THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



209 



but one instance of smut in forty years, and 

 this was when the wheat was not steeped. An- 

 other experiment was tried on seed, in which 

 were a few balls of smut — one-third being steeped 

 in chamber lye, and limed ; one-third steeped in 

 the same, and not limed; and the remainder 

 without steeping- or liming; and the result was, 

 that the seed pickled and limed, and that pickled 

 and not limed, were free from smut, but the 

 other had smutty ears in abundance. Another 

 experiment was tried, by taking a peck of very 

 smutty wheat, of which one-half was sown in 

 its natural state, the other half washed as clean 

 as possible, in three waters, soaked two hours 

 in brine strong enough to bear an egg, and 

 dashed with lime: the result was, two-thirds of 

 the unwashed was smutty, but of the pickled 

 and limed seed there was a full crop, without a 

 single ear of smut. A similar experiment, some- 

 what varied, is the following: Of four sacks of 

 smutty wheat, one sack was soaked in strong 

 brine only; one prepared with lime only; one 

 was soaked in strong brine, and then lay in 

 lime all night; and the fourth was sown with- 

 out anything : the result was, where brine only 

 was used, now and then there was a smutty 

 ear, but not many; where lime only was used, 

 there was about the same quantity of smut; 

 where lime and brine were used, not a single 

 smutty ear could be found ; and where nothing 

 was used, it was a mass of smut. In another 

 experiment, however, mentioned in the Southern 

 Planter, wheat salted at the rate of a quart of 

 salt to a bushel succeeded effectually in pre- 

 venting smut.'*' 



THE VALLEY FARMER. 



We welcome to our list of exchanges with 

 fraternal affection this younger son of the Old 

 Dominion. The Valley Farmer has just been 

 ushered into existence at Winchester, Virginia, 

 and is a very promising bantling of four pages, 

 that promises to show his face to the world once 

 every week, for fifty cents a year. This is our 

 first acquaintance with Mr. Bentley, the Editor, 

 but the manner in which his first number is 

 gotten up is sufficient to inspire us with great 

 confidence in his ability to fill the delicate, pe- 

 culiar, and responsible station of Editor of an 

 agricultural paper. We will take the liberty of 

 an eider brother to say to him, that if he will 

 devote his columns to short practical statements, 

 eschewing all the long-winded essays that will 

 be poked upon him by learned farmers, that buy 

 every thing and have nothing to sell, he will 

 meet with a generous support, not only in the 

 Valley, but in Eastern and Western Virginia too. 

 Vol. IV.-27 



We are self-constituted agents for the "Val- 

 ley Farmer." What club of twenty will send 

 us a ten dollar note for the Editor? 



STRAWBERRIES. 



One of our correspondents a short time since 

 wished us to publish something further on the 

 strawberry culture. The following from the 

 Farmers' Cabinet by S. D. Martin is beautifully 

 condensed and explicit : 



"I noticed a piece in a late number of your 

 paper upon the cultivation of strawberries, in 

 which the writer appears to doubt whether there 

 are male and female plants. It is known to bo- 

 tanists that all the plants of strawberries have 

 both male and female organs upon each flower. 

 But upon one plant the male organs will so pre- 

 dominate that it will rarely bear any fruit; this 

 for practical purposes, I call the male plant. It 

 is easily distinguished — is a larger, stronger 

 plant; has larger and rougher flowers than the 

 other; all the runners from it produce the same 

 kind of plants, with the like kind of flowers. — 

 The male plant being stronger and not reduced 

 by bearing, spreads rapidly over the ground and 

 smothers the bearing plants, and the strawberry 

 bed becomes barren. Where strawberry beds 

 are mixed in this way, with barren and produc- 

 tive plants, it can certainly be told when they are 

 in bloom what parts of the bed will bear. Let 

 those who would have productive strawberry beds, 

 not neglect to set out a majority of female plants, 

 whatever may be said by botanists and horticul- 

 turists to the contrary. One male to a dozen 

 females will be sufficient. Mr. Longworth, of 

 Cincinnati, I think, first called the sttenticn of 

 the public to the above facts. I have known 

 them for about twenty years, and have had pro- 

 ductive beds. I have seen beds where a single 

 female flower could not be found : and in the 

 season for fruit, twenty strawberries could not 

 be found upon a rod of^ground. I had four dif- 

 ferent kinds of strawberries brought from your 

 city some years ago, and every plant of each 

 kind was a male plant ; consequently they have 

 never produced any fruit worth speaking of." 



WHEAT.— RED MAY AND MEDITERRANEAN. 



Mr. W. B. Syclnor, of Hanover, resolved to 

 test the value of these two rival wheats. Ac- 

 cordingly he sowed two lots of about five acres 

 each of equal quality and similar in every re- 

 spect, the one with the Red May and the other 

 with the Mediterranean. The former yielded 

 seventeen and the latter twenty bushels to the 

 acre. Mr. Sydnor did not observe any superior 

 invulnerability to the fly or rust upon the part 

 of the Mediterranean. On the contrary, they 



