No. 3. 



Italian Spring Wheat — Duties of a Partner. 



85 



season your force is not adequate to your 

 work, and the next it is .superior to it. It is 

 continual up and down hill work, and the 

 larifer fields suffer tor want of an adequate 

 supply of manure, and soaietimes from insuf- 

 cient culture. 



Thorous^h culture always ranks first in ag- 

 riculture; manure next, and then follows good 

 crops and prosperity, which maketh the heart 

 of the farmer glad, and stimulates him to re- 

 newed exertions in promoting the fertility of 

 the soil, and by that means increasing the 

 sum total of animal existence and enjoyment. 



When fields are elevated above neighbors' 

 grounds, heavy rains carry the finest, richest 

 particles of the soil on to them, but this kind 

 of trespass has not often been found to de- 

 stroy good neighborhood; if it should unfortu- 

 nately do so, a small gutter made near the line 

 fence or a few stones judiciously arranged un- 

 der, near, or against it, will generally correct 

 the evil, and no doubt promote the interest of 

 the more elevated farmer, by keeping within 

 hisowninclosures the food which his own crops 

 may be the more luxuriant for partaking of 

 Those who have had the benefits of the wash- 

 ings of their neighbors' fields, can form some 

 estimate of its importance, for 



" What is one friend's loss is another's gain." 

 Agricola. 



For the Fanners' Cabinet. 



Italian Spring Wheat. 



Dear Sir, — I think one of your correspon 

 dents m the last number of the Cabinet, has 

 been rather too severe upon spring wheat, 

 and that what he has said may tend to prevent 

 a fair trial being made with it. For my own 

 part, I have earned my experience witli Ital- 

 ian spring wheat at a dear rate, having .«own 

 upwards of thirty bushels, for which I ofcourse 

 paid a very high price, and reaped scircely 

 three for one. With the exception of a very 

 small portion sown a day or two before the 

 great storm in March last, the rest failed al most 

 entirely, though it looked very well about the 

 middle of June, and without any sign of 

 the fly. But the hot sun which struck upon 

 the crop in the second week of June and con- 

 tinued until long after harvest, seemed to dry 

 up the sources of nourishment, and leave the 

 stalk with a dwindled and almost empty head. 

 A week or ten days start would have afforded 

 a very fair crop of this spring wheat, and even 

 that which was sown earliest proved a very 

 decent yield ; the strawing being uncommonly 

 bright, and the wheat beautiful. It will be 

 recollected that the frost was very late in 

 leaving the ground last spring. A trial made 

 in such ail unprecedented season should not 

 be considered decisive, as every thing which 

 ripened late, even the winter wheat, suffered 



from the heat and drought. Upon the satne 

 principle we should give up planting corn and 

 potatoes. I shall, then-fore, next year make 

 another trial of the Italian spring wheat, 

 which I know did so very well the previous 

 season. My seed was purchased through 

 agents, of persons in the state of New York. 

 One barrel was, however, very dirty trash, 

 hardly worth sowing, and the measure of all 

 the barrels fell short of the quantity paid for, 

 both as to weight and measure. In future I 

 shall always be willing to pay even a little 

 more for the certainty of fair measure, espe- 

 cially when the article has attained an ex- 

 horbitant price, as was the case with the 

 wheat in question. G. E. 



September I9th, 1818. 



For the Fanners' Cabinet. 

 Duties pevformed 'by a good Farmer* 



Every duty faithfully performed hath its reward. 



The approach of winter always induces the 

 thoughtful, careful and industrious farmer to 

 look about him to see that he is prepared to 

 meet so boisterous and inclement a season of 

 the year in the best possible manner. His 

 windows, his doors, and the roofs of his build- 

 ings, are all examined, and if necessary, made 

 tight and secure. His barn and stables are 

 looked to and put in good order. His sheep, 

 and hogs and poultry have all comfortable, dry 

 lodgings prepared for them in due season, for 

 he knows that no animal can thrive and do 

 well, that is not well housed, and well fed, 

 and every way made clean and comfortable. 

 His potatoes, his sugar beets, his turneps and 

 all his winter fruits and vegetables are well 

 secured against frost and placed in such po- 

 sitions that ready access can be had to them 

 when necessary, without subjecting them to 

 danger of injury by exposure to the weather. 

 His fuel is so arranged and prepared for cur- 

 rent use that his family can pmcure it without 

 any unnecessary exiwsure to the rude blasts 

 of winter. His fields and meadows are kept 

 closed during the winter and early part of 

 spring; so that animals may not be permitted 

 to ramble over them and injure his grounds. 

 His barn yard is so arranged that his cattle 

 never leave it during the period of winter 

 feeding, by which means he saves all their 

 manure for the nourishment of his crops. His 

 implements of husbandry and tools are all 

 carefully housed and arrangtxl in good order, 

 so that they can be had when wanted for use. 

 His garden, in which not a weed has been 

 permitted to perfect and scatter its seed du- 

 ring the autumn, is thrown up into ridges 

 abi)ut eighteen inches high, separated only by 

 trenches extending from end to end of tho 

 beds; this he knows exposes the soil to the 

 njeliorating influence of the frost, destroys 



