176 APPENDIX. [March, 



east, west, north, and south of us, and why not here ? Our climate is 

 certainly as favorable as that of any part of the country, and as far as 

 atmospheric causes have a bearing, we have as little to fear from that 

 source as the most favored region on earth. I am aware it may be 

 objected that our lands are not so new as that of many parts of our 

 country where wheat is grown, and that most writers upon the subject 

 consider a granite or light free soil as less favorable to the growth of 

 this crop, than a strong, deep aluminous or clayey soil. Supposing 

 these objections to be well founded, they can be at once obviated ; the 

 first by deep ploughing, and the second by the application of manure 

 and lime. Our old fields which have been subjected to the immemo- 

 rial usage of shallow ploughing and stinted manuring, will neither pro- 

 duce wheat nor any other crop that will pay the expense of cultivating. 

 The farmer suffers no greater loss from a blighted field of wheat, than 

 from a starved crop of corn. I would recommend then, to farmers 

 who would succeed in the cultivation of wheat, or any other crop, to 

 plough deep, turn up and keep at the surface a liberal portion of the 

 subsoil which our fathers have left undisturbed, let them nourish their 

 hungry and exhausted fields with a bountiful supply of manure and 

 lime, and rely upon it, they will no longer complain of blighted crops 

 and unproductive harvests. 



The parable of the " sower who went out to sow," contains much 

 agricultural as well as moral and religious instruction. The seed that 

 " fell upon stony ground which had not much earth," like that which 

 is sown upon our shoal ploughed fields, sprung up and grew the better 

 at first, " by reason of its having but little depth of earth," but as 

 soon as the sun was up and the season advanced, " it was scorched, 

 and because it had no root it withered away." Here is an admirable 

 lesson for farmers, and the reasoning of the sacred teacher is as sound 

 and unanswerable in an agricultural, as it is in a moral and religious 

 point of view. Let the farmers then sow their seed upon " good 

 ground," deeply ploughed and liberally and rightly manured, and we 

 shall hear no more of the necessity of legislative bounty as an induce- 

 ment to the culture of wheat. 



My opportunities, however, for noticing the results of the attempts 

 of others in the cultivation of wheat, and my means of judging of the 

 causes of their failure, where they have been unsuccessful, may per- 

 haps be considered too limited, to authorize me to express a decided 

 opinion or enable me to become a safe adviser on this subject. It is, 

 sir, to your experience, to your careful and laborious researches, that 



