464 



NEW ENGL.iND FARMER. 



1853. 



For the Neiv England Farmer. 



WHY DON'T THE FARMERS OP MAS- 

 SACHUSETTS RAISE WHEAT ? 



Mr. Editor: — The question I have asked is, I 

 think, one of importance, and I should like to have 

 it answered if it can be. If any one should say 



bushels. I think it is of little use to sow Spring 

 grain, either wheat or rye,Pjr it never amounts to 

 much. 



If any one should still say they cannot raise 

 wheat, I would reply that the only reason is you 

 won't try : for I feel confident that we can raise 

 as great or greater crops on an average, than they 



they cannot raise wheat, I with all respect Avouldldo in Genesee Valley, which has been celebrated 

 say, I think they are mistaken. Wheat can be j for its good wheat. I further believe it may be 

 grown as well as rye and it requires but little more! made as profitable a crop as may be grown ; and 

 attention; some may ask how I know this ; I wouldi I also think that any person who has ever eaten 

 reply by saying, that I know by experience, for I fresh ground flour from northern wheat, and knows 

 have xaised it one year, and a near neighbor of j how much sweeter and better it is than the flour 

 mine has raised it this year with good success, brought from the West, will, if he can, raise his 



For some ft)ur or five years I have had a desire to 

 try wheat, but my father and others said it was 

 folly to do it, it would not grow ; but I was not sat- 

 isfied until I had tried it. Two years ago this month 

 I procured one quart of "Blue Stem" Winter 

 Wheat, of Euggles, Nourse, Mason & Co., and 

 sowed it on a dry, gravelly piece of land on which 

 had been put a small coat of compost manure con- 

 sisting of horse manure, night-soil, and meadow- 

 mud. The season was very dry, and it did not 

 grow tall but it headed out well without any ap- 

 pearance of rust, insects, or anything else to injure 

 it ; the product of that quart was one bushel of as 

 handsome grain as I ever set my eyes on. This I 

 call a great yield. I sold half of it for seed for one 

 dollar twenty-five cents, and saved the rest to sow 

 which I did notdolastyear,as I intended, but mean, 

 to do this week. The 

 wheat witli me; now for 



sowed three pecks of seed, on half an acre of tol 

 erably good land, though more or less overrun j 

 with witch-grass ; put on a cord and a half of 

 barnyard manure, sowed his wheat late, the 7th 

 Oct., and it did not spread as it would had it been 

 sown earlier ; the land had produced a stout crop 

 of corn which was taken off to make room for the 

 wheat. Now for the result ; in the first place, the 

 straw was stout, standing up straight five and a 

 half feet,very even over the whole field. Secondly, 

 the yield was fifteen bushels of wheat handsome 

 enough to bring two dollars a bushel to sell again; 

 judges of wheat said they had never seen better ; 

 this was the same variety that I sowed. The half- 

 bushel I sold last fall to an Irishman who sowed it 

 on a quarter of an acre of land, and sowed it very 

 late, the 15th Oct., without manure, Avhere a crop 

 of potatoes had been raised : the straw was stout, 

 the grain very plump and handsome, and as for the 

 number of bushels, I don't know, fur he has not 

 threshed it yet, but I think there will at least be 

 seven. 



It will be seen by the above experiments that 

 there is no difficulty in growing wheat, at least the 

 variety sp' ikon of, which I think is as good as any 

 I have ever seen, for it is a beardless wheat and 

 better to handle on that account; it is a white 

 wheat and m.ikes white flour, and then is so easily 

 grown. I h;ive heard from different parts of the 

 State, whire this wheat has been tried, and it has 

 uniformly doni- well. 'I'he "Wliite Flint," is a fa- 

 vorite variety in some parts of the country, but I 

 have never tried it and don't know how it would 

 do. A few words now in regard to Spring wheat. 

 Three years ago, 1 sowed a quart of "Italian" 

 Spring Wheat and it rusted so bad that I did not get 

 one good kernel. One of my friends sowed half an 

 acre and it did tolerably well, for he got about eight 



wheat, so that he may avail himself of one of 

 the greatest luxuries that a person ever enjoyed, 

 bread from fresli ground northern wheat. Now, 

 good friends, in conclusion, let me advise you to 

 sow some wheat this fall do it immediately, be- 

 fore the middle of September if you can, for it will 

 do better, though as I have shown, it will do la- 

 ter. The seed is not very plenty, but I think it can 

 be had at some of the seed stores. j. f. c. h. 

 Newton Centre, Sept. Gth. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL DISCOVERY. 



The following note from our friend, Mr. S. Max- 

 well, Jr., describes a discovery he has made which 

 will prove of considerable value, on account of the 



ri^^x,^ ;^ (.1 ^ ^^o ,u f -1 ease with which the nit is removed. We have ex- 

 aoove IS the result ot sowmg . , u f i • • • .i ,. 



.,1,1, rT°i amined a number or plums since receivmg the note 

 :or my neighbor s wheat. He! jc j- * ^.i -i. 1*11 



-•' -^ -- - - ' and nnd in every case the nit under the brown 



speck, except where the puncture has exuded gum 

 — then the worm is hatched out and has com- 

 menced his depredations. 



CuRCULio. — I have within a week discovered a 

 fact about the eurculio which was new to me, and 

 have also found it entirely new to others to whom 

 I have communicated it. All those who have had 

 fruit bitten by the eurculio, have probably noticed 

 a little brown spot on the inner edge of the cres- 

 cent-shaped puncture. That little brown spot cov- 

 ers the egg left by the bug, and the puncture 

 seems to be made for a place of safety for the young 

 worm when hatched, and also to facilitate its op- 

 erations in boring into the fruit. Persons having 

 plum trees, and leisure, and wishing to preserve a 

 few of the fruit after it has been bitten, can with 

 the point of a penknife, or with the thumb or fin- 

 ger nail, easily remove the spot from its place, 

 and no harm will come to the fruit except the scar 

 left by it. — Greenfield Republican. 



Remarks. — This will certainly not be new to 

 many persons, having been successfully practised 

 for many years. It is a slow and tedious process, 

 and can only be done by those having little or 

 nothinj!!; else to do. 



Drying Tomatoes. — The Ohio Cultivator says, 

 (early last summer,) "We ate some very ! ; e to- 

 matoes not long since, dried in the followiii: man- 

 ner : Fruit fully ripe was scalded, strained (i rough 

 a sieve, slowly cooked half an hour, spr; ;.d on 

 clean plates, and dried within an oven, the whole 

 process requiring about two days before the fruit 

 was ready to pack away." 



