50 



JVah 



Vol. IIL 



beautiful, though scarcely so fine, or thin- 

 skmnwl as No. 1. This produced nearly three 

 times as much as No. 14, and a third more straw. 

 These comparisons decided me to at- 

 tempt the t'utme cultivation of tliose I had 

 discovered to be the most productive, by a 

 comparison of the produce of a whole ear. — 

 From a further examination, as to the rela- 

 tive produceof 23 trains, of every .sort, taking- 

 Nos. 5 and 7, which had but that number of 

 grains in an ear, and by thus drawing two 

 scales of comparison, I hoped that a satisfacto- 

 ry conclusion might be arrived at. Hence, 

 the minimum, scale or number, was fixed on to 

 compare their relative produce, from an equal 

 number of grains. Thus, No. 7, containing 

 twenty-three, the least number of grains in 

 one ear, became the standard, to compare the 

 relative produce of the whole tburteen sorts. 



By following up these comparisons, it was 

 suspected that Nos. 5, 7, 3 and 1, were among 

 the hardiest varieties; but here their merits 

 i.i some degree cease ; No. 8 being the most 

 productive, and Nos. 1 and 6 being equal. — 

 No. 8 is also the second most productive in 

 straw, the fourth in the average number of 

 tillers, also the second in weight of grain, and 

 the third in produce of flour. It was there- 

 fore believed to unite many good properties, 

 and has proved to be a highly productive, and 

 valuable variety, of a downy or hoary sort, 

 with a roundish white grain, rather thin- 

 skinned, producing very fine flour, which 

 makes delicious white bread. It has produced 

 fifty-one bushels to the acre. No. 1, being an 

 ear of a fine variety of wheat from Dantzic, 

 has also proved to be highly valuable, though 

 the straw is so tall, that it might be apt to lay, 

 in moist situations. 



I was induced also to cultivate No. 5, being 

 a seedling variety, not at all disposed to sport 

 or change, producing a very fine round white 

 sample: it has proved very productive. It 

 producd from 23 grains more than any, but 

 then it had the advantage of double distance 

 between the grains, which doubtless tended to 

 its increase. Its average of tillers was IG. 



By an examination of the comparative li.st, 

 B, it will be perceived, that it was easy to 

 arrive at some sort of general conclusion, by 

 attention to the produce of ears that contained 

 nearly the same number of grain.^, and again, 

 by a second investigation, as to their relative 

 produce throughout the whole, to estJiblish 

 which were those most advisable for general 

 croi^. 



The continued investigations of two sub- 

 sequent years, have further confirmed me in 

 my original opinions. 1 am now convinced 

 that a pioper ."^election of wheat is indispen- 

 sable, my crops having almost doubled in pro- 

 duce; since I have raised scimI of a pure sort. 

 Those intelligent and superior fiirmors, who 



have already made great strides towards pure 

 crops, by a careful selection of seed, must not 

 expect so great an increase. To those, how- 

 ever, I hold out decided hopes of improvement, 

 by the means I recommend. 



It must appear obvious, from the tables I 

 exhibit, that a farmer who would sow No. 14 

 on a soil which would equally suit No. H, 

 might be unable to pay his way ; whereas, 

 had lie happened to have sown No. 8, he 

 would have had nearly three times more 

 wheat, and a third more straw ; hence, it must 

 be clearly seen, that in any intermixture of 

 sorts in crops, some, as I have already stated, 

 having no less than twenty -three varieties: — 

 the loss of produce, as compared with en'tirely 

 pure crops, suited to the soil and climate, 

 would be in exact proportion to the number 

 of less productive sorts so intermixed. 



[To be cnntiinied.] 

 Fw the F:iriiier.s' IJalmiet. 



Water. 



A jilentifiil siipi)ly of pure water is above all price. 

 There is nothing more essential to a far- 

 mer than good water, and plenty of it. For 

 dou>estic purposes, and for stock, it has much 

 to do with health, convenience, and comfort. 

 In many situations there is no lack of this 



ndispensable article, but in others it is so defi- 

 cient or impure as to require some artificial 

 means of increasing the supply and improv- 

 ing its salubrity. Where it is obtained frou> 

 wells, they should be sunk so deep as \o se- 

 cure an abundance during the periods of the 

 greatest droughts, for then it is that its im- 

 purities are most concentrated. Daring the 

 dry weather of autumn, when vegetation is 

 decaying, and the springs are weak, tht; foul 

 gases which are exhaled from the earth nre 

 absorbed by the water of wells, springs, and 

 ponds, and this, acting in conjunction wiih the 

 vegetable matter that is always found in wa- 

 ter that is stagnant, or nearly so, makes a 

 deleterious compoimd which is neither fit for 

 man or beast to pirtake of", much less to be 

 used for culinary purposes. Dysentery' anl 

 till! fevers can oflen be traced to this prolific 

 source of poison, and many valuable lives 

 every year are no doubt sacrificed by the use 

 of impure water, which, by proper attention 

 to deepening and cleaning out wells and 



prings, would have been preserved. A well 

 with a few buckets of water only in it, is not 

 nifTicient; every tune j'ou pump or draw 

 from it, its impurities are stirred up, and you 

 get a large dose of them. Some who have 

 pumps in -wells fail to secure thejn from the 

 runninir in of foul water and vegetable mat- 

 ter, which always abounds in the neighbor- 



lood of springs, and by that means, even 

 where there is an abtrndant supply of water, 

 it is ficquently much contaminated. Every 



