VoL. IV. 
AUGUSTA, GA., FEBRUARY, 1840. 
No. 2. 
Qlgricultural ilketiiigs. 
STATE AG2SICI;L,TI;KA2. society. 
Report of tlie Committee on Grain. 
The Cummiltee appointed to report on Grain, 
have had the subject under consideration, but 
are at some loss whether the report was intend- 
ed by the Society to be of a statistical character, 
or to refer more particularly to the value and 
variety of the various grain crops of the State, 
and the relative proportion they bearto each other 
in value. The latter is forced on your Com- 
mittee from the fact, that Georgia has no statis- 
tics by which the amount of the various grain 
crops could be ascertained — tlie Lt".ghlalwe not 
deeming such stalislics worthy their attention in 
talcing the census of the S-ate. Under this view 
of the subject, vour Committee will proceed to 
lay before you iuch opinions as may suggest 
themselves from their experience and observa- 
tion, atid facts within their reach. 
The principal .grain crop ot the State is corn ; 
next in importance, is wheat; then follows oats, 
rye and barley — the two latter of which are very 
limitedly cultivated. 
Corn is the principal grain crop not only for 
bread, but for raising and sustaining our stock 
and fattening our poik; and if by drought, or 
any other cause, it partially fails, a panic is felt 
throughout the country; when if more attention 
was paid to the other grain crops, in such a case 
of failure we might have substitutes nearly, il 
not quite equal, to corn. The custom of the 
country has contributed much to this mischief, 
and the object of your Committee will be to 
suggest, before they close this report, at least a 
partial remedy. 
It is obvious that Georgia does not raise a 
sufficient supply of grain for her purposes; and 
the faci is fully proven by the large importa- 
tions of flour, pork, horses and mules every 
year made into the State. But your Commit- 
tee doubts whether the amount of corn now 
raised on the average, would not be sufficient 
for all the wants of the Stale, if it received the 
necessary aid by the increasedculture of wheat, 
oats, rye and barley, and at a less cost to the 
farmer than if the whole supply was made up 
of corn. Again — your Committee are ol opi- 
nion that 25 pel cent, more of corn might be 
raised with the same laborthan is raised, by an 
improved method of culture, on the same land, 
which would make a vast difference in the re- 
sults of the State. 
When Georgia was first settled, the circum- 
stances that surrounded the inhabiianfs 'neces- 
sarily induced a slovenly culture, but the virgin 
and fertile condition of the soil bountifully re- 
paid the labors of the husbandrian. This slo- 
venly custom grew up with, and was imbibed 
by the succeeding generation, and so sirong 
are old prejudices that you find it exceedingly 
difficult to make a man that is over forty years 
old, believe that anj^ o. her plan is better than 
his fathei’s. 
Men seem to forget that the earth has been 
shorn of her virgin fertility by the withering 
hand of time under ihe seourgings of the kill 
atifi cripple system— that she, like animals, 
must have the necessary amount of lood to en- 
able her to make a yearly return equivalent to 
what she did when young, healthy, vigorous 
and strong. Place her back where she was in 
her virgin days, and then call on her with an 
improved system of culture and she will re- 
spond in a precise ratio to the science and skill 
applied. Although she now seems to be worn 
out and exhausted with old age, and fit only to 
be abandoned to the miserable fate of raising 
broomsedge and old field pines, you have but to 
feed her plentilully and she will again rise in 
her native majesty and fill to overflowing the 
lap of ihftse who thus act in accordance with 
the laws of nature. But to the subject, taking 
it for granted that the deficiency in the average 
corn crop might be supplied at a less cost by 
increasing the crop of wheat, oais^ rye and bar- 
ley, and that 25 per cent, more of corn might be 
raised by improved cultivation, yet we are left 
to conjecture what increase in the grain crop 
would be sufficient to enable Georgia to be per- 
fectly independent of other States for ihose sup- 
plies which she would have if she raised an 
abundance of grain. 
Corn, the grain relied on in ihe Slate for 
biead, has become a less certain crop than for- 
merly, being more liable to be cut off by drought 
and bad culture in consequence of the exhaust- 
ed state of the soil, and is also prejudiced in its 
culture by the great staple ol the couniry, 
which not unlrequently causes it lo bring a price 
far above its true value, compared with the sta- 
ple article. The labor necessary to produce the 
cotton to purchase corn, if applied directly to 
'he culture of corn, would produce more coin 
than the money arising from the cc iton would 
purchase. 
ft is therefore clear that so indispensable an 
article should have applied to its culture ihe ne- 
cessary amount of labor to secure a full supply 
for all the purposes for which it is used, and 
then the balance may be safely applied to cot- 
ton. 
Every larmer knows, without a sufficient 
supply of corn hisstock must decrease in value, 
and the necessary consequence is, that a portion 
ol the money received for this cotton must go to 
supply the deficiency created by the want of 
corn. 
Your Committee therefore consider corn of 
the first and greatest importance of ihe various 
grains of the South, and would recommend an 
extension and improi. ement in icscullure. Al- 
though your Committee are not resiricled in 
their report, agreeable lo the words ol the reso- 
lution directing their appointment, it might be 
considered as travelling out of their limits lo 
speak of the best method of preparing the land 
for the culture ot corn, therefore they will sim- 
plv suggest to their breihren the importance ol 
thorough preparation and culture, with a libem! 
use ot manure. 
Next in order is wheal ; and in the opinion of 
your Committee, of quite as much importance 
as the corn crop in its place, having entered 
much more largely than formerly in forming 
the principal bread of a large portion ot the in- 
habitants, and especially when we consider its 
entire adaptation to all the various uses made 
of the Indian corn, even the fattening of stock. 
It is unfortunate that thiscrop is held in such 
low repute by our farmers in consequence of 
the alleged uncertainty, and interfering with the 
cotton crop both in the time of its sowing and 
harvesting. It is true that the time for the sow- 
ing of wheat happens at an important time lor 
picking cotton, and the harvesting at an equally 
important time for working the cotton, but your 
Committee will not admit that it is a more un- 
certain crop than either of the grain crops rais- 
ed in the State. True, it is attacked by rust, 
smut or blast, and the yield not unfrequently a 
very poor one ; but when you trace the causes, 
they may, m almost every instance, be account- 
ed for. Your Committee hesitate not to say 
from experience, that success may be as cer- 
tainly calculated on in wheat as in the corn crop, 
the necessary pains being taken in selecting the 
seed, the preparation of the land, and the put- 
ting in of the grain, reference being had also to 
the time ol sowing, which should, in every ir- 
staticp, be early in the season lor the variety 
sown. The riist which has never yet been sat- 
isfactorily accounted for— consequently no re- 
medy has been prescribed— in every case has 
been escaped by wheat that ripens very early ; 
therefore, let the cause be what it may, you have 
only to select the early varieties, and sow early 
for the particular variety, and you escape the 
rust. The cause for the blast or smut has, by 
the light of scientific research, been discovered 
to be a fungus formed on the seed, which ger- 
minates and communicates through the grow- 
ing stalk to the grain and rots it in the milky 
stale. For this disease a remedy has been dis- 
covered which has proved effectual, viz; soak- 
ing the seed from twelve to sixteen hours in a 
strong decoction of blue-stone and liming it 
just before sowing. If your Committee are cor- 
rect, of which they have no doubt from expe- 
rience. two of the objections that were consid- 
ered formidable and insurmountable are over- 
come. The third objection, that ot a pooryield, 
can as easily be disposed of, for no man calcu- 
lates on a full crop ol corn when he half pre- 
pares and half cultivates the land; and for the 
same reason he should not calculate to make a 
crop of wheat with a scratching for a plowing, 
and only one at tha', which practice is too fre- 
quent in this countiy. Your Committee are of 
opinion that the method of sowing wheat in 
this country is radically wrong, — though aware 
they run ihe risk of being hooted for their sug- 
gestion of a better method, because of its inno- 
vation on the long established custom of plow- 
ing it in, and that many contend the failures are 
owing to its not having been plowed in deep 
enough. Notwithstanding, they are of opinion 
from experience and observation as well as 
good reasoning, that neither wheal nor any other 
small grain should be plowed in. 
They would suggest as the best method, a 
thorough preparation of ihc soil by deep plow- 
ingand thorough pulverization; the wheat sown 
on the land thus prepared, harrowed in and fal- 
lowed by a roller to mash the clods and com- 
press the sui face, that germination may take 
place at once, and a vigorous and healihy 
growth be promoted in the plant theieby. It is 
obvious to every thinking mind, that wheat, 
oats, rye and barley, are all surface plants; that 
they do not send their roots deep into the eanh, 
like many of the other plants, and as a proof of 
the fact, a gtain of wheat that germinates at 
the depth of three inches will have a hard strug- 
gle to get througli the earth, and when it does, 
it will remain a weak and sickly plant until the 
lateral roots aie thrown out from the first joint 
near the surface, within the influence of atmos- 
pheric air, and the genial influence of the sun’s 
rays; then it changes its appearance and put-s 
forth its foliage with more vigor. It is, howev- 
er, not unfrequent foran unhealthy condition to 
