266 



Improvement under Difficulties. 



Vol. IX. 



nearly all the weed and grass-seeds — lhen| 

 run it through the rolling-screen, and thus^ 

 separate any cockle, weed, or cheat seed,[ 

 which may remain; thenvvash it, and if 

 there has been any smut in it, wash it again 

 in salt water, and spread it upon the barn 

 floor and sift lime upon it and mix it, I will 

 venture to assert that in any soil, the pro- 

 duct will be increased from 15 to 20 per 

 cent, over what it would have been, if the 





to come to the conclusion, that Jhe seed h 

 got from the slate land produced better than 

 his own? lam not prepared to enlist my- 

 self upon the one or the other side of thi^ 

 question. ' 



Seed corn should be selected while it is 

 upon the stalk; it cannot be so well done 

 afterwards. Every one has observed how 

 much sooner some ears of corn in the same 

 field ripen than others, and that some stalks ^ 



wheat had been sown without this prepara-lbear two and some three ears, while others 



tion. If this be so, what labour and pains 

 so profitably spent"! And that it is so, is 

 not only constantly taught us l)y experience, 

 but is perfectly consistent with those rea- 

 sons which are so familiar to us all. Cheat, 

 cockle, rag-weed and smut, are principally 

 what infest the wheat field. Where weeds 

 grow, they occupy the place of wheat, and 

 take that nourishment from the ground which 

 the wheat should have ; and I need not use 

 any argument to prove that they will not 

 grow unless the seed is in the 'ground, and 

 that it will not be there — at least in such 

 quantities — unless it be put there. Indeed 

 I know from experience, that in the course 

 of a few years these weeds will be wholly 

 exterminated by that strict attention to the 

 cleansing of seed which is here recom- 

 mended. Smut is but an infectious disease 

 of the grain, and is common to wheat, corn, 

 and oats; but no one need have it in either, 

 if he will but take the trouble to cleanse his 

 seed. For several successive years have I 

 inade the experiment of cleansing smutted 

 wheat, by washing a small portion of it in 

 salt water and putting lime upon it, and 

 venture the assertion that it will never fail 

 to purify it, I have also taken pure wheat 

 and mixed smut with it, and thus communi- 

 cated the disease, and it will never fail to 

 produce smutted wheat. The same remark 

 may be made with regard to oats and corn ; 

 for the blighted head of oats, and the large 

 black excrescence which sometimes grows 

 upon corn, although different in appearance, 

 are essentially the same thing. 



It is a very common impression that wheat 

 is improved by changing it from one kind of 

 soil to another. It may be so; and if "what 

 every body says must be true," it is so: but 

 I may be permitted to doubt it, if it be only 

 for the purpose of inducing thought and ob- 

 servation on this point. Each one of your 

 readers is prepared to say, "I know thi 

 from experience;" but, notwithstanding, it 

 is still wortli the inquiry, whether his expe- 

 rience is not this, — tb.at when he went from 

 home after seed, he went after good seed 

 better than his own, which he sowed in the 

 next field, and cultivated in the same way, 

 anl upon which his observation induced him 



have but one. All analogies and experience 

 teach the advantages which are derived from,, 

 the selection of those ears which possess 

 these advantages. The same reason which 

 would induce us to select a good breed of 

 hogs, is equally applicable to our corn and 

 wheat. The farmer who will turn his at- 

 tention to a proper selection and preparation' 

 of his seed, will be much surprised how little 

 labour will produce a great result. W. 



Carlisle, March nth, 1845. 



Impro%'emeut under Difficulties. 



We sometimes hear intelligent men inculcating the 

 sentiment, as if they really believed it, that a fanner 

 need not expect to get any valuable information in 

 his calling from agricultural books. We claim forrj 

 ourselves freedom of opinion— of course vi'e grant if 

 to others. The article below, which we take from the 

 !?outhern Planter, is of so matter of fact a character, 

 and altogether so practical in its bearings, that we 

 could scarcely give in the same room a more thorough 

 refutation of the doctrine, that reading is useless 

 to the farmer.— Ed. 



Mr. Editor, — In the year 1819 I bought 

 the farm on which I now reside. It was 

 then without buildings, nearly without fence, 

 and so poor and exhausted, and had been ne- 

 glected so long, that most of it was over- 

 grown with bottle-end pines. From the 

 year I purchased, up to 1834, I can venture 

 to say, that very few persons would have 

 cultivated this farm could they have been 

 permitted to do so rent free, and during this 

 period the money I made, although I fol- 

 lowed the oyster business in the winter, was 

 very little. Yet, by economy and great in- 

 dustry, I was enabled to build myself a small 

 dwelling house, a log-kitchen, and crib. The 

 growing expense of a young family, and the 

 small product of my farm almost discouraged 

 me, and at that time so little was known by 

 myself or neighbours of the true value of 

 manure and the best mode of using it, par- 

 ticularly on the corn crop, tlint I saw no pros- 

 pect of making a comfortable living. But 

 las good fortune would have it, your valuable 

 periodical fell into my hands, and in readingl 

 its pages, ideas were suggested to my mind 



# W 



