THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
125 
to be hoped each member intends, to the best of 
his ability, o promote, whether in his own im- 
mediate practice at home, or generally through- 
out the bOLinds of the Olwh.—S ndhern Planter 
LEGISLATIVE AID TO AGRICULTURE. 
The subject of legislative aid to agriculture 
is one of -'O much importance, that we feel 
ourselves justified in occasionally relerring to it. 
It is one which should certainly be kept belore 
the farmeisolthe state, now that the experi- 
ment made is in such successful progress, as 
the friea Is of agriculture should be anxious to 
ascertain tally the operation of the present law, 
that ’hey luay act unJerstandingly wnen the 
question for ds renewal or discontinuance shall 
come before them. That the legislature will 
be governed by the will of the people, and that 
their opinion of the matter should be fully ex- 
pressed, no one can reasonably doubt. That 
the present enactment in favor of agriculture 
has operated most beneficially, we have as yet 
heard no one dispute. The prejudices of many 
against the measure; prejudices honestly indul- 
ged, and originating in former errors connected 
with aim 'bar aid granted, though on conditions 
entirely different, have been done away; and 
perhaps no legislative act of the last five years, 
can be named about which there is so little di- 
versity of opinion among all classes, as re- 
specting the one by which a pittance of the 
State’s revenue is devoted to the encouragement 
of agriculture. 
Tuere can be no question that the true cause 
of the eiiiciency of the present law in favor of 
aiding agriculture, is to be found in that provi- 
sion wiiich renders it necessary that the farmer 
should help himself, before'he was entitled to 
expect help from the State. Experience in all 
mattmi’s of a similar nature, has demonstrated 
that there is no way in which the interest of in- 
dividuals can be so soon secured, as by connect- 
ing the prosecution of the object with personal 
conuibution. By rendering it necessary that 
County societies should be 'organized, and should 
raise an amount equal to that to which they 
were entitled from the State, the subje "t was 
brought home to the agriculturist, and the bene- 
fit he was to receive made dependent on his 
own exertions. 
There tias been a strange opinion pi evalent 
on this ubjectof aid to agriculture, which was 
that while all other classes were receiving more 
or less ni l or protection from government, the 
agricultural part alone were to be left to their 
own re.sources. The merchant sails his ships 
and carries on his trade under the fostering pro- 
tection of the nation; the manufacturer keeps 
his hammers and spindles active through the 
same influence; but it is expected that the far- 
mer, he who furnishes freight for the one, and 
sustenance for all, shall go on with no encour- 
agement from the public, while he bears the 
burden of taxation, and keeps the wheels of 
that government by which he is neglected, mov- 
ing. This State has appropriated forty thou- 
sand dollars, or eight thousand dollars per year 
for five years, for the benefit of agriculture; and 
what is the result! W e see associations spring- 
ing up in every county to avail themselves of 
the grant. Public opinion is directed to the 
importance of agriculture, and a spirit of emu- 
lation and improvement is excited. Cattle 
Shows and Fairs exhibit to farmers the vast 
difference between good and bad implements, 
superior and inferior stock, and by bringing 
farmers in contact with each other, do away 
those feelings of distrust and distance, which 
are too often operative where seclusion and 
confinement to the farm prevail. 
There is another reason why the State should 
lend its aid to agriculture, which is yearly be- 
coming more efficient, and more deserving of 
attention. Scientific and practical improve- 
ments in agriculture, are not a less decided 
CO Simon public benefit, than in any other de- 
partment of life; and while no one grudges the 
sums expended for the purposes of education, 
as such, by the State, the farmer can fairly de- 
mand the extension of those benefits conferred 
at the present time by the application of sci- 
ence to agriculture, through the influence of so- 
cieties formed and fostered by the aid of the 
State. The sum deman ,ed is so trifling, com- 
pared with the object in view, that it is surpris- 
ing the granting the required aid should have 
encountered so much opposition; and it can on- 
ly be accounted fur by supposing that the ob- 
jections had nference rather to the manner in 
which aid was to be given, than to the granting 
of the aid in itself. 
The money drawn from the treasury to aid 
the cause of education, has for it^ object the 
elevation of the mas.ses by the extension of 
knowledge, or the means of acquiring it, to all; 
it is to teach them their rights and their duties, 
and the be.st means of fulfilling them; fo erect 
and point out to them a higher standard of moral 
and intellectual power than the one their fa- 
thers were accustomed to contemplate. It is to 
aid in the extension of knowledge most essen- 
tial to all, tnat the farmer claims the aid of le- 
gislation. That alone seems adequate to .spread 
the rich results which the labors of science, and 
the experiments the principles developed have 
produced, before those who are the most inter- 
ested in them. No matter what the subjeci may 
be, it it is one of common benefit, commerce, 
manufactures, education, agriculture, all have 
a right in proportion to their importance, and 
wiihout infringing on the rights of others, to 
look to legislation for aid. If there is a pursuit 
more ancient, more honorable, or more deserv- 
ing of public aid than agriculture, it is still to 
be pointed out; if there is one in which the 
same sum will produce greater or more benefi- 
cial results, it is still to be shown. 
We trust that in the examination of this sub- 
ject, no person, certainly no farmer, will allow 
any considerations except such as spring from 
a regard to the public welfare, to have for a mo- 
ment a place in his bosom. All party feelings, 
all narrow and contracted views, all sectional 
or personal jealousies, should be eschewed at 
once and forever. It is a subject in which all 
are intere.sted, for the cultivation of the soil and 
its products, constitute the base of prosperity to 
all classes. Let the operation of the present 
law, in all its bearings and its consequences, be 
well and carefully weighed; and when the time 
arrives lor its re-enactment, with such altera- 
tions as experience may suggest, we cannot be- 
lieve that any enlightened legislator will be 
found among its opponents. — Alb. CiiUivalor. 
Blight or Mildew in Wheat, commonly 
CALLED Rust. — The period of maturity most 
proper in every respect for the cutting of wheat, 
has long been a subject of discussion among 
practical farmers, both in Europe and thi.s 
country. So long as wheat was threshed by 
hand, it wasfi'und necessary to let it ripen fully. 
But since threshing machines have been gene- 
rally introduced, this difficulty has passed away. 
It is now, how does early cutting affect the 
weight and quantity of the grain, and quality 
of flour. In the summer of 1842, most of the 
pieces of wheat in my neighborhood were struck 
with rust. I had a small piece of winter wheat 
that was almost red with rust, and it was yet in 
the milR, the least pressure with the thumb and 
finger would reduce the berry to a pulp. I had 
the cradle put in and cut. Some of my friends 
said it would make good lodder, and others in- 
quired if I was cutting for the straw, but I was 
firm in the belief that I should save the grain. 
I let it remain in swathe until the straw was 
quite dry, then bound and put in stock with cap, 
and let it stand ten days to cure well, then drew 
it in and threshed with machine, cleaned up and 
had 20 bushels and 8 quarts per acre, weighing 
56 lbs. to the bushel, and makes good flour, 
while most of the wheat that was aflected with 
rust and lell to ripen was almost or quite a fail- 
ure. Perhaps the most universal rust or blight 
ever known is that which fell upon almost every 
acre of wheat in the northern parts of Indiana 
and Illinois, in 1840; upon several thousand 
square miles of a rich soil, as ever the sun 
shone upon, not one acre in ten was worth cut- 
ting; early and late sown, and upon every grade 
of soil, ail was affected. Had the farmers of 
tho.se wheat-growing States, cut and cured their 
grain in a similar manner, as soon as the dis- 
ease made its appearance, if it was so far ad- 
vanced as to be fully in the milk at the time of 
the attack, the saving to themselves, and the 
country at large, would have been immense; for 
if left to stand and fully ripen, as in that case it 
was, it is not worth cutting; when cut in the 
proper time, the stem or stalk contains as much 
elaborated sap nearly as the perfection of the 
grain will require; but if this is allowed to es- 
cape as it will, if the disease progresse.s, the 
berry will be deprived of its proper nourish- 
ment, and the grain will be worthless. Jf the 
grain has so far advanced as the raw state, so 
called, when the attack is first seen, and cut im- 
mediately, the grain will be as plump and as 
heavy as if the rust had not made its appear- 
ance. Thomas Lane. 
Alarcy, March, 1843. 
Neio York Farmrr. 
SEEDS. 
Every farmer should, as far as possible, raise 
his own seeds, as he will not only thereby avoid 
a considerable item of expense, but will, if 
there is proper care and skill used in their pro- 
duction, have such as may be depended upon. — 
There are but very few of the cultivated vege- 
tables and fruits, of which the seeds can be de- 
pended upon for the production of plants like 
the original, if other plants of the same family 
are permitted to blossom in the immediate vi- 
cinity. The cause of this is to be found in the 
effect which the fertilizing dust or pollen of 
flowers has on the germs or seeds, when different 
varieties are placed so near each other that in- 
termixture takes place. It is in fact a real 
cross, as distinct as that of animals, and with 
as decided results. For the philosophy of the 
matter, we must refer to Professor Lindly’s 
work on Horticulture, or Roget’s Animal and 
Vegetable Physiology. Every farmer or gard- 
ener is aware that apples or peaches raised from 
seeds, are rarely like the fruit that produced 
them; that melons, squashes, &c., are apt to mix 
01 ' degenerate, and that where several varieties 
of corn are planted together, intermixture is 
certain to take place. We had a fine opportu- 
nity of veri tying this last result two years since, 
when we cultivated some twenty four or five 
varieties of corn in a field, as an experiment, to 
test the period of ripening qualities, &c., and 
the singular manner in which the different co- 
lors and qualities were blended, was both curi- 
ous and instructive. In purchasing seeds from 
our agricultural seed stores, farmers are very 
frequently disappointed in the plants produced, 
a disappointment frequently owing to there not 
having been sufficient care taken while growing 
the seeds, in preventing the possibility of inter- 
mixture. Beets ma}'' be mentioned as an in- 
stance of this, as perhaps there are more fail- 
ures in these seeds, and more instances of de- 
generacy with these than any others. It may be 
considered a rare instance of good fortune, if the 
rnan who purchases blood beet seeds, does not 
find, when they grow up, that his roots are a 
coarse, unpalatable article, of some shade be- 
tween red and white, or perhaps yellow, and ut- 
terly unlike what he expected. We have found 
that this result has been prevented, if, when the 
seed beets are set out, and the stalks shoot up, 
we examine them, and select for preservation 
those plants, the stems of which are of a deep 
red color; or vvhen while or yellow are desired, 
selecting the purest of the kinds, and destroying 
the others at once. Planting for seed at such 
distances that the intermixture will not take 
place in the way pointed out, Avill also secure 
the seed from deterioration; but this, except 
with professed seed growers, is not always con- 
venient. The best way to keep the varieties of 
early cucumbers, summer and other squashes, 
&c., when groAvn as farmers usually produce 
