92 CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 



in brine, limed, and sown on the 27th of October, at the rate of 

 two bushels and a half to the acre. One half the field was highly 

 manured to the remainder no manure was applied. The seed 

 came up finely, and nothing could exceed the beauty and luxu- 

 riance of the growth; most of the field averaging more than 

 five feet in height. 



"Above half the field, including an equal portion of the ma- 

 nured and that not manured, was passed over twice in the 

 spring, after the grain had got to be six inches in height, with 

 a light harrow, drawn by one yoke of oxen, and three weeks 

 after was subjected to the same process. 



"The effect of this was to destroy very few of the plants, and 

 to render the growth of what remained much more luxuriant, 

 producing such an increase of the stem, and such an extension 

 of the heads, as to attract the notice of the most casual observer, 

 and to induce several persons who were ignorant of the process 

 to which it had been subjected, to inquire for the cause of the 

 difference in the two parts of the field, and to ask if a different 

 kind of seed had been used. 



"After all, however, to my extreme disappointment, the 

 whole field has been blasted, and I shall hardly get back the 

 amount of the seed sown, and that in a small shrivelled grain. 

 The crop is housed, but will scarcely repay the expense of 

 threshing. 



"Now, that this result was not owing to the use of stable 

 dung is obvious, because none was used. In that part of the 

 field where the blight appeared to commence, and to make most 

 rapid progress, no manure whatever was used. 



"It was not owing to the want of the specific property in the 

 soil, as far as that is to be found in lime and slaughter-house 

 manure, for both of these were employed. The seed was 

 limed, and the above manure copiously applied. 



"It is not to be attributed to the luxuriance of the crop, for 

 several pieces in the neighbourhood have suffered equally, and 

 from the same cause, where the cultivation was by no means so 

 high. 



"It is not a time of universal failure. A good deal in this 

 vicinity is perfectly healthy and sound; and I have already 

 reaped on the same farm a small piece of wheat, say half an 

 acre, on higher land, which was healthy and fair, though from 

 the condition of the land it gave but a small product. This, 

 however, though sowed at the same time, was ready for the 

 sickle more than a week sooner than the other, from the drier 

 and poorer quality of the soil. 



"As the wheat was filling fast, we had frequent showers, and 

 much of what we Yankees call muggy weather. One day in 



