THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
157 
your colonies in the farthest Islands, is actual- 
ly less in value than the annual grass crops ot 
these islands. [Cheers.] It does not b-come 
me, my lord — 1 will not say as a stranger — by 
your kindness you will allow me to throw oB 
that name [cheers]— but as your gue.st, it does 
not become me to enter into great details on this 
occasion; but it struck me ingoing over your 
implement yard this morning, that however in- 
active and neglected you may have been hereto- 
fore in the improvement of agriculture, there is 
nothing to complain of now. 
It does seem to me that there is an amount ol 
science, of mechanical skill, ol practical saga- 
city, of capital, and of attention, on the part of 
the higher orders — of diligence and persever- 
ance on the part of the intermediate and labor- 
ing classes, combined, for the promotion of ag- 
riculture, that has never been equalled in the 
history of the world. [Cheers.] And it is a 
most remarkable tact, if you will allow me to 
indulge in a general reflection, that till lately^ all 
great discoveries and improvements in agricul- 
ture seem to have been the product of the very 
earliest infancy of mankind. Who can tell, 
my lord, when that instrument that lies at the 
basis of all civilization, the plough, was inven- 
ted! Who can tell when man first called in the 
humble partners of his labor, the hoitse, the ox, 
the cow, the swine, the sheep, and took them 
into profitable alliance with himself 7 
If you could find out who was the shepherd 
that first caught the wild dog, and taught him 
to keep and tend the flock, you ought to rear a 
monument of brass or marble cenotaph to his 
memory — a higher monument than was ever 
raised to hero or monarch. Who knows where 
the cereal grains or the esculent roots were first 
cultivated! There is but one oi them, a.s you 
know, the potato, of which the history is known; 
all the rest retire back into darkest antiquity. 
They were cultivated at a time when your an- 
cestors were roaming over the morasses of the 
now beautiful, free and merry' Eng]and,[cheersJ 
when our ancestors were roaming painted sava- 
ges through the land. Ay, when the Romans : 
and Greeks were living on beach nuts and ' 
acorns. [Hear, hear.] 
It seems in fact, that in reference to the pro- 
gress of agriculture, mankind has followed that 
curious law which Mr. Owen alluded to at the 
council dinner yesterday: the law that governs 
the ruminating animals in the tropics. He 
pointed out to us most beautifully that the ru- 
minating animals there have a large fat hump 
between the shoulders. This is nourished and 
grows in the first five months of the year when 
there is plenty of food, and they get along with 
the hump as well as tney can through the seven 
succeeding months of scarcity. So it seems 
with mankind with respect to agrieultural dis- 
coveries. In the very infancy of the race they 
got this large fat hump between the shoulders, 
and 3000 years they lived upon little or nothing 
else. [Cheers and laughter.] The very plow 
that we read ol in Virgil w'e may now see in 
the south of Europe, 
We see it still in the hands ot the peasantry, 
as we discover it in bas-i elief on the sculptured 
remains of antiquity'. It is a most pleasing 
fact that this revival of the great art ol agricul- 
ture in these latter days of the world is the work 
of the Anglo-Saxon race of which you have 
spoken. It has been left to you, and if you will 
permit me, to us, living as we do in this unge- 
nial clime, beneath thes: weeping skies; (the 
rain was at this moment descending in torrents, 
and the obseivation was loudly cheered) it has 
been left to us to do that which not Italy nor 
Greece has been able to do, with all their sunny 
climate. 
Yes, and it is the want of those tropical luxu- 
ries, those enervating breezes of the south, that 
has given you, that has given us, that hardihood, 
that perseverance, that industry, that resolution, 
that are worth all the spices and all the gold of 
the tropics. [Cheers.] Yes, it is this that ena- 
bles you to make that boast in which I hope you 
will permit me, for my country, to joi*" — 
“Man is the noblest growth our soil supplies, 
And souls are ripened in our northern skies.” 
— [cheers.] I beg your pardon for the the length 
of time I have detained y'ou. 1 a.ssure you that 
when these shouts shall be heard across the At- 
lantic, as they will in 18 or 19 days, they will 
be echoed from hearts as warm as yours — 
[cheers.] 
NEWBERRY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
The Committee on Wheat submit the follow- 
ing ReporL 
The land which they regard as being best for 
the produciion of that grain, is upland, of a red 
or mulatto cast. E.xperience, however, hath 
shown that it may be successfully grown on 
any land in this section, not too wet, with the 
use of plenty of cotton seed as manure. Indeed 
old land, manured thus, they think preferable, 
on many accounts, to fresh land unmanured. 
iN'o land however, which has been cultivated 
greatly too wet in summer, should be sown to 
wheal the succeeding fall; as it is next to im- 
possible to make it produce freely, even by ma- 
nuring, until it has been exposed to the frosts of 
one or two winters. Other manures, besides 
cotton seed, may possibly be equal to that, for 
this grain; but so far as their experience has 
gone, it is not the case. Stable dung, or any 
compost of which that forms a considerable 
part, if applied at the time ol sowing, would in 
their opinion, render the grain much more lia- 
ble to rust; w'hile they regard cotton seed rather 
as a preventiv'e against it. On ordinary land, 
as many cotton seed, in number as there are 
grains of wheat required, they think w’ould in- 
sure a fair crop. Should the land be greatly 
exhausted however, more might be profitabl}' 
applied — even to the amount of forty or forty 
five bushels per acre. Before sowing, the 
bushes, if there be many, should be cut or grub- 
bed up. 
The time of sowing should depend in a great 
measure, on the kind of wheat to be sown. — 
The spring w’heat w'ill frequently' do well, sown 
as late as the middle of December; whereas all 
the varieties w'hich ripen late in the season, re- 
quire to be sow'n as early' as the mid- lie or even 
the first of October. The condition the land 
may be in at the time, all other things may be 
ready for sowing, should always have its influ- 
ence. The land, they think, cannot readily be 
too dry', at the time of putting in a wheat crop to 
permif it to do well; whereas, the chances of a 
crop would, in their opinion, be materially les- 
sened by plowing in the grain when the land 
was at ail too wet. 
The.‘:eed, of whatever variety, should be se- 
lected from a crop w'hich had matured well, and 
(at the time ol sowing) should be clear of cheet, 
oats, cockle, &c,, as well as all small or defec- 
tive grains ; and to prevent irregularity in ri- 
pening, should form itself, but one distinct kind. 
To prevent a failure from any defect in the seed, 
they would suggest that a lew w'ceks before 
sowing, alter thoroughly stirring the husk, a 
small handful be taken therefrom, and after 
counting and noting the number of grains, it be 
planted in moist earth, with proper intervals be- 
tween grains, where poultry or other stock can- 
not disturb it, and in a week or ten day's, the 
number of stalks which w'ill have come up, 
when compared w'ith the number of grains 
planted, w’ill show w'ith tolerable certainty, to 
w'hat extent the vegetating properties of the 
bulk can be relied on, and the quantity per acre, 
in sowing, regulated accordingly. Three pecks 
(of good Wheat) per acre, on ordinary good 
land, when sown early, and the grains of ordin- 
ary size, they think enough. That which is 
sown late, having less lime to spread, would re- 
quire as much as one bushel per acre ; as well 
as all very large grained wheat, as it will re- 
quire more in quantity of the latter, to contain 
an equal number of grains, with the former. — 
The quantity per^cre of all the varieties, should 
be greater than suggested, on very rich land. 
All seed wheat should be soaked about twelve 
hours, in a solution of Blue-stone, using at the 
1 rate of about one pound to every five bushels of 
wheat. Whal is intended for one day’s sowing 
may be thrown in some vessel that will hold wa- 
ter, at night, and the Blue-stone dissolved in a 
quantity of water sufficient to cover the wheat, 
and poured over it, stirring it the roughly at the 
lime, and again before bed time. This, should 
the weathei be unfavorable, would, they' think, 
remain good there for several days. They have 
ne^er known smut to injure a crop of wheat ma- 
terially, w'here the seed had been thus prepared; 
and feel confident it will operate as a prevent- 
ive. They farther think it not impossible that 
the use of the Blue-sione may kill many small 
and immature grains, which might otherwise 
come up, and produce chess or cheat. They 
think cotton seed (whenu-sed) should be applied 
in all instances before the wheat is ploughed in. 
One of your committee omitted to apply cotton 
seed to a part of his wheat crop in 1834 or ’35, 
until after the wheat had been ploughed in ; and 
the consequence was, he lost, in his opinion, 
from three to five bushels per acre. The cotton 
seed seemed not to have benefilted the crop at 
all, although applied plentifully. 
For ploughing in wheat, especially when cot- 
ton seed has been used as manure, they' prefer 
the tw'ister plough, if made so as to turn w'hat 
land it cuts at each furrow bottom upwards; 
thus burying the cottonseed and wheat together. 
They would prefer that the plough should not 
run more than one and a hall, or two inches 
deep. 
The surface of the land should be left as even 
as possible after the ploughing. For this pur- 
pose they' recommend the drawing of a large 
brush, a harrow or roller, over the land, after 
the ploughing. This w'ill prevent considerable 
waste in gathering the crop, in addition to the 
advantage afforded it w'hile growing. Stock of 
all kinds should now be kept 05* the land. Even 
poultry, if permitted to run in considerable num- 
bers, on a wheat field, especially w'hen the crop 
is young, they think calculated to injure matCr 
rially the chances of a crop. 
One of the causes of failure in a wheat crop, 
especially early sowing, is believed to be Hes- 
sian Fly. Upon that subject, we copy the fol- 
lowing from the “Philadelphia Saturday Cour- 
ier” of May last. We do not undertake to 
vouch lor the correctness of the opinions ex- 
pressed, but think the article w'orthy of some 
consideration. 
“As you know this is a wheat growing dis- 
trict, and our farmers may be supposed to know 
something of w'hatever concerns the cultivation 
of that grain. They entertain an opinion with 
regard to the Hessian Fly and its appearance, 
which is natural, and which my owm observa- 
tion has convinced me, is in accordance with 
the truth. It is a big-bellied insect, which 
makes its appearance in the fall, when the mild- 
ness of the Avinter will admit, especially at that 
season called Indian Summer, audits coming is 
easily discovered ; w’hen it alights upon the 
ground, it dive-sts it.self of its wings, and assumes 
the appearance of a large black ant, and from 
its hurried manner, seems to be seeking a place 
of deposite for its eggs ; this it soon finds, eith- 
er in the crevices of the ground, under a clod, or 
in the wheat plant; and not ahvay's in the latter 
as is s )met:mes supposed. After the egg is de- 
posited, the insect seeks shelter for itself in the 
ground, w'here it remains during the w'inter; and 
either it or its progeny' appears again in the 
spring, to go through the same work of destruc- 
tion. The opinion is entertained by some, that 
the egg deposited in the fall, remains to be hatch- 
ed in the spring, — but not so ; nature makes 
better provision' for her creatures, than to cause 
the egg to be laid in the fall, exposed to the 
frosts of winter, to be hatched in tne spring. — 
The egg laid in the fall, does its injury' to the 
grain, then or not at all; its effect is then per- 
ceptible; and it is the re-appearance of the fly 
in the .spring which repeats the evil. My ob- 
servation has convinced me that this is the Hes- 
sian Fly; and that there is a most infallible 
remedy for its destruction, as certain as it is sim 
