40 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



creased from an average of about twenty- three to 

 twenty-five bushels an acre to about thirty-four ; 

 and that, since he has raised wheat from single ears 

 or carefully selected sorts, he has increased his crops 

 to between forty and fifty bushels an acre." Many 

 of the best known kinds of wheat, barley, and oats 

 now grown in Europe (and some of them have been 

 successfully introduced into this country), have been 

 produced from single ears or heads of grain, select- 

 ed by observing men for some valuable qualities 

 they appeared to possess. Such was the origin of 

 the White Kent and Whittingham wheat ; the Chev- 

 alier, Annat, and Stains barley; and the Potato, 

 Hopetown, and Dun oat. In this country, we need 

 only refer to the justly celebrated Baden corn, which, 

 by persevering selection, has from four ears been 

 brought to produce ten on a stalk ; and where the 

 climate and soil are most favourable, as in the West- 

 ern States, has added at least 50 per cent, to the 

 productiveness of the corn-crop. This is a field of 

 improvement in which every farmer may be a la- 

 bourer, and with the happiest results. To improve 

 his seeds requires no extra capital ; a little care and 

 attention to the qualities of his growing and ripened 

 crops is all that is requisite ; and, whether he avail 

 himself of the opportunity for improvement or not, 

 no good farmer can avoid having the feasibility of 

 so doing repeatedly forced upon his observation, by 

 the difference in the size and productiveness of in- 

 dividual plants. 



Another and third cause of the low state of ag- 

 riculture is the too general want of knowlelere 

 among farmers of the scientific principles which 

 govern it. That every farmer should be a thorough 

 chymist, and be able to explain all the laws that 

 govern matter, and, in so doing, trace to their source 

 the elements of vegetable and animal nutrition, is 

 not what is to be expected ; and so with the kindred 

 sciences of botany and entomology. Still he should 



