1861 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
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171 
being cottonized there, is sent back where it was 
grown, and sold for fifteen cents a pound... .It 
costs from five to six cents a pound to raise cot¬ 
ton, without any profit to the planter, thus giv¬ 
ing an advantage of one or two cents a pound 
to flax. Full 700,000 bushels of flax-seed 
are annually raised in India, and more cotton 
than in all the United States. 
We give the above facts simply as important 
items of intelligence. Let them pass for what 
they are worth. We have examined specimens 
of the fibrilia and calico, and other goods man¬ 
ufactured from it, which go far to substantiate 
some of the claims set forth above. A few 
years will determine the value of the new pro¬ 
cess, which must interest every man who cares 
for the prospects of American agriculture. 
Weed the Wheat Fields. 
If this was done last year, the labor will 
now be comparatively light; but if it was neg¬ 
lected, and foul seed was sown last Fall, the 
neglect must now be paid for with compound 
interest. If time can not be taken to go through 
the whole field, then mark out the best and ear¬ 
liest tracts, and give them especial care to pro¬ 
cure choice, clean seed, for the next crop. 
Choose a time when the ground is softened by 
recent rain, take a garden trowel or other con¬ 
venient implement for weeds not readily pulled, 
and root out every one that would ripen by har¬ 
vest time. Thistles, cockle, dock, and many 
other sorts are readily discerned—deal with them 
thoroughly. Foreign journals complain that 
much of the wheat so largely exported from 
this country during the last year, is mixed with 
weed seeds, and they very properly caution cul¬ 
tivators against using such for seed. One sam¬ 
ple was noticed containing large quantities of 
small pink bodies, about the size of wheat ker¬ 
nels, which proved to be bulbs of the crow gar¬ 
lic, (Allium vineale,) a pestiferous weed, as all 
dairymen know, who have pastures infested 
with it. The taint imparted by it to butter is in¬ 
sufferable, and when, as in the above instance, 
the bulbs are mixed with wheat, the quality of 
the flour made from it is seriously impaired. 
See that none of this nuisance is allowed to re¬ 
main in the patch of seed wheat. 
-■»-. .—-.9—-. - 
Disappearance of the Wheat Midge. 
Dr. Asa Fitch, N. Y. State Entomologist, in a 
recent article in the Country Gentleman, com¬ 
municates the important and welcome informa¬ 
tion that the wheat midge has almost entirely 
disappeared from some sections, where, hereto¬ 
fore, it had seriously interfered with wheat rais¬ 
ing. Last Summer, just before wheat harvest, 
the Doctor made an excursion of 50 miles in the 
direction of Vermont, from which the midge 
originally came, and was unable to find a single 
larva in any of the numerous wheat fields ex¬ 
amined in Washington Co., N. Y., and Ben¬ 
nington and Rutland Counties, Vt. 
In the central parts of New-York, and in 
Canada West, it is reported that no injury was 
received from the insect last Summer. In the 
latter section it was reported that a parasitic in¬ 
sect had subdued the midge. 
In Western New-York, although the insect 
was as common as heretofore, it did not appear 
as active and injurious to wheat as formerly. 
This, however, is attributed to circumstances 
which favored a vigorous growth of grain, so 
that it could better withstand and recover from 
the attacks of the enemy. 
The future history of the insect can not be 
safely predicted, as circumstances favorable to it 
may cause it to rapidly multiply again, and in 
two or three years become as great a pest as 
heretofore. In the sections indicated, however, 
cultivators may sow wheat without fear of loss 
from this cause for at least two seasons. 
Dr. F. is of opinion that the career of the in¬ 
sect will be analogous to that of the Hessian 
fly, which, on its first introduction to our shores, 
gradually overspread the country, eveiy where 
devastating the wheat fields for a number of 
years, after which it subsided, and has seldom 
since attracted any particular notice. 
Wheat to Chess—To the Point. 
“ Mayben,” of Page Co., Iowa, sends definite 
directions for producing the transmutation of 
wheat into chess. His plan is easily tried, and 
if as successful, as he believes it will be, it will 
entitle him to the reward offered in the Agricul¬ 
turist. —He says, the breaking of the tap root 
at a particular period of growth, will gener¬ 
ally induce the change, and directs as fol¬ 
lows: As soon as the wheat stems begin to 
joint, gently pull them until the tap-root breaks, 
and then tramp back the roots into the soil. Go 
on to a plot and treat thus several alternate sec¬ 
tions of a foot or two square, and at harvest 
time you will find good wheat on the undisturb¬ 
ed portions, and chess on the plot where the 
tap-root was broken in the manner described. 
He thinks the running of a knife under the 
stems to sever the tap-root, will produce the 
same result, but has not yet tried this. Mr. M. 
also undertakes to show, how the combined ef¬ 
fects of frost, water, etc., have broken the tap¬ 
roots, in the cases already published. We have 
no faith in this prescription, but give the pro¬ 
cess, that any who desire, may experiment. 
Transplanting Wheat. —A correspondent 
of the London Agricultural Gazette suggests 
that it may be found advantageous to transplant 
wheat in the Spring, to occupy spots which 
have been winter-killed. Each living plant 
which has tillered, would furnish from six to ten 
or more “ sets.” The experiment was tried on 
a model farm near Dublin a few years ago, and 
the crop was as good as from a field sown in 
the usual way. This seems like an absurd pro¬ 
position in this countiy, where land is plenty 
and labor scarce, but in Great Britain, where, in 
some sections, women and children are glad to 
find employment at 8 to 12 cents a day, and land 
is too costly to be left idle, the plan is thought 
worthy of consideration. 
Saving Clover Seed. 
As clover forms such an important element in 
farm economy, both as fodder and a green ma¬ 
nure, it is important that our cultivators 
should more generally raise their own seed. 
What need of any one paying from five to eight 
dollars a bushel to others, when he can raise an 
abundance at only a trifling outlay! A farmer 
might about as well buy his seed-corn, wheat, 
oats, etc. Our climate and soil are favorable for 
the growth of the seed. 
All that is needed, is to lay off a certain por¬ 
tion of the field where the yield is clean and 
good; and, having cut the first crop of fodder 
and cured it, allow the second, which is most 
productive, to grow and ripen its seed. The 
yield will range from four to eight bushels of 
seed to the acre, according to the strength of the 
land. The first crop of fodder should be har¬ 
vested (or it may be eaten off by sheep or cattle,) 
by the middle of May or the first of June, so as 
to give the second crop a sufficient time to ma¬ 
ture its seed; for if not ripe before hard frosts 
come, it will be injured. Of course, if the land 
is poor, it should he well manured in the Spring 
or Fall previous. 
Of the several machines now in use for gath¬ 
ering and cleaning the seed, we need not ex¬ 
press any decided preference. Wagener’s is an 
excellent harvester, and Crawford’s is a good 
huller, and there may be others equally good 
in market. Farmers who have only a little 
seed to hull, can get along by using the or¬ 
dinary threshing machine, modifying the 
running of it a little for the purpose; the work, 
however, has to be gone over with several 
times in order to get the seed perfectly clean. 
But if the farmer wishes only to save enough 
for his own use, he need not be careful to 
clean it nicely; it will vegetate very well 
if sown in the chaff. Still again, for small 
farmers who wish to raise a little seed, but not 
take the trouble to clean it, a home-made ma¬ 
chine can be got up at little cost. A Kentucky 
farmer with a Yankee genius, thus describes 
one, in the Louisville Journal: “Make a box, 
say three feet wide, four feet long, and one foot 
deep, with the forward end left out. This should 
be placed on runners about nine inches wide, 
forming a kind of sled; teeth made of hard wood, 
about fifteen inches long, one inch thick, and 
one inch wide at the top, and half an inch wide 
on the under side. These should be placed 
about a quarter of an inch apart, forming a kind 
of comb by which the heads are gathered.” 
Curing Clover—An Old Notion. 
A subscriber communicates the following ex¬ 
tract from an agricultural almanac printed in 
1809, and asks the opinion of the Agriculturist 
upon its practicability: 
“To preserve Clover in its green state: take 
in your grass from the swath, cut it up as you 
would straw in a cutting machine, pack it well 
down in a close apartment, or in hogsheads, 
giving a pound of salt to every hundred weight. 
By preserving it thus, you will have a beautiful 
green hay, exceedingly fragrant and nourisliing, 
and superior to any other fodder. 
Wouldn’t it be something of a job to run the 
clover from a ten acre field through a cutter, 
with the mercury at 90° ? How many hogs¬ 
heads would be required ? The coopers’ trade 
would flourish where this plan was practiced. 
One quart of salt to a hundred of hay would not 
prevent fermentation. To save green clover 
packed in a large mass, would require salt 
enough to pickle it ,-the “ fragrance ” under 
such circumstances would be imaginary, and the 
“nourishment” problematical. 
Sowing Soaked Seed.— It is often advanta¬ 
geous to soak onion, carrot, and other small 
seeds, which unfits them for sowing in the seed- 
sowers or drills. But if the seed is mixed with 
slaked lime, or plaster, or coal ashes, or wood 
ashes, or with fine dry soil, it will soon become 
coated, and run readily from the drilling ma¬ 
chine. It is useful to drill in some concentrated 
manure with the seed. 
How TO tie a Bag.— Double the string, put 
it around the bag, and pass the two loose ends 
through the loop at the other end; then draw 
one loose end one way and the other in the con¬ 
trary direction, take one or two turns, and tie. 
