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Great quantities of clam and muscle shells, which are furnished by 

 the fisheries in the town of Essex, could they be reduced by fire, 

 would prove of considerable service. As yet the use of lime as 

 manure in the county is very little understood ; and further experi- 

 ments are important to determine at what rate a farmer can afford to 

 purchase it. A considerable deposit of shell marl is reported to have 

 been discovered on the route of the rail-road, now in progress be- 

 tween Boston and Salem. The discovery has been so recently re- 

 ported, that no examination has been made of it. 



2. A second cause of failure is supposed to be connected with 

 our climate. The blights or shrivelling of the kernel, which some- 

 times occur, are in some cases occasioned by the want of lime in 

 the soil, in order to perfect the grain. Where these blights are di- 

 rectly connected with atmospherical influences, they can be but par- 

 tially guarded against by any human skill ; but in this respect they 

 are not so frequent as to discourage the cultivation. There has not 

 been a general blight of the wheat crop in Great Britain since the 

 year 1806. 



Of two contiguous fields of wheat, similar in aspect, condition of 

 soil, and kind of seed, which I visited this season, one was severely 

 blighted ; the other sound and perfect. The only difference ascer- 

 tainable in the management of the two fields, was that one of the 

 farmers, during the continuance of the heavy dews, and damp foggy 

 weather, which occurred while the wheat was in flower, was careful 

 every morning to sweep the dew from his wheat by passing a rope 

 over it. Another farmer in Manchester reports his having pursued 

 this practice in former years with his wheat, and with success. 



3. A third cause of the failure of the wheat crop in several places 

 in the county, is the grain worm. The Hessian fly, which formerly 

 infested the wheat, has, in a great measure, disappeared. The grain 

 worm, whose habits are not yet well understood, threatens great in- 

 jury throughout the country. The fly, from which the worm origin- 

 ates, deposits his egg at the time the wheat is in blossom. This 

 small black fly is seen at that time hovering over the fields of wheat 

 in infinite numbers. Some remarkable experiments have been made 

 by a free dressing of newly slacked lime upon the plant, while it is 

 in a wet state, to destroy his deposit or prevent his approach. There 



