96 



Adonijah Jones of Otis says, that when he was accustomed to 

 plough in the seed of his winter wheat instead of harrowing, he sel- 

 dom had any killed by frost. The experience of a competent far- 

 mer in Northampton, leads to a similar conclusion. From an ex- 

 periment on spring wheat made by Derrick I. Spurr in Sheffield, it 

 would seem that harrowing or dragging it was preferable. He was 

 advised, in sowing his seed last spring, not to plough in his seed. 

 But he ploughed in a small strip in the centre of his field ; the 

 wheat on this part exhibited a taller and stouter growth, but it did not 

 come up so well ; much seed appeared to fail, and had he ploughed 

 in the whole, he thinks he should not have had a third of the crop 

 which he obtained by simply dragging in or harrowing in the seed. 



Eldad Post, of Lenox, is in the practice of harrowing his field of 

 wheat daily after it has been sown, for ten days ; and considers the 

 practice of great utility. It quickens vegetation, by bringing the 

 earth to the sun and air. It is a custom in France, to harrow wheat 

 with a light harrow after it has attained a growth of four or five in- 

 ches. I have several times tried this method with great benefit. 

 The vegetation is greatly assisted by bringing fresh earth often to the 

 plants, and keeping the ground loose and fine ; or as farmers some- 

 times term it, alive, provided it can be done without inflicting too 

 great an injury on the small fibres and rootlets of the plants. 



E. Post lost his first sowing of Italian wheat, which he attributes 

 to the exclusion of the wheat from the external air in tight casks, by 

 which he thinks its germinating power was destroyed ; and says he 

 knows facts, which go to confirm this opinion. O. Curtis, of Shef- 

 field, says much of his seed wheat was destroyed by being soaked too 

 long in the brine.* Mr. Hathaway, of Rome, N. Y., by whom the 

 Italian wheat was first cultivated in this county, says this kind is more 

 liable to injury from this practice, than other wheat. I mention 

 these opinions, not as endorsing them ; but as the observations of in- 

 telligent and observing men, and therefore deserving of consideration 

 and inquiry. Is it not possible, that Mr. Post's wheat may have 

 been put up in a damp state, and injured by being heated in the cask ? 

 Mr. Curtis's opinion is not according to the judgment of many farmers 

 who do not object to the wheat's remaining long in the brine, pro- 

 vided it is not exposed beforp ^nwing to the alternatives of drying 

 and wetting. 



•Appendix F. 



