AGRICULTURAL HUMBUGS. 125 



seed. I think, or rather fear, that the introduction of the great 

 variety of seed will ruin the Mexican. At present, it is almost 

 impossible to get a genuine article of Mexican seed. By being 

 careful, and picking our seed, we can improve them to a con- 

 siderable degree. And I have noticed that those very men 

 who are always collecting new corn and cotton seed, are the 

 men that most generally fail in making full crops. I have no 

 doubt but that a great many will readily conclude that I have 

 been deceived in buying seed, and for this reason complain ; 

 but my reply is, that I never have bought or sold a cotton seed 

 in my life, but I have some neighbors who are in the habit of 

 trying all sorts. 



I am, very respectfully, 

 Cayuga, Miss., March, 1850. HINDS. 



SECTION XIV. AGRICULTURAL HUMBUGS. 



MESSRS. EDITORS : When will humbuggery and extrava- 

 gant representations of things and new discoveries cease ? I 

 will drop back about eighteen years, and bring up my sub- 

 ject as things may occur to my mind. Should I present 

 names, I wish to be understood as doing it respectfully, not 

 charging any one with willful false statements. Men's inter- 

 est, in general, leads them, while giving an account of some- 

 thing new, to give a coloring to their statements that often 

 leads their hearers into error or false notions This is what I 

 wish to correct. Any one writing about seeds, or anything 

 else, should first make fair and disinterested trials proving 

 the thing before saying everything in its favor. Always give 

 the dark side, if it has any, as well as the bright. Get men's 

 anticipations raised to a high pitch about a new kind of cot- 

 ton, or any other seeds, and they, for the sake of gain, go in 



