as was the 

 constantly expressed opinion of travellers and 

 the papers of the day ; and the first intima- 

 tion of the lurking evil was a sort of patchy 

 appearance of the wheat, occasioned by in- 

 numerable little tufts standing up in all direc- 

 tions, somewhat like what are often observed 

 on the springing of the seed after sowing, the 

 field-mice carrying off the grain and deposit- 

 ing it for their winter store : and this appear- 

 ance was observed in March, just after the 

 time that all vegetation had suffered by ten 

 days of exceedingly cold winds, after as many 

 days of unseasonably warm weather, which 

 had produced a premature growth of vegeta- 

 tion, that had set all the old men and women 

 throughout the country conceiting that we 

 should suffer for this by-and-hy, and which 

 we have done, as well in the winter grain, as 

 in fruits of various descriptions ; all which has 

 been attributed, and perhaps justly, to a pre- 

 maturity of growth ; for it has been observed 

 that the county of Lancaster did not suffer in 

 the same degree : their crops were less for- 

 ward, owing to the land being heavier and 



Cab.— Vol. V.— No. 2. 



colder and more exposed, by an undulating 

 surface. 



It has been said, by a writer in the Cabinet, 

 and I have strong reason to agree with him 

 in the opinion, that our climate is too hot and 

 dry for the cultivation of wheat, which yields 

 better, and is less liable to be affected with 

 blight in cooler climates and on stronger soils. 

 Nowl if this be the fact, and I have no doubt 

 it is, cannot we contrive to create, artificially, 

 a state of things which would bring us nearer 

 the end desired ; retard the progress of the 

 plani in the early stages of its growth, and 

 thus Increase its strength, and render it less 

 obnoxious to the sudden and extreme changes 

 of thfe atmosphere, to which, I believe, almost 

 all the evils of the present remarkably change- 

 able season are to be attributed 1 I think we 

 can ; |and perhaps it would be the shortest 

 way,|first to consider how we would act if 

 our opject were to force onward a premature 

 growm, and obtain the largest and most vigor- 

 ous ciops before the commencement of winter. 

 Novvjto accomplish this, every one would say, 

 pulvorize as much as possible the seed-bed 

 desigied for wheat, by ploughing early an 

 oat-eirsh or stubble, the crop of which had 

 been raised after corn, which had been so 

 often worked over as to be rendered as light 

 as anash-heap to appearance ; and, when you 

 have obtained a particularly fine and light 

 tilth, ipread it with manure from the winter 

 cattleyard, and, if possible, add a good coat 

 of line; turn all in with the plough, and, 

 upon this hot-bed, immediately sow your 

 wheal early in the autumn, so as to secure, 

 if posfeible, a growth of a dozen inches in 

 heighl before the setting in of winter. 



Nov, this, I believe, is the usual course 

 which is pursued, with the hope of obtaining 

 a larg! crop of wheat at harvest, unaftected 

 by blliht, smut, &c., and, in very favourable 

 seasons, it is possible that this might be ac- 

 complished; but in nineteen cases out of 

 twenty, I should expect that just the re- 

 verse Would be the result. Then, to retard 

 the gri)wth of the crop, and enable it to be- 

 come ^rong before winter, it is only as much 

 as possible to reverse the course, by sowing 

 the crop on a clover-lay after one ploughing, 

 deep and carefully performed, with very small 

 furrows, layinsr the land whole and unbroken, 

 ^ (49) 



