324 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
mind, that smut in wheat is mainly derivable 
from the smutty particles sown along with the 
grain, and by which it becomes tainted or im¬ 
pregnated. It is also derived from or propaga¬ 
ted by smut deposited in the soil from any pre¬ 
vious crop, such as blacks in oats, &c. I have 
proof of this taint causing smut in more cases 
than one. The great thing then is, to destroy 
the power or.influeuce of this smutty dust. If 
this can be done without injury to the grain, all 
the better. Much loss has often ensued from 
the incautious use of arsenic (“ white mercury”) 
and sulphate of copper (“ blue vitriol.”) The 
more simple the remedy, if effectual, the more 
desirable, and the greater the necessity for its 
adoption. Frequent washing in clear running 
streams of water is effectual; strong dressing 
with hot lime is effectual. These are simple ap¬ 
pliances—swimming in a brime, made of salt- 
and-water, has the twofold effect and advantage 
of destroying the smut and floating off all impu¬ 
rities, seeds of weeds, &e. 
There are innumerable specifics put forth for 
dressing seed-wheat, many of which, no doubt, 
are good and proper; and where any one of 
them has been adopted and practised with de¬ 
cided success, it would be bad policy to discon¬ 
tinue its use. My own practice is very simple, 
safe, and easily effected. In the evening prior 
to the next day’s drilling, as much wheat as 
may be required is shot into a heap and well 
damped with water; it is left for a few minutes 
to imbibe the water, and then freely and pro¬ 
fusely dusted over with quicklime—such dust¬ 
ing continued as it is repeatedly turned over. 
The heap is then rounded up, and left till morn¬ 
ing, when it is put in sacks ready for drilling. 
Should the day prove unfavorable, the heap is 
spread thinly over the floor, and in this state it 
will keep for any indefinite period. I presume 
it is quite superflous to intimate that all seed 
corn should be free from weeds; a good and 
cleanly farmer would most thoroughly repudiate 
the idea of sowing seeds of weeds. I, how¬ 
ever, beg mo ,- e attention to this point. Never 
make use of seed wheat containing other seeds. 
It is said that weeds prevalent in one district 
will not grow in another: don’t try it. I know 
that the pernicious weed called “ Goldings,” or 
“ Gules,” has been thus introduced into a dis¬ 
trict where, till lately, it was unknown. Weeds 
will b come habituated to any soil; therefore 
avoid them as you would a pestilence. If, by 
some unforseen or accidental cause, a farmer be 
induced to make choice of a sample of wheat 
containing seeds, he should use every means to 
clean it. This may be pretty nearly effected 
by winnowing or reeing, or by the use of a 
flannel screen, or finally by swimming in strong 
briny mixture. 
-«-«-« - 
For the American Agriculturist. 
FAEMING IN SENECA COUNTY, N. Y. 
Crops and Drouth; Draining; Best use of a 
small plot of ground; a Dutch Farmer; 
Cutting grass early, &c. 
Waterloo, N. Y., July 23,1854. 
This has been, barring too much heat for the 
moisture, a very growing season in Western 
New-York, and since the middle of May good 
farming has profited by the weather, but un¬ 
drained fields and poor farming lost from two to 
three of the best weeks of the season. In some 
instances corn was not planted until the 10th of 
June. Those men y’cleped farmers caught in 
this losing category, (thanks to our tile ma¬ 
chines,) are becoming less common in little Sen¬ 
eca county; and our now great cereal crop, 
Indian corn, will be large with all those who 
did not wait for Hercules to lift them out of the 
slough. The fear of the insect prevented farm¬ 
ers from sowing much wheat last fall, but 
the yield is fair in spite of the snowless winter. 
The insect has so far left us that even white 
wheat has escaped its ravages this season. Bar¬ 
ley and oats look well. Much flax seed was 
sown the past spring, as twelve shillings a 
bushel for seed, and six dollars a ton for the 
threshed stalks pay well. Hay is generally a 
'ight crop, except clover and red top, which got 
ahead of the drought. 
It seems passing strange to me that farmers 
who pay so much attention to cereal crops, are 
so neglectful of fodder crops. Hay, instead of 
being cut before harvest, is generally suffered to 
waste its juices in the hot sun until wheat is se¬ 
cured. It is true, a few slovenly attempts are made 
at sowing corn broad-cast for fodder, but it 
should always be sown in drills, and be hoed or 
cultivated. No corn well treated w r as ever 
killed by a drought in our climate. It may 
stand still, and its leaves curl in the mid-day 
sun, but unlike beans and potatoes it will not 
give up the ghost. Nothing but the cool nights 
of autumn can arrest the growth of this heat- 
loving plant. 
If I was compelled to keep a cow on one- 
fourth of an acre of land in grass, I would top- 
dress in the fall or winter, or treat it with liquid 
manure in early spring, mow it in June, and 
cure the hay in cock, without much exposure 
to the sun or dew. As soon as the hay is cured, 
turn up the sward and sow early sweet corn in 
drills for fodder; cultivate early, and if too dry, 
thin out the plants. Two tons of cured fodder 
may be got from the quarter acre before the last 
of September, with some pains in the curing. 
The soil may then be plowed and sown with rye 
and clover seed for spring soiling. Alight top- 
dressing in the winter will give an early spring 
start to the crop. 
Tt would do you good to look upon Josiah 
Wright’s seven acres of tobacco, so uniform in 
<ize, and yet so large as to resemble pie-plants. 
His secret is pipe underdrains, and the manure 
from still slopped cattle and hogs. The soil is 
a heavy sand loam with clay enough to make it 
a little lumpy, but not more so than the best 
river bottoms. His corn for the cereal crop 
and corn in drills for fodder, cannot be beat. 
The fat cattle that made the manure were sold 
this spring at one shilling a pound, live weight, 
delivered at the depot here. He says that the 
cattle drew their own slop from the distillery 
to the farm stables, thus earning a living and 
growing fat. His sales of pie-plant, sold here 
and sent off by railroad early this spring, 
amounted to several hundred d 'liars. 
Here is a Pennsylvania Deutche farmer, who 
says nothing, but his timothy meadow has not 
suffered from drought, even his flax looks well, 
and his large field of corn has not had a curled 
leaf. He says had he known the benefit of un¬ 
derdrains ten years ago, and could have got the 
tile, he should have been a rich farmer. His secret 
is to keep his clay loam alive by carbonaceous 
matter, in the shape of rank green clover turned 
under, and all the manure he can make at the 
stable with its nitrogen intact. It is needless to 
say to the knowing ones that this man stables 
his animals, and beds them with straw, &c., or 
that he grows his own clover seed with some to 
spare to the Yankees. Very truly yours, 
N’ Impokte. 
--« « c - 
THE GAME FOWL. 
The following is an interesting article, espe¬ 
cially in its details of the science of breeding. 
We especially recommend it to the attention of 
our readers. 
The days have now gone by, or nearly so, 
when the study of producing a good game cock— 
with all the requisite qualities for a successful 
competitor in the pit—was deemed a necessary 
qualification for’ a sporting .gentleman. It so 
happened that my early life was spent amongst 
gentlemen who had received an education in 
such a school, and who imparted to me their 
love of these birds, and some of their expe¬ 
rience in producing them, without, however, the 
great desire of seeing their prowess tested by 
deadly combat. 
It was not uncommon then, in the district 
in which I lived, for county to fight against 
county—that is, certain gentlemen in one county 
to compete against certain gentlemen in another 
county—in what was termed a long main. 
These long mains continued for a week, at the 
rate of about ten or twelve battles each day, for 
a stake varying from ten to twenty pounds a 
battle, and from one hundred to five hundred 
the main. These took place independent of the 
four, eight, or sixteen cock mains, that pre¬ 
vailed during the season, when the birds were 
fresh or in good feather. The game cock might 
then be said to have been in his greatest perfec¬ 
tion ; for every thing was done that care, atten¬ 
tion, and science, could prompt, to produce 
birds of the greatest courage, activity, and vi¬ 
gor. 
I have often felt that the importance of good 
crossing, and the evils of breeding in and in, 
were known to the old-cock-fighters, and care¬ 
fully studied long before they became appreci¬ 
ated by the breeders of cattle. Nor can I help 
thinking, but that some of our earliest and best 
breeders of Short-horns took a few hints from 
their cock-breeding friends, and incorporated 
these into their beef and mutton. For some 
years past the game cock has become rather a 
scarce bird throughout England; at least such 
as are purely bred and exhibiting the best 
points of this fowl. Certainly more than half 
of these that are exhibited at our poultry shows 
give proofs, unmistakable to an accustomed eye, 
of the Malay strain, or Indian blood, equally 
base alloys to our true English gladiator. There 
are of course great exceptions to this; amongst 
which may be placed the celebrated Derby 
breed, one sufficiently known to require no fur¬ 
ther notice here. 
Few persons who have not themselves been 
engaged in it know how difficult a thing it is to 
keep up all the perfections required in the game 
cock. As has been before remarked, it requires 
several qualities to be obtained to produce a 
bird that will be a successful combatant in the 
pit. He must have high and never-failing cour¬ 
age, great activity, and be of such a build as to 
insure the utmost strength with the least lum¬ 
ber, as each bird is matched by weight; and all 
these results are to be obtained from judicious 
breeding. 
It is surprising what different qualities are 
displayed in the pit by different birds. Some 
showing the most indomitable courage, but 
being slow in their fighting; others exhibiting 
wonderful activity, but when hard pressed, show¬ 
ing the “white featherwhile others possess 
such strength of beak and ferocity of disposi¬ 
tion, that when they once get a hold of their 
opponent, they retain it with a bull-dog tenacity. 
The gentleman from whose experience I am 
now more particularly speaking, used to say, he 
could tell each bird of any particular cross by 
his mode of fighting. He used to give each of 
his crosses a name, by which he designated all 
the cocks of that strain. He had the Port-Roy¬ 
als named after the celebrated scholastics of 
that place. These nearly always expired in the 
pit, when vanquished, with a crow; however 
hard beaten, they crowed to the last—the death- 
rattle with them was still the note of defiance. 
They were rich black reds, with yellow legs, 
and won their master hundreds of pounds. 
Another tribe was the Bonapartes , celebrated 
for the tenacity of their hold and their rapid 
fighting. A battle with them never lasted 
longer than a few minutes. If their enemy did 
nut soon conquer them, they never left off hit¬ 
ting him until he was vanquished. They were 
gingers, and rather tall birds, fine close feather, 
and which was so hard, that the wings when 
moved rattled like whalebone. 
It may be worth observing, that some have 
thought a want of true bottom occurs oftener 
amongst rapid fighters than in those of a con¬ 
trary character, though it cannot be said that 
the tamest courage is not compatible with the 
highest mettle. It may be gathered from these 
facts, that any race, how r ever good originally, 
if bred down from father to son, mother to 
daughter, will deteriorate, not only losing their 
physical development, but also their energy and 
courage. 
I may here mention some of the rules which 
