VOL. XIV. Ko. ar. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



211 



[From the Fartiier*8 AIngazine for September, 1636. J 

 SEED AVHEAT. 



Three years ago Colonel X.e Uoiiteur, one of the 

 eputies from the islnnil of Jersey, became acqnaint- 

 Rj d with |)rofessor La Gasca, one of the most ccle- 

 ii, rated botanists in Europe who had been Curator of 

 16 Royal Gardens at Madrid, and obliged to leave 

 pain, where he is again restored to his friends and 

 ) his former situation. The Professor was then 

 rowing about 80 sorts of wheat, in the garden of 

 Ir Saunders, nursery-man in Jersey. Their vari- 

 ty, classifications, and beauty, struck Mr Le Cou- 

 eur, who sought to acquire all the information ho 

 ould from Professor La Gasca. The latter told 

 im that for the last twentyfive years he had been 

 mployed in studying the properties and character 

 f wheat, and had collected in the Royal Gardens 

 pwards of nine hundred varieties and sub- varieties. 

 le came to Col. Le Couteur's farm, and picked out 

 nore than twenty sorts out of three fields, then (in 

 lugust) growing; and gave daily all the instruction 

 nd information wanted by Mr Le Couteur, who 

 esolved on profiting by such an opportunity, and 

 legaa seriously to cultivate the important plant of 

 heat, so as to procure the several sorts distinct 

 rem each other, and keep notes of the experiments 

 nade on the culture, produce, weight of the grain, 

 lod qualities of the corn, flour, and straw. Colonel 

 iC Couteur has kept a most minute account of his 

 ixperiments, and taken the greatest care to preserve 

 he best sorts and in their purity. He has in Lou- 

 Ion nineteen varieties of the greatest beauty, and 

 luch as the frequenters of Mark-lane say could not 

 « matched in England for purity. They consist 



Tremois, or spring 



n, 



«Jo. I. White Compact, 

 wheat. 



2. Red Tremois, or do. 



3. Long eared do. 



4. Dantzic. Winter wheat. Triticum hyber- 

 num. 



5. Small round do. 



6. White seedling. Coturianum hybernura. 



7. Koeleri. Luturianum. 



8. Koeleri red. 



9. Koeleri white. 



10. Long-eared Liver-colored. 

 IL Red campact. 



12. Golden. 



13. Koeleri Compactum Belvuensis. 



14. Cesarienses. 



15. (No. 6. c.) 



16. Red ear (White grain or Sark wheat.) 



17. Red compact (No. 9.) 



18. Koelri (sub. yellow,) 



19. (No. 11.) 



The Colonel, after three years experience, has 

 arrived at this conclusion, that the proper cultivation 

 of wheat is yet unknown or unpracticed. That it 

 is of consequence to keep the several sorts to grow 

 apart, because they all ripen at different periods, and 

 that bread made of ripe and unripe corn could nei- 

 ther be so wholesome or nutritious as when made 

 of ripe corn, without the mixture of that which 

 had not well ripened. That each sort requires, or 

 will thrive best in a particular soil and situation 

 adapted to each. That one earof a superior variety. 



sowed grain by grain and sufl'ercd to tiller apart, 

 produced four pounds nine ounces of wheat. 

 Whereas, another ear of nn inferior sort treated in 

 the same maimer, produced only one pound thirteen 

 ounces. Hence it is of importance to select the 

 sorts that are the most farinaceous and productive. 

 That by sowing each sort apart they might be easier 

 saved and hnrversted, in rotation, some sorts ripening 

 a fortnight before the others. The same quantity 

 of wheat of a farinaceous kind may maintain a fam- 

 ily of fifteen persons twelve months ; where the 

 same quantity of another kind, though apparently 

 fine corn, will maintain them only nine months. 

 Frotn the superior soil and climate of the Channel 

 Islands, Col. Le Couteur thinks that, by growing 

 none but the best kinds and keeping them perfectly 

 true and pure, the Islands might be made to produce 

 the most approved seed corn for Great Britain. The 

 Islands might thus become of the greatest benefit to 

 the United Kingdom, and can never be objects of 

 jealously, as to the fear of large importation from 

 them, since the extent of all the land susceptible of 

 cultivation in all the Channel Islands together does 

 not much exceed 25,000 acres, and that the greater 

 part must necessarily be occupied by the meadows 

 orchards, and vegetable gardens of all sorts, abso- 

 lutely necessary for a population of more than sixty 

 thousand inhabitants. 



Sweet Potatoes. — la Louisiana the planters 

 raise their sweet potatoes thus. They make abed 

 of fresh stable manure, as you woidd a hot bed for 

 forcing other vegetables — on this bed they lay their 

 seed potatoes, without cutting, about 8 or 10 inches 

 apart, and cover them with well rotted manure, or 

 compost made very fine, to the depth of six inches. 

 The potato will soon sprout and come up. When 

 two or three inches high, they draw the sprouts, by 

 running the finger down to the potato, and breaking 

 them off there. These sprouts they transplant in a 

 hill with a dibble, and if the earth is not sufficiently 

 wet, water the plants two or three times. A gill of 

 water to a plant will be sufficient for a watering, and 

 in five or six d.iys the plants will have taken root. 

 Care must be taken to insert the plants as deep in 

 the hill as they were in the bed when drawn. 



By this mode of bedding and transplanting, larger 

 patatoes and more abundant crops are obtained. A 

 bushel thus bedded will plant five acres of ground. 



It appeals by French documents, which wo have 

 seen, that he has restored sight to nearly three hun- 

 dred patients in one city, some of whom were born 

 blind. 



Tlic annual ub.stract of school returns, prepared 

 by the Secretary of the Commonwealth, for the 

 use of the Legislature was laid before the members^ 

 By this it appears that returns have l>een received 

 from 277 towns. In these, there were 2,397 school 

 districts. The number of males and females at- 

 tending school was 142,077. There were 4,630 in- 

 structors. The amount of taxes raised for the 

 support of schools was $340,859 89, and ,$23,808 28 

 were raised by contribution for the same purpose. 



Washington's Opinion of War. — In a letter 

 to Col. Humphreys, written in 1785, which we find 

 in Mr Sparks's 9th volume, jii.st published, Wash- 

 ington has the following sentiment: — "My first 

 wish is to see this plague to mankind banished from 

 the earth, and the sons and daughters of this world 

 emiiloyed in more pleasing and innocent amuse- 

 ments, than in preparing implements and exercising 

 them for the destruction of mankind." 



The alarm of fire last Tuesday evening was 

 caused by the burning of a schooner in Charles 

 town. 



The alarm of fire between 9 and 10 o'clock 

 Wednesday evening was from a dwelling bouse in 

 rear of Rev. Mr Mott's Church, Castle street. It 

 was extinsruished with slight damage. 



Timber Wanted. — The Orono Land Co. ad- 

 vertise for contracts for the purchase of pine and 

 spruce logs to the amount of 20,000,000 feet annu- 

 ally, for six years, to be delivered at their mills in 

 Orono. 



Important to the Afflicted. — Dr John Will- 

 iams, Occulist, from France, in which place^and in 

 Belgium, he accquired such celebrity as to be enti- 

 tled the " Friend of the Poor," is now in this city, 

 and may be found every day, at three o'clock, P. M. 

 in the Vestry Room of the Bromfield street church ; 

 where all poor persons who are afflicted with blind- 

 ness, or any affection of the eyes, may receive ad- 

 vice aad relief, gratis. Dr Williams has given 

 notice that all, who are so situated as to be unable 

 to call upon him, may receive his advice (gratui- 

 tously if unable to pay for it) by addressing him a 

 letter, post paid, describing the malady. There is 

 no surgical operation in the remedies used. This 

 gentleman comes highly recommended. He brings 

 letters with him to many of our eminent citizens. 



Me.^dow Land. — A couple of young Fanners 

 bought a lot of plough land in the Northampton 

 meadow of ordinary quality at the rate of .$100 

 an acre last spring and planted it with broom corn. 

 The broom corn was sold last week for $257. — 

 Hampshire Republican. 



Good Farming. — Major Nathaniel Mowry, of 

 Suiithfield, raised, on one acre of ground, the past 

 season, one hundred and two bushels of corn. — 

 Providence Journal. 



Fire. — The three frame buildings on the cor- 

 ner of North Pearl and Van Schaick streets, im- 

 mediately south of the North Dutch Church, were 

 destroyed by fire on Wednesday evening about 7 

 o'clock. — Albany Argus. 



Indian Hostilities. — Accounts from Florida 

 state that the Indians had laid waste a district of 

 about 80 miles, between Black Creek and Fort King, 

 and had committed great excesses in the burning of 

 property and the destruction of life. Among others, 

 a detachment of the troops under command of CoL 

 John Warren, were attacked by a body of In- 

 dians, near Miccanopy, and several killed and many 

 wounded. — Albany Argus. 



