122 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



a young colt or calf to contract them, unless 

 special attention were turned to getting them 

 off. These ticks were first observed on the 

 cattle of the drove, and to spread from them 

 through the surrounding region. So strangely 

 is popular opinion inclined to leap to conclu- 

 sions, that they were at once pronounced to be 

 the harbingers and the cause of distemper, and 

 those who saw the vermin on their cows, with 

 great concern expected also to be visited by 

 that calamity. The ticks, however, soon 

 spread through the greater part of middle 

 Virginia, and for aught that I know, the tide- 

 water country too, without vaccinating with 

 distemper as they went, and now, all who 

 know any thing of their advent believe that 

 they merely rode on cow-back in their immi- 

 gration. From the power of climate, or some 

 other cause, they propagate much less nume- 

 rously than at first, and in most places scarce- 

 ly inflict any annoyance. This remark may 

 also, in most places, be applied to all the spe- 

 cies of our ticks. The' seed-tick becomes ex- 

 tinct wherever all the cattle are confined in 

 pastures. 



Before closing, we feel bound to say some- 

 thing about the extermination of this destruc- 

 tive disease, and to call upon all who are able 

 to afford aid in effecting so desirable an object. 

 We have distinctly declared .our belief that it 

 can be done. The very fact of enclosing cattle 

 has done this on some farms, and the desola- 

 tions of the disease have been greatly dimi- 

 nished, in the region so often alluded to, as we 

 believe, by cessation, in a great degree, from 

 the old practice of general grazing on com- 

 mons. A man who wishes to deliver his herd 

 of cattle from this terrible malady has only 

 most watchfully to segregate such of them as 

 he knows to have been all their lives clear of 

 the disease, from such as may have expe- 

 rienced it, during the time intervening be- 

 tween nearly the last of June and almost 

 the arrival of Christmas. The most speedy 

 and sure way would be, in some manner to 

 dispose of all his cattle that could be at all 

 suspected, during the fall season, get a new 

 set, after the winter had cleansed the grass — 

 about Christmas, or a little after — and secure 

 them, as far as individual exertions can do 

 afterwards, from any possibility of contami- 

 nation. But after all his trouble and ex- 

 pense, he is liable to have the disease brought 

 back upon him, and perhaps with increased 

 violence, by the irruptions of marauding cattle 

 which graze upon an adjoining common. Thus 

 he is compelled to risk a thousand dollars or 

 more, that his neighbors may have the privi- 

 lege of grazing a few cattle on poverty-stricken 



outlying lands, that do not belong to them. 

 The legislature alone can place it in every 

 man's power to exterminate the disease from 

 his farm, by enacting a law, with effectual pe- 

 nalties, forbidding all cattle to run at large. 

 But great bodies are said to move slowly. 

 We would call upon the executive committee, 

 and the whole Agricultural Society, and every 

 member — upon the editors of agricultural 

 papers, and the whole corps of editors, to 

 hurry them. 



This subject increases greatly in importance 

 as so many costly and blooded cattle are 

 coming into the State. The writer begs all 

 purchasing such to be watchfully cautious, to 

 buy none which could be tainted, to transmit 

 them from place to place between January 

 and J une, and if circumstances require that 

 they should be moved at the wrong season, to 

 guard them well with muzzles while passing 

 through distempered regions. 



W. S. Morton. 



Cumberland, July 1854. 



Extract from Correspondence. 

 SMUT IN WHEAT. 



I cannot withhold from you the pleasure I 

 feel in seeing announced through your paper 

 the true cause of smut in wheat. I have over 

 and over again concluded to write you on this 

 subject; but as my experience is not founded 

 upon so many experiments as your correspon- 

 dent, the meed of praise is certainly his due. 

 I allude to the grub contained in the smut-ball, 

 and that grub changing into small grey and 

 black bugs, which may always be seen on the 

 heads of wheat where smut is commencing. 



Very Respectfully, B. F. Eppes. 



The above alludes to the valuable article of our 

 friend, Col. Braxton Davenport, of Jefferson, on the 

 cause of smut in wheat. — Ed. So. Pi.. 



From the N. Y. Economist of March 10th. 

 GRAIN. 



A favorable change in the weather since 

 our last publication has been without influence 

 on our Wheat market ; receipts continue light, 

 notwithstanding prices have reached a point 

 never before known in this market, at least 

 not during this century, and as our stock 

 is daily diminishing, higher prices appear 

 inevitable. The rapid advance in flour here 

 and in the interior, does not draw out the 

 supplies, and the conclusion to be drawn from 

 it is, that there is little left in the interior 

 even for their own trade. From the Upper 

 Lakes we learn there is now about a millkr 



