SANDY-POINT FARM. SMUT IN WHEAT. 463 



To me it is a'source of inexpressible mortidcation and regret to see the great in- 

 terest of Agriculture in this highly favored State so little appreciated by her 

 citizens. Blessed with a soil and climate equaled by few States in the Confed- 

 eracy, and certainly surpassed by none, and abounding, in almost every point, 

 with that invaluable, and indispensable, and wonder-working agent, carbonate 

 of lime, in some one of its forms, Virginia ought to rank among the foremost of 

 her sisters in the various productions so well adapted to her soil and geographical 

 position. Were the same means employed, and industry and zeal displayed here, 

 that I witnessed this summer in a delightful trip to the States of Delaware, New- 

 Jersey, Pennsylvania, New- York, Connecticut and Massachusetts, 1 feel assured, 

 from my own results, that we should be much more bountifully rewarded for our 

 expenditure of time and money ; and this opinion I express with much confi- 

 dence, after having enjoyed the opportunity this summer at the State Fair, at 

 Saratoga, of conversing with many intelligent farmers, and cornparing notes. 

 None there with whom I had the privilege of conversing, were enabled to re- 

 port a yield of 31 bushels average of wheat upon 160 acres, after clover fallow. 

 Yet Mr. Hill Carter, of Shirley, made that quantity upon his field of that size in 

 1845. In Pennsylvania, and in beautiful and fertile Chester and Delaware Coun- 

 ties, 20 bushels per acre, upon ten or twentj'-acre lots, were regarded as their 

 maximum crops. Mr. Wm. Harrison of Brandon, and Mr. JohnSelden of West- 

 over, often exceed that yield upon fields of from 100 to 200 acres. I this past 

 season averaged 23 bushels on 500 acres. Could we increase the readers of our 

 excellent agricultural journals— and no one feels a greater desire to aid in the 

 effort than myself — we should soon witness gratifying and beneficial changes 

 among our farmers. With the sincerest wishes for the universal dissemination 

 of your journal among us and others, 



lam, dear Sir, very respectfully, ROBERT B. ROLLING. 



[There are few subjects on which erroneous impressions are more prevalent 

 than as to the comparative condition and produce of farms in the North and in 

 the South — say New-York and 'Virginia, for instance. The common impression 

 south of the Chesapeake is that twenty bushels and upward of wheat to the 

 acre, are ordinary yields in New- York ; whereas, by her last Census, taken with 

 something like care by the State officers under State legislation, in 1845, only 

 one county averaged twenty bushels ; and that county (New- York) had — or so 

 reported — but three acres in that grain. Out of 59 counties, only ten averaged 

 over fifteen bushels, and the whole State fourteen of wheat, twenty-six of oats, 

 nine and a half of rye, and twenty-five of corn. We much doubt if in New- York, 

 or Pennsylvania, there can be found, on the same scale, any exhibition of Agricul- 

 ture that evinces more thorough judgment and forecast, on the part of the pro- 

 prietors, or equal perfection, neatness, and thorough work, in the execution and 

 detail of practice in the field, than may be witnessed on the large estates referred 

 to in the above papers. Why does not the Virginia Legislature provide for ex- 

 act periodical returns, decennially, at least, of all her agricultural statistics. 

 Would not the time and money be as well spent as in some other ways that 

 might be mentioned ? And how can wise and just laws be enacted without such 

 periodical and accurate returns ? Ed. Farm. Lib.} 



Smut in Wheat. — N. Simons, of Castile, New-York, states in the Genesee Farmer that he 

 took six fine heads of wheat, and three of them he rubbed out and sowed with as many heads 

 of smut. The product was two-thirds smut, as was found by counting the heads in the 

 crop. The other tlii-ee heads were sown on a clean place remote from the others ; not a 

 particle of smut was produced. This experiment entirely accords in the result with others, 

 showing conclusively the importance of clean seed. 



supposed there were counties that would, and still believe there are single counties in Virginia that ought 

 to give more patrons for such a work than it has received in the whole State. Of course we don't speak 

 of the Editorial portion of it. Ed. Farm. Lib.] 



(863) 



