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146 THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
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For the 5!Outherii Cultivator. 
SMUT IN WHEAT. 
Mr. Editor — i discover that you have seve- 
ral correspondents, giving various means to pre- 
vent the smut in wheat; and as this is an im- 
portant matter, I will give you one. 
My neighbor, Alexander R. Bell, of this coun- 
ty, has long been considered a great wheat grow- 
er, and a great many persons are in the habit ot 
sending some distance to purchase his wheat, 
on account of its superior quality. About the 
time he was cleaning his crop, 1 happened in, 
and he took me to his barn to show me his grea'- 
yield: I was astonished to find that there was no 
smut in his wheat, and remarked it to him. He 
said no, I never have the smut in my wheat. I 
inquired the means of preventing it, and he gave 
me the following; — Sow your wheat the first of 
October, and when you harvest, let what you 
intend to make seed of, remain five or six days 
longer in the field before it is cut, and by this 
means all the grains will be perfectly ripe and 
good. This is all he does to prevent the smut, 
and he never has it in his wheat. 
I stated that I had went out to see his yieldi 
which 1 iound to be fine. He sowed one bushel 
and a peck of wheat, and it yielded him forty 
bushels and a fraction over; it was as nice and 
as fine wheat as I ever saw, and made good 
flour. Yours, respectfully, W. 
Columbia county, Geo. 
Frona the Boston Cultivator. 
THE FAKMER’S ODE. 
Let Commerce spread her flowing sails 
And Trade her path pursue; 
Without the Farmer what avails, 
Or what without him can they do 1 
Let learned Divines and Lawyers boast, 
Let Physic iollow in their train, 
The Farmer’s skill is valued most 
In making golden sheaves of grain. 
Let Statesmen rack their brains with care 
Some mighty project to (ulfil ; 
The Farmer’s wiser projects are 
His flocks to leed, his grounds to till. 
His ori.son3 at early dawn, 
To the Almighty Power he makes, 
Then treads the dew'-bespangled lawn, 
Or pleasure in light labor takes. 
He hears the robin’s early song, 
And ruder notes ot cheerful swains, 
While heedful of his crops, along 
He travels o’er his own domains. 
A stranger he’s to fretful care ; 
No busy schemes perplex his life, 
, Contented with his homely fare, 
His children and a prudent wife. 
He labors to improve his soil, 
While Ceres shows him her regard, 
And blesses all his caretul toil, 
In fruitful crops for his reward. 
No prodigal nor careless waste, 
On his domain is ever found ; 
With open hand he yet will haste 
To help the poor till they abound. 
And now his earthly labor’s past, 
And old in virtue he has grown; 
To crown his w'ell-spent life at last, 
Kind heaven shall claim him for its own. 
H. 
Quince Stocks . — Pears grafted on the quince, 
appear not so easily affected with insects, or the 
fire blight. 
SELECTIONS, EXTRACTS, &,o. 
From the American Avricnllurisl. 
ORGANIC IMPROVEMENT OF DOMESTIC 
ANl.MALS. 
Sheep and other animals were subdued and 
domesticated long belore their biped captors and 
mas ers were able to keep a reco d of their do- 
ings for the benefit ol their posterity. Hence 
we know little of the original stock Irom which 
our domestic animals have de.scended, and less 
ot the early treatment they rec-r i . ed at the hands 
of our own piogenitors. Nor is this inlorma- 
tion important. It concerns us mainly to under- 
stand how a change of lo id, temperature, and 
of all sutrounding circumstances, will either 
improve or deieriorotc the organic structure and 
natural functions, which iran.sform lor the prac- 
tical farmer his cultivated plants, their seeds 
and roots, into wool, beef, pork, milk, lard, ..ut- 
ter, and cheese. That there is a wide difference 
in the results obtained, by the operation ot this 
living machinery in different animals, no ob- 
serving man can doubt. Of two cows of equal 
weight, and consuming equal quantities ol lood 
precisely alike, one will elaborate for its owner 
eighteen quarts of milk in twenty-four hours, 
while the other can form but nine quarts in the 
same length oi time. A pig, whose organiza- 
tion is apparently nearly perfect, will elaborate 
from a given amount of raw material, twice as 
much flesh and fat, as another whose respirato- 
ry and assimilating machinery are very defec- 
tive. Experience and sciencealike demonstrate 
the truth ol the remark, that it takes fifty per ct. 
more food to produce a given amount of muscu- 
lar strength and power of locomotion in one 
horse or ox, than is required in another. Ani- 
mals that had a common parentage ten genera- 
tions back, now possess not only widely diffe- 
rent forms, but organic and constitutional pecu- 
liarities, of great importance to those that may 
become rich or poor, according to the well or ill 
management of their herds and flocks. Eminent 
success alone attends skill in the breeding and 
keeping of domestic animals. This valuable 
skill is acquired by close observation, and stu- 
dying the uniform laws of nature that govern 
the growth, maturity, and decay ofoiganic be- 
ings. The most impor'ant and material chan- 
ges in the development ol the organs of animals, 
and in the function of each organ, are made du- 
ring the period that elapses from the first forma- 
tion of the embryo, to the maturity of each liv- 
ing complex structure. 
“ As the twig is bent, the tree’s inclined.” 
The plasticity of young animals and plants, 
and the extreme changes that may be wrought 
in their forms and habits, are truly wonderful. 
The human brain itself can be moulded in in- 
fancy into any shape to suit the whim or taste 
of a “ Flat-Head” or a “Round-Head” Indian. 
Nor is there a single mental or physical function 
in the human system, that may notbeeither im- 
proved or impaired by the good or bad influen- 
ces which may be brought to bear upon it. The 
science of physiology is a noble science. It 
enables cultivated reason to trace results — the 
products of animal life, such as flesh, fat, milk, 
and wool— back to their known causes and ele- 
ments. 
I can hardly expect to give you even an out- 
line of the organization and workings of this 
complex vital machinery. There are, howev- 
er, a lew cardinal points in this matter, which I 
will endeavor to make clear and intelligible. — 
One is, that no animal or plant can possibly 
transmute one simple elementary substance into 
another If a hen be fed on food that is quite 
destitute of lime, the organs of her system cannot 
form an egg-shell, so if a child, colt, or calf, be 
kept on food that lacks phosphate of lime, its 
bones will be soft and cartilaginous. No other 
minerals can be changed into lime or phospho- 
rus. 
Animal fat is a compound made up of car- 
bon, hydrogen, and oxygen ; and no other sim- 
ple elements can possibly make it. Lean meat 
and wool contain the same elements, with the 
addition of nitrogen, sulphur, and several other 
earthy ingredients in minute quantities. 
Knowing that no animal can create anew 
one particle of matter, and that each compound 
product has its peculiar constituent elements; 
knowing also how much of those elements is 
contained in any article ol food, we can judge of 
its fitness or unfitness to produce either bone, 
muscle, fat, milk, wool, or any other animal 
product. In other words, we can wiselv adapt 
our means to the ends we have in view.' 
Suppose a farmer had one hundred hens in 
his poultry-yard, and he desired them to lay as 
many and perfect eggs as possible. Would it 
be an unreasonable prescription to say to him 
that “you must feed them liberally on lood 
which contains not only lime, but all the ele- 
ments ol the contents of an egg-shell in a con- 
centrated form 1 Deny not the raw material, if 
you expect the bird to elaborate for your table, 
or for market, a large product of this article of 
human food.” 
Is it anything extraordinary that a race of 
cows, whose motheis for many generations have 
had their milk-forming organs largely develop- 
ed by being led on food well adapted to that end, 
should secrele far more milk from a given 
amount of raw material, than a race of wild 
cows, whose lacteal glands had been denied all 
the advantages that result from quietude, rich 
pasture, and regular dry milking? 
A sheep consumes several pounds of food dai- 
ly. Of this, at least eisht ounces are composed 
of the constituents of wool. Nowif the capilla- 
ry organs of this animal transform^nly two per 
cent, of these elements into wool in twenty-four 
hours, then in one hundred days the sheep will 
grow one pound of this valuable product. T’his 
will give a fleece which wiil weigh 3 65-lOOlb.s, 
in 365 days. Is it not practicable so to improve 
the vital action ol the wool-forming machinery 
of our twenty millions of sheep in this country, 
that this machinery shall transform lour instead 
of two percent of the raw material of wool into 
that substance? That this organ c machinery 
is perlect, no one pretends to doubt; or that ic 
has already been greatly improved, is not de- 
nied. The manulacture of wool out of its con- 
stituent elements, is a branch of science of great 
importance to the farmers of the United States. 
They possess an inexhaustible quantity of the 
raw material of wool, and enjoy every advan- 
tage lor its profitable production. To develop 
the capillary organs of the sheep, the animal 
should have a warm, or rather a comfortable, 
well ventilated apartment in winter — should be 
kept quiet throughout the j’ear; that is, it should 
not be compelled lo travel too much to find its 
food. It should have the organs that form this 
animal product at all times stimulated to a pre- 
ternatural action, by having the arteries that 
convey nourishment to iheseorgans, preternatu- 
rally loaded with the elements of wool. A plant 
glows best in a soil rich in the elements of such 
plant. So, too, wiih an animal, and especially 
a young animal, elaborates the most flesh and 
fat when its blood-vessels are best supplied with 
the elements of those products. 
Clover, oats, turneps, beans, peas, and other 
leguminous plants, contain more of the constitu- 
ents of wool than timothy, herdsgrass, potatoes, 
and corn. All anim 3fs should be led regularl}’’, 
and particular attention should be paid to their 
health and comfort. It is, perhaps, needless to 
say, that every improvement in the practical 
workings of all th* living machinery can be 
transferred from parent to offspring by j udicious 
breeding. 
The action of the respiratory organs in alldo- 
mesiic animals has a material influence upon 
the formation of fat, muscle, milk and wool. 
The lungs never cease night nor day to expel 
more or less of the elements of animal food 
through the windpipe into the air, in the form of 
carbonic acid and vapor. The organization of 
some animals is so detective that they consume 
in this way a much larger quantity of the con- 
stituents of flesh, fat, milk and wool, than is ne- 
cessary or profitable. The more an animal ex- 
ercises, the faster he breathes, and other things 
