232 



RN PLANTER. 



that the way to make a great crop of corn was 

 to make the land rich, fallow deep, pulverize 

 well, plant closely, and cultivate frequently and 

 deeply with the coulter. If the soil is deep and 

 well broken up the roots of the corn have a 

 perpendicular instead of a lateral tendency, and 

 there is little danger of injuring them by deep 

 cultivation. 



Mr. Ruffin need make no apology for the sea- 

 son at which his communication appears. In- 

 dian corn is a privileged question, and is alwaj-s 

 in order. 



For the Southern Planter. 



THE BARBERRY. 



Mr. Editor, — In the July No. of the Southern 

 Planter was published a communication from 

 Clayton G. Coleman, Esq., of this county, re- 

 questing information, whether the Barberry bush 

 possesses the properly of communicating the 

 rust to wheat. If you think proper to publish 

 the following facts and remarks, they are at your 

 service : 



I am informed that my grandfather moved 

 his family from the county of Hanover to the 

 county of Amherst about the year 1750, and 

 that my grandmoiher carried a Barberry bush, 

 as a " God send," which was planted in the rich 

 soil of the mountains. She lived to a very old 

 a^e, and was often delighted to cut a branch 

 from her bush, to relieve, or cure the diseases 

 or some of them, to which the sons and daugh- 

 ters of Adam were subject. About the com- 

 mencement of the present century I came into 

 possession of the land on which she died and 

 with it the Barberry bush, perhaps not inferior 

 in size and beauty to the one in the garden at 

 Jerdone Castle. The garden, yard, &c. was 

 attached to an adjoining field on which grew 

 several fine crops of wheat before I patted with 

 it; I never saw on the wheat a particle of rust 

 although 1 have frequently seen the wheat 

 touching the bush. 



I became an inhabitant of the county of 

 Louisa about thirty years past and found on the 

 plantation I moved to a Barberry bush, about 

 the size of the one I left. In making some ar- 

 rangements in the garden it became necessary 

 to remove the Barberry bush, which I declined 

 doing until I had several of its descendants in a 

 state of thrift iness. I have three of them planted 

 on the side of the public road, all of which are 

 not equal in size to the parent stock from the 

 frequent cutting of the branches for medicinal 

 uses. 



My wheat has occasionally been injured by 

 the rust since I moved to the county of Louisa ; 

 and so has the wheat of those who never had a 

 Barberry bush ; even those who have destroyed 



them have shared the same fate. I have seen 

 the Barberry bush have the rust ; so has oats 

 and rye ; the brier bush has the rust frequently, 

 and so has the cotton plant ; in fact there are 

 few subjects in the vegetable kingdom, but, 

 what some years or some time in the year 

 have the rust. Does the Barberry bush com- 

 municate the disease to all of its fellow subjects, 

 or is there not a general cause in nature which 

 operates upon them all? Wheat has sustained 

 much more damage from the rust since the com- 

 mencement of the nineteenth century, than it did 

 during the letter part of the eighteenth century, 

 when the Barberry bushes were much more nu- 

 merous than they are now. The mania for de- 

 stroying the Barberry bush has pervaded almost 

 the whole country, and but few of the family are 

 now left. Has the bush become more malignantly 

 destructive as its numbers have decreased 1 I 

 think not. It will be remembered that the Hes- 

 sian Fly made its appearance about the com- 

 mencement, of the present century ; since which 

 time wheat, instead of being seeded as formerly, 

 in the month of August, is now seeded in the 

 months of October, November, and even as late 

 as December, in order to guard against the ra- 

 vages of that little destructive insect. Thus the 

 farmer by endeavoring to keep clear of scylla 

 runs into charybdis ; — to avoid the fly by early 

 seeding he seeds late to be destroyed by the rust. 

 It is wrong that the innocent Barberry bush 

 should feel the vengeance of the sufferer. 



We are informed by history, in by-gone days, 

 that the pleop'.e " Down East" took it into their 

 wise heads, that their cattle died in consequence 

 of being shot with hair balls by a certain class 

 of old women which they called witches, and 

 that many of those witches suffered death by 

 water and fire for the supposed crime of shoot- 

 ing their neighbors' cattle with hair balls, when 

 no hole was lo be found through which the ball 

 passed. Had those shrewd people fed their 

 cattle as well then, as they do now, and put 

 them in as warm houses in that cold climate as 

 they at present do; it would have saved the 

 lives of many a cow and many an old woman. 



If the farmers of Virginia will make their 

 land rich enough to bear seeding two or two and 

 one-half bushels of wheat to the acre, and will 

 cultivate the forward family of wheat and seed 

 it in the month of September, it is my opinion 

 they will have no occasion to use violence to- 

 wards any of the relatives of " the God send" of 

 my good old Grandmother. 



Respectfully, Sir, 



Yours, &c. 



Wm. Crawford. 

 Locust Grove, Louisa Co., Aug. 15, 1844. 



P. S. — Wheat which has been injured by the 

 rust, will produce a good crop of sound mer- 

 chantable wheat the next year. W. C. 



